Waiver Whatever: I took our daughter to her doctor and ran into a bunch of bureaucratic glitches that broke my spirit for the moment. Unfortunately my condition was frightfully contagious and my poor daughter caught it.

Bored Yet? Not to belabor the boring, of which I am often guilty, the Doc’s prescription for an antibiotic for her sinus infection was not covered. The pharmacist informed us that her Medicaid coverage expired August 31. After much back and forth with various folk, poor cell access, and our daughter, already feeling “dizzy”, pacing through the aisles in her sorceress costume, we left, medicine in hand, out-of-pocket seventy bucks and a lot of worry about what has gone wrong here with this giant bureaucracy upon which she is dependent. Of course this means coverage for the doctor’s visit is snafued as well.

Contagious Complaining: Many subsequent calls mentioned the waiver, which is related to the federal government promising the state reimbursement for part of her Medicaid payments and the likelihood that something simple like a delayed rubber stamping process, is the culprit. But Mom was sick, cold and unshowered and my complaints were contagious.

Adios La Quinta:  The good news came in during our encampment at CVS. Power went on at the girls apartment so no need to hang out at La Quinta Suites, with the  night staff, poor soul, seated in an arm-chair by the window. Nope, the young ladies could resume normal life at their beloved CRS. And though my daughter referred to this day as “One of the worst days of my life” thanks to her burned out momma, she was pretty comfy by the time I left her apartment, though I remained unshowered (tried to shower there but the water was still chilled), sick and worried about this Medicaid snafu.

Fingers Crossed: I am so old and “wise” that I grasp that living is composed of a continuous sequence of emerging obstacles, overcoming obstacles, rejoicing in that achievement until the next obstacle rises up, each day, every day. Most of these obstacles are little, like power outages, and bureaucratic glitches. Unless those glitches become insurmountable obstacles to our daughter’s comfort and safety. Fingers crossed, a glitch is just a glitch.

Jill Edelman, M.S.W.,L.C.S.W. 2011