Where Have You Been C.C.?

It's been a pretty rough last few weeks. And most of the roughness has been health related. We thought leaving Houston would bring huge positive changes for me. But that hasn't been the case.

One of the biggest issues we are facing is our lack of health insurance. To go from amazing coverage to absolutely nothing is beyond overwhelming. And even though Russ is now employed, he doesn't receive benefits for the first 90 days. And when he does, it would take half his paycheck every month to insurance just me! There is no way we can afford to do that.

So, in the midst of all this, I was about to run out of two of my medications. I called the pharmacy to see how much it would be to fill them with no insurance. The lady at the pharmacy was shocked to tell me it would be $500. Since I couldn't pay that, I took all that I had and then stopped. Well, apparently that was a mistake, unbeknownst to me. I was ok for a day or two and then I started to go off the deep end. It got to a point where I thought Russ was going to have to have me hospitalized because I was losing my ever-loving mind. It was really bad. I'll spare you all those gory details, but needless to say, it was extremely bad. Russ and my mom found some discount cards and worked to get the medication reduced in price to where we could afford it for a week while I waited to see someone at a local clinic that sees patients based on income via a sliding scale.

I began to level out to some degree. Russ went with me to my appointment. The certified family nurse practitioner spent 45 minutes with us during that visit. We really felt like she listened to and heard us. She wants to get me off some of the medications I am currently on (which I am not opposed to at all) and try me on one different one. She also suggested I research programs that will help me get my medication for a reduced price or free. (I did do this and found that between those programs and the $4/$10 program at most discount stores, I can afford my meds. We did have to deal with a bit of an idiot at the clinic who decided he could try to stir up trouble, but between the C-FNP and us, it was nipped in the bud but not before I had a complete meltdown - which was understandable with my frame of mind and meds still not at the right levels in my system. We are now waiting to hear back from the programs which usually takes about 4 weeks.)

In the mean time, I had some lab work done (still waiting on results, but I assume they will be the same as when I had these labs done about 1.5 years ago, but I could be wrong). I have also started to gradually (and safely) decrease one of my medications. Oh, another thing about the appointment, we brought up our concern/fear about possibly needing to pursue the disability process. The C-FNP said she would be supportive whatever we needed to do. At this point, I cannot work. Will changing my medications change that? Possibly. We decided to try these changes over the next few months and then reevaluate things.

I've tried to keep going and have posted my reviews but obviously haven't felt up to doing much else. I've done a bit here and there as able and I'm gradually getting to the point where I can do more. More of my "normal" anyway. And that's where I've been.