I can’t believe how upset I am right now. Here’s the vague background: I have a chronic illness that makes everyday life sort of difficult. It’s gross and I won’t go into details. I have no health insurance, because this condition makes me high-risk and we can’t afford the seven or so hundred bucks a month my insurance would cost, not to mention the deductibles and co-pays. Treatment is expensive. (like, over a hundred and thirty dollars per week for ONE medication expensive) I’ve been hospitalized a few times because of it, though not recently. So, we decided that I needed to be seen and couldn’t wait until we got health coverage. We live near the county hospital, and they will take patients on a pay-as-you’re-able basis. My plan was to go to our family doctor to get the necessary referral to get into the county system, because the wait for a county doctor (GP) is around 4 months. I went to the family doctor. I owe them over $80 to talk to me, look at my chart, write a note and fax it to the county. Okay, whatever.

When I called the clinic I’m trying to get into, they said that unless my referral was urgent, I was looking at a mininum 3 month wait. I had my doc send an urgent referral. The clinic told me to call back in two weeks. I did. No one had any record of my referral, and they told me to call the referral guy, Arnold, or Al or some A Hole name. Heh. I got his voice mail and left a message. He didn’t call back. I called again. Left a message. He didn’t call back. I called again and he answered. He doesn’t have my referral. He suggested that I have my doctor call him. My doc’s office is closed Wednesday afternoons. Now I’m out of medicine, I’m sick, and I’m looking at a long wait for an appointment, unless I want to go sit in the skanky er (which I’ve been to and it is scary) and deal with the huge bill that will be the result of that. And, John is looking for a full-time job, but is only working part time and we’re out of money. Can we say STRESS?

Thanks, I do feel a little better.