My typing is terrible, forgive me: I'm a bad-ass, lightning-fast typist no more.
First, big thanks to those of you who recommended and/or posted comments to my last diary wherein I talk about my RA diagnosis; I appreciate it
Hangin' up my keyboard for an ice pack
more than I can say. I thank as well those who helped by means of donation. I'm deeply grateful to
everyone who helped out, in whatever way they were able. Now, I'd like to give you an update on my ongoing medical treatment as well as my (occasional mis-) adventures in low-income health care--and this last especially because
I desperately need your advice!
I'm finally on California's answer to Medicaid--though confoundingly, here they call it MediCal. (Try using that as a search-term for pages and pages of completely irrelevant hits!) Now lest it seem I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth, let me say up front that the ACA's expansion of Medicaid/Medical is an exceedingly good thing! In my case, for example, I now have access to a PA who, among other saving graces, has prescribed for me a pain medication called Celebrex--and thank heavens for it, for at least I can still type a little and keep my house modestly tidy.
However, the rapid, all-at-once expansion has created a few problems for those of us who are already (or who became simultaneously) sick--and in particular people with a recently-diagnosed, progressive disease which can be halted in its tracks with the right medication delivered in a timely fashion. You see in recent months--as you all probably know very well--MediCal has been inundated with something like 900,000 new members both sick and well; thus no one knows when folks like me will be able to get an appointment with the right sort of doctor. For now, we're being told to be patient and wait. Well, I would if I could, but I suspect my circumstances may be extenuating. So I guess my question is twofold: 1.) Are there any provisions for people like me who find themselves this predicament? and 2.) If there are, who does one talk to about that?
Please understand, I know the situation is nobody's fault; it's just the way it is and I accept that. It is up to me, now, to do the leg work to find out if there is even any such thing as expedited help for folks in my category: sick and getting sicker. So far the social workers and medical people that I've been talking to have precious few answers, for the very understandable reason that the whole situation is unprecedented.
Anyway, it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, there is somebody, somewhere with up-to-date, possibly even quasi-insider, expert MediCal information, and that if such a person exists, this blog will know where to find them. For more about just what it is I'm hoping to find, I commend your attention below the immoderately fancy dailykos esquiggle.
My specific problem is that the PA I have been seeing cannot prescribe a Biologic RA medication (think Embrel, Humira--you've likely seen the ads on TV): only a Rheumatologist can do that, and apparently I'm nowhere near scoring an appointment with such an especial medical personage. I've applied for temporary state disability and will
likely be approved (in my case for a three-month period)--
but, due to the massive influx of new patients to MediCal, at this rate
my benefits may actually run out well before I get to see the right kind of doctor. The worst-case-scenario that I have heard is six months to a year. Now, I have a feeling that nobody (in my limited circles of knowledge) knows for sure how long it will take, but still: whispers and rumors of very lengthy delays are all I have to go by right now and it's frightening the dickens out of me for the simple reason that
there is no way I can return to work without the kind of relief from RA symptoms that the Biologics provide. I mean, I need to know what's what--and soon. (There's little sense in my applying for long-term disability as I cannot wait to get approval: it's something like 2 years and you cannot work at all.)
Thus, I've written this diary to ask if you're aware of anybody--on this blog or elsewhere--who's especially knowledgeable about CA's MediCal program and who's willing to talk to advice-seekers. It just seems to me that there has to be some other course of action than just sit and wait--while my cartilage, muscle and ultimately my bone is eaten away leaving me far more disabled from RA than anyone needs to be in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Fourteen! Surely there exists a provision for folks like me to be scooted up the line at least a little bit, due to the fact that--in my particular case--my disease is progressing every day I'm not on a proper, modern RA medication. What's more, if the EDD's steadfast goal is to get the temporarily disabled back to work on the absolute, Herculean double, it seems to me waiting around indefinitely like I'm doing is not quite the road to success. You know?
There's a lot of good, if at first confusing, information on the MediCal website--as well as on the outgoing recorded phone messages--but none that pertains to my particular problem. And I realize that I may be casting about for answers that don't exist. But I'm learning to be a fighter, and because I intend
to survive this thing and work again, and hell, who knows, maybe even dance myself dizzy in the moonlight again, I had to ask. I had to try, just in case there's a chance. I thank you in advance for any guidance that you may be able to provide.