About that flu shot, and everything else....

Took the boys to the doctor for their flu shots, and to see if someone could look at Elias since he's been coughing to the point of throwing up for the past 2 days. (This isn't cause for panic, but I figured since we were already there...) In order to hype it all up, we sang the "Doctor Song" the whole way there, paid $5 for parking, and went inside the empty office waiting room. We took off coats, got comfy, started watching Sesame Street on the TV, then I was called up to the desk and told by the receptionist that the boys' health insurance had been terminated LAST MONTH. I stared at her for a minute, certain that the top of my head had flown off of my body and was spinning wildly just above me. I marched over the the courtesy "call you insurance and ream them out" phone next to the desk, only to be reminded casually by the recorded voice that it was a holiday and their office was closed until Wednesday. Why is it these things always seem to happen on a Friday or a holiday?


Defeated, I put the kids' coats back on, only to then have to contend with a bitterly wailing Kindred. "I neeeed to see the doctor!!!" he cried. "We have to see the doctor!!" He was devastated. Betrayed. I even tried to tell him that he would have just gotten a shot anyway and we could come back when we had the money to pay for it, but he would not calm down. The security guard offered him a candy cane and tried to ask him about Santa, the other moms there tried to console him, but he sobbed, tears dripping onto the carpet under his feet. I felt horrible. It was such an ironic moment, me feeling badly that my son could not see a doctor to get his flu shot because he was so devastated. Shouldn't I feel relieved? Alas, no. I take him by the jacket sleeve, because he's pulled his hand as far away from mine as he can manage, and walk him slowly out to the car. I resolved to go to the welfare office right away and have Kindred sob on them and Elias cough on them and plead with them to look at their darn paperwork correctly and to turn my very eligible children's health insurance back on.

So that's what we do. Of course, my caseworker is out until Thursday, but I met with a supervisor after 45 minutes or so who told me this would be resolved as soon as the caseworker returned to work, and that she was very sorry. That was slightly helpful.

When I got home, I called the insurance 24 hr hotline and asked why no one had mentioned to me that the insurance was terminated when I'd talked to them at least 5 times this month (fighting an out-of-state emergency room bill). The service rep was not informative. Apologetic, sure, but not smart.

For Pete's sake, it's Christmas Eve. I don't want to be yelling at people. But I also don't want to get crappy news, especially unreasonable preventable crappy news.

I really hope the rest of the day looks up...and that my children refrain from breaking limbs or catching pneumonia for at least 2 more days. I will brace for the inevitable and try to appreciate the good parts of the days to come. Because they are, and will be, good days. My little family will be together, and we will celebrate that, and love on each other, and I'm so looking forward to it.

I will post happier things tomorrow. Enjoy your day, sings carols, light candles, snuggle with someone, and listen for sleigh bells in your sleep tonight. Merry Christmas.