Sunday, November 11, 2012

November 11 – “Approved”


A while back I experienced yet another of those humbling thing that I never thought would come my way.  You’d think I would be cured of that kind of thinking after Hurricane Ike and its subsequent food lines and such.  This time it was related to one of the medications I take for rheumatoid arthritis.  It’s a pretty “famous” drug, as drugs go, I guess.  At least I see commercials for it on TV.  The problem came when my insurance company decided not to provide coverage for that particular drug.  They insisted that one of several generics would work just as well.  Now it’s not like the name brand drug was perfect and I was completely pain-free, but it made a noticeable difference at the time.  But I’m a pretty compliant guy, so I tried those generic drugs.  All of them.  Not at once, of course, though I thought about that a time or two.  And the result of my trials was, unfortunately, that none of them worked as well as the non-generic.  In spite of all the trial runs, however, the insurance company insisted that I must be wrong.  They offered to provide the Celebrex, but the cost of the co-pay was to be $500.  So I resigned myself to whatever level of relief would come from one of the generics. 

That’s about the time I got a phone call from a social worker at one of the pharmacies associated with my doctor’s office.  She offered to help walk me through applying for one of those programs with the drug company where they provide you with the drug free.  It took some convincing on her part, but I agreed to fill out the application.  It’s always a pain in the neck to fill out forms of any kind, but it’s especially difficult when you are admitting that you don’t have enough money to pay for something.  Guess it’s the whole male, I’m supposed to be the provider thing.  And in this case they wanted to see everything, even up to a copy of our income tax return.  I managed to swallow some humble pie and got the application in.  After some snafus on the part of my doctor’s office staff, the company finally received all the paperwork they needed to make a determination. 

And … I was approved for the program.  Quite a mixture of emotions with that bit of information.  Excitement that I get to stick with one medication that seemed to work fairly well.  Embarrassment at realizing that the reason I get it is because I was able to prove that I couldn’t afford it.  And to top it off, some friends even picked it up in Houston for me when the company sent it to the doctor’s office instead of here.  Nothing like a little dose of looking your neediness in the face.  But I am ready to get started on it and see if it works for the long haul.  Sure could use some uninterrupted sleep.  Beyond Mom’s nightly prowls, I mean. 

Psalms 40:17 says, “Yet I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me.  You are my help and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.”

Father, we have this new tool.  It would sure be nice if you could use it to help with the pain.  Amen.

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