Navigating the Health Care Maze!

So today, Life decided to play a little bit of a joke on my friend and I today... Ok, it's not just today, its been for the past several months. You see, neither she, nor I (or my husband) have health insurance. She, is on unemployment, after being laid off from her last job. My husband and I have not had any medical insurance for quite awhile.

Last year, we lost our business and of course, that meant losing our health insurance. While we could have paid for private insurance, we both have minor pre-existing conditions and did not have a budget that could support the major expense of private health care.

While it's not something we wanted to do, we know our only option was to go without.

In the past couple of months, my friend and I have confided in one another as our circumstances have been oddly similar and thus, we decided to navigate the black hole of health care together.

We both have on going prescriptions for various minor health issues. We are both attempting to get our individual businesses off the ground. Neither one of us have a primary care physician. But we both are college educated and find it quite frustrating and humorous each time we try to navigate the "system" to obtain basic well-being care.

So today, we decided to venture off and seek out some place where we can get a refill on our various Rx's.

On the weekend, you are very limited on where you can go. Both walk in clinics we found were located about 15 miles from the central city. That was the first laugh- especially since we both live within WALKING distance from the County ER /Hospital!

My friend, is currently with out a Drivers License/CA ID (that's another one of Life's Joke that was played on her a few weeks ago). As we left her house, she realized that she was over-drafted in her bank account. (Laugh Number 2)

Since my husband had been to this same clinic a couple of weeks prior, I knew she could write a check, so she bought her check book along... Laugh Number 3 comes along when we realize, while at the clinic, that she can't write a check because she doesn't have an ID!! UGHHH!!!

So, I quickly try to provide a solution of borrowing money from the business account because of course, we can now only pay cash and I didnt have much over the cost of my own visit with me! So I race up to the closest ATM and attempt to draw $100 when the ATM provides me Laugh Number 4!! Somehow it says the business account has a ZERO Balance! Are you kidding me??

All the way back (the whole 2 blocks) I giggled to myself, thinking "Really???"

It turned out that I had enough cash on me to pay the office vist fees for both of us. But it was definitely one of those afternoons that Life decided it needed a little entertainment!

About Me

I am a business owner, wife, sister, aunt, daughter, niece, friend. I am in my 30's and broke. I have resisted the recession, worked my butt off, took on multiple jobs,and still... Can't seem to come out ahead.
I have meditated, did daily affirmations, prayed, not prayed, relaxed, stressed, made changes and still... the bank account sits at zero.

I was widowed when I was in my early 20's, and I thought that was the worst time in my life. In retrospect, it just made life since then, that much harder. Harder because I don't take the petty stuff for granted anymore. I believed that I could live on love, and love alone...
4 months after I was widowed, I was laid off. Ha! Not much to do but laugh!

I struggled for 8 months... grieved, a lot. Lived off unemployment, which was probably the best thing I could have ever done for myself. There were days when I could not, or would not move any further than from the bed to the couch. Jerry Springer was actually entertaining. I spent a lot of time on my computer - the internet world was much more entertaining than my own-- and it wasnt quite as lonely.

I often felt like I was going crazy. I was in my own little lonely world. My mother in law was my best friend at the time... she (who lived next door) and the crazy old lady across the street, were some of my closest confidants...
(Like I said, I thought this was one of Life's Biggest Jokes).

But somehow, I was able to find a light at the end of the tunnel and get a little bit of reprieve, until Life decides to send the next train down the tracks in my direction...

Life's Little Jokes

I am starting this blog because over the past several years (and especially over the last 12 months) I, along with other people I know, have experienced things in their life that are tragic, sad, scary, and at the same time are strangely funny-- sometimes even hysterical! You just can't help but laugh...

Sometimes these things are so out of "Left Field" or so impossible to imagine, that I have to stop and wonder if there is a candid camera recording "God's Funniest Home Videos"!

Sometimes, there is just nothing left to do, but laugh!