As Seen Elsewhere

and very true.....

I'm beyond disgusted.  It was bad enough under Texas rules that Sandi did not qualify for Texas medicaid despite the fact that she has terminal cancer leaving us on the hook for thousands of dollars her insurance won't cover because of this or that technicality. Or the fact that because they count her small Social Security Disability (SSD) payment and mine and that means I apparently no longer qualify for Medicare reimbursement which means I am now going to be responsible for not only my Medicare premium each month, but at least 200 dollars more in medication costs. More than half of my SSD each month will now go to the Medicare premuim and the drug costs of the medications I am currently on.

We still don't have our food stamps for this month. If the unthinkable happens and the default is triggered, as it stands now, we won't receive our SSD next month and that means we won't be able to pay our rent. We will be homeless--it truly is that simple.

Like millions of other Americans, while this nonsense goes on, we suffer. I don't care which party you support or why. This is no way to run a government or the country. Remember who did what and hold them accountable when it is time to vote again.

Saturday Evening Update

Things are pretty much the same here. Sandi is making continuous heavy use of the oxygen concentrator and we see her numbers drop rapidly when she is off of it to go to the bathroom. The little $35 oxygen sensor I bought at the store was proven to be very accurate in the doctor's office so we have been checking her  a lot to see where she is at. She has a little more energy today, thanks to the powerful steroids she is now on, so she has been sitting with her computer in her lap and doing e-mail.

Sad to say she discovered she has had zero sales again this month despite her "Christmas In July" sale announced on her blog before she went into the hospital. Since she is virtually giving away stuff she thought she would get a couple of sales and instead got nada. Even the daily drive by looks she gets at her store at iOffer have dropped considerably. Maybe it is because everybody is doing some sale somewhere, I don't know. But, it is pretty discouraging.

We still don't know what her status is regarding social security disability and the rest of it. Supposedly, having a stem cell transplant is an automatic qualifier as well as the cancer she had and her hideous prognosis. No word yet.


I mentioned last week how we just got the paperwork to renew our food stamps. We filled that out this morning and mailed it today and again asked for Medicaid assistance along with the food stamps. Hopefully, something is in the system we don't know about and her approval is in the pipeline. Considering the food stamp renewal letter was dated July 3, 2013 and we just got it last week, it seems to me like there could have been a decision one way or the other and we just don't know it yet.

In the meantime, things continue to be very grim from a money standpoint. So, if you can, please make a donation via the handy dandy widget over to the left. Any amount helps. The monies raised go to the rent, utilities, food, gas for the car, parking at the hospital, medical bill payments (despite an installment plan both TEXAS RADIOLOGY and MEDICAL CITY DALLAS HOSPITAL --among others-- have turned some of the mountain of debt over to collection agencies--as if that changes our situation at all), Sandi's biweekly insurance premium of $95, her drugs, etc. The monies are not wasted and are very much appreciated.

I hate asking and I wouldn't if things were not desperate.  Feel free to share the news of our situation through social media or other venues if you would care to do so as we truly do need the help.

Kevin

Rent PAID!!!

With a big time thank you to those that helped us out again this month, the rent is now paid with very few dollars to spare. Hopefully, by the end of the month Sandi's disability will finally be approved by the state and the feds and she will finally start receiving much needed disability payments and help with her enormous medical bills. We keep hoping the system will work as she is now way past the four month period it was suppsoed to take to approve her expedited case.

Thank you again for saving us with our apartment once more.

Sandi Tonight

She remains the same with her stomach bothering her and cuasing frequent trips to the bathroom. While she is very naseuated at times, she has still not thrown up which is the one small peice of good news in this gastric distress. Expected to last a couple more days before subsiding.

Got reams of paperwork from the state disability review folks today in the mail. Of course, this stuff duplicates everything they already have via Social Security and was supposed to be avoided by the expedited application filed back in January through MASH. When Sandi filed then it was supposed to take 120 days max to determine she did qualify for Social Security Disability. Now, because the state of Texas is making her fill all this out --which she can't do until she finally gets back home in mid or late June---it means that it is going to be months more before she is approved --if she is---by the state so that she can receive her SSD.

I'm absolutely disgusted. I called her this evening and broke the news and she started crying hard. Just brutal.

Sandi and Social Security Disability Interview

Sandi had her three hour plus interview with a representative of MASH for Social Security Disability this morning. It only covered the last two years of her medical stuff as there is so much to document on that. They will pull the records going back another fifteen years.

This MASH thing is supposed to expedite the process for patients such as Sandi with advanced cancer and other serious conditions. Whether or not this actually saves time as sixty days have already passed since she first filed for all this through the doctor's office, as part of this expetdited process, remains to be seen.

All it seems to have done for sure, at this point, is exhaust her so she has gone back to bed for a nap.

Medicare Appeal Deal

Medicare is seriously confusing. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how I had applied for assistance with Medicare Part B and assistance with Part D.  Right now I have no part D (the drug part) and pay $100 a month for Part B. I talked about how I had filed out paperwork to get assistance. I had thought I was applying for help with Part B ---so that I didn’t pay $100 a month. Instead, I was applying for help with Part D and that was what had been denied.

Apparently help with Part B is up to the state of Texas which recently denied me saying I hadn’t filed out an application. Of course, one can’t fill out an application if one does not get one. But, that is a separate issue. Our food stamps have been cutoff due to another error by them so it isn’t surprising this is messed up as well.

After appealing the recent Social Security decision against me and providing Sandi’s paystubs again as well as her copies of her unpaid medical leave paperwork as requested by an office of Social Security up in Baltimore, I got the decision today. They have thankfully reversed course and finally approved me.

This means I am now approved for some sort of financial help to purchase the MEDICARE PART D deal. How much a month I have no idea at all, but anything will be a huge help.

So, now I have to spend some time working through government websites and trying to figure out which plan will work for me. Hopefully, I will be notified how much in assistance I am eligible for before the signup cutoff date of December 7.

I am also going to photocopy the Social Security approval letter and send it to the same state government people who denied me because I supposedly failed to fill out their application (one I never got) and see if anything can be done.

Kevin