Guaranteed Healthcare

I have been an RN since 1978. Last year I was hospitalized with a white count of 1.6. My WBC's improved, but I remained very sick- pain, fatigue, SOB, subluxation of both hips and one shoulder. I did not have FMLA protection because I had only been at my job for 8 months. I was "asked" to resign. I collected private disability for six weeks, and then because of a history of Ehlers-Danblos syndrome in my family, I was told that no further payments would be issued until I was seen by a geneticist. This was in November. I have an appointment with a geneticist next week. This was the earliest appointment she had.

I cannot apply for SSI because I have the functional capacity to do some other type of part-time work. I paid for insurance with COBRA religiously, at a cost of $460 per month. In May, I forgot to mail my payment by one day. My insurance was cancelled retroactively to March 31- so now even if I was able to find insurance, the preexisting conditions apply.

I have applied for Medicaid and that is a possibility because my child is handicapped and has Medicaid. But right now, I have nothing and I will have to pay the geneticist out of pocket. I now function at about 40% of the capacity I had a year ago, and I have 30% of the income I had for the last ten years. The level of pain that I have from joint erosion is often unbearable. Is this how the medical profession treats its own, when we cease to function at the level we once did?

I am trying to have some faith, but there are days when it is too hard to think about surviving. I know I'm not the only one going through this and that makes it even more wrong. It's so hard to fight the system, they wait until we're down to kick us harder and we don't have the strength to fight back.