The City and County of Denver, and Medicaid, can bite me.

So, I take a large dose of Lexapro in order to function in "civilized" society. 60 mg a day, plus 45 mg of Remeron in the evenings. When my depression isn't treated, it comes out as rage.

We're currently on TANF while my husband retrains as a welder so he can make a living wage, and since I only filed in October 2005, my SSDI is a ways from manifesting. Hence, TANF, food stamps, extremely inadequate amounts of cash to struggle by on, and Medicaid.

Hubby got a rather large chunk of back unemployment in April. This is June. He reported the income, as required, and we got no TANF funds for June -- TANF funds are always two months behind. We were supposed to stay on Medicaid and get food stamps, though.

However, apparently this month, there was a bug in the program, and folks who didn't qualify for cash this month got dropped from Medicaid as well. Last Wednesday, I went to fill my Lexapro prescription, and on Friday I discovered that my Medicaid status showed as "ineligible." Friday was the day I had no more Lexapro. So, since Hubby is head of household, he called the caseworker. She actually got the Medicaid reapproved yesterday, the 13th, but it will be four days from the change in Denver's system before the change will show up in Medicaid's system.

How do I know all this? The Sprog developed a severe muscle spasm in her left arm last night, and it didn't go away. So I called the doctor's office, and they had no appointments. Hence, I proceeded to Urgent Care, where they told me that HER Medicaid was invalid. I called the customer service number for the C&C of Denver, and yes, they did show our Medicaid as active. I asked them to fax that information to the Urgent Care clinic, but the customer service line can't do that, only my caseworker can. Well, I'd already tried the caseworker, and she has been off Monday through today, Wednesday. So they put me through to my caseworker's supervisor...actually, to her voice mail. I was pretty snitty, I don't know if the woman will call me back or not. I requested her PROMPT attention to the matter.

Then I called Medicaid. That's how I found out that while it shows active in Denver, it won't show up as active on Medicaid's computers until Saturday -- four days after it was updated by Denver. Could Medicaid fax the information to the Urgent Care clinic? Oh no, your caseworker has to do that.

Mind, each of these calls came with 20 minute hold times.

Rewind and go through the actual physical occurrences. For my pain, I generally take 50 mg of Tramadol in the morning, 50 in the middle of the day, and 100 at bedtime. Last night, The Sprog asked to stay up an hour later. I told her she could if she cleaned out my truck the next day, and she agreed. Need to get the truck ready for my power chair, which can't be ordered till my Medicaid is back up. So during her "extra hour," she says her left arm "flipped," then spasmed from her fingers to her elbow. I had her ice it and take Advil, then go to bed.

Today, her arm still hurts. OK, not a transient phenomenon. I figure that it will be easier to maneuver with my walker than my wheelchair, especially with one of her arms out of commission. I didn't realize that my own muscle spasms on my right leg were going to kick in full force. My lower back, right across the top of the pelvis, and my right ankle were in full spasm. I'd taken my morning Tramadol; hadn't touched it. So I'm driving the Sprog to the Urgent Care Clinic, and as soon as we get there, I took 100 mg more so I could function without screaming. We signed in to the clinic at 2:30; by the time I got done playing phone tag and getting nowhere, it was 3:30. I contacted Hubby, and he was on his way home from welding class, so we arranged to meet at the house, and considering my pain levels, he would take her to the ER, where they wouldn't turn her away and could bill Medicaid lots more.

So now, here I sit, completely impotent on any issue about my own or my family's health, with a right leg spasming from my back to the bottom of my ankle, while Hubby and The Sprog are waiting in the low-priority queue at the ER. With luck, I'll hear in a few hours. Meanwhile, time to start applying herbal salves to the spasms in hopes of easing the pain.A