Messed Up Medicaid and New Rooms

I just got off the phone with the Medicaid office after calling 6 different numbers and spending 2 hours on the phone between dentists offices and Medicaid offices - I'm FRUSTRATED.

Kayla saw the dentist this morning - she has four wisdom teeth coming in. The dentist this morning said they need to come out and she needs to see an Oral Surgeon for that to happen. Well, she has Medicaid - thanks to DCF providing their 'excellent level of care'... you know... DCF wanting to make sure that the kids were completely taken care of and all. (Yeah, I'm totally being sarcastic)

Well, there is only ONE oral surgeon in Tampa who will take Medicaid patients. I was warned that they are not 'friendly' on the phone... 'when they pick up the phone'. They were right about that... it took me almost 2 hours to just get someone there to answer the phone; then I held for 25 minutes before someone came to talk to me. When she did talk to me, I said "good morning, I need to make an appointment for my Niece". She said "NIECE? Let me guess... you are her legal guardian?" I smiled and responded, "Well, yes I am." She snapped back with "Well then, we won't take you. Get a pen and write down this number. Got it? Good. 800-633-3953. That's the University of Gainesville - you have to drive her to GAINESVILLE to have her wisdom teeth removed. We do not do Guardianships here." Did I mention that she had a HORRIBLE attitude with me? She was very snippy on the phone.

I said... "Gainesville?" She said - yes, Gainesville. So - I said - what if her mom just brought her in? Will you take her then? She said "If you are the Legal Guardian, then obviously the mom lost parental rights, so NO, the mom can NOT bring her in. You have parental power, YOU must be the one to bring her in as the Legal Guardian. So, YOU have to drive her to GAINESVILLE to get her Wisdom Teeth removed."

I snapped back "Well, you are incorrect on that one on the "obviously the mom lost parental rights" statement - the mom has NOT lost parental rights, I simply have permanent guardianship over the children." She said - "Then take her to Gainesville, we can't see them here." Again, her attitude was HORRIBLE, but then she had the AUDACITY to ask me... "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Give me a break.

I called back the Dentist who referred me to this quack. They confirmed this was the ONLY Oral Surgeon in the area who was taking Medicaid. I then called the 6 different Medicaid numbers talking to anyone with a pulse trying to plead my case -- because SURELY they don't really expect me to drive from Tampa to Gainesville for a simple tooth extraction.

Six phone numbers and two hours later I find out that -- they DO indeed expect me to drive to Gainesville to have any type of Oral Surgery done that the kids may need. The next closest Oral Surgeon who doesn't see guardian cases either is Orlando. I suppose I am fortunate that this is JUST a simple wisdom tooth removal. At this point, Kayla's four teeth have broken through and appear to have come in without issue. They are not impacted. There appears to be 'room' for them to grow in without issue.

Lesson learned here though -- should one of the kids HAVE a dental emergency and need emergency Oral Surgery -- I will make SURE that Julie is the one to make the appointment or that I say I'm their mom or something like that. NO WAY am I even going to MENTION the word "Guardian" again.

My friend Michelle said I should call back, since I didn't give my name, and try to make an appointment for her now. Ya know.... I just don't know about it. They were SO HORRIBLE. Kayla now tells me she's in no pain. I told Michelle -- I don't know that I would bring her DOG into see this Doctor unless I had NO other options. Truly my experience with them was THAT BAD.

Uncaring. Unkind. Snippy. Barking at me as if I were an idiot who didn't know how to find a pen and paper and I didn't know what a Guardian was.

This doctor HAS to be overworked... no doubt. But -- if our government can't do SOMETHING to get our dentists / Oral Surgeons to accept Medicaid rates -- where there is ONE in the Tampa 'area' - the next "closest one" being flipping ORLANDO, and the ONLY ONE who will take a poor child who is being raised by anyone other than his or her mother is the Oral Surgeons out at the University of Gainesville.... something is wrong with that system I'd say. Someone needs to look into this. Raise the pay. Entice the doctors. Do SOMETHING to get more Doctors on board.

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Sunday we had a SUPER busy day. We all went to Church, then went to Home Depot to pick up some supplies. The intention was to paint Kayla's room while she was at work. She TOLD us she had prepped her room, knowing we were going to do it. Well.........

Kayla really does have the NEATEST room in the house (other than ours) - but - it's not 'clean' by any means. There is the hair GOOP everywhere... hair everywhere... papers... notes... earrings... just stuff EVERYWHERE. But if you look in her closet - clothes are organized by color and size. Hair products - all 20 or 30 bottles - are all lined up neatly on the counter.

The prep for the room took FOREVER. Patching holes - pulling off the tape on the walls - taking everything out of her room - then we rented a steam cleaner and tried our best to clean all the hair gel and hair spray out of her carpet.

Once we got everything out of her room, we thought.... ya know - this room is really big. Kayte and Justin are CRAMMED in their little room. Kayla is all by herself in this big ole room. We should switch them.

Then I thought -- WAIT -- what am I crazy?? That means moving two rooms!

We got the big room all painted - it was a dark blue, so we had to do primer, then paint. Baseboards, trim, and FINALLY it was done. We moved all of Kayte and Justin's stuff into the BIG room and WOW it looked FANTASTIC! They had SO MUCH more room. BUT finishing this room (at dinner time I might point out) meant it was time to start on the smaller room.

We couldn't very well move Kayla into the small room and not paint it. The small room was also blue. It wasn't nearly as bad as the bigger one was - but it did need a paint job.

We painted the smaller room. It looked FANTASTIC as well. What a difference a coat or two of paint makes, I'm telling ya.

Kayte and Justin have so much more room in the bigger room. Kayla is squished in the smaller room because she has SO much furniture (queen size bed, dresser, and two end tables) but - it looks like a hotel room. Or a dorm. It looks FANTASTIC.

I should take a moment to publicly thank my wonderful husband and good friend Michelle who both worked their tails off. ALL. DAY. LONG. Julie worked as well. Amanda came over and helped out late afternoon. But - by far and large - Chris and Michelle worked all day and all night long. Thanks so much you guys. :o)

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I should run for now. Chris wants the laptop! I have to go think about getting to bed.

The termites are swarming in our bedroom. Flying all around. I have to think about how to sleep with them flying all around.

Eww

Ewww

Ewwww

I think if I just kill what's there and then turn off all the lights - I'll be good.

Chris on the other hand probably won't sleep at all tonight.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi,