Chaos

Chaos. What is chaos? The dictionary defines it as utter confusion, complete disorder, or a lack of organization.

That’s been my life since the last week of September. Since then, I’ve lived in a shitstorm, dealing with my lady’s Medicaid recertification. During the last week of September, we received a letter saying we had three days to resolve issues with her recertification, involving numerous financial institutions and other businesses. Meanwhile, they scheduled her Medicaid to end on October 1 and notified every agency providing services to her.

Medicaid

Anyone on Medicaid knows you have to get recertified annually. It’s an arduous process. I use a Medicaid lawyer to deal with the nitty-gritty. It’s the best money I’ve ever spent to deal with them and their ever-changing rules.

I’ve never liked Medicaid, but over the years, I’ve learned what documentation they require to recertify her Medicaid. Throughout the previous year, I’ve collected the documentation they require. I then reached out to my lawyer, actually the paralegal assigned to her case, and we started the recertification process. The paralegal requested the documentation, and I emailed it the same day. A day later, she asked for two more documents, and I sent them on the same day. This was in early September.

I relaxed, knowing everything was going smoothly and that we were in good hands.

Then the ‘letter‘ came.

Panic

That’s when the panic set in. I immediately contacted our paralegal and explained what was going on. She got back to me later in the day.

I was panicking. I was stressed. My gut churned. Adrenaline flooded my body. I lived in this state for the next three weeks. If I wasn’t contacting my lawyer’s office, I was on the phone, sending emails, and driving from one business to another, trying to resolve the recertification by September 30—no such luck. Right on schedule, all her services stopped on 10/1.

Now I was really panicking, and it didn’t let up.

I put everything else in my life aside to work on the problem. My writing, my respite time, even my sleep suffered. I couldn’t do or focus on anything other than getting her Medicaid services restarted.

Tunnel’s End

Yes, I think I am clearing the tunnel of chaos I’ve been living in over the past four weeks. She’s got her services back, and everything is working normally except for one thing. I won’t know whether that last thing is fixed for a couple of weeks. I believe that last thing is fixed, but I’ve got my fingers crossed. The important thing is that it doesn’t affect her services, which I am grateful for.

I’m breathing easier and trying to pick up where I left off in September. Whew!