Why healthcare needs to change

Believe it or not, this is not going to be a political post. I do promise that one of these days I will write a post that's happier in nature, but something happened in the past week that I'm sure is not uncommon, but it is wrong.
We all know our healthcare system is broken and it's been broken for a long time. I don't care who is at fault, it doesn't matter. I'm just here to tell a story about how this broken system has affected me.
A couple of weeks ago I ran out of one of the medications I take for depression. I called the doctor, who had often given me samples, and the receptionist said it would probably be faster to call it in as a prescription. Now, the reason that I had been getting samples was because it was a newer drug and insurance companies weren't covering it yet when I started taking it (5 years ago). I waited for a text from the pharmacy to tell me my prescription was ready. Side note, when I called the doctor, I had been out of my meds for a day. Yes, that part is my fault. Anyway, I never got the text. I kept waiting but didn't get a notification, but the online account said it had been filled, so I headed over to CVS. The tech told me that the insurance had denied the request because they wanted me to try another drug first. They gave a list of acceptable drugs to try first.
Here's why this filled me with rage: I was never notified that this was on hold, or why, and I guarantee that the person that denied the claim was not a medical professional, but simply doing what the computer told him/her to do. How do I know this? I was already on one of the medications listed! No one from the insurance company checked to see what they were already paying for! This meant that the pharmacy would have to contact my doctor the next day and send paperwork which, obviously, wouldn't resolve the issue until the next week. At this point, I've been out of my medication for a week and a half.
Then came Saturday. I was crabby, and then I was cranky, and then I was just plain angry at little things Elijah was doing. I went upstairs because I had just screamed at him for something so minute that I wouldn't usually even get mad about it. Once upstairs, I started crying and I couldn't stop. I am not a cryer. I might cry at a movie or a song, but very rarely do I just break down for a 20-minute sob fest, which is what happened. Then it dawned on me what was happening - withdrawal.
The next day I didn't feel great, but I left to do my normal Sunday things because I knew I should. Monday, I couldn't get out of bed. I was exhausted and constantly crying and wanted nothing to do with existing in the outside world. I wanted to curl up with my cats and stay in my house.
On Tuesday, I finally got my medication. Tuesday wasn't as bad as Monday, but now I was filled with anxiety over all the things I didn't get done over the weekend. I hadn't done lesson plans, or the practice recordings I had promised students.
So to recap - I ran out of medication, was told I couldn't have anymore (despite having been on it for 5 years) because I should try something else first (something I was already on, not had already tried, but was currently on) and then was unable to function because of literal paperwork. I don't have any solutions but, guess what? That's not my job. Someone needs to do better and someone needs to stop letting people put money above peoples' lives.

Please Stay

      If any of my choir friends are reading this, the title has meaning for them. "Please Stay" by Jake Runestad is a song that the choir I am in is performing this fall (I'll leave a link to a video below). Our content for this concert, as I mentioned in my last post, deals with the pain, desperation, and healing of suicide. As you might guess, this hits me on two levels. The first is as someone who has lost loved ones to suicide. My student, Audrey, died a year and a half ago on a Saturday. The day before that, I had been talking to her about how she wanted to move to The Netherlands after she graduated. I still wonder how we could have stopped it. My friend, Matt, who was my first "real" boyfriend, died 4 years ago. We lost touch, but that doesn't seem to matter when you lose someone.
     The second level is that I have been the person these songs are talking about. It was about 6 months ago that I left a choir rehearsal to sit in my car and cry. When my friends came out after rehearsal, I told them I had been trying to think of ways to kill myself. That night it came on fast and strong. I had been fine until I wasn't. Luckily, I have a husband and son that love me fiercely, and friends that I adore that catch me when I fall. Not everybody feels like they have that, even if they do, and that brings me to the point of today's post.
     Please stay. There were a lot of tears in the choir room on Sunday when we sang this. I know we all have our reasons. At the very least, everyone knows someone who knows someone that has been affected by suicide. At the worst, they were reading words they wish they had heard. That was me.
    I remember my mom coming home when I was 16 and I was sitting on the floor in the hallway with a knife in my hand. I had already made some superficial cuts, but when my mom called the doctor, I couldn't promise that I wouldn't take it further. All I wanted to hear from someone was, "please stay". When I was in grad school staring at the bottle of pills on the counter, all I wanted to hear was "please stay". Now, I am not saying I didn't have a good support system, and I'm certainly not looking for sympathy.  I had an excellent support system. I have an even better support system now. But people don't know what to say to you when you tell them you want to die. Some people play it off like it's a joke, some ignore it, and in others you can see the pain of wanting to say the perfect thing, but they just can't think of it.
     There is no perfect thing, and you can't save everyone, but if you know someone is hurting, those two words will go a long way. Even if they haven't expressed thoughts of suicide, tell them you want them to stay. If it's someone you love fiercely and you just can't help them, tell them you want them to stay. If you are reading this and you feel depressed, desperate, hopeless, or even suicidal, don't give up - Please Stay.


Please Stay by Jake Runestad - https://youtu.be/17Ywn3ImcYE

Wishing you all peace, love, and light,

Jenn