Thread
A few weeks ago, I had a very mild case of COVID that didn't even seem like COVID but I had a positive at-home test and neg strep test. Then, late last week, 13yo came home sick and at-home was the brightest pos I've ever seen. Then spouse and 7yo fell like dominoes, then me.
We got PCR tests asap - having to haul our 4 miserable selves into a car and drive 20 miles - yep, we're all positive with COVID, all symptomatic just short of the point of needing to seek outside care. All official info sources say: most adults are eligible for free paxlovid.
Here's where the usual shitty healthcare system devolves into hellscape: We don't have a PCP bc my out of state employer's insurance isn't taken here. I call my insurance's free telehealth. They can't prescribe Paxlovid, but a mere pharmacist can & it's free! Should be eligible.
(Leaving out 25 minutes of tapping away on insurance website to make all that happen, what with all the infinite loops of logging in and authentication because they updated recently blah blah blah)
We go to the nearest CVS Test & Treat site. After a great deal too much scrolling and clicking, we take screener, we click the BMI thing we were told does make us eligible, but it says we're not eligible. Can't go further to talk to a pharmacist or get appt without it.
Also, btw, the fine print is that if you can get "free" Paxlovid from CVS, the phone call with the pharmacist required to get it (or not!) is $60
So we try the next kind of Test & Treat center, an Urgent Care that ofc doesn't take our insurance, but whatever. They say make telehealth appt to get Paxlovid scrip (insurance's telehealth said this wasn't done, but whatevs, right?)
BTW, their website doesn't like their insurances so we wouldn't know they don't take ours until it was too late, but we've already been through this before, so we know.
So we try to schedule a telehealth appt online. We go through 20 minutes of looping forms outsourced to "Solv," a company we have given lots of info too, but they neglected to have a box to enter phone number, but can't schedule visit without phone number. You had 1 job, Solv.
So, okay, they also have a phone number to schedule telehealth visits. We had already called their 800-number to get more info but it was just pre-recorded spam. This number looks real though, so we call. IT'S DISCONNECTED.
Now we try to schedule an in-person visit, even though they do not (RIGHTLY!) want covid-positive people to come in person. We try to schedule to we can TELL A PERSON the situation and hopefully that person can get the appt for paxlovid.
You know what's coming, right? No appointments available for many days past the point when you can take Paxlovid, which must be started within 5 days of onset of symptoms.
So, we're not going to be getting treatment, and we did spend an entire day of quite severe covid symptoms not only scrambling to care for ourselves & 2 sick kids without help, but wasting our time battling a system never designed to help.
I'm able to write this at all today, or got through this hideous mess of healthcare bureaucracy, because my fever finally broke last night, but I'm still barely able to sit up and constantly coughing. This is not what I should be doing in this condition.
But of course in addition I'm also scrambling to cover my work for this week - I'm privileged to be in a position where it's not too difficult, but that is extremely unusual. I will shortly be dealing with the schools bureaucracy as well. Inc the school we got covid from.
This is a completely failed system, total failure to handle a deadly and disabling pandemic, and a totally failed country. There are no humans to solv (or "Solv [TM]") problems because no one wants to pay anyone (which ofc is why finally no one will work either).
But it's worse than that. POTUS can say "the pandemic is over" and "there's free and effective COVID treatment and a new booster" but the booster came too late for the season change and the treatment is neither free nor actually available BY STRUCTURE.
I'm not saying it's intentional, but whether because there isn't enough Paxlovid or they don't care about the poors or just incompetence, it's not actually available, let alone free, bc of the totally unnecessarily useless and obstructive healthcare system.
For those unfortunate Americans who don't know otherwise: it absolutely does not have to be like this and is not like this anywhere else. Nowhere is perfect, but our system is HEINOUS like no other. If you've been lucky not to see that first-hand yet, you are a LUCKY EXCEPTION.
Update: After calling and poking websites for every other UrgentCare network offering covid treatment in the state, got telehealth appts for self and spouse - maybe last ones, bc most were booked way past when treatment would be effective.
Now let's see if these telehealth providers are going to say we're eligible but they can't prescribe, go to CVS, where ofc they strike us off before talking to us. And ofc none of these visits are covered by our "excellent" insurance.
Update: spouse had an appt and got the prescription!! Which he'll get, bitterly-hilariously, from CVS where we started this morning, who can supposedly prescribe and save all this mess but won't/don't. My appt is still a few hours away. Not clear yet what we're paying.
This could have been as simple as the positive PCR test result coming WITH the questions of eligibility for Paxlovid and an automatic scrip going to pharmacy when those conditions were met. We would have started treatment faster & more effectively.
Even better would be if it hadn't take considerable time & effort to get to the PCR test, if there were actual frequent & easy test centers and regular testing. Then streamline treatment. THAT could actually help get us "back to [the new] normal" but it ain't what we got.
Btw, the diff btwn the case I had a few wks ago (light but clear + on home test, only a sore throat but strep neg) and now is that my household all got it 24hrs earlier. I was waltzing to CVS in dbl 95s to get supplies, feeling fine, when suddenly felt like I was hit by a truck.
By the time I got home I was wobbly and had to lay down. Fever, aches, headache & sore throat came by evening, cough just in time to try to sleep. Fever & aches better by morning, cough & weakness is overwhelming.t
Spouse had same sequence, just 24 hrs in advance. He still feels like I do now, so I guess that stage lingers. 13 had same but it moved thru much faster w less aches & fatigue. Half hour of mild but scary chest pressure went away. Just cough now. 7yo had 103F for 24hrs...
Then just regular cold symptoms. No loss of energy at all though, even during fever! And we're all really happy we can still taste & smell (as congestion allows). Appetites minimal. Hydrating & taking ibu as needed for aches & fevers, Mucinex for congestion.
You should hear the symphony of coughing when we're all in the same room. 
Oh, I forgot: on-call doc at our ped never even called us back. Only ped who takes the out-of-state insurance. We're switching to my husband's employer's insurance in Jan & it's taken everywhere here but we'll go from paying $0 prem & lo copays to 10% of our income just in prem.
You guys. 😂 We found out our CC was stolen (4th time this yr I think) so spouse is spending his evening on the phone for hours to get that straightened out and my 4pm appt got accidentally deleted and rescheduled for 5:45. Ah, life. It never had to be like this.
My 5:45 reschedule that was confirmed when I entered it didn't ever send me a link, so now I'm rescheduled for 6:45, got a link, but it's the same expired link from 4pm! A++!
Continue to try all the other UrgentCares in the state - they're all booked with "unusually high covid activity" 😂😂😂🤣 I lost count of how many times we have frantically scanned the state for covid help to no or extremely delayed avail since March 2020.
BTW, we're all triple-vaxed and were scheduled for the latest booster when this hit. We were all still masking. If 13yo's symptoms had showed up just 1 day later we would have been contagious & not known it & gone to an outdoor gather with very small kids present.
We would still have worn masks even outside most of the time, but not while eating. We had stopped testing at home before going *anywhere* just bc it became impossible/pointless having to go everywhere with unmasked ppl all the time.
UPDATE!! Finally had my appt & wanted to cry and hug the provider when I finally saw her - she was a WOC who looked exhausted & obviously had small kids in the background. 😥 Got my prescription, can start just after 48hrs of onset, phew. It only took a day of FT effort!
And that only bc I was not only persistent all day despite illness and sick kids but have insurance and disregarded the cost of these uninsured televisits (bill to come but I expect $50-$100 each) and had recent enough care to show low likelihood of complications.
If anyone wants the ins and outs of CT UrgentCare systems I feel like an expert now, lol.
Symptom update: spouse and I feel worse after this day of bureaucratic hell. 13yo is well enough to beg for a new computer game, but still coughing & tired. 7yo made TWENTY elastic loop bracelets today and has watched many shows, has cough & recurring elevated temp.
We're planning to stay quarantined through the rest of the week, obviously continuing masking after that. We should all probably rest longer, but spouse & I will be working from home by the end of the week regardless, let alone the next week.
Just a note of info that I haven't heard elsewhere: provider said Paxlovid should help prevent anything more serious but will INTENSIFY fatigue while taking it so need to plan to stay home longer than CDC rec of 5 days. Luckily we're able to do this, but most aren't!
That said, Spouse is currently prepping to teach online (bc unlike me he doesn't already have videos from a previous iteration during lockdown) & is driving out in dark and rain to get my scrip bc he'll be teaching online in the morning. THEN he can be off for a few days. 
Since this is going around but I'm going offline to recover: this is just the latest healthcare story & esp annoying bc it's a global pandemic that has been handled badly every step. I have far worse healthcare stories than this w "great" insur & living in a sub/urban area. 😂
