Well, I’m not eligible for SSI after all. What the rep at the SSA failed to tell me is that there is a 2-part eligibility test: medical and financial. Medically, I’m eligible; but financially I’m not. Specifically, I get too much $$ from my LTD.
I am not at all upset. I *do* live relatively well and getting SSI was never a “make or break” type of situation for me. In light of the economy right now, it’s a real blessing to be able to say that!
What about my escalating prescription co-pays? Well, my “income” is NOT too high to qualify for some of the drug companies’ Patient Care programs. All I have to do is download an application and have my doctor fill it out and send it in.
Why is it that some people can’t say what they mean?
What you say is “Obama’s gonna redistribute my wealth”
What you mean is “I’m scared that the new black president will only help black people especially because we’ve had white presidents who only helped white people”
I’m not one of the black people who never thought they’d live to see a black POTUS. I just thought I’d be old and gray before it happened. But, given the persona non grata status of black men in America, I can definitely see why all of them - even the young ones - that I’ve seen interviewed have said they didn’t think it would happen in their lifetimes.
I think about my great-grandmother that I never got to meet. She was 108 years old when she died. I think about how she would have felt, and I wish she had been able to hold on a few more years to see this. I think about my mother who I used to watch cry every year when the radio station played Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. She was 19 years old when he was murdered. My mom died in 1984, and like her grandmother before her, I wish she had lived to see this come to pass. I think about my father. He was born in 1938, well before the Civil Rights Movement was underway. He died in 2000. My dad wasn’t a very expressive man, but I think this would have moved him so deep down that he wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from crying.
Then there is me. Stunned into near silence for the last 5 days. The election was the easy part. Now the real work begins, on Obama’s part and the part of all black people in America. All eyes are on us, and as De La Soul said “Stakes Is High”.
I have just been informed that the Social Security Administration is going to approve me for SSI. I am excited by this for the simple fact that approval for SSI means that I will get Medicaid. Medicaid will relieve me of the copays I pay, via my private health insurance, which are ever-increasing. More drugs have been added to my treatment plan and I need to see specialists as well as my primary care physician, sometimes more than once a month, and each time I have to pay the office visit copay. Then add the occassional prescriptions for “regular” ailments that come with changes in weather and opportunistic infections that take advantage of me being on two immunosuppressants. All these co-pays add up, and at some point they collectively start to become prohibitively expensive. A sista still needs to eat, you know?
Praise God for provision! I had just sent up a silent prayer to Him saying I knew he knew the economy was bad and that I was going to be squeezed with the increasing prices of food, electric and gas (OPEC will cut oil production and gas prices will rise again, so don’t get comfy out there). I told Him I knew things were going to work out and that I wasn’t going to panic or start thinking the worst becuase I had trusted Him this whole time through my ordeal and He had not ever let me down. Well… today, not even three days later, I got the phone call telling me I was going to be approved. He has come through yet AGAIN and let me know He has everything in control.
If today has a message, it’s a message of divine confirmation. Everything works out for the good of them who love the Lord. In all things, God will be glorified. Sometimes, he lets our own efforts be for naught so that He can position us to know that when something is done, it is not of our own strength, but because of His love, grace and mercy for us. It may not even be for our own benefit, but for the benefit of someone else who is watching us. I know I have people watching me, and if I profess to love Christ and trust God but don’t believe that He can do what He said He would do, then I am not setting an example of faith for those - known and unknown - who look up to me.
For whomever out there reading this who needs this message - because this last paragraph is not at all what I planned to write and the Scripture verse below is what just literally popped into my head after I wrote the last paragraph (I am not a Bible scholar and I suck big time at Scripture memorization), God is saying the following to you:
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10 ESV)
My doctor (primary care) wants me to start taking Plavix and Lipitor for the “mild” atherosclerosis. At first, she wanted me to take Caduet, but there’s a blood pressure drug in it that I don’t need, as my blood pressure is on the low side of normal and she thought that other drug would lower it too much, so she prescribed Lipitor, instead. But, what I don’t get is the need for Lipitor. She didn’t order blood work (and hasn’t since I’ve been seeing her), and I don’t have high cholesterol… at least I didn’t when I last had blood work done this summer in Arizona. So, I think she’s giving me the “textbook” treatment for the atherosclerosis. But, I don’t think the textbook treatment is what I need.
I don’t know if she knows there is a direct connection between atherosclerosis and Systemic Lupus Ertythematosus. But, I’m going to collect some information for her and take it to her. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to get in to see a rheumatologist as soon as possible. My primary’s office was supposed to get me with someone, but that hasn’t happened yet, so I’m going to have to get that ball rolling, myself, I think. Meanwhile, I’m going to take the Lipitor and Plavix until I can see a rheumy, and I don’t think it’s going to hurt for my cholesterol to be lowered ANYWAY. There have been a couple of times (but only a couple) that it has been a little high in the past. But, maybe I had something fatty to eat before the blood tests those days because it definitely has not been a regular occurance.
At any rate, I have to get on the ball about some things. Of course, I’ll keep the blog updated.
I had a kidney ultrasound and a full-body echo last week. Kidneys are fine, and my heart is okay. However, I do have mild atherosclerosis (plaque buildup) in my carotid artery (and I have none of the risk factors for heart disease). Yes, it’s lupus-related. Take a read:
A new study, led by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian
Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Hospital for Special
Surgery, finds that atherosclerosis (arterial plaque) occurs
prematurely and more commonly in patients with systemic lupus
erythematosus (lupus). The first-of-its-kind clinical study, which
appears in the December 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine,
also finds that atherosclerosis occurs as a result of lupus,
independently of traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors,
contradicting earlier hypotheses… .
My new favorite drink is pomegranate juice. Why? Click here.
The Obama button/symbol with “the new swastika” is going WAY too far.
Obama as the new Hitler? A black person, no less a BIRACIAL black
person, is the very antithesis of what Hitler and the Nazis stood for!
Whoever came up with this idea is dumber than a box of rocks.
And what makes it even worse is seeing people who consider themselves
CHRISTIANS following up on this nonsense. Things like this is EXACTLY
why I’ll never be a Republican. I don’t like the Democrats that much,
either, but at least they haven’t tried to position themselves as
America’s guardians of Christianity - while at the same time doing the
most unChristlike of things. Back in Jesus’ day, there was a group of
Jews who did the same thing the Republicans do now… they were called
the Pharisees and Jesus was ALWAYS at odds with them.
I am so SICK of people who have “religion” but know NOTHING about
Jesus! These people have HIJACKED Christianity, and are harming the
cause of Christ.
Update: I decided on a church. Sure that I wouldn’t find exactly what I wanted here in Greenville, I decided to get as close to it as I could get. I had been visiting Long Branch Baptist Church, after my cousin told me she loved the teaching her family received there. Every time I’ve attended service there, I have not only felt totally comfortable and at home, but I also received great, BIBLE-BASED and SCRIPTURALLY SOUND teaching. The icing on the cake was that there is a mix of ages. The only thing lacking is they have to have multiple services. But, I think when they move into the new building there will be a consolidation of services.
…..
I am having a very difficult time finding a church! There are plenty of churches here in Greenville, South Carolina so one would think there wouldn’t be much of a problem, right? Wrong. At least for me. But, I don’t think the things I desire in a church home are too much to ask. But, maybe you should tell me.
ONE Sunday service at a reasonable time
Mix of ages (not mostly young, not mostly older)
No “Prosperity Gospel” or “Word of Faith” emphases
What I’m starting to see is that the churches that have a mix of ages and who don’t teach Prosperity Gospel or emphasize Word of Faith are the ones that are experiencing rapid growth to the point where it has become necessary to implement multiple services. One church I really like is building a new sanctuary next to their old church, and I’ve been told that they’ve already outgrown that sanctuary - and they’re not even in it yet!
So, I don’t know what I’m going to do. But, as of right now, I’m going to go ahead and get dressed so I can be in the number somewhere this morning. See y’all later.
