I may not survive the week at this rate.....

So Saturday night...or was it sunday? Anyway, whatever night it was 10 yo DD woke me up saying she had a severe stomach ache. I assessed the situation, and called the Dr. at midnightish. He said to bring her to the ER, it sounded alot like appendicitis, and I have BTDT with oldest, so I brought her in. They took her temp, blood etc,got an IV going, and gave her some lovely barium to drink for a Cat scan. SO, we wait for over 3 hours for the barium to get into her, it really was alot, and they move her to the cat scan machine. While IN the scan room I hear DD...well...um... Break wind....through the door even. We get the results back and there is NOTHING WRONG! Apparently her 10K stomach ache was Gas.

SO, I get home, and first thing that meets me at the door is a couple of 3yo's with the puke vrius, and poor dh chasing them with my kitchen trash can. Thank god that's over now.

So, after a restful nights sleep last night, I am good, I was awake for 39 1/2 hours total.

10 yo had a field trip today, to the movies and a local park.....where she feel off the slide, and ended up back in the ER with a possible concussion....again, nothing there, she has a really hard head. She did however apparently enjoy flustering the hell out of a couple of teachers.

It's only Tuesday, wish me luck.

OH, and I almost forgot, the girlies were greeting the mailman "blues clues style" ( you know the MAILCALL thing with your arm?) WELL, they had it backwards and gave the mailman a very vulgar hand message.

Yikes! No stress there!

Lmao on the mail man greeting. You should round everyone up and gather in a rubber room for the remainder of the week, lol. Seriously though I'm sorry, it doesn't sound like much fun, I sympathize. I hope the rest of the week goes smoother.

Sorry for laughing, but its nice to see someone else has problems like I do. I was beginning to think we were the only family like that. Hope all is going better by now for you.

Actually the mailman thing was kinda funny, he had the oddest look on his face.

And I cannot wait to see how much DD"s gas cost me, no health coverage here...

Oh man! Are you sure you aren't my best friend? Sounds JUST like her household on ANY given day! The mailman thing is hilarious. I understand the "bill" thing.. man... all that for gas?.... all you can do is laugh and make sure to write it down or scrapbook it for future reference...

edbson wrote:Actually the mailman thing was kinda funny, he had the oddest look on his face.

And I cannot wait to see how much DD"s gas cost me, no health coverage here...

I don't know your financials of course, but see if they have a sliding scale. Or check and see if you'd qualify for medicaid. They can backdate a little.

You poor thing!

I empathise really I do. Mine havent pulled any good ones lately, but if you go back to the begining of my blog, you will see that my idiots are alot like your kids.. so you are NOT alone. and I promise after you pay off the 80 grand to the hospital you will be able to laugh about it

Good grief! hope things calm down......

I hope you make it too
My sis had to take her dd to the er once where the diagnosis was constipation, so you are not alone

Bless your little heart. the no health insurance thing stinks big time!

Oh dear, what a couple of days! Things will get better. I understand the no insurance thingy, I used to be in that boat. My heart goes out to you!

Here's the Texas medicaid info (just the pertinent highlights)

Who is eligible? ...Children under age 19 who live with their parents, relatives, non-relatives or by themselves

Income Limits ...Children Ages 1 through 5: 133% FPIL.
Children Ages 6 through 18: 100% FPIL.


The Medicaid eligibility date (MED) is usually the first day of the month in which the application for assistance was made. The MED can be as early as the first day of the third month prior to the application month, if the family has unpaid Medicaid-reimbursable bills from that period of time.

Exception: Medically Needy (MN) applications with spend down. The Medicaid eligibility date will usually be the date that medical bills for the amount of the spend down are incurred.

Spend Down Examples

Example 1: Family of four applying for a 14-year-old child.


Monthly net income $1536
-MN income limit $ 308
Spend down amount $1228


This family must provide proof of incurred medical expenses of $1,228 for the child to be eligible.

Example 2: Family of four applying for a pregnant woman.


Monthly net income $3750
MN income limits $ 357
Spend down amount $3393


This family must provide proof of incurred medical expenses of $3,442 for the pregnant woman to be eligible.

Processing Spend Down Cases

The family's caseworker determines eligibility and, if applicable, the amount of the family's spend down. If the family has to meet spend down to receive Medicaid benefits, the family must submit proof of incurred medical expenses to a central clearinghouse.

The Medically Needy Clearinghouse:

Processes the bills received from the family,
Determines when spend down is met, and
Notifies HHSC and the family when spend down is met.
The family may contact the Clearinghouse concerning the processing of its bills by calling 1-800-252-8263 (toll free).

Medical Expenses Allowed Toward Spend Down

These expenses

Must be unpaid bills if incurred before the family applies for assistance,
May be paid or unpaid bills if incurred after the family applies for assistance, and
Must be accompanied by an explanation of benefits if the family has private insurance.
Hierarchy of Allowable Expenses

The Clearinghouse processes the bills in the following hierarchy required by federal regulations to determine which bills are first used to meet spend down:

Health insurance premiums, deductibles, or coinsurance charges incurred by the family,
Non-Title XIX bills incurred by the family,
Bills incurred by the family that are potentially reimbursable by Title XIX
Income Limits



Note: When determining eligibility for a pregnant woman, additional needs for her unborn child(ren) are included.

Family Size	MNIL	100% FPIL	133% FPIL	150% FPIL	185% FPIL	200% FPIL
1	$104	$ 817	$1087	$1225	$1511	$1634
2	216	1100	1463	1650	2035	2200
3	275	1384	1840	2075	2560	2767
4	308	1667	2217	2500	3084	3334
5	357	1950	2594	2925	3608	3900
6	392	2234	2971	3350	4132	4467
7	440	2517	3348	3775	4656	5034
8	475	2800	3724	4200	5180	5600
9	532.	3084	4101	4625	5705	6167
10	567	3367	4478	5050	6229	6734
11	624	3650	4855	5475	6753	7300
12	659	3934	5232	5900	7277	7867
13	716.	4217	5609	6325	7801	8434
14	751	4500	5985	6750	8325	9000
15	808	4784	6362	7175	8850	9567
per each additional member	57	284	377	425	525	567

Note: When determining eligibility for a pregnant woman, additional needs for her unborn child(ren) are included.

In other words, for your 10 yr old DD, you would take the amount your family earned in May, subtract the MNIL (first column) for the size family you have, and if her medical bills for May are bigger than that number, you qualify and the government will pay her bills.

But it doesn't work for grown-ups.

We don't qulaify for medicaid, or Chips, or anything. Cobra/Private health insurance, is $800 a month for the 3 of us. My sister does have insurance on the girlies, as required by law.
The only way We could qualify is if we had 35 kids.lol.
My oldest cannot qualify for anything either, hence the reasoni just forked over 3K for the OB, and hospital, she better NOT need a Csection, that's more $$.

But if your daughter's medical bill for the hospital is taken out of what you earned in May (just May, not the whole year), you probably will qualify.

Maybe, but probably not. They also go by your assets, money in the bank, boats, cars, Rv's etc. All of which we have.

I just rechecked the website. It says:

The resource limit is $2000, or $3000 if a family household member is disabled or age 60 or older. For all groups, the value of the family's home and personal property is exempt. TANF resource policies and procedures apply to poverty level children’s programs. In addition, for poverty level children’s programs, exempt the value of the family’s primary vehicle and apply the food stamp policy to remaining vehicles. For adult and children who are not poverty level, exempt $4650 of the fair market value of each of the family's vehicle(s) and count the remainder of the value toward the resource limit. For adult households that include two certified parents, exempt $15000 of the fair market value of one vehicle owned by the household and count the remainder of the value toward the resource limit.

Not sure what all that would come to in your case, but I'd at least try.

Wow Karen! I'm coming to you next time I have a medical bill! Great info!

LOL! That's for Texas, and it varies a bit state by state. Scott was unemployed for a while and we're now starting a business so we qualify. My older two are getting braces on medical cards. (It only covers that if it's a medical reason, and not just a cosmetic one. They both have bites so deep that their lower teeth cut into their upper gums when they bite.)

I am in the same boat as you and I think it is sinking quite rapidly. We tried to keep the Cobra insurance- ours was up to 1200 a month and we try to live on 1500 a month. Didn't leave much to live on so we had to finally drop it. My hubby now has medicare and a secondary insurance but I am without for at least 3 more years. I pray every day nothing happens to me- I was so glad hubby was insured when he had the heart attack. Our state sucks here at helping anyone out.