The good, the bad, and the ugly

It's been a busy week since last Monday.
The Good: Elliott went to court Tuesday. His lawyer tried to get the cop to drop the charges, but the cop refused. Officer Friendly said "Karma's a bitch". Hope his karma doesn't come back and bite him on the butt! Anyway, the charges were lessened to reckless driving. He (we) paid a fine and court costs and he got 5 points on his license. After 2 months, he can go back to court and have the DUI expunged. After a year, the reckless driving can be expunged. He still has to finish the DUI classes (something I think he should do). He can apply to get his license back after he finishes the class. I can cross this disaster off of my list.
The Bad: On the same day that Elliott went to court, Catie went for an ultrasound. She has a large cyst on her right ovary. She is not to even think about getting pregnant this cycle. She's devastated, frustrated, angry, etc.She's on mega doses of hormones to kill the cyst (and anything else her ovaries might be holding. I would do anything to help her get through this. It just hurts my heart to see her unhappy.
The Ugly: OK, here goes my health care rant again! Three weeks ago, I called my primary care physician (PCP) to get prior authorization called to my insurance company to approve the refill of a prescription. Last year, it took 6 months, yes, 6 MONTHS, to get this done! Today, I called the insurance company to find out if they had received the prior auth. Nope! I called my PCP's office. This is the third time I have called about this prescription. I went on a rant! I explained to whoever it was that I talked to (she did not indicate that she was a nurse, receptionist, lab person......whatever) that authorizations are not that hard to do. They aren't rocket science. They can be completed in about a minute. I know because I used to do them! All an authorization takes is a phone call or a fax. I completed my rant by saying that most patients are not non compliant, they just get tired of the hassle and give up! She said that she'd do what she could. I asked if that meant that the auth would take six months like last year. She said she hoped not. I further asked if it would take six weeks like the hassle I had with the Celebrex prescription (I had to find out which tier drugs my insurance would cover, give the info to the PCP office, and wait for the prescription to be called in. This was after four weeks of hassling over the celebrex!). She said she didn't think so. Lo and behold, the authorizations were in place when I went to pick up my prescriptions 4 1/2 hours later! Why are patients expected to put up with this kind of hassle? What happens to patients who do not understand what is expected of them? How do the elderly manage to slog through this quagmire that we call health care? I hate to resort to ugly temper fits to get something done that should have been taken care of weeks ago, but it seems that it's the only way to get things done anymore. Sad.......