First thing in the morning I head to Dr. Hartings office for a blood draw, my count was 75,000 I was allowed to drop to 100mg daily of the Prednisone. Mom and I head out to summit to the access office for a 2:00 appointment, we get there and the waiting room is packed!!  Mom is like are you sure you want to be here?  Yeah lets check it out its not so bad!!!  LOL!!!!  At about 3:00 we get called in to the back.  The girl takes my vitals and we are waiting again!  We get a knock on the door and this is funny because its not the doctor its the guy from quality control or something like that he has a survey for us to fill out!!!! One of the questions is about how long you have waited, too funny!!!  Anyway we met the Dr who is not actually a Dr shes a nurse practitioner which OK with me too, I explained to her what I knew so far about my condition and gave her copies of my two latest blood tests.  I explained to her my situation with having no insurance and wanting to have a doctor to manage my health care.  She said great and that she could be that person for me.  At this point she took a look at my blood test results that I gave her and she told me she was concerned that my WBC count was too high.  She asked me to come back in a few days and have blood work done for her. She had said that if the WBC count got any higher she would want to admit me so she could have better observation.  We talked about the spleenectemy and she said that she too knew that was next in line to treat ITP, but I should talk to the Hematologist more about that.  She said that they worked with other hospitals in the area that would take uninsured patients on a sliding scale so if need be we could have surgery at one of those hospitals.  So we left at about 4:30 and we were on our way loaded with a whole new worry.

That night we decided to have a family meeting, consisting of myself, Steve, Mom, Dad, and Colleen.  Mom and I spent most of the time explaining to the rest of them what it is that is wrong with me, which really we were still not all that sure!!!  And then the decision of what should we do next and where should the priority lay, in the money or the treatment?  So we discussed the spleenectemy and how we would take care of Caley if I had to have surgery.  We also discussed again maybe going down to Stroger and getting treated there.  And of coarse the possibility of just going with the current doctors and figuring out how to pay for it later.  In the end we decided that the first thing to do would be to go to the DHS and apply for Medicaid.  So the next  morning mom and I went down to Melrose Park.  Now at this point I have been on high doses of Prednisone, which for those of you that don't know is a steroid.    The side effects had started my legs were feeling real heavy and I could not stand for long periods of time.  I waited in line at the DHS office for about 15 minutes feeling like I was going to die if I didn't get to sit down soon!!  Finally it was my turn and I told the women at the desk that I wanted to reapply for Medicaid she took my info and told me to have a seat.  It was pretty crowded there too so I thought oh boy we are in for a long haul!!!  I sat down and called Steve to chit chat and to let him know we just got there and sure enough my name was called!!  I went in saw my caseworker told her the jist of what was happening and she said no problem I will put you back on,  I also asked her about my hospitalization in December and she said that it could be back dated no problem!!!  Sweet!!  This is the best thing I have heard all year!!!!  I walked out and mom was like we are done already really????  And I was like yeah I cant believe it myself but we are done and I'm taking care of!!! 

I want to back up a bit and say when I was looking for other doctors for a second opinion I had many options.  Loris mom who those of you that know her know that she has a bleeding disorder herself, refereed me to her doctor at Loyola.  Also Lauren Wollenberg refereed me to her doctor at the University of Chicago.  I did a little research on my own of the Loyola doctors and I had found one that I liked and it said she specialized in ITP.  I was thankful for the recommendations of my friends but decided that I wanted to try and go with this doctor.  However when I called Loyola I decided that I just wanted them to get me in with the first Hematologist that I could see, because at this point I wasn't seeing any doctor at all.  I was told the last time I was at Dr. Hartings office that she couldn't continue to draw my blood anymore.  Obviously because they were absorbing all the cost for doing it for me and they did not want to continue doing it for free.  So i was told by the scheduler that she could get me in on Friday but I would have to go to Gotlieb Hospital, not sure how that's spelled, in Melrose Park.  I explained to her that would be OK if its just for the initial visit because this is a condition in which so far anyway I had been going three times a week.  She said let me email the doctors and I'll see if I can get you in sooner, Ill call you back.  OK in the meantime the next day I was to go to the Access office and have blood drawn there to see what my count was, and hope that she wasn't going to send me to the hospital.  I decided to follow up with her even though we had gotten the medical card and I decided I was going to go to Loyola, mostly just because I already had the appointment and I wanted to get a count.  I got a call back from Loyola telling me that Dr.Michaelis had an opening for me on the 21st.  Who would have thought the Dr that I researched and picked out had an opening for me!!!!!  While I had the scheduler on the phone I asked for a PCP so she found me one that works out of the Darien location and gave me an appointment with him on Wednesday morning.