Ok, so before I get to the few pictures I took of the blanket for this summer, it's story time/slightly political/slightly ranting:
Olivia has been on hormone therapy, which she was getting through Florida's Planned Parenthood. Florida also had a bill going through to ban minors from gaining access to hormone blockers, ect. First of all, Florida (aka Governor/Presidential Hopeful Ron DeSantis) is out here doing things like their Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Educators Act- which they call the 'Stop W.O.K.E' Act. Because, god forbid we're 'woke', and because Florida is all culture wars because DeSantis thinks thats what will make him president. God forbid we do something about the home insurance market- with insurance companies pulling out left and right, rates skyrocketing, and nobody doing anything. Or the cost of living/housing issue where things have gotten so expensive you'd be hard pressed to find a studio apartment for less than our mortgage. Whatever. But sure, go after Disney because they hated your 'Don't Say Gay' Bill like any decent human being would (also this WOKE Act is just a continuation of that one).
Anyway, so he signs this bill- in the middle of the night- as all legit bills are, and suddenly Olivia gets her follow-up/renewal appointment at Planned Parenthood canceled. Weird. She's not a minor, so we think we forgot to add in a billing something here or there- we are not connecting the dots. Eventually, we get ahold of Planned Parenthood. Buried in this bill, which is only supposed to affect minors (which is another story, but I'm hanging onto this point, because it's bullshit), is that fact that nurse practitioners can no longer prescribe the medication. And that's primarily what Planned Parenthood uses. At this point, Olivia only has about two weeks of her meds left.
So, we call around- we go to our Primary Doctor. He gives us the run around. Tells us to call places that also won't help us, and basically refuses to see Olivia or help her with her meds (So, side note to all this, we're on the lookout for a new Primary Care Physical, because no thank you.)So, we realize this is going to be harder than we think. Olivia now begins halfing her dosage to make her medicine last her even longer. No less than seven health care professionals we talk to, have next to no solutions and suggest Olivia leave the state. As if that's the solution, just move. Cool.
But good news, right then- Olivia was out of state, in Illinois, for the weekend for a gaming tournament. So, we go to Illinois's Planned Parenthood website. They say they're welcoming people from other states. We hope maybe we can get her meds while she's there. But, in the Illinois Planned Parenthood she is a new patient. And, she needs a blood test before they can prescribe anything else. Even if she could do that, and get the results in a couple days, appointment dates are only weeks out, surely due to the fact that many people are coming there from surrounding states that can no longer help them.
So, Olivia flies home after her gaming tournament without meds, or an appointment. We schedule her blood test right away, because we now know she'll need it no matter where she goes. Meanwhile, we've been to Ohio (when we went for Memorial Day) and explained the situation to everyone, and my cousin has offered up Pennsylvania as a solution. Olivia could use their address, and stay there. So, we make a Pennsylvania Planned Parenthood appointment that Olivia can attend virtually. It's still further out than she'd like, but better than nothing.
But meanwhile, this is taking a mental toll on everyone- Olivia especially. She doesn't like having to half her dose and ration pills, obviously. She's getting depressed, and more and more worried by the day. I try and assure her we will figure something out- but as much as we're trying, we're not getting much help from any health care professional in the state of Florida. Nobody wants to touch anything having to do with hormones because the law is vague, and nobody wants to get in trouble.
We are so lucky to have friends and family looking out for us. Everyone is trying to help. Eventually, we settle for the Pennsylvania appointment, but the blood test is taking forever to come in. She does her appointment but without the results, they will only give Olivia a two week refill. It's better than nothing. But, you can't just mail pills. So, Olivia is going to fly up to Pennsylvania to get them. Except, she's trying to wait on her blood test to get the full three month prescription. Her pills are running out, the full three months isn't in yet.
But, Planned Parenthood of Florida has just called. They think they have a workaround and are working on getting doctors on hand instead of nurse practitioners, and are looking to reschedule everyone who was displaced near the end of May with this terrible bill. Olivia finally has an appointment for July 7th in Florida. We have to drive to Orlando, but whatever. So, she heads up to Pennsylvania because she can get the two weeks to bridge the gap until her Florida appointment since her blood test results STILL aren't in.
And by heads up to Pennsylvania, I mean my cousin so very generously offered up her airline points to make a last minute flight there free. She offered up her house for as long as Olivia needed. It was one of the nicest, most generous things anyone has ever done for our family. Ray, Joanne, Max and Henry are really just amazing for everything they were doing.
So, Olivia gets up there. It's the end of June. She literally takes her last pill the morning she got on the plane to leave. Joanne had already picked up her two week supply at the pharmacy in Pennsylvania and Olivia was so relieved to know she'd have at least two weeks in hand by the evening.
She was intending to stay a couple of days, and hoping her blood test results came in before she headed home so she could get the full three months dosage. But if not, no big deal, she had that Florida appointment. Except, while she was up there, Florida Planned Parenthood had to cancel AGAIN. They hadn't gotten the work around they hoped for. We're not entirely sure what happened- could they not get enough doctors? Is there another reason they can't do it? It's unclear. But now we know, she needs to stay up there until she gets her full dosage, because who knows when she can get them here.
Luckily, it costs nothing to change her flight (over and over again, I think it total three times). Finally, her blood test comes in and Friday she goes to get her full dosage. The Pharmacy is having trouble though, which we will later figure out is because her billing address and home address (of PA) don't match. They do an override to give her a month of the meds.
After we figure out that it's the billing issue causing the hang up, they say they can fill the meds again Monday- because they can only do an override once per business day. Cool. We can get the meds- except her 21st Birthday is Sunday. She calls, and we all agree it's better to wait until Monday to get her full dosage than come home to be here for her birthday. Besides, there are worse places to spend your 21st birthday than with Joanne, Ray, Max, and Henry.
And so, that's the saga of how Olivia spent her 21st birthday in Pennsylvania and how she finally got her meds. I'll get to the birthday festivities blog later, for now, you get the week that she was gone.
But man, we really went through it. It was six plus weeks of very high stress, a lot of tears, and a lot of anger. You know Florida talks about how 'free' the state is. But, how does ANY of what I just wrote about feel like freedom to anyone? It's not. And God help us if DeSantis becomes president.
Joanne and Ray picked Olivia up from the airport late, but made sure to let us know she'd arrived safe and sound. Thanks to all of them for being so welcoming. Olivia had missed the Memorial Day trip to Cort and Holly's lakehouse, so she didn't get to see them like Asa, Calib and I did. It'd been years for her, so she was so excited to spend time with them.
Meanwhile, back here we were prepping for the 'hunkering down' part of summer. I like my town. I like living in Florida (for the most part, obviously politics aside), but let's also be real: July and August are just brutal. It's hot, it's swampy, it's unpredictable. So, to help us get through that part of the year, we build a blanket fort to hunker down in. The 'Epic Summer Blanket Fort' began years ago, over a decade in fact, and evolved over the years. It now contains an actual structural frame built out of PVC pipe. Though, this year I had to go get a new 10 foot pole because I'd borrowed another for things like Olympic games and such. Asa thought he was very funny at Lowes, by the way. (Also, what is with PVC prices these days? I almost bought another corner connector but they were nearly $3 a piece!!)
Anyway, we brought home the PVC and constructed the 2023 Blanket Fort. It isn't the best I've ever built, especially since somewhere along the way we had lost a bunch of safety pins, so I had to build it with a handful and some zip ties (I did order more and then fix it later, but it wasn't the same). I do appreciate the new edition of the giant king sized fuzzy blanket. It covers basically the whole floor with one blanket instead of needing multiple.
And per the usual, the first night we made it we had take out and ate in there. (It used to be a Burger King thing, until they built the Wendy's MUCH closer).
I did have a rough week with all of the stuff going on with Olivia, so Asa cheered me up with a trip to Whits- a newish ice cream place that moved in next to Publix.
We also ran errands, taking advantage of hoagiefest and grabbing some gifts from Total Wine and More along with Costco Liquor for our soon to be 21 year old (at this point we were still thinking she'd be back in time).
In happier news, my tall (like 12 feet tall) sunflower finally bloomed, and it was featured pretty prominently inbetween our houses. (I especially for some reason missed T'Ola here. I feel like she would have appreciated my contribution to the property line- even though she's not a plant person).
We were also gearing up for the Waterstraut Olympics- and I just so happened to see someone curb alert posting a bunch of old toys including a big bag of plastic ducks, and since they were also Blue Spring-ers, Hayden ran down and grabbed them for me.
And that's it for this blog, I didn't want to put all the drama in Olivia's birthday blog, so instead, I threw in this quick one. But to cleanse your pallet- here are some Waterstraut pet pictures!
Next up: Olivia turns 21!!
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