Healthy Lessons to Learn

A year ago, when I sat down to write about my five-year-old daughter’s hospitalization, I had no idea it would lead me to testifying at a hearing in Sacramento before a California State Senate subcommittee on Health and Social Services.

I also didn’t know how it would feel to publicly stand up for a cause I believed in – but I was about to find out.

With my two children at my side, as a grateful mother of Medi-Cal recipients and as someone who believes in health care coverage for all children, I shared our story with the senators:

This is my son Dane, and this is my daughter Aubrey. They’ve both been on Medi-Cal while my husband, their dad, attends dental school full time at University of the Pacific in San Francisco and we work hard to make ends meet.

Until last Spring we gratefully used Medi-Cal for the basics: physicals, vaccinations, minor illnesses. But last March, Aubrey came down with a mysterious illness: a 104 degree fever, vomiting, and pain in her side. Two trips to the Emergency Room led her to treatment for a kidney infection. However, when her symptoms were uncontrollable, not responding to antibiotics and fever reducers, doctors admitted her to the pediatric ward, fearing she might also have appendicitis. Many needles, ultrasounds, urine samples, and a CaT scan later, doctors were finally able to make a full and thorough diagnosis – and provide a treatment plan that worked.

Thinking of Aubrey, though, with that shunt and I.V. looming large in her little arm, thinking of her pale and exhausted after days of fever and pain and uncertainty, what makes me most disheartened is thinking of not having Medi-Cal.

It’s thinking of having to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table, and whether we could afford medical care. Thanks to Medi-Cal, I didn’t hesitate to seek medical attention as soon as I knew something was wrong – so Aubrey was able to get the most effective care before her condition worsened or became more expensive to treat. I am so, so grateful for that.

Shouldn’t it be that way for every child?

When I finished, I thanked the senators and left the platform, with my kids skipping ahead of me as if they accompanied me to senate hearings every day.

And that’s when I identified what were perhaps the real lessons of testifying: we had all felt the power of trying to make a difference – of how, now, not only was it normal to us for a regular person to talk to the rule-makers, but it was normal to see a mom speaking up on behalf of her children, and, ultimately, on behalf of all kids.

Some healthy lessons to learn.