The TennCare Diaries

by Amber Gilley



. . . a chronic illness? Could you make it?”

This is a question Amanda Edmundson would like to ask Governor Phil Bredesen. Amanda is a twenty-eight year old, single mother of one, and a student at Chattanooga State Community College. Amanda has Type-One Juvenile Diabetes and is on an insulin pump twenty-four hours a day. A little easier than the four shots a day she had to inject into various spots on her body, along with the four pricks to her fingers a day to test her blood sugar. When I asked her what she was concerned about with the proposed TennCare cuts, such as the four med limit, she replied, “How will I afford the prescriptions that will not be covered?” Amanda receives six prescriptions a month, adding up to $2000.00 per month. How could a single mother ever be able to afford this? Especially along with her many doctor visits. Is there an insurance company that will cover her?

At twenty-one, assuming she was coming down with the flu, Amanda called her family doctor for an appointment yet could not be seen until the following week. By the next day, lying on the cushions of her living room couch, a gallon of water next to her to quench her everlasting thirst, and no energy to get up for work or school, she figured she better not wait. Luckily, a good friend of hers was able to get Amanda an appointment with a different doctor, who informed her that if she had waited, she would have gone into a diabetic coma, at which time she was told to call her family, then she was admitted to ICU.

As I pointed out, Amanda is a single mother. She has one child and his name is Damon. Amanda was twenty-five years old when she found out she was pregnant, which was four years after diabetes was introduced into her life. And because of the harm it can cause your body to carry a child while living with type-one diabetes, doctors strongly recommend their patients not get pregnant. Yet, in Amanda’s eyes, there was no other choice but to have the baby and she is still very proud of her decision today, even though Damon was born with two holes in his heart, and Amanda was homebound for the first two years of Damon’s life. Damon has also had surgery to reform his skull. Their lives existed of long stays in the hospitals and exhausting waits in the emergency room. These are just three of the major surgeries Damon has undergone, and combined with Amanda’s own health issues, are all reasons Amanda and Damon need and depend on TennCare.

When I asked Amanda what she would do if she were cut off of TennCare her answer was this: “I would be on Governor Phil Bredesen’s front door step.” Amanda’s schedule is something to this effect: 4:00 a.m. – get up, 4:30 a.m. – drop Damon off at her mother’s house, 5:30 a.m. – be at Erlanger Hospital as part of her nursing program, by 4:00 p.m. – pick up Damon at Siskin Hospital where he attends school, and the rest of the time is spent cooking suppers, spending quality time with her son, getting her schoolwork one, taking care of both their health needs and let's not forget about sleeping. “Come live in my shoes for just one day, Governor Phil Bredesen.” Amanda wonders about the state's chief executive. “If you had a chronic illness, could you make it?”