9:15pm – take the self Covid test I had received from Kaiser. It was positive.

9:30pm – call Kaiser “hey I tested positive, can I get some Paxlovid?” They tap tap tap on the compute and tell me a doctor will call me back.

11pm: I call back to their pharmacy. Yo! The nice lady says she sees the request but it hasn’t been approved yet. She’s gonna text someone.

11:15pm: I fall asleep. 3:30am: I wake up. No messages on my phone. ?!?! I call again. This person says I need to call for an appointment to talk to a doctor and that doc will prescribe the Paxlovid. “You can’t just call in for a medicine.” I say great. Can you transfer me? “No.”

3:45am. I call Appointments. Guy says next appointment is tomorrow at 9pm. But says if I go to the website I can have a doc call me back in 5 minutes. I ask, “you have a computer, you can’t book this through your computer?” No.

4am: I get to the computer. Book the appointment. Says someone will call me back in 5 minutes.

4:45am I tweet the madness because no one has called me back. I begin to see why they make so much in profit and why so many in LA are ill.

5am: I go back to the website. Request a video call. I get a wonderful Jamaican woman who says because I’ve had kidney stones I need a blood test to make sure I can even get Paxlovid. She is apologetic and wonderful. But I have to stay up for 3 hours to get the test bc even though I live near Kaiser’s flagship hospital, it’s not truly 24/7 and she tells me if I go in the afternoon, it may not get the results until late in the evening.