Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff

[Aria]

@auspice I actually really, really liked when I lived in an area with a grocery chain where the standard procedure was "load everyone's groceries into their car, period". The only exceptions were when they got super, super busy and then would prioritize the elderly, pregnant women, anyone who was obviously injured or disabled, and people who flat-out asked over, like..... my able-bodied college-age self, which was perfectly reasonable.

Most of those jobs were, in fact, those mythical entry-level minimum wage jobs held almost exclusively by teenagers looking to earn money and, frankly, I think it taught a lot of those kids empathy given that a big part of their job was gauging who needed help, when, and how much help they needed. And no one who needed help ever had to be embarrassed about it, because it didn't draw extra attention and you weren't being 'difficult' as a customer. It was just the standard. Everyone who shopped at Marsh's had their groceries loaded in their car for them.

[Auspice]

@aria

Publix (at least in South Carolina) still hires teenagers as baggers and they are trained to offer to carry bags to your car. And they do just that. They prioritize the elderly and those who are injured, disabled, etc.

After surgeries I had, it made life so much easier. Publix is also pretty great because they (at least did) contribute to college funds for their teenage employees. I had a roommate who worked there through HS and loved it.

[Macha]

@auspice I love this for horrible pain/fatigue days. Sadly, they've been out of two things I order constantly for like the last 6 weeks. Even worse, Walmart is the only place in my city that sells it.

[Arkandel]

https://www.vox.com/health-care/2018/12/18/18134825/emergency-room-bills-health-care-costs-america

[Ganymede]

@arkandel

[Paris]

@arkandel Yeah, I have several collection agencies on my ass about my emergency cancer surgery. Part of the cost was waived but I got hit with a susprise 10k fee. I am uninsurable in my state. There are a number of ambulance fees as well, at a few thousand each. My cancer fundraiser raised about 30k but was not able to cover those fees, too, as most of the costs went to covering my chemo.

So we get calls every single day about my medical debt, which means we screen all of our calls and only pick up on numbers we know: the latest thing now by collection agencies is to imitate in-state numbers to try to get you to pick up.

Oh, and emergency Medicaid used to cover my ER visits as an ongoing cancer patient, but since the change in presidential administrations, suddenly my case kept getting dropped and payments missed. Now I get to wear the 'indigent' armband and have the exact same conversation with the billing folks, and the main billing person in their office is so disgusted at how I've been treated (I have to go every few months) that they just wave me through or make sure I get discharged without having to do the outgoing rigamarole.

[Auspice]

Script ran out for two of my meds.
Can't juggle the time to go see my doc to get a new one.

Pharmacy claimed they had one of my meds in stock, but they didn't when I went to pick them up today.

Wheeeee.

One of the meds I need to re-up is my migraine meds. I had hoped to make it in to the doc by now because it isn't working right anymore, so I was kinda-sorta-okay with it running out, but now I'm kinda in panic-mode because "sorta" working is better than nothing at all.

Guess it's time to squeeze in a virtual doc visit this week so I can get something until I can find the time for an actual office visit.

[Arkandel]

Having critters is fun but godfuckingdammit lint-rolling my clothes every damn day because everything I own is covered in shed hairs is getting old. I bought a new winter jacket a couple of weeks ago, went home, hanged it... came back to it the next morning and wouldn't you know it, there's dog hair everywhere on it.

I'm at the point where I'm picky about entire kinds of fabrics when I buy clothes based on how they rate in terms of fur stickiness.

<fistshake>

[JinShei]

@arkandel and colour. My old dog was black but this pup is white, and now all my black clothes are black with fluff...

[Paris]

Yeah, I had to get a light brown service dog while most of my clothes are black.

[Arkandel]

I just don't understand how hair gets everywhere, even on clothes kept away from the furry bastards.

Do they weaponize it? Is it shot like projectiles up across the room? Do they do this on purpose?

[Tinuviel]

@arkandel said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Do they weaponize it? Is it shot like projectiles up across the room? Do they do this on purpose?

Yes to all three. Also laundry baskets are apparently the perfect place to exist for anything with fur that is smaller than I am.

[JinShei]

@arkandel One of my friends who hadn't visited us for a year went on holiday to Sydney. She discovered her clothes had my dog's hair on them whilst there. It gets everywhere. Admittedly, he was known as Gufnork due to his hair...

[TNP]

@arkandel said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I just don't understand how hair gets everywhere, even on clothes kept away from the furry bastards.

There is cat hair in my freezer. How? I don't know. I'm not petting them while the freezer is open. And yet, it's there. Likely osmosis.

[Paris]

Several of us here have Ehlers-Danlos, iirc, and you may want to take note. I WAS prescribed Cipro a few years ago and experienced EXTREME pain in my tendons and I suspect it might have been behind the rupture of my tumor. My then-doctor dismissed my concerns after I brought up a study that connected Cipro with tendon ruptures.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-warns-some-antibiotics-can-cause-serious-heart-damage-n950606

(Edit: Yes, I have multiple co-morbid conditions. They are all mostly caused by an extremely faulty endocrine system.)

[RnMissionRun]

Hamper kitteh!

[Aria]

Protip: i do not recommend putting out a firr by carrying iy to the sink with your bsre hands. Hurray, drugs?

[Sunny]

@aria

Sigh.

[Aria]

@sunny It was spreading fast and we had nopthing to put it out. Sp do the stupid painful thinh v. let my friend"s house catvh fire. At least i get to mock the Gryffindors about why the slytherin was the recklessly brave one.

[Wretched]

@aria slow clap

During my holidays, i have dislocated my knee! Storytime.

So i decided that I needed to clean a gecko tank, so, I scrub it down in the bathroom, and clean all the fixtures and get it mostly done, and then i turn to leave the bathroom when i feel it.

It's a hard feeling to describe, when a joint does things it's not supposed to do. There's a grinding feeling and a sort of nasty 'decoupling' sensation that part of my brain recording in exquisite detail while the rest of me was flooded with pain and i screamed something incredibly loud and high pitched.

During that time I must have teleported because i was then on the floor, and feeling my kneecap re-couple and pop back into place. That was another scream.

Now because i was cleaning the tank the shower was on, so my Mother in Law was afraid to come in the bedroom area, because i guess she thought i was naked or something. But eventually she did peek in to see me crawling on the floor towards my bed like some sort of boot camp exercise, so I could prop myself up.

At first i could kinda gingerly walk on it, and despite my earlier detailed descriptions, at the time I wasn't 100% on what happened, but managed to hobble about, turn things off and fish out an old cane from my closet. But this cane was poorly made and made of plastic, and as the night went on, i could put less and less pressure on said injured knee, and it became clear this cane would not suffice.

So I waited until my wife got home (little after 1 am, we are a late night household) and we went to the ER where they gave me Xrays (that showed nothing but possibly minor arthritis (so lets add that to the future worry list)), a knee immobilizer, crutches, an appointment to see a sports medicine doctor, and some Norco.

See Doctor next day and he tells me not to wear immobilizer and get an MRI.

Few days pass, Get MRI.

Nearly a week passes with me hobbling around on crutches before Doctor gets back to me (yay Xmas season) . MRI confirms Dislocated Knee and torn ligaments, and now i have a fancy knee brace with this gel-like horseshoe insert that hold my patella in place. It's actually pretty rad, I can kinda walk unassisted with it and the pain is almost gone, which is good, because the norco is too.