Tag: healthcare

I Hate When it Hits Home

I saw a headline this morning that pissed me off and scared the crap out of me, but I haven’t been able to verify it yet (and I almost don’t want to even try, in the spirit of burying my head in the sand). It said that trump mentioned including pharmaceuticals in his tariff bullshit.

That’s scary shit. Where is my step son’s insulin manufactured? Where is the company that manufactures it based? Is the already insultingly high price of insulin about to go up? Is it manufactured in china? Will the price go up 104%?

Like I said, I have not verified this report yet. I tried looking online for about four seconds and then stopped. Think of it as a no-news-is-good-news kinda thing, you know?

Further thoughts on being in the spirit of hiding ones head in the sand, I feel like I have less and less to say on the interwebs these days. I feel like the state of the world is just making me draw more and more inward. The collapse of american democracy is getting me in touch with my inner introvert. That’s my natural state, I think. Despite being a ridiculous online over-sharer over the last 25+ years or so, the real me is someone who clams up and doesn’t speak unless spoken to. I feel that I am losing the fight to not be that way all the time. Social media used to be my personal revolution (this is getting way too dramatic), but facebook and twitter and instagram and threads are all dead to me now. Flickr is a social media site at its core, but I don’t use it in that sense very much. I still use bluesky, but with each passing day I find I have less and less to say. I’ve been using Flashes as an instagram alternative, but that app is literally just bluesky with a filter to only show posts with images.

This isn’t a censorship thing. I’m not afraid to speak out. trump is a fucking fascist who needs to rot in prison for the rest of his miserable, evil life. See? I am not afraid to say what needs to be said. I just don’t feel much of an urge to speak up anymore. It’s not even that… it’s more like I will speak out when I have something to say… I just don’t often feel like I have anything to say. I don’t know. I will say it’s one of the reasons I am considering canning this blog and all of the social media things I still use. If my country doesn’t give a fuck about me anymore, why would I waste the effort acting like I give a fuck about it in return? I do, and I will do what needs to be done… I think I am just tired.

Jen and I have been watching a show that is set in Australia. Maybe I’m just jealous of people who live in countries that aren’t actively eating themselves. I don’t know.

Boy… this is a depressing post, eh? Sorry. There will be cat photos at some point today. I promise.

PS: I am turning comments off. I’m not interested in comments on this one. I’m not sorry.

Starting to Get Nervous

The nervousness is creeping up on me.

No details will be forthcoming, but we have an appointment with my father’s doctor today. It will be Dad, the doctor, my brother, my sister, and me. There is a potential for some difficult conversation about my father’s care going forward. There isn’t anything wrong right now, but it’s just day to day stuff that might need to be adjusted, and those adjustments might lead to some tough talk.

The appointment is about 2.5 hours from now. I have some errands to run (I might share the source of those later because it’s a “funny” story) and then I have to go and pick up my dad.

Stay calm, Robert. It will be okay.

Where Were You?

Where were you when the supreme court of the republican fascist states of america removed a basic healthcare right from half of the citizens of this shit hole of a country?

I was in my daily stand up meeting with my group at work. We were talking about reproducing a customer’s issue in a complicated setup situation. Jen sent me a text and let me know.

I would like to thank my democratic party for working so diligently to add justices to the supreme court so that this would not happen. Sitting there with your heads up your asses doing nothing at all is very hard work, I am sure.

I am really fucking sick of being embarrassed by this shit hole country.

Moved

My mother was moved from the hospital to a new facility today. This is what we’ve been waiting and hoping and crossing our fingers for.

My brother and sister are there with her. I’m stuck here working and feeling guilty that I am not there.

I sent a text saying that I was afraid to ask for an update on how things are going.

My brother wrote back, not well.

ShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShit.

Progress

Remember that little thing I posted yesterday about crossing your fingers and hoping for good news on my mother’s healthcare front?

It may have worked. Thanks for your help.

We should know for sure early this afternoon, but it looks like there was actual progress made. I am not going to let myself feel relieved at all until it actually happens, but for now…

PleasePleasePleasePleasePlease.

My fingers are still crossed.

Cross Your Fingers

Everyone cross your fingers.

We may have a positive development on my mother’s healthcare front.

PleasePleasePleasePleasePlease.

I know I have said this a couple of times already but this one feels closer than the previous false alarms.

Fingers Eternally Crossed.

PleasePleasePleasePleasePlease.

Over-sharer Fail

What’s a clinical over-sharer to do?

I have four things going on that the clinical over-sharer in me wants to talk about but I can’t. Well… I can, but I just don’t want to… even though I want to. Ugh.

Three of the four things are related to being a home owner. The fourth is a personal healthcare thing. One of the home things is pretty huge, another is kind of huge but dependent on the first thing and after the first thing is squared away there are two other things that have to happen before we get to it… confused? Me too. The third is pretty minor but still nice. The healthcare thing has the potential to become utterly gigantic, in a really positive way, but at the moment is just a teeny tiny thing.

The huge thing will never be discussed directly, the big thing will be, but not until it happens and maybe not until after it happens. The small thing probably won’t be, but in oversharing other things you might get a clue. The healthcare thing is probably going to be discussed in excruciating detail, but not until the process advances quite a bit further than the baby step I’ve taken thus far.

I want to talk about all of it! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

On a completely unrelated and unimportant note, I just asked a HomePod to play a specific podcast episode and it worked. Nice! Hey Siri, play the newest episode of The Walking Dead ‘Cast. It worked!

Artificial Disk Replacement Surgery

Jack Eichel was traded from the Buffalo Sabers to the Vegas Golden Knights today. The reason for the trade had nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with healthcare.

Eichel needs surgery. He has a herniated disk. He wanted to undergo a procedure that had never been performed on an NHL player. The team wanted him to have a more common procedure. I have to imagine that conflicts like this are probably common. The team doctors want to do X and the player’s personal doctor wants to do Y. In this case the two sides refused to budge and it lead to a stalemate where Eichel didn’t get either procedure and the team traded him to get rid of him.

It all seems dumb to me, but what really surprises me is that based on the collective bargaining agreement, the team is 100% in the right. Now I understand that the team has millions of dollars invested in the player and all of that, but try to look at this from your own healthcare perspective. Imagine you have a condition that requires surgery. You and your doctor come up with a plan of action, and your employer says no and tells you that you have to do something different. Now imagine that you signed a contract that gives the employer that right.

Wow. I mean… wow. Do the other pro sports leagues have this right too? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.

Jinx Part Two

Remember a couple of posts back where I said I was suddenly a jinx at work? Oddly enough, the word jinx came up again in a totally unrelated topic today.

I am actually afraid to mention it out of fear of actually jinxing it myself because irony is dead.

We have something in the works for my parents’ healthcare situation. We got some info today that if it happens would be a gift from the healthcare gods, but the person relaying the info actually said that they didn’t want to jinx it.

Holy shit snacks, please don’t let this be jinxed.

Please let the superstitious jinxing be localized to that one issue at work.

Pretty please.

Oh, and did I mention that Lizardfish covers Stevie Wonder’s Superstition? Is that enough to keep all superstitious coincidences at bay for a few decades? That’d be nice, m’kay.