Stuff That Really 'Grinds My Gears...'

It was samesies for me. Have you been given the all clear now?

12 Likes

In terms of recovery from the surgery? Yeah, I had the last postop 2 weeks ago, and he was happy with the healing (though he said one side was a little slower, but I just chalked that up to being 42). I have another appointment in mid-Feb to check on how itā€™s going overall.

Weird effects so far, Iā€™m still doing nasal rinses twice a day, and for like an hour afterward, I keep getting stuff dripping out if I bend over at all, which is kind of a pain in the ass.

But the insurance stuff is giving me anxietyā€¦ I wish I lived in a civilized country where massive corporations didnā€™t fight you over every single little pennyā€¦ Our premiums have done nothing but go up for the past decade, and now when we actually needed it, they want to haggle (basically). Itā€™s insaneā€¦ I canā€™t imagine having to deal with this shit without the privileges we have in my familyā€¦

16 Likes

When I was a baby, until I was 2, we lived in a camper, the kind on the back of a pickup truck. My parents learned that I had figured out how to roll over, when I rolled all the way out the open door of the truck.

I imagine that this was a super stressful day, for my mother especially. No lasting harm was done, and everyone learned a little something that day. May yours eventually become a funny family story, as well.

15 Likes

I know everyone here already knows this, but the way it works with socialised medicine is: when you go to your pre-op at the hospital, they copy the info from your government-issued health card, ask some other contract info, andā€¦ thatā€™s it, unless thereā€™s some issue with your info.

You have to pay for drugs yourself. My total for the Tylenol 3s, antibiotics, and changes of bandages when I had my gall bladder out was less than $50.

I worked in a hospital when I was a student, and one of my tasks was to submit medical claims. Even back then we copied a submission file to diskette and mailed it to the ministry of health; nowadays everything is done over the net.

I know people complain about the service etc., but the billing part goes very smoothly. So smoothly I donā€™t think people realise.

13 Likes

It would be very interesting to hear more about that, if youā€™re willing to tell the story.

12 Likes

Oh, yeah. Here in the US people like to drag out anecdotes about how awful socialized medicine is. One story I heard (from a more or less liberal!) was about someone who had to wait a year to get a vasectomy, only to have another, unplanned kid in the interim. Gee, donā€™t they know what causes those things? But these anecdotes are just that. What about the 40 million in the US who have no insurance at all? This is why I went into government service; to get some decent health care.

16 Likes

Sign here. Initial here.
You now have a bond, as detailed in paragraph 4.

7 Likes

I think I dated that guy.

8 Likes

Uh huh. And again, I know Iā€™m preaching to the choir here, but Iā€™ve heard of people in the States having to have their totally elective, non-health-related surgeries rescheduled as well because their doctor was pulled into a critical surgery.

I even saw it worked into a TV show once ā€“ a character was annoyed her facelift was being delayed, and her surgeon curtly informed her it was because he had to reconstruct the faces of two teenagers who had been in a car accident.

The triage priorties, so Iā€™m told by people who have lived and worked in both countries, are very similar.

14 Likes

But donā€™t they realize that elective vasectomies are more important than diddly things like bladder cancer and blocked ureters?

11 Likes

jake-beautiful

I wish it worked so smoothly here. But it doesnā€™t.

12 Likes

The comparison discussing is always so fraught and so much about outliers to the normal process in both countries (not to mention all the other First World countries which also have socialised medicine). There have to be comparisons of unremarkable cases, but theyā€™re rare in the mass media, especially nowadays.

6 Likes

Almost 4 years later, and Iā€™m still doing it sometimes. Ask your doc about Xhance. It seems to help me.

4 Likes

Why do nasal rinses at all?

One of my doctors recommended a nasal rinse, shortly before my chronic illness started. I followed all the directions. I ended up with water sloshing in my ears for weeks afterwards. I know thatā€™s not supposed to happen unless people either ignore the directions or have common variations in our eustachian tubesā€¦

2 Likes

Agreedā€¦ if it bleeds, it leads is the order of the day in much journalism.

Because the doctor told me to do so. Itā€™s a saline rinse to help it heal up my nose post-surgery. Itā€™s mostly healed at this point, but now and again, Iā€™m seeing a bloody booger, so Iā€™m keeping it up a while longer. As far as I know, it hasnā€™t caused any issues in my eustachian tubes.

10 Likes

People like me need a way to get some of the crud or molds out due to malformation in bone structure. Every now and then it loosens a huge booger-berg that wouldnā€™t come out otherwise.

9 Likes

Hell, when my wife worked in clinics, some of the Doctors would call in at 9:00am (mind you, patient appointments started at 8:00) and say they were taking a vacation day.

Never mind, that patient incurred a $50 fee if they cancelled under 24-hours.

Side note - Physician owned and operated clinics are BAD.

8 Likes

Over reaction to possible snow?

@noahdjango, howā€™s the weather looking where you are? We just got rain and I think the tempature will drop the rest of the day, so weā€™ll get some freezing? Any snow where youā€™re atā€¦

7 Likes

just liquid rain, drizzling on and off .
still not really cold though.
the cold front is supposed to be on the other side of the rain clouds.

meh, even if it does freeze it doesnā€™t seem like the rate of precipitation is enough to do anything hazardous. but all the Superbowl tourist traffic is probably pretty horrible so anything to exacerbate road conditions is more of a threat than usual. and the precipitation rate could increase, but it really seems like itā€™ll stay weak given conditions 7am to now.

8 Likes

Email filter; email from harasser got through.

I wish I could block this person, but that tends to drag conversations with necessary info into my spam.

6 Likes