HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Asshole surgery!

But, uh...if it works...that is, if it makes you less of an asshole...

...don't tell Aims. I'm scared of surgery, too.

My aunt's late estranged husband (they never divorced but she left him) had MS (not why she left him but that turned out to be a good thing because the state considered him an abandoned spouse and desititue), diabetes, bipolar disoder, anxiety disoder and something else.

He was in nursing homes for a long time. He was bedridden for a very long time and he would get bed sores. Medicaid or Medicare or the nursing home (this has been a few years I'm hazy on the details) would only authorise the use of a special air mattress when he had bed sores. Once they healed, he was back to the regular mattress.

The staff would leave the air mattress propped on the wall in his room where he could see it.

Let that sink in. My aunt had to yell at them numerous times to stop doing that.

His pain levels were intense and no one would give him pain medication for fear he would get addicted. Which at that point drug addiction was pretty much a fucking kindness. And then he lost his fine motor control but could still swallow so his medication was in pills and tablets. And even though the staff knew he couldn't move his hand to his mouth and put the pills in his mouth they would insist on doing that. At times even refusing to put the pills in his mouth for him.

At one point my aunt found a better nursing home, one that he was willing to move to and htey were making arrangments because the place hadn't opened yet. Until it got to his pain management. Once the nursing home realized the kind of pain meds he was dealing with they told my aunt they didn't have a contract with a doctor who could handle that and they wouldn't take him in.

So he stayed in the shithole place because the new nicer nursing home was too afraid to deal with him.

Hell, the psychiatrist I just dumped made ME feel like a drug seeker because I wanted 1) not go off lithium as soon as he wanted and 2) I wanted to get a prescription sleep medication.

I won't be seeing him anymore. But he is very anti medication. His stupid idea was I'd see a therapist weekly for 1-2 months and that would give me enough coping skills to start pulling me off meds. My therapist said that was not realistic. I've been seeing her since this summer and I'm just now feelign comfortable enough to really dig into therapy and healing.

I wasn't even askign for long term sleeping aid, I was asking for maybe a month's supply to get my sleep regulated but he told me to take Benadryl.

So doctors can suck and medical professionals can get burned out. Adn there's not enough of certaint types, and I wish there were so when someone starts getting callous and stops seeing patients as people there could be rules that say. Okay you get a compassionate time out. Go do something else away from patient care and come back in X amount of time adn we'll see if you still are fit to work with living beings.

Kathy!!!! We've really missed you.

Our Puritan ancestors have a lot to answer for.

If suffering was noble, hospitals would be places of holy pilgrimage.

Timelies all!

{{{{{Buffistas}}}}}

(Sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I don't have anything else to contribute here.)

Jesus it's so great to see you all. Hi, Kathy! I have wondered aloud where you'd gone and how you were.

ita would be so chuffed and now I am going to go off and cry some more.

Yay Kathy, hi!!!

And what everyone else said about the sad saga of lack of sufficient painkiller. I empathize and would certainly support any donation to an appropriate organization or whatnot, but also, it would be kind of ...rude? Unethical? Something? To give out her information without her permission, does that make sense? I don't know if she'd want more than general details given out, to a doctor or an article or whoever, and I don't feel they are our details to give.

Good news of the day: the Sacramento airport found my drivers license and I paid fedex $10 to make a label and should get it back on Monday!!

Hi, Kathy!

Glad you got your license back, meara.

Don't get me started on nursing homes. goddammit I don't fear becoming an old lady whom no one ever visits, I fear being left with incompetent uncaring healthcare workers.

I have gotten no work done today. I guess I should feel bad about it, but I don't.

So... can I talk about my dinner yet? It was fucking delicious, salmon and quinoa, but the salmon was $5 PER PIECE. I think the frozen was vaguely cheaper, but I wanted it for tonight. I'm not sure what to do about this fact in my life. Cooking at home is supposed to be cheaper than eating out.

Just got home.

Quick update on my life over the past 2 1/2 years (omg, really???):

Went to the UK in the summer of 2012 for my first trip abroad. Had a great time.

Went to Ireland with my whole family (mom, sibs, and sibs in law) in September of last year. Also had a great time.

Dad had a stroke in March but is doing ok, if still not a lot of motor function in his right hand, which isn't helped by the fact he needs to get his right shoulder replaced, which is happening in a few weeks. My stepmom has leukemia and is going through bad days and okay days with that.

Oh, and I finally earned my MLIS, so I am a fully functional librarian as of a few weeks ago!! Still at my company I have been with for 22 years, though--they've gotten me to stick around by making me a co-project leader on something that I am the only one in the entire company who knows everything about it, except for my boss's boss who doesn't have the time for the project. I figure I will stay here until the end of the year and then start looking to see if I can get anywhere near my current salary at a public library. Probably not, but at least I can move up in that environment, as opposed to my current place.