It's because I've been sufferring from a toothache that entire time and have been in too much pain to concentrate on writing. I've still miraculously went to work each day - except one where we considered going to the emergency room as the facial swelling was begining to grow. So here I am you're elephant-man blogger.
I am NOT an Animal.
Fortunately, the pain and swelling began to calm down by the next morning so putting up with UC-HELL-A Medical Center for 20+ hours was avoided. I have to say it was a very intereseting process. Friends - wait let me put that in quotes - "Friends" offered me all sorts of interesting drugs (Codine, Vicodin, Ambien) in mid-request for asking me to do some annoying website crap for them - for free of course - which couldn't possibly be post-poned until I didn't feel like my head was going to explode, NO.... it had to be now - right now. Fuckerheads.
Although the pain was bad, real bad - some have said it's as bad as childbirth - I've felt worse. A couple years ago I got undercut during a pick-up B-Ball game and dumped on the back of my neck. For a few seconds my limbs went numb and I serious thought I might have a spinal injury, but eventually the feeling returned and I descovered that what I did have was a bruised rib. Now That was fucking painful. I couldn't even crawl.
This time when my mom saw me sprawled on the bed she thought I was passed out from drinking (which hasn't happened, well shit - EVER!) until she saw my face, then she offered up some southern witches brew to fix my ills.
Just touch this on the bad tooth with a Q-Tip, it'll stop the pain for a week - but DON'T SWALLOW IT - it's poison.Uh.. how about I don't. She just couldn't understand why I just didn't want to take the quickest possible shortcut (with the biggest possible risk attached) to minimizing the pain. Hmmm... gee, I wonder why...
Well, because our country is practically destroying itself with that kind of crap and I'd rather not be apart of it. Although I may drink one, sometimes two beers a night to relax (and have a strict NO PUKING and HANG-OVERS Rule) - I've never, never taken an illegal or even prescription drug without a doctor specific consent in my life. Weed? Never, not one toke. Didn't inhale, didn't swallow, didn't spit. Nada. I don't smoke anything. I'll gladly stick with 800 miligrams of Tylenol, an Ice Pack and gargling a little Brandy over the bad tooth. It's worked for me before, it'll work for me again.
And it did this time too.
I will admit that I did give in to one suggestion from my mom, which was to rub this mysterious green minty stuff on my face over the swollen area. I've used it before so I wasn't too worried, and the effects were minimal except for the fact that it apparently opened up my pores and when I re-applied the ice pack it spread a chill thru-out my bloodstream that had me shivering uncontrollably for about 45 mins. I practically looked like I was having a seizure, and having your teeth chatter when you have a tooth ache is definately a bad thing. And they all wonder why I say "NO" to their lame use-a-pill-to-solve-everything B.S.? Cuz it's BS - the number one thing that will help you heal is the belief that you can heal! Any doctor will tell you that a positive attitude is paramount.
So I survived. Yay for our team.
Last year my wife had a toothache and her choice was to go to UC-HELL-A Med Center. We spent nearly 22 hours in their freezing cold emergency room, during which - I caught the flu - and afterwhich they prescribed anti-biotics which we couldn't get until the next day because the pharmacy was closed at 3am. The entire experience was worse than the tooth-ache itself, for both of us and I really didn't want to put anyone else through that torment, particularly when they probably wouldn't actually get anything helpful to me before the infection began to subside on it's own. But that's just me.
I've discussed some of our other uninsured adventures in my comment on the Dkos post by Micheal Moore for his new film SiCKO.
[Since the dot-com crash and 9-11] We've been living in my mom's house for the last three years, still without healthcare. I'm working part-time doing graphics design. While we've been here we grown to long for the tender mercies of UCD. Last year my wife developed a bladder infection that went into her kidneys and nearly killed her. We spent somewhere around 20 hours waiting for her to seen in the UCLA Med Center Emergency Room. While there we met others in similar circumstances, one in particular was a vender at Dodger Stadium who'd fallen down that stairs at work and injured his knee. Although he like us, we working - he didn't have healthcare either. His job was to walk up and down those stairs, but his knee was now injured. We all waited together, the hours passing - him rocking back and forth worried about if he'd miss any work and wind up being fired.
My step-son Nate, who is an adult, stayed in Sacramento and got a job working retail while continuing college. He met a nice girl at work, Lesli and moved in. She had planned to become a nurse, then she too became ill. In her case it was M.S., and now she like us has entered the world of on-again off-again care. Although she's had better luck accessing her disability benefits than my wife has, she's still recently had her wheel-chair repossesed when the county simply decided they didn't want to cover it anymore.
Although I do find sparring with my little hecklers to be a bit entertaining, it's not the most important thing in my life. However, I will point out that since keeping this blog up to date does require time, effort and energy from the rest of my life I'm going to tell you guys, as well as my afformentioned "friends" that this shit isn't a charity.
For those who actually appreacite what I've got to say, or simply appreciate being able to bitch at me - I'm setting up a paypal donate button.
I don't expect much, being able to keep my live365 station free to all listeners and occasional busfare down to UC-HELL-A Med wouldn't hurt every once in awhile when we get real - real - desperate. Also with the passage of Molly Ivins and Steve Gilliard (who was one year my junior) there is the stark reality that I won't always be here and an emergency method to get funds to my family under the worst case scenario is simply a neccessity.
There's will also be a donate button for Nate and Lesli, for those who really don't like the idea of people with MS having their wheelchair repossesed. Myself, I don't dig it.
Vyan
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