Things To Have On Hand During A Severe Prolonged Medical Crisis
* Flickering images.
Movies and shows have always been treasured as a story form, but they're more. They're company. They're comfort. They're a tiny itty bitty distraction. They help fill time, horrible time, when you don't know how to get through the agony of the next hour, let alone the day. Woe be they who didn't have dvd box sets.
* A computer and the net
Sure, you need them all the time. But the active and passive levels of interactivity are more sweet than ever. Especially with a dvd player and / or lots of streaming content.
* Cash. Buckets and Buckets of it.
Sure you can't work, but more importantly you need medications to, you know, not die. Or die with less screaming. Blue Cross will refuse to play for any of it, because, obviously, they are not the ones dying, and, come on, there's no profit in your survival. It's much cheaper for them if you just hurry up and shuffle off the mortal coil.
I paid for the damn insurance, but the prescription meds they refuse to cover now cost more _per month_ than was my income _for an entire year_.
And before you feel bad for them, please remember I'm a writer and artist. In the small press. My yearly income is less money than one of their employees would bother to pick up off the ground. Or a desk. My point is, it's so nothing to them, but it's quite dear to me.
* A good pharmacist.
You will spend so much more time than you ever wanted with medical people of all sorts, and you can't pick most of them. You have choice in your pharm though, and use it. Mine is brilliant, informed, sympathetic, free and patient with her time, and remembers my name and prescriptions without checking the computer. I rather think she could have been a great doctor, but I'm glad to have her in any form.
* Someone who will do laundry, and dishes, and convince you to eat things. Things they have to cook, because you are too weak to even pick up a fork.
You care, vaguely, now and then, that the house looks and smells like a dumpster, but doing something about it is beyond you. You don't even have the strength to shower, and the effort to brush your hair makes you shake and ache and cry.
* Someone who can see you pretty much constantly coated in snot, tears, blood, and vomit, and still hug you fiercely, and insist they love you.
Making a half-assed attempt at cleaning, and a good attempt at cooking, have been awesome, sure, but, even exhausted with worry, I think my Spousal Unit has really shone in those hugging and support skills. I have a better partner than I deserve, and I know it. I am extra damned grateful for that.
Movies and shows have always been treasured as a story form, but they're more. They're company. They're comfort. They're a tiny itty bitty distraction. They help fill time, horrible time, when you don't know how to get through the agony of the next hour, let alone the day. Woe be they who didn't have dvd box sets.
* A computer and the net
Sure, you need them all the time. But the active and passive levels of interactivity are more sweet than ever. Especially with a dvd player and / or lots of streaming content.
* Cash. Buckets and Buckets of it.
Sure you can't work, but more importantly you need medications to, you know, not die. Or die with less screaming. Blue Cross will refuse to play for any of it, because, obviously, they are not the ones dying, and, come on, there's no profit in your survival. It's much cheaper for them if you just hurry up and shuffle off the mortal coil.
I paid for the damn insurance, but the prescription meds they refuse to cover now cost more _per month_ than was my income _for an entire year_.
And before you feel bad for them, please remember I'm a writer and artist. In the small press. My yearly income is less money than one of their employees would bother to pick up off the ground. Or a desk. My point is, it's so nothing to them, but it's quite dear to me.
* A good pharmacist.
You will spend so much more time than you ever wanted with medical people of all sorts, and you can't pick most of them. You have choice in your pharm though, and use it. Mine is brilliant, informed, sympathetic, free and patient with her time, and remembers my name and prescriptions without checking the computer. I rather think she could have been a great doctor, but I'm glad to have her in any form.
* Someone who will do laundry, and dishes, and convince you to eat things. Things they have to cook, because you are too weak to even pick up a fork.
You care, vaguely, now and then, that the house looks and smells like a dumpster, but doing something about it is beyond you. You don't even have the strength to shower, and the effort to brush your hair makes you shake and ache and cry.
* Someone who can see you pretty much constantly coated in snot, tears, blood, and vomit, and still hug you fiercely, and insist they love you.
Making a half-assed attempt at cleaning, and a good attempt at cooking, have been awesome, sure, but, even exhausted with worry, I think my Spousal Unit has really shone in those hugging and support skills. I have a better partner than I deserve, and I know it. I am extra damned grateful for that.
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