Hey Everyone!
Frigid (for here anyway) temperatures began yesterday afternoon, with calls for snow and freezing rain beginning around the time I was supposed to get to work.
Inclement weather wasn't called for the company I work for until 11am... like what in the name of all that is good? Like seriously, not all of us live within a mile of the store. Some of us who work there live further away than I do. I know of one of the department managers lives in Salem, someone else I know lives in Newberg. Very few live within a short distance from where they work.
It's not so much the snow that gets me. It's the ice. The ice will get you every time. We are also not equipped to handle this kind of weather all winter, every winter.
Even though inclement weather wasn't called until half way through my scheduled shift, I called out. I wasn't about to drive 12 - 14 miles (depending on which route I took) one way to get to work, to then be stressing out about getting home with the ice, and other drivers who are not used to driving on a skating rink either. I called out this morning to play it safe and be one less person on the roads. I work at a grocery store. It will go on without me for one extra day.
I also wanted a three day weekend after running my department on my own for a month and then working six days in a row last week. So, I am doing just that. Attendance occurrence and all. At this point, I don't really care. Staying safe and taking care of myself is more important at this point. It's just a grocery store.
As far as health stuff goes, I am in patient burn out. In the past six months I have seen nine different health care providers with multiple appointments for a few, had at least three different sets of labs, as well as a fibroscan, abdominal CT scan, and another ultrasound. In total, I have had around 20 medical appointments in about six months, and then one of the specialists wanted me to get a biopsy. I had scheduled it, but then saw how much they wanted out of pocket, and then coupled with having the procedure and the down time, I was like "not going to happen especially after the fibroscan, and CT scan you have already called for". In this economy, how many people really have $3000 - $4500 to spend on a procedure that might not even provide answers or have the PTO (or sick time) accrued to realistically take a week off of work to take it easy for a week. Pretty much everyone I know (including myself) is paycheck to paycheck, just trying to get by and have food to eat. As for financial assistance, I have that in place and that wouldn't cover everything for this procedure, and I am also not willing to dig myself any deeper into debt for a procedure that is not life or death, and that the combination of the other tests I have gone through cant give answers to. It's not a matter of taking out the appendix that is about to burst or not taking it out.
I have literally asked myself several times over the past year, year and a half or so, "when is enough, enough?" I finally found that point. Yes, I want to live my best possible life, yet at the same time there is a point between getting well and being what feels like a science experiment. I feel like a science experiment at this point. So, we will see how things go from here, and what the specialist has to say at my follow up in about a month, and take a break from all the medical appointments.
The past two years has definitely been the most intense go round of medical stuff going on, but it's not the first go round that I have had. There were at least a couple stretches in middle school and high school where I had health stuff going on, and had to go to the doctor a lot, but nothing like this.
Healthcare & pharmaceuticals as money making industries hasn't set well with me since I began this whole "what's wrong with me" journey. I know that the American diet and food industry is also a part of that as well.
The past couple of years has definitely made me more passionate about the Healthcare system, how broken it is, how unaffordable it is and how really only the top 1% can get the quality of care we all deserve.
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