News Flash: Health Care sucks

Fer those of you who haven't seen Sicko, health care is lame. A brief background that ah may nevah have typed out:

In sept of 2005 ah overused my hand rite hand (Thas what she said) while werkin at the United States Patent n Trademark Office (as a proofreader - ah really ken spell actually) to tha point whar ah could barely use it. Ah saw a PMRT (Physical/Preventative Medicine and Rehabilitative Therapist) doctor who treated me fer pain w. gizmos like mild electric shock, heat, n ultrasound. This made it feel sorta bettah er a lil while.

Since then this has gawten bettah n then worse n then betta n then worse, etc., until now it pretty much hurts my whole arm/shoulder from time ta time. Weird unhealin n overuse (hello computahs n bass geetars) n compensatin fer injury has screwed up most of my right arm - altho nevah at tha same time. Every day, every hour sometimes, a different part of it hurts - w.o much method it seems. Most disturbin, is sometimes a fingah twitches - most recently these days is tha middle one on my rite hand. This bugs tha FAWK outta me n freaks me out. Since Feb. of this year it has appeared 3 times, most recently this week. Tha last two times it has eventually just kinda disappeared but ah don't know exactly why.

Ah started yoga n acupuncture n some exercises when ah moved here cuz ah finally had tha time n willpowah. Thangs have gawten much bettah - tha wrist itself rarely bothers me, mostly just pain in otha parts of my arm/shoulder, sporadically. N finally ahve been gittin "proper" medical treatment - gaein thru tha rigamarole of a general practitioner referrin me ta a specialist, who referred me ta hand therapy. Hand therapy is nawt blowin me away - n they want me ta wear a splint at nite. Whatevah, fine. But ahm startin ta think ahm best just daein what ahve been daein n spendin money on a massage from time ta time.

Today my follow up visit to tha specialist was pretty blah. He told me ah definitely have mild (very mild almost) nerve problems in both hands givin me Carpal Tunnel. Most of my pain is nawt actually from that. B/c its mild, he cannot recommend anythang but a splint n hand therapy, but wants me ta nawt fergit about eventually gittin surgery - he guesses ahll need it in 15 er 20 years. Ta stop tha twitchin he recommended Aleve - as an anti-inflammatory. Wonderful.

Tha most obnoxious thang about this is ah needed a day off werk sick ta just git to tha general practitioner fer tha original referral. N b/c ahm in an HMO, ah am stuck to my location - my specialist could only refer me to hand therapy in tha east bay, n my gp could only refer me to a specialist in my group. So ahve been travellin ta oakland durin work hours (thank you sick leave) cuz its tha only place/time ah ken git treatment. If ah switched groups, ahd hafta see my new gp AGAIN, git referred to ANUTHA specialist, n then FINALLY therapy. WHACK!

Excitin stuff, huh? Is this what grownups blog about? How awful ta be growin up - at least ah live in a slummy apartment ta feel young!

What ah did fer 7.5 hours today (n will dae tha day aftah, n tha day aftah...)

Ah have a temp assignment! Finally!

It's w. a non-profit (n one you've prolly heard of, they dae good stuff) just ovah tha bridge daein data entry. Tha pay is...bettah then my bare minimum, n it doesn't start at 8 am (it starts at nine) so ah really can't complain. Howevah, this is tha most TEDIOUS temp job ahve had since my FIRST EVAH back in Bawstan, Jan. 05, which was also data entry. Actually, this one might be even MORE tedious.

Note tha differences between tedious and boring -- Boring is when thars nuthin ta dae, so its soooo borin cuz you don't hafta dae anythang OR at least nuthin that requires ANY sort of thought. These are usually receptionist jobs at someplace quiet, er puttin bindahs togetha, er (my favorite) puttin thangs in envelopes. Sometimes, tha organizin borin jobs will have weird temp co-workers as well, which make them less borin cuz you have someone ta talk ta.
Tedious is when you have somethang ta dae, that just nevah stops. It requires just a SMIDGEN of thought or paying attention (altho if you make a mistake w.o noticing, odds are its nawt THAT big of a deal, and that it won't come back ta you. thas why temps dae this stuff, obviously). Tedious is generally data-entry, or makin copies of irregularly sized papers, er filin, etc.

By tha way, while wakin up at 7 sucked, hopin on my bike to tha BART first thang in tha mornin felt really good!

Anyway, my assignment:


Each page of paper in that stack has about 50+ names on it, each w. an 8-digit member id. these are tha people who don't want to be called anymore. ah type that 8 digit numbah in, dae two keystrokes, click my mouse (ta move tha cursor) make anutha keystroke, n hit entah. Then ah cross that name off tha list. Repeat.

If ah make tha slightest mistake (a wrong numbah, er invalid code fer tha data field), ah hafta start tha program ovah, sign in again, etc.

Ah moved ta california fer this?

time ta stop typin...