Chronic Rants

My friends often comment on how amazed they are that I never complain about my health problems. I talk about my problems, of course, but I don’t complain about them. I just state everything matter-of-factly.

Maybe that’s why I was greeted by so much silence this evening. I was talking to a friend on the phone who knows about my health problems. In fact, he’s seen me at some of my worst moments. But he’s never heard me really complain about it. He made a comment about the career-ending injuries that professional athletes deal with and how they entitle the athletes to large salaries, and that sent me off on a big rant. I finally calmed down, but then started up again a few minutes later. The thing is, for me, it’s all about timing.

I get frustrated by all of the bullshit I have to deal with. Anyone would. Just look at what I wrote the other day. So yes, I do get upset by this stuff, but I rarely complain to my friends or family. Instead, I think it through. I let it out in small doses by venting about specific issues when they occur, not complaining on end about the situation in general. I write about it on here when I need to. I use my energies to at least try to educate people. And that’s enough for me.

Normally, after a day like today, I wouldn’t have called any friends. I had dealt with a lot and needed to be reflective, so I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone anyway. But this friend and I don’t talk often, so when he called and I was in the middle of doing healthcare crap, I said I’d call him back. If only I’d paid more attention to how I was feeling.

I guess that after a day like today, most people would be frustrated. I got 19 things crossed off my to do list today. That’s practically a record for me! I had set aside the day for this. I had actually managed to sleep relatively well and the sun was shining, so that helped a lot. I mixed up easy things and harder things. I didn’t do anything too physically demanding. And I just got it done. And of those 19 things, 3 involved helping family members with their health, 6 had nothing to do with health, and 10 had to do with my own medical and insurance issues. That’s absurd! I spent the day tracking down medical records, making appointments, and researching medical marijuana options. I emailed with my lawyer, texted with a friend about her medical marijuana prescription experience, and left messages for doctors. Sure, I took 30 seconds to renew my library books online. Then I took another minute to request a library book online. Those were quick and easy. The whole time, my computer was running a backup program in the background. That was another item to cross off my list. But the rest of the day, at least the parts that I wasn’t resting, were all about medical shit.

The good part was that I got everything done except the appointment for the medical marijuana prescription (I’m still bracing to spend hundreds of dollars per year for the prescription, in addition to the cost of the marijuana itself, but what choice do I have?) I’m hugely relieved that the rest is done. At least, the rest of today’s list is done. I still have more to do later in the week. And that’s just it. It’s never-ending. And so much of it is unnecessary. I’m spending hours and hours dealing with insurance bullshit and red tape and doctors who won’t run tests because the insurance companies pressure them not to and doctors who won’t prescribe medications because they aren’t “conventional” even though they’ve been proven to work. Who wouldn’t be frustrated after months, years, ages of dealing with that?

So my poor friend called me on exactly the wrong day. I needed to get out my frustrations, and since I couldn’t do my relaxing activities (tv, reading, crochet) and think it through, he got the brunt of all of that built-up anger. And while I’m glad that my friends don’t see me as constantly burdening them with my complaints, it’s also good for them to understand just what I’m going through. Because when they ask what’s going on in my life, the truth is, it’s this.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 24th, 2014 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Educating, Expectations, Frustration, Healthcare, Isolation, Limitations, Pain, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.