The Whine thread.

[WarpGirl]

Yikes tell me you got a flu shot.

[Aquarius]

Nope, not yet.

[WarpGirl]

Dear God go to the doctor! I mean it's insanity not to go. Especially since you're in college, in fact why the heck did you try to go to all of your classes today? I would've been at the doctor after linguistics class if I were you. You can't mess around with these symptoms, people have gone from tired to dead! Straight A's aren't worth it chica. And neither is trying to save money for a Drs. Visit. TOO DANGEROUS! For you and for other people.

[Aquarius]

1. I didn't feel sick when my day started, just tired.
2. No insurance.
3. No money to cover the fact that I have no insurance.
4. The "free" clinics around here are serving so many people, the soonest they can see anyone is about a month from when they call. I'll either be well or dead by then.
5. I drive an hour to go to class. Not really worth it to turn around and go right back if I can stick it out.

I think you're assuming I knew how sick I was before it was too late. I didn't.

[WarpGirl]

No I wasn't. Not at all, and I'm sorry but none of those reasons are worth dying from or giving something nasty to somebody else. ER's exist for a reason. Yeah they stink, yeah sooner or later you get a bill, but again not worth dying over or passing something to someone else. Because even if it isn't flu, if you pass something nasty to someone and they get the flu, they could die. Hey I'm just worried for you, if you find that insulting there's nothing I can do about it.

[Aquarius]

Again, I didn't know how sick I was until it was almost time to go home any way, when the body temperature crap started. I'm not gonna go home because I'm tired and maybe slept on myself wrong, which is exactly what I thought had happened at first. Plus the temperature has been dropping around here, which I can sometimes find draining. So it's not like I was willfully hanging around and giving everyone my cooties or something.

And no, I don't run to the doctor for a little sniffle or chill. I'm not gonna waste eighty bucks just to be told I have a bad cold, let alone the HUNDREDS of dollars an emergency room can cost. It's not such a big deal to those who have an insurance card they can plunk down and everything is all taken care of for them; when you have to figure out how to PAY for everything you tend to ask yourself questions like "do I really feel like this is bad enough for me to go to the doctor?" And right now, the answer is no; it sucks but for the moment I'm not in immediate danger. As soon as evidence produces itself that I'm dealing with something worse, THEN I'll go. In the meantime, I'm only going to work tomorrow long enough to reschedule my clients so I can go back home and rest, and not spread it around (although I've been incubating this for several days apparently and have already contaminated everyone I've come in contact with without knowing it).

As for being insulted, I'm not going to get into that except to say that pronouncements and assumptions, like I'm willfully being some kind of Typhoid Mary with this thing or that I did it to maintain my grades, can be a little off-putting and don't come across as concern at all. If you're concerned, fine, I thank you for that, but I just came to whine and get it off my chest ('cause that's what the thread is for). I'm not going to get all reactionary or turn into a hypochondriac because, frankly, colds still happen, H1N1 notwithstanding. My mother's been a registered nurse for 20 years and she's usually pretty good at telling me if I really need a doctor or not. I can already predict how the conversation would go if I called her right now: she'd tell me to keep an eye on it, and if the fever doesn't go away or I feel worse, go to the doctor. In the meantime, get lots of rest, drink fluids, and don't skip meals, and for cripe's sake wear a hat when I go outside!

And then Grandma would call with some down-home remedies.

[WarpGirl]

OK first of all, it is not easy for everyone who has insurence or medicad or medicare. Because they each have a set of MAJOR challenges. Yeah I get that people can't just drop 80 bucks for a sniffle. But you are NOT describing a cold. This is what you said...

Then in Linguistics the body aches started, and I nearly passed out in all three of my classes. I was so out of it by computer class I could barely focus on the lab instructions in order to figure out what to do. And this oscillating between hot and cold has got to stop...

The part where you say,and I nearly passed out in all three of my classes is a BIG HUGE deal. That is not part of the sniffles or a cold, unless of course you're coughing, wheezing and in general not getting enough oxygen. However you didn't mention syptoms like those. Plus even if you don't have the flu you are more at RISK for the flu.

Anyway I was not trying to judge you, or make you feel like a "typhoid Mary." But come on, people have been waking up tired and are dead the next day. So excuse me if I got very concerned even though you don't have "enough evidence" to warrent a Drs. visit. I wasn't assuming anything, what I said was based on the information you gave. Namely you woke up run down, and now have classic flu syptoms.

[Aquarius]

It's normal for me to be tired and really, really want to nap when I'm sick (especially the first day or two of symptoms), even with a cold, which has always made sense to me because the body heals itself when you're asleep. And yes, it's normal for me to nod off for the first day of symptoms if I'm getting hit with something like a really bad cold or sinus infection (which I will go to the doctor for the latter if it starts to feel like one), which are normal things for me to get this time of year. So it's still nothing to be alarmed about as far as I'm concerned. Yes, a little common-sense caution is called for, but really, I'm not a hypochondriac or an alarmist, I'm not one of those people who's going to get all panicked and assume that I've got the worst thing lurking out there--I'll just complain like it is.

Again, you are making assumptions, that I don't know my own body or what's normal for me, or that you know everything about the situation based on a couple of lines of complaining but frankly, I came to vent, not get advice or judged, so I wrote only what I needed to write to vent--hardly enough to give a complete picture. Had I been seeking a medical opinion and advice about what was going on with me, I would've included more detail with a plea for help from one of the doctors here (which I wouldn't do because they couldn't really say anything without examining me, except "If you're not sure, go see your doctor")--or just thrown eighty bucks at my own doctor. Yeah I feel like crap, and if this set of symptoms had started, say, last night, and I'd been able to put two and two together before morning that it wasn't just fatigue and pinched muscles/nerves, I probably wouldn't have gone to school today. But they didn't, so I went, and by the time I figured things out, the damage was already done.

As I said, my mother is a nurse, has been since I was ten years old. She raised me to pay attention to my body, so if something comes up that makes me say "wow, this is wrong/different" I know not to screw around, and when in doubt I ask her. I don't automatically assume the worst, especially considering most times when I feel tired, I'm just tired and should've been getting my ass to bed earlier. So I'll say again: I just came to whine and get it off my chest. If you're concerned (jeez I'm having to repeat myself a lot tonight) then I thank you for it. I'm not trying to give you a hard time but some of your remarks seemed a bit presumptuous in terms of what I should and shouldn't be doing, which made me feel like I was on the receiving end of a hard time.

As for the insurance thing, I've had insurance before, and I can tell you pretty confidently that when you have it, yeah, things are a LOT easier than when you don't. Yeah, sometimes you have to fight them to cover something they're supposed to, but think about it: when you're an uninsured member of the socioeconomic class known as the "working poor," you know right out of the gate that no matter what it costs, you can't afford it because you don't have insurance coverage to take care of it. Wal-Mart's $4.00 generics don't do people like me much good when we can't cough up the money to get to the doctor in the first place in order to get the prescription for the cheap meds. As for my Imitrex/Treximet, I rely on the kindness of friends who work in doctor's offices and score me samples, because I can't afford $23.00 per pill for the generic (name-brand Imitrex runs about $30 per pill--not a huge savings on the generic in the grand scheme of things)--at 4-6 migraines per month, that would bankrupt me quick. I'd rather be in a position TO have those "challenges" that come with dealing with insurance companies than be in the boat I'm in now. I had insurance before I started doing hair, and yeah, things were a lot easier (medically) then.

Any way, consider THAT venting on the f'd-upedness on the current medical/insurance situation our society faces. I'm not trying to argue, just to say why it's not as simple as "Oh, just go to the doctor and worry about how you're going to pay for it later"--because "later" always comes, yet one never grows an orifice from which to pull the money out of to pay the bill.

[Distracted]

Doesn't your college have a Student Health Center? It's generally free or at least reduced cost to go there for students. And what I tell the students I see who have symptoms like yours is that fever=contagious so please isolate until 24 hours after the thermometer reads less than 99 degrees.

[Aquarius]

An appointment at the university health center is sixty dollars. For that I can also see the Doc-in-a-Box at CVS.

At this point I'm betting it's a cold. After sleeping in this morning, I'm less achy and my body temperature seems to be stable, and it seems to be moving into my sinuses, like my colds usually do. I'll still go in and cancel my day today, but at this point I think it's going to be more of a matter of taking care of myself so it doesn't get worse. I'm a firm believer in the concept of a day of work or whatever missed early on in the illness can save you several days missed later on, if you take good care of yourself and rest.

[Alelou]

Sounds like what I and a lot of the students have had ... I still don't know if it was H1N1 or just a cold. If your experience is anything like mine, it will take a couple of days to feel like you want to do anything, and a couple more to feel back to normal, but it really isn't that awful as colds or flus go.

So I guess I hope that's it and you're feeling better soon. And D is right about the temp thing.

It's too bad you can't get cheap insurance through the college. I think some kids go to college JUST for the insurance. Honestly, I'm wondering if that's why some of them signed up for the class, came to one or two classes, and never showed up again.

[Aquarius]

I haven't had a chance to look into student insurance yet. I'd forgotten about that until a client mentioned it to me a week or so ago. Still, I have a feeling some of the "cheap" factor will diminish because of my age.

At any rate, I seem to be feeling a little better today. I don't know if that's because I'm successfully fighting it, or if it's because the worst hasn't hit yet, but either way, I plan to take it easy. I'll do a little homework, and maybe WRITE in order to relax my mind.

[WarpGirl]

Why is it that I can deal with almost any medical emergency calmly and rationally by myself when it is me or anyone else in my life except my mother? I've nearly died more times than I can count, I've been in a coma, I've dealt with stuff that you can't put on TV. And I can do it without flinching, if I'm not too doped up. I've dealt with family members having cancer, cleaned up a lot of messes, dealt with my sisters health issues, my brothers, friends, you name it I can deal with it. Nothing gets to me, unless it's my mother. Oh sure I hold it in, I go almost Vulcan. But when it's my mother I am a mess.

[Reanok]

Aqarius get well soon.

[JadziaKathryn]

Our student health plans are reduced. Unfortunately insanity reduced is still out of my price range. I'm fortunate because the one thing my father still does is keep me on his insurance. (No doubt using it to make himself look like a saint , but whatever.) I think you can get a plan to visit the health center that's in the range of $300 a year, but it just covers those visits (oh yes, and a therapeutic massage a semester), not prescriptions or anything.

You know, on House they have the free clinic and they never show patients waiting a month...