Been a while...
It's been a while since I used this site. I seem to have pretty much moved over to twitter since I can just post here and there and don't need to worry about a long drawn out post about what's going on in my life, but with my current situation I figured I should throw an entry on here to keep those updated who don't use twitter.
I've been having some problems lately and I just need to vent and get them out.
The other day I was having really sharp pains in my abdomen. At first I thought maybe it was gas and I just had to wait it out. An hour passed, then two. Nothing. I thought maybe if I forced myself to throw up I could relieve some of the gas and pressure so I forced myself to throw up a number of times getting rid of everything I could. Even after all that there was no relief. I tried Pepto, I tried antacid tablets, I tried Gas X... I tried it all...
After almost 5 hours of some of the worst pain I could imagine, I called my mom for advice. She didn't know what to tell me so she had me call my grandmother. I told her that the pain was so bad I was getting ready to call 911, so she insisted that I should.
Cue an ambulance ride and a few hours in the ER later with some of the heaviest pain meds they could shove into my IV, I'm told that I have a significantly large gallstone and it was causing my gallbladder to spasm which was the source of all the pain.
How big was this thing? 5cm. That's about 2 inches. Considering that from what I've read, most gallstones are about 1cm to 1.5cm which means mine is HUGE. Due to the size of the thing, based on what I've read, it's possible for it to block the duct in the gallbladder which could be potentially fatal.
Needless to say I've been pretty worried and scared lately. I have a giant gallstone that could be a possible threat to my life just hanging out in my chest right now...
Anyways, later today (Monday) I'm scheduled to be in touch with a surgeon to hopefully get this thing removed and taken care of. After that comes the worst part of all of this. Cost.
See, I have no insurance. At all. I work anywhere from 12-24 hours a week stocking shelves for $8.50 an hour. That's not going to be near enough to cover the thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of hospital bills for the ER visit and ambulance ride, let alone how much it's going to cost to get this surgery done. I'm pretty screwed. Even better is that Ashley and I have tried to get medical assistance to help with the bills, but it's damn near impossible to get anything done. One office directs us to another, that office tells us to have paperwork signed by a doctor, the doctor's office tells us they need something else taken care of and this and that... We don't know if we're going to be getting any kind of financial assistance and it's scary. Ashley is only about 6 months from graduating and hopefully getting a better paying job as a nurse somewhere, but until then, we are totally screwed with money.
Anyways, thanks for reading. I needed to get it out there and I can convey a lot more information here than I can within the 140 character limit of a tweet. I'm not sure how many people actively still use this site, but if even one person reads this who didn't know about it before, I guess it was a good use of my time to make this post.
Much love to all of my friends. I hope things go well so I can write another LJ post in another 10 months.
I've been having some problems lately and I just need to vent and get them out.
The other day I was having really sharp pains in my abdomen. At first I thought maybe it was gas and I just had to wait it out. An hour passed, then two. Nothing. I thought maybe if I forced myself to throw up I could relieve some of the gas and pressure so I forced myself to throw up a number of times getting rid of everything I could. Even after all that there was no relief. I tried Pepto, I tried antacid tablets, I tried Gas X... I tried it all...
After almost 5 hours of some of the worst pain I could imagine, I called my mom for advice. She didn't know what to tell me so she had me call my grandmother. I told her that the pain was so bad I was getting ready to call 911, so she insisted that I should.
Cue an ambulance ride and a few hours in the ER later with some of the heaviest pain meds they could shove into my IV, I'm told that I have a significantly large gallstone and it was causing my gallbladder to spasm which was the source of all the pain.
How big was this thing? 5cm. That's about 2 inches. Considering that from what I've read, most gallstones are about 1cm to 1.5cm which means mine is HUGE. Due to the size of the thing, based on what I've read, it's possible for it to block the duct in the gallbladder which could be potentially fatal.
Needless to say I've been pretty worried and scared lately. I have a giant gallstone that could be a possible threat to my life just hanging out in my chest right now...
Anyways, later today (Monday) I'm scheduled to be in touch with a surgeon to hopefully get this thing removed and taken care of. After that comes the worst part of all of this. Cost.
See, I have no insurance. At all. I work anywhere from 12-24 hours a week stocking shelves for $8.50 an hour. That's not going to be near enough to cover the thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of hospital bills for the ER visit and ambulance ride, let alone how much it's going to cost to get this surgery done. I'm pretty screwed. Even better is that Ashley and I have tried to get medical assistance to help with the bills, but it's damn near impossible to get anything done. One office directs us to another, that office tells us to have paperwork signed by a doctor, the doctor's office tells us they need something else taken care of and this and that... We don't know if we're going to be getting any kind of financial assistance and it's scary. Ashley is only about 6 months from graduating and hopefully getting a better paying job as a nurse somewhere, but until then, we are totally screwed with money.
Anyways, thanks for reading. I needed to get it out there and I can convey a lot more information here than I can within the 140 character limit of a tweet. I'm not sure how many people actively still use this site, but if even one person reads this who didn't know about it before, I guess it was a good use of my time to make this post.
Much love to all of my friends. I hope things go well so I can write another LJ post in another 10 months.