The Epic Rant Thread

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November 22nd, 2016 at 3:30:01 PM permalink
SOOPOO
Member since: Feb 19, 2014
Threads: 22
Posts: 4157
So have you had the work done?
November 22nd, 2016 at 3:50:46 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18633
Quote: Fleastiff
Can you ethically recruit someone for a study that involves NOT flossing?


Pretty likely

Quote:
On September 11, 2001, James Rockwell was camped out in a clinical-research unit on the eleventh floor of a Philadelphia hospital, where he had enrolled as a subject in a high-paying drug study. As a rule, studies that involve invasive medical procedures are more lucrative the more uncomfortable, the better the pay and in this study subjects had a fibre-optic tube inserted in their mouths and down their esophaguses so that researchers could examine their gastrointestinal tracts


Quote:
Today, fees as high as the one that Rockwell received aren't unusual. The best-paying studies are longer, in-patient trials, where subjects are often required to check into a research facility for days or even weeks at a time, so that their diet can be controlled, their blood and urine checked regularly, and their medical status carefully monitored. Occasionally, they also undergo invasive procedures, like a bronchoscopy or a biopsy, or something else unpleasant, such as being deprived of sleep, wearing a rectal probe, or having allergens sprayed in their faces. Because such studies require a fair amount of time in a research unit, the subjects are usually people who need money and have a lot of time to spare: the unemployed, college students, contract workers, ex-cons, or young people living on the margins who have decided that testing drugs is better than punching a clock with the wage slaves


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/01/07/guinea-pigging
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
May 1st, 2017 at 3:32:55 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
Quote: SOOPOO
So have you had the work done?


Sorry I missed this. In bits and pieces. The worst is over, anyway. That is, until it wasn't.

There was one, #30, the big molar back there, that I went in to have canal'd but after removing the decay was judged as unnecessary. They just made a piece to match what they took and sealed it all up. Tooth saved.

Well, it's never been quite right. The job on the left is totally 5-by. I've been crunching things I haven't crunched in 20 years without so much a mote of discomfort. But the other I could only describe as "unstable". Totally fine at rest and mostly fine in all other scenarios, but some foods made it feel funny. Not even reaching discomfort, just "funny".

Well, it blew up. Friday I noticed it being "weird" and by that night knew something was up. Saturday was miserable and by night's end I had damn near went to the ER, not entirely because of worry but because it had simply been too long to have hurt that much and I could no longer psychologically take it. I did start antibiotics on Sat and was popping ibuprofen 800-1000 at a time. I came close to using one of my last two Vicodin, but made it through the night. Yesterday was a marked improvement. The tooth pain lessened but the jaw pain increased, and there was noticeable swelling. I kept pounding the anti's and ibu's and sort of crawled through the day.

Today I went in, even better than the previous day, more concerned with the swelling and the fact that my tooth no longer hurt but there was something more. Ended up being no more than that tooth having been compromised without realization and should have been canal'd the initial time. But goddamn... after she stirred it up, I am in quite the experience atm. My tooth oddly feels completely fine. I can bite down, grind, no pain. But my jaw required actual dancing so as to prevent my knees from buckling. It's easily the worst non-migraine pain I've ever known. I've always thought / wondered that I could stand migraine pain if it just wasn't in my head. Well, we can cross mouth off the list. This is other worldly.

I'm busy going down the list of intoxicants as we speak. Even the Lord's own gift, Vicodin, lies flattened in the road as the pain train did not so much as hiccup. Water, interestingly, has been the best performer. Holding cold water on the spot brings much relief; unfortunately, it lasts for about 4 seconds, and that's the best I've found so far.

Pain is such a curious thing.
Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
May 1st, 2017 at 4:26:28 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Oil of cloves.
May 1st, 2017 at 6:15:31 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: Fleastiff
Oil of cloves.


Put a couple of whole cloves in your
mouth and as they soften they release
oil. Gives you great smelling breath,
like chewing a whole pack of clove
gum.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
May 1st, 2017 at 7:59:48 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Quote: Evenbob
Put a couple of whole cloves in your mouth and as they soften they release oil.
I've no idea what one looks like or how to obtain one.
May 2nd, 2017 at 1:19:28 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: Fleastiff
I've no idea what one looks like or how to obtain one.


In the grocery store spice section. They
are good to have in your mouth instead
of gum or chewing tobacco. They are
dry at first, but after half an hour get
quite soft and strong tasting of clove.

If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
May 15th, 2017 at 3:49:39 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
Ah, finally we can move from dental and get into its more sinister cousin, medical. And I'll be,... we're going back into the racing thread.

The f#$%ing ER bills are back, and I was (am?) goddamn close to making the news. Remember those? Those "I ain't paying?" posts from the metal in my eye? To re-cap: Got metal in my eye, went to ER, saw Dr. Dr flushed and scraped my eye before telling me in broken English there was nothing he could do and to see an optho on Monday. At this time it was 1830-ish on Friday evening, so it's a 3 day wait of metal in my eye and all that entails. I voiced concern over the wait at which time a nurse approached me and told me exactly to just wait until 1900 when the next Dr came in. As it was a quick wait I agreed, was discharged, went outside to smoke and wait in my truck, and returned at 1900.

I get it. I can see the policy, can see the procedure, both clear as day. I was "discharged", so then next visit was an "entirely new ordeal". I understand this, at least from a P&P's procedure. But, as one in discomfort and disabled to the point of not being able to perform basic functions such as seeing, and one not in any way versed in greater hospital regs or medical happenings, how am I in that state to understand this fact? How can one look at this situation and see not one event but two separate instances? Pushing paper and just going through the motions, sure. But once addressed, how do you not correct this IM-F#$%ING-MEDIATELY?

I think, though I may be mistaken, I never resolved this drama. In short, no, I didn't just toss the bills in the garbage. I did, however, make a lot lot lot of phone calls. I repeatedly got bounced from hospital billing to Dr billing, only one person saying anything as to convey critical thinking. I even drove all the way to the hospital billing and walked right in the office to find this woman who had thus far ignored no less than 5 of my phone messages both directly to her and through her lackeys, and even then she "wasn't in today". It was then one of her people advised I apply for that charity thing where they knock down your bill. I took it but in no way was sated. I made at least one more call intent on getting this Ms. Noreen Jones of TLC Healthcare to return my phone call, talk to me, and resolve this easy to solve issue. Still, no response.

I ended up filling out and applying for the charity thing. Some time later, maybe a month, I received one bill for one full Dr payment and 2 bills from the hospital, each of which had been halved. It looked to me that they resolved the Dr portion and got the one I felt I owed, and simply banged the charity to make me happy while still getting their full. Whatever, that's biased and assumptive, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that, in the end, I paid for my thousand dollar q-tip and got at least the bigger of the two wrongs righted. That payment was made, in person, in the same office. Just in case she was there, ya know? I still had things to say. But she wasn't (shocker) and I walked out into a grey OCTOBER day a free man.

Today is May 15th, and I just came home to a $721 doctor bill from that visit a year ago.

I call the f#$%ing office, an oh, that's the doctor portion, you'll have to take it up with them. I cut her right off, saying I know I'm only going to get their billing, who knows nothing of this issue and cannot resolve it, so they're going to pitch me back to the ER who MADE THE F#$%ING MISTAKE IN THE FIRST GODDAMN PLACE. "Sorry, sir, that's the Dr., we're only the hospital."

While I'm talking to her, the Dr's billing is ringing me on call waiting.

So I talk to these f#$%s, some poor kid sounded like he was fresh off an Assoc. degree. He says he's calling to collect. I say there's a huge problem with it. He asks what the problem is so I go over this whole f#$%arow again, to which point he can only respond by script. "Are you saying you can't pay, sir?" "We have ways to assist the payment of..." "Are you saying you won't pay it, sir?" "I'll have to advise you...". I just apologize to the person inside the drone I'm speaking to, advise him I realize he can't help me, assure him that no, there's no single way I'm paying one red cent, and we part ways.

Seriously, folks. This is more than a rant. First, I need confirmation that yes, I'm not crazy and this is indeed a wholly f#$%ed up situation, not even so much about getting double billed but doing so and then finding not a single soul in which to converse with to attain a resolution. If no confirmation can be made to my sanity, then I desperately need to be shown where my reasoning is wrong or my entitlements are askew. And lastly, no matter my sanity, what the f#$% do I do? Hospital apparently won't talk to me. Dr apparently can't talk to me. What then? Call f#$%ing 2 On You Side?

Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
May 15th, 2017 at 5:33:36 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
No no no no no. You never check out and
check in again, you're bending over and
inviting them to shove it home TWICE.

No no no no no. You never explain anything
to a bill collector. I was one for a short time
45 years ago and all we want it to get some
kind of money from you. We could care less,
and I mean less than less, what your problem
is. Bill collectors are on commission and make
squat by listening to you complain.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
May 15th, 2017 at 7:03:16 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
Quote: Evenbob
No no no no no. You never check out and
check in again, you're bending over and
inviting them to shove it home TWICE.


I know this now. But listen, I'm getting off the bed, holding my eye, voicing my concerns over having to be like this for half a week. As I'm walking out of the room, a nurse approaches me and tells me the thing. I say OK, I'll be back, and walk out. If that's just an adult lesson I have to learn, "Maintain all wits and composure even if sustaining any injury", then so be it. But that seems like quite a thing to ask someone who is at risk for being suddenly acutely blind for an extended period of time. Maybe I'm being a bitch, but that just seems too f#$%ed up to be a real expectation. Holding my eye with tears pouring down my face having a meeting about paperwork technicalities.

Quote: EB
No no no no no. You never explain anything
to a bill collector. I was one for a short time
45 years ago and all we want it to get some
kind of money from you. We could care less,
and I mean less than less, what your problem
is. Bill collectors are on commission and make
squat by listening to you complain.


This I knew, but he kept asking. If the only thing his script says is "Can't pay" or "Won't pay" and neither are precisely correct, you can't really just cast your financial future on a "whatever" answer. You gotta go through the whole GD thing to force them out of robot mode and use their GD brains.

I was having such a nice respite of peaceful productivity, then EVERY-F#$%ING-THING all came rushing back at once. I mean f#$%ing everything. So I am serious - what do you do when neither side can help you? Who's the middle in this situation? I'm down to some sort of lawyer review, actually calling the local news, or writing a letter to someone far higher up than need be. All seem ridiculous and far more work / seriousness than an issue of such feeble magnitude calls for.
Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
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