Health
I had a migraine on December 8th. It was a slow burn but it kept getting worse all day. I forgot to try the Zavzpret and just dealt with it.
Last week I went in for my annual chest CT and as long as I was out doing health work I stopped by the lab to do my urine test. Medical scheduling is... funny. I scheduled my chest CT for 8:20. When they put the appointment on my online chart, they put it as 8:05 as I should show up 15 minutes early. I can certainly appreciate that as I do believe in showing up 15 minutes early for any health related appointment. But that still sticks in the back of my head when I see an appointment at 8:05. So when do I show up for my chest CT? 15 minutes early of course. 7:50. And as soon as I'm checked in, they guide me right back to the CT machine. I take my coat off, they pat the bench for me to lie on, put the pillow under my knees, have me raise my arms above my head, and start the bench sliding into the machine, bending down to say "Oh, follow the breathing instructions from the machine!" before walking out of the room. A few held breaths later and I'm out of there. I got in my car and drover over to the lab getting there at 8:16, a full 4 minutes BEFORE my CT was scheduled for.
I'm used to going to the lab in the morning and waiting in a longish line. Everybody shows up first thing in the morning (they open up at 8) as they had to fast the night before, so I expected to have to sit there for a good twenty to thirty minutes. Instead, the lobby was empty and I didn't even get my name written into the check in list before someone was calling me back. As I'd already 'checked in' online I just had to sign to agree to the lab work. And as it wasn't blood work, the check in receptionist took me back to the bathroom, handed me the cup, and pointed out the little cabinet to put the 'sample' in when I was done. After getting the urine sample in the cup, washing my hands, and putting the cup in the cabinet i opened up the bathroom door and I swear, no one was there. I didn't see any of the lab workers, the receptionist, no other patients... no one.
So I left.
I got home 5 minutes after the time my chest CT was scheduled for. I believe it's the first time I actually ever had medical appointments go both early AND fast.
Mental health wise I've been low. I'm still hesitant on doing any medication fixes, though that might be the next step as I'm finding it difficult to even get motivated to look into jobs. More on that below. Unless things get worse, I'm going to wait until after the holidays. Christmas is in a few days and then New Years after that. HOPEFULLY I'll have some external good news that will cheer me up enough to pull me out of this funk.
Physical health is fine. I think these complaints that I have are more related to my mental health. First, I've been feeling particularly nauseas when I wake up. That's not completely abnormal as it came and went ever since I got this medication regimen set last year. But it's worse than normal and lasting longer. A few days ago I actually vomited just after I took my morning pills... meaning I more or less DIDN'T take my morning pills. It sucks as I'm nauseas enough that I don't want to eat, but when I take my pills on an empty stomach, one of the possible side effects is... you guessed it... nausea.
I'm also having trouble with my bowel movements. For years, decades, I've been a 'once a day' kind of guy. Wake up, morning coffee, poop. Like clockwork. I could hold it off if needed without problem, but that was the natural habit. Again, with this new medication regimen, the routine just went out the window. I get about 70% the way to 'needing' to use the bathroom but don't seem to cross that threshold. If I go in at that 70% mark, I end up just sitting there with nothing happening. And no, I'm not a 'push until I go' person. I'm not going to give myself hemorrhoids by forcing myself to go. But after a couple days spent at 70%, I KNOW I should go so I end up having to 'push to start' and then end up having a larger than normal BM.
It's not a problem per say. More of an annoyance.
One other problem that I should acknowledge. I wake up with the sniffles. I have for awhile now. I figured it was part of me snoring or part of my allergies. No big deal. I'm not sure if its gotten worse or if I'm just started paying more attention to it this past year, but I've noticed that its bad enough that I can actually blow my nose most mornings. I should say that I dislike blowing my nose. I don't know why, but I've always hated the feeling of snot coming out of my nose. Yes, I was always one of those gross people that would snork and pull the snot back into my throat, rather than blow my nose. But now it's often bad enough that I either have to blow it out or its going to start to drip down my face.
I got to thinking about it the other day and I realized that might be a part of my COPD. I'm building up enough phlegm in my lungs that as I sleep and don't breath as deeply and don't 'clear my throat' like I do through the day, it builds up and I need to get rid of it in the mornings. If I want a vision into what my future will look like I just need to see Mom who has to have facial tissues nearby all the time. Life sucks.
Finances
When my COBRA insurance ran out, I had to apply for health insurance through the healthcare marketplace. Michigan doesn't have their own marketplace so I went to the federal HealthCare.Gov site. I got the gold Blue Cross Blue Shield plan that was closest to my state healthcare plan (it was not NEARLY as good as my state plan btw). My portion was just under $800 a month. Since I was receiving my disability payments at the time, I qualified for the government subsidy and they paid the rest.
Fast forward to now and I have to re-up my insurance for the new year. One of their first questions is finances. How much will I make 'this month' and how much do I expect to make next year. Well, my disability has ended, so I didn't make any money this month. And if I'm getting healthcare through the marketplace, that means I'm not working, so my income for next year would be $0.00.
Yeah, that kicked me off of any subsidy and they sent my information to the state Medicaid office. At the same time I got the bill for my January health insurance withOUT the government subsidy.... just under $1,600. Putting the $1,600 into my monthly budget hurt. That's an extra $800 a month that I can't afford and means I'll run out of money all that much sooner. Meanwhile, getting on Medicaid is a tedious process.
To get on Medicaid I had to formally apply. Could I do that online? Nope. I have to actually put pen to paper and then put that through the mail. Including documentation of all of my finances. Once I did that and it was clear I wasn't working, I got my 'welcome to Medicaid' package. It's kind of confusing as I'm now evidently on Medicaid but I need to sign up for a healthcare plan and that comes in a different package. So while I wait, I absolutely don't want to go without coverage so I keep my insurance and just plan on paying the $1,600 for at least one month.
When I get the notice that I can now select my healthcare plan, I go online and try to do it only for it to block me and say that I need to call in. Fuck. So, I call in and after what feels like half of an eternity get to talk to a real live person. I find out that I do need to select a healthcare plan through Medicaid, but I can't do that while I still have private insurance. I offer my concern of going without coverage, even for a few days, if I cancel my insurance before something else is set up and they say I don't need to worry as I still have 'Medicaid' until the new healthplan is set up.
So wait... I have to have a healthcare plan through Medicaid (and by healthcare plan, I mean these are through Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare and other insurance companies), but I can't have that until I cancel my insurance, but I don't need to worry about getting medications between the cancelation of my insurance and the new healthcare plan since I have.... Medicaid.
So why do I need a healthcare plan?
And on top of all this, just to make it more frustrating, I still hope to return to work and get the state healthcare plan again, making all of this just a complete waste of time.
FML
Family/Friends
Mom and R are going well. I haven't heard anything from A or E so I assume they're doing fine as well. My brother B is doing worse and worse with his anxiety. I last spoke to him a few days ago and at that point he hadn't been able to go to work in a couple weeks. He got a new mental health specialist to manage his medications (I got him in with the same nurse practitioner I use) and she's changing his base medication around and giving him Klonipin for breakthrough anxiety. The Klonipin worked fine for a bit, but it doesn't touch his bigger anxiety episodes. So a few days ago, just after I saw him last, she gave him a prescription for Seroquel. Seroquel is a far more powerful drug and should easily contain his anxiety. It's just a matter of it not squashing it so bad that he's nothing but a drowsy drone and unable to work because of that.
I think he got the prescription Saturday, but I haven't checked in with B since then so I don't know how it went.
Entertainment
I finished Picard. Just as good as I remember and really makes me want to have another Star Trek show to watch. I can't wait until Star Fleet Academy starts up, but that's one set in the Discovery future timeline and not the same.
After watching Picard I had to pick another series to binge. My brother R has been playing a lot of Star Wars Jedi Survivor and talking about it at dinner and frankly it got me in the mood for Star Wars. Instead of watching the movies again, I picked up the Cone Wars cartoon series. It's been highly recommended and has been on my list of things to watch for a long long time. Yes, it was made for a younger audience, kids, but its still Star Wars cannon and has good storytelling elements in it that makes it enjoyable for adults. Or at least so I've heard.
Before I started the first episode, I remembered there being something about a movie that started the series. But I wasn't sure if the series started then the movie fit between a couple seasons or if the movie came first. When I looked into it I found a very VERY odd answer. Practically NONE of the Star Wars Clone Wars series was produced or put out in order.
Technically, the movie came first. A few months later, the series started up with season one and progressed over the years until it finished with season 7. The plans they had for season 8 bled into Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Bad Batch, and even Star Wars Ashoka. BUT, the series wasn't put out in chronological order. And there isn't anything like Star Trek Stardate at the begining of any of the episodes to let you know 'when' the episode is set. And this isn't just fan based. StarWars.com put out an official chronological list of the episodes.
To show how batshit crazy it is, the first thing to watch is Season Two, Episode 16. The second thing to watch is Season One, Episode 16. Then the Movie. Then Season Three, Episode 1. Then Season Three, Episode 3. Then finally Season One, Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.... but it still jumps around the seasons throughout its entire run. I figured since the order was out officially from Star Wars, I'd watch it in that order instead of by the 'aired as' date. And you know what? The order makes sense. The 'first' episode Anakin meets the Admiral he works with throughout the series. In the 'second' episode Anakin and Obi Wan get to a particular planet. The movie starts with them on that planet. In the next two episodes Senator Organa and Jar Jar Binks deal with the repercussions of the movie and set up a race to meet with Yoda and hopefully join the Republic. Then the next episode (Season One, Episode 1) starts with that race meeting Yoda.
So, it all flows together. If I watched it in aired as date instead, I'd see the Movie, then the meeting with Yoda, then later Ani and Obi Wan got to the planet that started the movie and then a season later Ani would 'meet' the Admiral he's been working with ever since the beginning of the series.
New Tech
I'm having an unusual problem with my Logitech keyboard. I'm noticing some double key presses when I'm not hitting the key twice. For a few days there the D key almost always hit twice, making me have to back up and delete the extra D. This keyboard is WAY to new to have a problem with my smoking and I haven't spilled any food or beverage on it. As a last resort before I called up tech support I pulled off the keycap and just hit the switch's button over and over and over for a few seconds.
When I put the keycap back on it worked flawlessly. Then yesterday I noticed the same thing starting to happen with the T key. I am NOT happy if this is going to be a random issue with various keys every few days.
The new Kindle is working fine so far. I have likes and dislikes but I'll give it some more time before I write up any judgements.
Writing
When I did my last Update I was all happy and giddy about where I was in writing You're Not The Boss Of Me. But I swear, like a day later I just hit a wall. I wrote the first chapter of the toys arc but nothing else. I found a great image that inspired the idea for a story, but when I tried to put it up on tumblr, I fizzled out and haven't been able to go back and add to it.
I think this is another side of my depression hitting me. But I also am going to write about this in another post, so keep an eye out for that.
Michigan Football
Yeesh.
Let's get the ugly out of the way first. Michigan's football head coach Sherone Moore was found to be having an affair with a female staff member and was fired for cause. It got ugly after that as he broke into her house, threatened himself with a butter knife and was arrested. There's an investigation going on, both university and police, so I'll wait until that story is fully out before commenting further on it, but it looks really REALLY ugly. Not a Michigan Man at ALL.
And what a bad time to be looking for a coach. The sports writers and pundits quickly came down to three or four names that Michigan would be targeting. Kalen DeBoer, head coach of Alabama. Kenny Dillingham, head coach of Arizona State. Eli Drinkwitz, head coach of Mizzou. Jedd Fisch, head coach of Washington. Stories went to and fro with each coach saying something making it more or less likely that they were in the running. This past weekend Alabama won it's playoff game more or less taking DeBoer off the mat. He also put out a statement pretty firmly stating that he wanted to stay at Alabama. Kenny Dillingham seemed to be on the fence, both saying he loved Arizona State and that he had to look out for his guys, but he signed a new contract with Arizona State this weekend. Drinkwitz also signed a new contract.
So, who knows now. There are other names out there, but I'm in a just sit back and wait mindset. Michigan more or less needs a new coach before January 2nd as that's when the transfer portal opens. If we don't' have a coach it not only will be hard to assess what we need and get it from the portal, we risk having our players picked off since they wouldn't know who their coach is going to be. So... a week or two at most and we'll know who Michigan's next coach will be.
For the actual playoff there is a huge uproar about two Group of Five schools getting in. Both Tulane and James Madison were in the five highest ranked conference champions since Duke won the ACC. Now all the talking heads are talking about ways to make sure we don't have group of five teams get in and even putting up how they performed as an examples of why we don't want them in. But last year Indiana, Tennessee, and SMU all lost to similar margins and we don't have any calls to prevent the B1G, SEC, or ACC from getting into the playoff. So fuck'em.
I personally can't wait to see Alabama take on Indiana at the Rose Bowl on New Years Day. That will be glorious!
Job Search
I still haven't heard anything back from the interview. It's only been two and a half weeks so that's not necessarily bad but it's still frustrating. More so since I reached out to the nurse that I know there and asked her if she'd heard anything. And she's ghosting me. Maybe she missed the text or maybe she's ignoring it since she was on the intervew panel, but no response, to me at least, means bad news.
I know I should start looking for other jobs but... damn, the wind is just taken out of my sails. Especially around the holiday seasons.
Winter Tires
I made the appointment to get my winter wheels/tires put on. And yeah, it still took them about two hours to get it done. It turns out these new wheels have very small spaces for the lug nuts. The lug nuts technically fit, but the edge around the base of the lugs does NOT fit. The only thing they had that would fit were the actually locking lug nuts from a locking lug nut kit. Not the rest of the kit, just the locking lug nuts. So I now have new wheels with every single lug nut being a locking lug nut.
When I took delivery of the car that day they handed me the locking nut thing but I didn't put two and two together as I'd been waiting for two hours. I just drove off. Once I realized that I had locking lug nuts on there I took it back and got the story. They said they'd look into it and see if they could find a set of lug nuts that would fit, but I'm not holding my breath. I just have to make sure to keep that key so that I can get these damned things off my car.
Recall
A few months ago I heard about an upcoming recall on Tatiana. A whole bunch of Fords and Lincolns had a problem with the noise it makes when in all electric mode. Regulations say it needs to make a noise and evidently mine doesn't make that noise when going forward. It's not a big deal as it's just a software fix and since it's not a safety issue (at least not a safety issue to ME) I didn't pay much mind to it.
Fast forward to last month and I got a letter in the mail about the recall stating that I should wait for the automatic software update and get it done through that. If it didn't work, or I didn't want to do the automatic update myself I could bring it into a dealership and have them do it.
Fast forward to this past week and Tatiana started telling me that she had a software update ready to install. Now these updates take between fifteen and thirty minutes to install, so the car will warn you that it will be unable to drive in that time frame. Mine is set to install these automatically at one in the morning. The next time I saw the warning it should have installed... but the installation failed and it was warning me that it was going to install it that night. Then the same thing the next day. I tried a few things to help but it kept failing.
A couple days ago I got a text from my Lincoln dealership saying that the fix was ready for my recall and I could set up an appointment to get it done via text. I thought it was just the software update so I didn't respond wanting to get the update done myself. Last night I made sure to park Tatiana closer to the house as I figured she might be losing her WiFi signal overnight at some point and that might disrupt the installation process. When I went out to check it this morning I was delighted to see that it had installed!
When I got back to my room though I checked the Lincoln app on my phone and it acknowledged that there was a recent software update performed on Tatiana, but it still showed the Recall as outstanding. At the same time that I was writing up a post on the Lincoln Forum, asking if anybody else had a similar issue, I got another text from my dealership, saying that I could schedule up a time to get the Recall done.
A quick aside on the dealership. When I got my first Lincoln, Tiffany, my local Ford dealership was both Ford and Lincoln. Had been for years and years. Well, a couple years back they gave up their Lincoln dealership status. Both they and the Lincoln dealership where I bought my car said that I could get most repairs done (as well as my normal maintenance like oil changes) done there. Most. But they specifically said that software was Lincoln specific and that for those issues I'd have to go to a Lincoln dealership. There are two Lincoln dealerships closer to me than MY Lincoln dealership but both are still over 40 miles away where mine is 60 miles away. If I'm going to have a relationship with a dealership, I want it to be with ONE dealership so it's worth it to me in the long run for MY dealership to do this. I just don't want to have to drive over an hour to get my car there, wait around for thirty minutes, then drive an hour back.
But if I AM going to take it into the dealership (I'm just a bit too far for them to come to me and do it in my driveway) I may as well have them check out the one problem that Tatiana has had since I bought her. There isn't a physical Lock/UnLock button on the outside door. Instead there is a little glowing light on the door pillar that you press and it acts as the lock. It's just under the number pad that acts as a combination lock to get in and out of the car (well... in I guess). The same pad works just fine on the passenger side and the door locks work fine via the inside buttons or the remote buttons or the software on my phone. But that button area thing doesn't work. I CAN use the number pad to lock the car, and I do that most of the time, but it has a major draw back. By hitting the 7/8 and 9/0 keys Tatiana will lock all the doors. It does that via the two key presses because it's a safety measure. It will lock the doors even if the keys are inside. At that point it will ONLY unlock via the keypad or the software on the phone. Neither the remote nor the button on the outside will work. So if I'm on vacation, driving cross country, and forget that my keys are in my purse when I step out to fill up at a gas station and lock the door that way, I can only get in via my phone or the keypad. Well, my phone is probably in the car too at that point. And what is the code to get in? Hmm.... I have the code written down on a piece of paper in my wallet (locked in the car) and saved on my phone (also locked in the car). I THINK I remember it... but yeah, I'm not sure.
Long story short, I've been worried about that button not working ever since I got Tatiana but it hasn't been a big enough worry to take it in. I figured I'd ask the Ford dealership at my first oil change. Well... now I'm taking into the Lincoln dealership for a software fix, so they may as well look at it.
I see one of two things happening since they're having me bring the car in for a software update. Either they'll get the update done in twenty minutes or so and have the door fixed via software in the same amount of time, or they'll get the software fixed and find that there is a hardware problem. The hardware problem will either require a couple hours to fix or they'll need to get a part. Either way, it'll be done in a day or so. In which case... I gat a Lincoln loaner. And you better bet they'll be loaning me a car as good as Tatiana or better.
Anyway, the appointment is for next week Monday morning.
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