• batking-lich
    pinned

  • i’m bats, i talk about books a lot & i am Very Normal about the saw movies

    my book liveblogs are all archived on my website, it’s probably a lot easier to go dig through there than my tumblr if you wanna read older ones. occasionally i’ll run polls on what to liveblog, those are all tagged #liveblog poll. i tend to reblog them throughout the day so people see them so you might wanna mute that tag if they get a little too annoying lol

    feel free to look at my creatures on dragon cave, magistream, and the final outpost

Loading...
  • akumeoy

  • girl asks me to use her like a toy so i put her in a row with several other girls sorted by name alphabetically & sit there silently looking at her

Loading...
  • emeraldincandescent

  • Post on my dash about medical debt reminded me of the time tumblr saved me two grand. I don't think I told y'all about it because I am out of the habit of posting everything I do on tumblr lol

    So. Last December, I had a bad cavity filled, and about a week later, I woke up with half of my face paralyzed. Which, as I'm sure you can imagine, freaked me the fuck out. Fortunately I had some level-headed Discord friends who a) told me what Bell's palsy was so I could look it up and b) reminded me to call my dentist for an emergency appointment. Dentist was also pretty sure it was Bell's palsy, but urged me to go to the emergency room to get checked out, because one-sided facial paralysis is also a possible indicator of a stroke. And you don't fuck around with strokes.

    Bell's palsy, if you, like me of 6 months ago, don't know, is a harmless paralysis/muscle weakness on one side of the face that can be caused by a variety of things. It usually goes away on its own after a few weeks but also you can speed up the process with steroids.

    I was pretty sure I was not having a stroke, because I'm Red Cross first aid certified and I know the symptoms of a stroke, and while one-sided facial paralysis is one of them, I didn't have any of the others. Also, I had quit my shitty job in October, which meant I had a shiny new marketplace health insurance plan and hadn't even touched my deductible. But I called my parents from the car and they urged me to get checked out and promised to help me pay off the emergency room bill if I needed it, because they're good people and they love me even if they drive me crazy sometimes. So off I went to the nearest emergency room.

    Emergency room staff also didn't think I was having a stroke, because I waited ALL AFTERNOON, periodically having a new person come up to me and ask me to smile, hold both arms out to the side, press down on their hands, and tell them what month and year it was. (They don't ask who the president is anymore. Hmm, I wonder why.) One guy had me drink a cup of water while he watched. I cannot stress enough that I did not have any medical tests other than a physical examination: no CT scans or MRIs, no IV drugs or blood draws, nothing.

    I get diagnosed with Bell's palsy and given a prescription for Prednisone. And then they give me a phone number and tell me to talk to this person about administrative stuff. So I call, and the dude on the phone verifies my name and date of birth and insurance information, and then he says, "It looks like your copay today is going to be $2400. How would you like to pay?"

    I am, to this day, kind of impressed that he didn't even stutter over that number, but I assume working in a medical call center drains your entire soul. At this point, it's about 7pm, and I've been in the hospital since 2pm, and I'm stressed because half my face doesn't work, and I know that I can't afford $2400 because I quit my shitty job with nothing lined up back in October. But, I still remember every tumblr post I've ever read about health insurance and the medical system and how you can negotiate down a bill. I am not looking forward to this process, it sounds like a pain in the ass, but the alternative is paying $2400, so I say the magic words: "Send me an itemized bill."

    I kinda expected the guy to try and get me to pay up front, but he just says "Ok" and finishes up the process. I get discharged, go to the only open pharmacy at that time of night to get my Prednisone, have the pharmacist tell me the prescription isn't written right and he can't fill it, go home, and have a screaming sobbing meltdown because I have used up every single milligram of cope in my entire body. (I got my steroids eventually, and the Bell's palsy cleared up in a couple weeks.)

    A few weeks later, I get the bill in the mail. I brace myself and open it...

    $300.

    Turns out, after going through insurance and processing and everything, they couldn't actually find $2400 worth of stuff to charge me for. Shocking! Who could have predicted!

    I might have been able to argue it down even more, but I was fed up with entire thing, so I paid the $300 just to be fucking done with it. Sometimes the cheapest way to pay is with money.

    What if I had paid that $2400 up front? Do I think they would have been like, "Oh, oops!" and refunded me $2k? Well, possibly, but I am not optimistic.

    So, thank you to everyone who has ever posted about navigating the US healthcare system on tumblr. Because of you, I knew how to handle this situation even when I was tired and stressed.

    Don't forget to ask for an itemized bill, folks.

Loading...
  • couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name

  • my family has had some pretty interesting encounters with psychics/mediums that seem genuine in the past, but nothing will ever be funnier to me than the last guy my mom talked to who was so definitely bullshitting, because she said "I was hoping to hear from my husband" and the guy went "he said....it's okay to Move On" and like. every single person my mom has recounted this too has been like "He Would Not Fucking Say That". as if this was an ooc fanfic about my father. it's just so fucking funny. fake psychic dude take your shitty headcanons about my ghost dad and LEAVE!!!

  • couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name

  • like, my parents were legitimately insane about each other. I cannot stress how much he wouldn't say that. I have to assume his ghost was standing right next to this fake psychic yelling "WHAT THE FUCK!!!!" when he told my mom to move on lmfao

  • couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name

  • actually. funnier to imagine he was a Real Psychic who was just trying to put a move on my mom and didn't think the ghost would do anything about it and now is now dealing with a violently angry haunting for the rest of his days lmfao

  • couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name

  • image

    Ghost Dad: WE LITERALLY CHANGED OUR VOWS BECAUSE WE DIDN'T LIKE "TILL DEATH DO US PART"

    Psychic: he says you need a real man. a tangible one. a man visible to the average eye.

Loading...
  • mareusu

  • what is it about things being gender neutral having to also be ‘masculine’. like, why can you wear a suit and tie and call it gender neutral but not a dress cause that’s feminine. why can you call people dude or guy as a gender neutral term but not girl cause that’s feminine. short hair is neutral but long hair is feminine. i mean i know why this is fully a rhetorical question but let’s think about that

Loading...
  • bayesic-bitch

  • If you read interviews with homicide cops, two things quickly become clear

    1. It is really not all that hard to get away with murder. A basic amount of foresight and prep will get rid of enough evidence that the police either won't find the killer or will be unable to make the charge stick.
    2. Despite this, most murders do get solved, because someone who decides that murder is the solution to their problems is probably not the kind of person to be levelheaded and careful enough to avoid getting caught.

    I think something very similar is true of sockpuppet accounts. It's not that hard to make a convincing sockpuppet. However, people almost always make sockpuppets as a way of defending their egos, of making it look like they have more support than they actually do. And this passionate defense of someone the sockpuppet ostensibly doesn't know and has no reason to care about is a dead giveaway. So if you want to validate a sockpuppet you have to lose an argument to it. You have to get owned. Once it makes you look like an idiot, basically no one will ever suspect it again.

    Unfortunately, by posting this, I've burned my only chance to actually do it. From now on, whenever you see me getting dunked on, you'll assume it's staged sockpuppet validation. and you'd be right. i have never lost an argument on this website. every single one was staged. i did not get owned. i did not get owned.

Loading...
  • i-like-reblog-maps

  • image

    what the fuck

    that thing is eldritch

    image

    acquired a dark mode version just to see what it’d look like. oh my god. this map is gorgeous

    i have never seen a hub that large. i’m?? stunned

  • derinthescarletpescatarian

  • Didn't realise it was a reblog map at first,thought somebody was drawing the visual effect that accompanies casting Testicular Torsion.

Loading...
  • evilplants

  • i do really hope that one day we look back one this current surge in women’s sports as an important stepping stone to mixed gender sports being the norm. i hope one day women get to play on the same stages as men and people look back on segregated sports as something strange and archaic. and i hope the era of professional sports being mostly for men is near entirely forgotten and seen as appalling when it is remembered.

Loading...
  • unwell-radio-transmissions

  • so many articles online 'here is how become support worker,' 'here is how bathe disabled/elderly person,' 'here is what NDIA says you need before you qualify for personal care.'

    None on 'so you became disabled in your twenties and it has progressed to the point you need support with personal care to cope with the fatigue and you're nonverbal and autistic. How do you navigate this new dynamic with strangers and communicate important things like wants and consent? And how do you not feel ashamed or embarrassed because you 'don't really need it'?'

    (would genuinely like advice or hear other people's experiences if comfortable sharing. can be on anon if want or ask for Radio not to publish ask)

  • firespirited

  • As someone who has had multiple carers over 20 years and more or less verbal abilities, I gradually labelled everything and made lists.

    Essentially turning my life into a routine similar to what it would be like to be in an institution but on my terms.

    • Detailed menus for food (how I want it cooked, salted), grocery list (which meant cutting down and simplifying how I eat and eating repetitive food with emergency meal options).
    • List of chores and their days: a day to pick up the groceries and put them away, a day she cleans the bedroom, a day she does the floors. once a month collect medicines... All suited to give them lots of time and account for unexpected needs.
    • Instructions sharpied on the washing machine, labels written on the cupboards and taped above the microwave
    • My clothes are basic: all machine wash and no iron, can be mixed and matched, my bedsheets can be mixed and matched
    • I do meds once a week and have a proper weekly pillbox with a list taped to it. I hated accepting this signifier of illness.
    • My bath days are on days she's not here which is a recent luxury because I used to need help there.

    Boundaries

    • My bedroom is off limits unless it's bedroom day. Weight and romantic life are off limits.
    • I have not found a way to communicate that I'm not a psychologist in 20 years of this. Carers are often in the process of being broken by the job: they vent (a lot), they get burn out, they find it easier (and make more money) to do any other job.
    • It hurts the ego every single time you meet a new one and initiate them to your routines. Those stupid house management binders like seen in mormon influencer households actually do streamline your life even if they feel dehumanizing.

    A lot of this stuff was really hard. I felt like if a baby could feel shame. My brain screams the R word at me every now and then for not being able to safely cook or lift things, for not being able to explain myself then sitting through agony rather than seem impolite.

    The urge to do the chores yourself is massive even after a hundred energy hangovers and injuries. Write those down because you think you don't need it until you notice you haven't taken care of yourself in weeks trying to keep up with other things or you repeatedly get ill.


    What did help was treating the carer's job as dignified: them cleaning for me is not degrading, it's their job. Them witnessing me in distress is not degrading, it's their job and they rise to the occasion and feel proud they got to help someone.

    Try and remember that you're providing a respectful, safe work environment for people who would otherwise be unseen or mistreated when working in cleaning/catering or in care homes. Holiday gifts and setting up options for their holidays in advance help. Checking in about balancing their work load over the hours they're given is an important use of your limited social time/energy so it feels more like teamwork to them.

    It will feel very weird at first but if you're upfront about communication difficulties and needing time to write things out for example, that can help. The big hurdle in time will be getting enough hours allocated (unless you pay for extra under the table) and not losing carers to their agencies being gigantic soul-sucking body-breaking machines.

    (this post is more about things you can do to feel more control over your situation and facilitate your carer's work. I can't help much with how to feel about this nor how much polite smalltalk or guidance you can manage. It won't fall into place nor make sense overnight. Grieving a stage of life or loss of abilities can take upto 10 years, adapting happens sooner than mentally adjusting. )

Loading...
1 2 3 4 5