An brusque abode for pathogens (Last Plane to the Doctor's Office)

[Ignatius]

That lady is just ludicrously selfish. And I guess it's not something your board would care about, but I doubt they'd be pleased to hear that everyone in the office is overpaying for insurance they don't necessarily want.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

dude, fuck that lady. fuck her! that lady!

[peacocks]

Someone seriously needs to get real on her ass

[Em]

Yeah, there's nothing much anyone can do about it, so I guess I'm just venting. I did get a little worked up about it the other day when I was going through our financials (for grant-related purposes) and saw that we pay 100% of her husband's insurance, too, but in the end it's not something I can fix, so whatever. Our dental is great!

[Nick Ink]

I had my annual opthalmologist's appointment today, coming hot on the heels of my now-annual MRI and endocrinology tests. Anyway, it all came back good so that's another year on from my big op (it was back in 08 for those who remember) with the all clear.

Man, I hate those visual field tests though - you know those ones where you sit in a dark room wearing an eyepatch, staring into a dish at a point of light, and clicking a buzzer whenever you detect something in your peripheral vision. I get quite anxious about the really tiny dots. I like the other tests though, and I've pretty much memorized those coloured-dot number books by now.

My opthalmologist is a nice lady too, so it's good to talk to her afterwards. When I went into her office today she had my records on the computer and started marvelling at the X-rays of my 'Birmingham Hip' - she's recently had a hip replacement herself and said she was 'more interested in bones than brains these days'. 

I, of course, was able to oblige her with interesting histories on both counts.

[Nick Ink]

This is it, by the way. The hip, I mean. Not the brain:

[Ignatius]

It's always nice to read some good news in this thread to balance the "oh god what is wrong with me and how wrong is it" posts.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you're doing well and keeping on top of the follow-up. Positive interactions with the NI medical staff are a bonus.

Meanwhile, I got the bill for my ankle from a few weeks back, and it's really not that bad. About a week's worth of pay, and I don't even work that hard or earn that much at this point. Certainly not going to bust my bank account, in any case.

[RavingLunatic]

Man, I hate those visual field tests though - you know those ones where you sit in a dark room wearing an eyepatch, staring into a dish at a point of light, and clicking a buzzer whenever you detect something in your peripheral vision. I get quite anxious about the really tiny dots. I like the other tests though, and I've pretty much memorized those coloured-dot number books by now.

Glad to hear everything went well, Nick. I used to work in an optometrist's office and used to run those tests on people all the time. It's harder than you think getting some people to hold their heads still. Then you're supposed to look straight ahead, but some people's eyes would wander all over the place. I remember once when this dude came in who didn't seem to have any eye movement whatsoever; it was almost creepy. I don't believe he was a sniper though.


Does anybody know if there is a variety of bi-polar disorder where there's no manic phase? I seem to have something like that. For about 10 days, say, from September 2nd to the 12th, I felt great, and since then I've felt absolutely horrible, to the point where I think I'm going to have to drop out of my teaching classes. I can't concentrate or function much at all. And I've been this way for a long time now. I'll feel relatively normal for a week, maybe a bit longer, then I'll feel utterly miserable for a week. This makes it impossible for me to even think about getting a decent, satisfying job, and it pretty much makes developing friendships or relationships unthinkable.

[Greg Nog]

Does anybody know if there is a variety of bi-polar disorder where there's no manic phase?

Bipolar II: Electric Boogaloo?  My ex was diagnosed with it, and seemed to be plagued with the particular type of misery you're describing.

[jess]

Bipolar II has hypomania instead of mania, but hypomania is basically just mania that's functional, as opposed to mania which is defined as dysfunctional. Still has symptoms like decreased need for sleep, elevated mood and/or irritability, rapid speech, feelings of increased ability ("I can do everything!"—and often people in hypomanic phases are really productive), etc. So if that sounds familiar, then it's quite possible, and might suggest different types of medication than typical antidepressants. If you're not having something like that though, then it's still probably unipolar depression of some sort. I mean, it's certainly possible that neurologically, depression like that is somehow more related to bipolar disorder, hence the shifts, but diagnostically, it wouldn't be bipolar at all, since psychological diagnoses are based in these sets of specific symptoms, not underlying brain chemistry, since we know so little about the latter.

Also, while bipolar II is hypomania interspersed with major depressive episodes, cyclothymia is a disorder with hypomania and dysthymic (mild depressive) episodes. Few people actually get treatment for it though, because for the most part, having cyclothymia is not that problematic and may even be advantageous if you have a career where you can afford to binge-work and then recover.

[RavingLunatic]

I wouldn't describe myself as having anything like hypomania, so I guess I probably don't even fit the definition of bi-polar II. I mean, that would be much better than what I generally have, which is long bouts of disabling depression followed by more-or-less normal periods. It's just that it's been like this for so long, with the weeklong (or longer) periods where I'm so miserable, and there's never any reason for it whatsoever.

This week, I can tell you exactly when it happened: I felt fine Monday morning, then over the course of about three hours I gradually got worse, and by late afternoon I was feeling horrible and have been that way since. Monday evening I could predict with pretty near certainty that the rest of the week was going to be awful. It seems like the sort of pattern there should be a name for I'd think, but maybe not. I wouldn't mind trying anti-depressants or mood stabilizers, but I don't want to take anything that's essentially addictive, and SSRI/SNRI's are flat-out addictive for me. And when I went on them, no one gave any indication that that would be the case, which pisses me off a bit. It may be that most other people don't have problems stopping taking them though I suppose. 

[auto-da-fey]

Also, while bipolar II is hypomania interspersed with major depressive episodes, cyclothymia is a disorder with hypomania and dysthymic (mild depressive) episodes. Few people actually get treatment for it though, because for the most part, having cyclothymia is not that problematic and may even be advantageous if you have a career where you can afford to binge-work and then recover.

wow, I just read up on this a bit (the term is new to me--thanks, jess), and I feel like I've been hailed. though I do imagine the off-kilter structure of my work enables or at least facilitates some of those patterns.

and good luck, RL; no insights, but wishing you well.

[RavingLunatic]

Also, got a call today informing me that I've been rejected for health insurance. I doubt if this happens to very many other 27-year-olds. I was trying to get some kind of emergency health insurance ($5500 deductible, probably with all sorts of scams and denials for treatment buried in there), but apparently I can't even get that. When, um, is it going to be illegal to do that sort of thing? Is it not until 2014 (assuming the Republicans don't kill it outright before then)?

[elpollodiablo]

Seeing a dermatologist tomorrow. This shit on my hands never really got any worse or better; the configuration and expression of it changes from day-to-day, but the general coverage, annoyance, and embarrassment doesn't. Gah. I hope this isn't some long-term chronic thing.

So the answer, I found out today, was bed bugs. My life is going to be pretty unpleasant for the next few weeks. I'd really like my money back from all those doctors.

[peacocks]

After all this time that is what you find out! What a gip!

[Ignatius]

Geez, I'm sorry, pollo.

[Greg Nog]

bed bugs.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Trousers and Pat]

FUCK. Terrible news.

[elpollodiablo]

Yep. We figure they traveled back from NYC with us in August, but who knows. It doesn't matter.

Really I'm trying not to be cynical or too het up about it, but I am pretty exquisitely angry about all that time and money I spent with all of those different medical professionals. Steroids, antibiotics, creams, allergy medicines, biopsies, blood word, prick tests (LOL). And not a single one of them even advanced the notion that it might be bed bugs. The fucking exterminator took one look at my hand as he came in the door and said "Oh yeah bed bugs for sure."

[Dick]

Man, fuck.  I'm really sorry.  That makes me feel more bad for you than if you'd actually had some skin disease or something.

[elpollodiablo]

Yeah. I mean I'm grateful that we're in a position where it won't hurt us too much financially and that I only have a school & teaching schedule to work around instead of a real job, but just thinking about what I have to do in the next couple of days is pretty overwhelming. Wash everything. Dry clean everything. Pack up all the books--I don't even really know what I'm going to do with them. It's hard to decide even where to start.

[peacocks]

I have a herniated disc in my neck, yay.

[Greg Nog]

Ach!  Sorry, peacocks.

[Thermofusion]

Ouch

[Lucy]

Sounds miserable! Feel better!