December 11, 2008

More Medical Fun

The other day I spent 3 hours driving around in blowing snow with maybe 200 feet of visibility in order to find the dentist who takes Medicaid. Mapquest fucked me right in the sigmoid colon and then turned around and didn't pay. You know how sometimes numbered streets also have names? Yeah. They gave the street's name but not its number, and the signs showed the number but not the name. Also, "Highway 5" is not the same thing as "County Road 5" except that it actually is.

Also, going 35 on the interstate is for stupids.

At the end of it all, I got my teeth cleaned and the dentist told me I need fillings. Either I developed three cavities in six months or the last guy missed them on my previous visit. Ah well, I can always use more needles in my gums.

Then today I saw the podiatrist about my arch pain and toe numbness when walking. He said I have good arches but they don't have much support, and slapped some wet plaster socks on my feet to make orthotic inserts. They'll come in the mail next week and then I have to break them in over a week or so. It sounds a bit draconian but whatevs, as long as I can look forward to someday being able to jog and walk without my shins catching fire I'll be a happy guy and suffer minor annoyances.

Next week I see a nurse-practitioner who has allergies training about my eye. I've been getting a firespot in the exact same place every other day for a week or more. Feels like grit is caught under the lid, but there isn't anything there. What really causes the sensation is chemosis--the conjunctiva swelling up in a bright red lump like an itchy, burning nipple on my freakin' eyeball. No idea what causes it but I have had it happen before when I lived in my sister's backyard party house. Dusty place, maybe that's the connection? We shall see.

I inked the pages today and went on to pencil another one. Why not? I'm slacking at the computer so I might as well catch up with pen and paper. I don't like how the art came out (forced my way through a block and it shows) but probably a bit of digital touching up will at least bring it up to standards. I can't worry too much about it because in the end it's only 2 out of 700+ pages, which brings the grand total of pages I can't stand to admit to drawing in my comic to 4. I'm a picky motherfucker, so that's actually not a bad track record at all.

The Zoloft seems to make me sleepy, but I need extra rest anyway. This cold is still kicking my ass. I've gone into the "dry hacking" phase, and it's so uncomfortable I've begun to almost long for those long nights where I would wake up with my entire body cocooned beneath a brittle crust of leaking snot. Fuck, but that's grim.

6 comments:

  1. I hate orthotics. And going to the dentist. :(

    According to an actual foot doctor guy we went to, my arches or whatever are perfectly fine and, well, archy. But my dad is under the impression that if he needs the damn things, so do I. So we went to some guy who in my opinion is a quack, whose examination consists of having you walk across the floor and step on some pad a few times, and judging by this, he can tell whether your feet are warped. Naturally, he told me I needed them. I mean, I doubt this guy would say I didn't need them even if there was no problem. I'm suspicious of health practitioners who can make a diagnosis in the space of forty-five seconds without actually examining a patient.

    And anyway, my feet don't hurt and my back doesn't hurt. So THERE.

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  2. I seem to get those firespots too when I get to extreme stages of my allergies, to the point where my conjunctiva actually swells so it looks like someone punched me in the eye. It's not pleasant. I find that those Clear Eyes moisturizing eyedrops help a bit.

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  3. This is not at all relevant to this post, unless you connect it by the tenuous thread of medical problems. Previously, you have mentioned that holding your drawing implements gives you intense carpal tunnel pain, or numb fingers (or both?!). I was reading a manga recently where the artist mentioned how her fingers used to go numb from how she gripped her pens. So she got this sponge grip thing that slides over them, and now with the improved grip, the numbness is gone! This may not be beneficial to you, but I thought I'd share just in case....

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  4. Just a quick question.
    I was watching the move Sicko and I was wondering if your medical plan is government run or private run and how much you trust it.
    I mean, I imagine that it must be good for the every day stuff (or else why would anyone buy into it) but after your accident, do you think it would serve you well for an even bigger issue?
    Curious since I'm a Canadian and I've never had to worry about medicine before. Frankly that movie scared the shit outta me.

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  5. ty_ping also writes...

    Oh and don't worry, I would totally marry you if you needed the insurance <3

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  6. It's a Medicaid program, so government-run. If that fails, I'm fucked... but then again, if Medicaid collapses it probably means we're *all* fucked, so at least I won't be alone :D

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