Couch 230: Decent Communications

I've been working in my Dad's daycare center that he owns for 3 weeks - was diagnosed with strep throat today - I'm certain I caught it from one of the little "angels". The kids are such germ factories.

Ugh, hope you feel better soon!


But yeah, germ factories. My daughter caught hand, foot, and mouth disease (much less serious than it sounds, but rather miserable) during her trial week in daycare at around 9 months... followed by most every other main childhood illness in the first year. On the plus side, she got very few illnesses in kindergarten, when kids who hadn't been any kind of daycare or school before that got it all.

@Daffydungle its not his life! My brother and his wife are / were so far up my poor nephew's butt. Just like our parents were up ours. Your doing great.

Thanks QM, SD and Una, i feel he is trying to stir up drama again. I am not biting.

I just made something completely delicious - air fried cauliflower. Cut it up into florets or whatever and sprinkled with a little olive oil, added some different spices and air fried for 15 minutes, tossing every 3 minutes to cook evenly. H loves it too. He said it is better than popcorn and wants me to make it at least once a week! It's a little funny though because it totally shrinks when you air fry it.

Could I come over?

Omg, Couchies... if any of you remember what I shared about my USA friend? Where she recently gained access to a Patient Portal and had apparently not been told about a stroke and non-alcoholic liver disease?

I checked with her and she made a Facebook post. It wasn't wrong, they didn't tell her, and it wasn't in her hospital discharge/release papers.

Her liver is falling - non alcoholic chronic liver disease, with corresponding signs on bloodwork over a 5 year period. CT scan noted stroke.

They didn't tell her. She took the results to Urgent Care as her regular GP is super booked, and the doctor said likely Drug Induced Liver Damage.

Accidental overdoses of Tylenol and NSAIDs since teenage years as her mother's doctor apparently suggested that as my friend has excruciating menstrual pain from endometriosis.

She's in Arizona.

Ooh, something I want to try. Don't have an air fryer but I made carrot fries in the toaster oven.

Roasted Carrot Fries Recipe: How to Make It | Taste of Home

That's incredibly sad, I'm so sorry to hear that news. Is there any hope for transplant? I hope the best for her.

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I don't know yet, but I'll be checking in on her when I can. I've left her a message offering validation and asking how I can help.

She is currently waiting on lab test results. Her post mentioned thinking of a Go Fund Me, but she's concerned about platform fees. She lost unemployment benefits because she tried to work then had to quit due to a wide range of symptoms and is ineligible for future payments unless she works for a minimum of 6 months. She plans to file for disability, but that can take a long time. People have offered to Venmo / Cash App.

That's truly awful that they didn't tell her for all that time. This being the United States, she might be able to sue them for damages to cover medical costs. Particularly the fact that this was happening over 5 years and they didn't tell her. Maybe it's not something that could have been reversible, but she might have been able to stop any further damage or have gotten on a transplant list.

Maybe someone else could set up a GoFundMe for her and cover the fees on it? You're correct that disability can take a long time--even if she gets approved quickly (I imagine she might in this situation), it could take a few months for the payments to start (from my understanding).

I'll suggest. So far most of the comments on her thread are from people who don't know what could help, so I'm hoping it's just the time of day, and that she'll get more comments.

Note to self, for like the 165th time: do not try to have emotional conversations with your mother.

Between my chair's outing me and my mother, I'd actually ask Info for a session before our next one (I scheduled it after my return so it could be in-person) so I can rant and get stuff away from me, but she's on vacation.

Hugs if wanted. Rant away here if it could help?

Hugs to all who need/want.

Thanks, Artie.

Good timing. Today is hard.
Why do people think it's OK to make light of things that aren't remotely funny?

We filed my husband's disability in September, they did some additional testing in December, and he was approved and funds hit our bank early February. I thought that was actually rather quick, and we were fortunate he was approved the first time. Liver failure, I would suspect, would be a pretty straight-forward approval. Sounds like her medical info in on a patient portal which is really helpful; that's how my husband's was, and it made for quick review and approval.

In the meantime, she probably qualifies for Medicaid if she is unable to work due to this. I do not know the process for that though.

Family members set up a Go Fund Me following my husband's death (not really something I was interested in, but they insisted people wanted a way to help - my husband's death hit a lot of people really hard). I didn't find the fees to be terribly high, but I didn't pay too much attention to that end of things.

Thanks, but I don’t want to inflict myself on you guys—things can get pretty ugly when i rant. Better to pay Info to hear it. That way she can afford more vacations.

To add to my mood, I’ve also just had confirmed what I long suspected: that I’d been rejected for at least one tenure-track academic position because of my disability. I’m sure there were others.

It was so long ago that it doesn’t really matter now that I’m settled, but I have to say, everyone talks about the problems of being a woman in academia, yet even as a woman I’ve had far more trouble as someone with a disability.

I was planning to do my apology today. I was going to do a brief video. Yay! We got through it! You got As and Bs, and if you didn't get one on the draft, you can still get one on the final version! And you're finished! Oh by the way I'm sorry if I hurt anybody's feelings. Congratulations on graduating!

I just don't feel up to it. A brief email, instead?

I feel sure my chair would prefer a video, but I don't want to. I can be fake cheerful in an email way more easily than in a video. My fake cheer is all gone, today. And I don't recall her specifically asking for a video.

And no, it's not really an option to not apologize at all. They can't fire me over it, but they can nitpick over ever tiny thing and make my life less pleasant, which I would prefer to avoid.

I'm not sure what to say in the email. Oh, well, it will come. I'll email it to a colleague for review, first.

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That's some BS, @@. Your disability should not be used as an excuse to prevent you from progressing in your career. Surely there's something that covers that in the ADA? (Not that I know anything about that...)

ADA doesn’t cover attitudes. You can always give one reason to not hire someone when the real reason is something else, whatever that may be. That’s what this situation was.

That's true, but definitely doesn't make it right. I'm sorry you're having to deal with all this.

New to this thread so I’m not sure I’m doing it right but I’m assuming I just talk about myself? It’s almost august and that’s a really weird feeling for me. A lot of process. I’ve been looking for a new hobby to start and I can’t find one. I’ve done painting and yoga before but I’m looking for something different. Maybe I’ll try crocheting?

Welcome to the couch! We have a crochet master so ask any questions you might have @artiesthesequal

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Welcome to the couch! We pretty much talk about anything and everything here, well, within the site guidelines and stuff of course.

I enjoy crocheting - it's very relaxing for me. My favorite grandma taught me when I was young (and now I'm old ). If you're new to it, there's lots of videos on youtube! I'm always up for talking about crocheting! I just now printed out a pattern for a crocodile stitch sunflower square - once you're up and running, there's tons of free patterns online. I frequently use patterns from Ravelry. it's free to join, and while they have paid patterns on there, there is an extensive amount of free ones too. A couple of my favorite patterns to make I downloaded free from there (slippers and a baby afghan).


awww shucks!