kistha

So, my birthday has been really difficult since I became an adult. I had pretty much given up on it since it seemed cursed, but when the Scott and I got together he declared war on my birthday; and the first one we spent together was great, a night out at Entros a restaurant filled with games, puzzles, costume activities that was so awesome I can't believe it closed. Then he gave me my lost 8th birthday and that was awesome too. The others were good, but not horrible...and the best was three years ago when I had a Goth/80's Skate Party and the following day some of my girlfriends and I spent the day at Olympus Spa getting the full treatment.

Last year was bad everything went wrong, and was a mess. This year wins the Fuck You award though.

It stared with plans not getting set in advance due to unemployment, new job, sudden travel, a 25 day long cold, a  minor car accident and a plumbing leak. Finally deciding to do an all call to go to the local Skate King's Saturday night open skate we sent out an all call to friends and asked them to join us. By Friday we had two yes, fair number of no and a number of unknowns. And I was getting concerned about the birthday curse coming back. Friday night at the dance practice party Grant badgered me until I gave up the fact that it was my birthday the next day and the curse stuff. Then he was upset because somehow my birthday wasn't marked, and I should have told him a week ago. So then he had everyone sing happy birthday and a group hug from everyone there which got all awkward. Then there were problems with a couple of students and me and all-in-all it was a lame night, no matter how hard the teachers tried to make it a good one. By Saturday afternoon we were down to one yes, and a lot of nos and a number of unknowns. I was feeling down and less than awesome when the doorbell rang and someone had sent me flowers! rhienelleth had sent them to me knowing how unhappy I was about the whole birthday thing this year, and just because she's that kind of awesome. I wanted to just cancel and stay home but with all the unknowns, it wasn't really feasible. So after an indulgent Taco Bell crap food splurge (and the Doritos tacos are awesome - second highlight of the day) we got ready and headed to the Skate King.

Where I got out of the car turned and the door closed and latched on my right ring finger. I dropped the keys, opened the door and got my hand free. After that there was a lot of swearing, a little crying out of sheer frustration and pain, and a call to the one person we knew was coming. Ultimately we finally got the new insurance web page to give us a in network hospital 10 miles away - since at this point I was pretty sure it was broken. We get to the ER, and sure enough it's busted. The tip is crushed, but together. Then the husband gave me my present; tickets to Amaluna, third highlight of the day. There were a couple of priceless texts from a couple of friends. Eventually we found an open pharmacy and got the uber Advil prescription. Stopped and picked up a Veggie Mondo Burrito at Taco de Mar came home and had dinner with TV and then I went to bed with my first pain pill on board. And I still managed to be under my calorie count for the day.

The pain pill turned out to be useless. But I am so very glad for my high pain tolerance, and glad that the pain is already about half as bad. Managed my usual stretches and yoga with only a few exceptions. So now we go into the next four weeks figuring out how to live mostly left handed.

Oh, and birthdayless because even the husband gives up.

Today Ankhet who's been a bit peaky for the last month or so, was lethargic and breathing really heavily (since we have air conditioning, we knew it wasn't heat related) this afternoon and so we took her to VSC, the emergency vet we use.

After a look, an emergency ultrasound, fluid drain from the chest cavity and an x-ray - the diagnosis was carcinoma that had made very heavy inroads on the liver and the lungs. A month of survival on the outside (the rainbow and unicorn outside limit) and even after the fluid drain she wasn't breathing easily, she was laboring to breathe, not massively, but enough to look uncomfortable.

We decided based on Ankhet's personality, that she'd rather go now, while it was just uncomfortable. And, when Dr. Polly said that she could be behind that decision, that it was bad - we knew we had made the right decision.

We spent some time petting her, and then had them give her the injection. We held her, and loved her.

And now she's gone. I'm going to miss her so much.

You can see her in her album here.

Let me be clear - I'm not in a mood for discussion or debate about caring or not caring about people being slaughtered for their beliefs over an election that was taken. I'm not a big fan of this kind of thing, and until my mood gets better (shitty day for me yesterday, they're having a shittier day) it really is better to just leave me alone. So if you care, or just want to look - here are the two links I'm putting out.

Seriously, do not comment about how I'm wrong, or whatever. You will just piss me off. Wait until I'm rational - it's best.

IF you have more links, feel free to add them in comments, but be aware this journal has a very limited audience.

Why You Should Care

And, this post:

Why I will not let it go, (and neither should you)

If you're the kind, send them a prayer, and if you don't do what it is that you do instead. They can use all the help and sympathy we have to give.

So.

Here I am a user in good standing with my medical insurance. A good person who's never been convicted of any kind of crime, much less a felony involving drugs. Seriously, prescription medications have nearly killed me, I'm not about to experiment. And yet when I visit the pharmacy for a nonprescription drug.....

I also have allergies that none of the prescription drugs work for - or they have scary, scary intolerable side effects, or best of all they are both. So I'm on over the counter Drixoral 12 hour. I take one a day, and it's not very good for me, but I can't function easily without them. Drixoral's main ingredient is Pseudoephedrine which is also a main component of Crystal Meth. So every time I go to the drugstore, I get to feel like a drug addict. They take down my driver's license information, my address, my phone number. Then they take 15 minutes to check the hand written logs to discover if I am indeed allowed to have my antihistamine. It's irritating, it's time consuming, and it's demeaning, and I'd love to see a study proving that it's cut into the production and selling of Crystal Meth. Oh, and Sudafed even changed their main decongestant to a non Psuedoephedrine formula - which is where they got their name. Must be cutting into business, this documentation so I can't be the only one who's annoyed.

Then take my Insurance company...

I'm on birth control. My doctor writes out my prescription for 3 months at a time, so that I can choose to only have my period every three months. (Whoo-hoo) Considering that my period has the nickname of "Assassin of Joy" for it's habit of waiting for or arriving weeks earlier/later in order to ruin that vacation (like one on a house boat, or a tropical island) you planned this is a pretty important function for me. But.....my insurance won't fill it for 3 months at a time, only 1 month at a time. Why you ask? Because they want me to get it in the mail, and if I mail order it, they will fill it three months at a time. WTF?


So, I can't buy a nonprescription drug, meaning that it isn't a drug that needs to be regulated, over the counter without my ID, and a mini background check every time I do make the purchase. But I should get controlled, regulated prescriptions sent to me through the mail. Which, I might add is far from secure. Especially once it is in the mailbox - the typical house mailbox in a cluster with no locks, and not close to anyone's house.

Yeah. Whatever.

Have I mentioned lately that common sense isn't so common?

Go here for new information on the fraudulent woman's clinics that are religiously based anti-abortion places in disguise. As often is the case on this topic she says it much better than I would.

Go, read and be educated.

Then do something.

Some fun news bits over the past couple of days:

Environmentalists, Industry and Natives work together to save Rainforest and Spirit Bears

Intact Tomb in Valley of Kings (Don't get too excited though)

And,

Giant Rabbits!!!

The Cowgirl Trip: ( Explained. )

So, I'll be leaving Sunday morning at an unholy hour of the morning to fly to Phoenix AZ, and then drive (or more accurately fight over who will actually drive, and for how long) to Gila NM. I won't return until the following Saturday night late and will be out of cell and computer range. There will be a phone for emergencies, but basically for a week I'll be totally incommunicado. I'm taking the laptop and will attempt to write entries on a daily basis but we'll see...I'm likely to be exhausted at the end of the day.

Here's to hoping it's as good as I want it to be....

See you all on the other side.