Week Ending 6/28

Hey, it's me...

Sorry, this week got away from me and I forgot until just now that it was Sunday. 

So, on the plus side, we have not been washed away by flooding (touch wood). We've had some... exciting... weather and all, but we're still good at the moment (touch wood again). Staying safe and keeping alert.

On the minus side, I feel like crap. I think I'm having a bad reaction to my new medication... or possibly to a combination of my new medication and fatty foods. Either way, I've had a couple of really, really rough nights and some long days. 

To make matters worse, I made the mistake of updating my Sims game, which is now crashing all over the place. I'm sure it's a problem with one of my mods, but I couldn't easily figure out which one. I'm having to my very first 50/50 test of my mods folder. That involves pulling out all my mods, dividing them into batches, putting each batch back in in turn and testing to see if the game crashes. When it does, you pull out the last batch, divide it in half and put half of it back... repeat until the game no longer crashes and you identify the bad mod. Then move on to the next batch. I've been working on this for two days and I'm about halfway through my mods folder. It's not exactly fun.

I also had a complete emotional meltdown earlier in the week... combination of stress, fatigue, frustration, hunger, nausea, loneliness and just general misery. (Not helped by the conviction that I'm just talking to ghosts here... but, you know, at least she listens. She always listens.)

So, yeah, rough week. Not all bad, but definitively rough.

I'm going back to taking it easy. Maybe watching a movie later.

Onward

Health Insurance is Bad Business

 A recent Facebook post by a friend got me thinking about health insurance. I wrote a lengthy comment on it, which I've decided to copy here...

Private medical insurance should be illegal. More, it simply shouldn't be a thing at all.

The basic idea of insurance is that a group of people pay into a common pool. In the event of a disater, the pool pays out to those impacted. The key part of this is "in the event of disaster." So, with car insurance, we all pay in and if we are in an accident, the insurance pays for (some of) the damage. That works for everyone, because more people pay in than have accidents. So, the insurance company makes money because it takes in more than it pays out. Yeah, they still play games with trying to avoid paying out because people are greedy but the general system works.

Health insurance isn't like that. Medical expenses are not occasional accidents. Medical expenses are regular occurances. You go to the doctor at least a few times a year. Everyone gets sick at least a couple of times a year. Because we live longer now, everyone ends up with chronic medical conditions that need regular medications and care. So the model of "everyone pays into the pool and only a few people draw on the pool" doesn't work! Everyone pays in and everyone draws! It simply does not work as a for profit model. It's a bad business. It's only profitable because the system has been rigged to make it profitable.

This has been me, stating the obvious. 

Onward

Week Ending 6/21

Hey, it's me...

It's been a mostly quiet week. I've been doing some writing but came to a decision. I had been publishing a chapter every week for my SimLit - In Moonlight. I've decided to take a pause, so I can work on the final chapters of the story without the self-imposed pressure of needing to get something done every week. I've actually gotten more written as a result.

A bit of exitment... was woken up around 4:30AM on Thurday by the tornado sirens. We're OK. Here, it just rained a lot and by morning, it was clear and sunny. The worst of the storm were well north of us.

That's really it. Like I said, quiet week.

Onward

Week Ending 6/14

Hey, it's me...

Another week gone by. A week of good days and bad days. A week of learning new things. Let's talk about that...

I've mentioned before that I have type-2 diabetes. My blood sugar hovers just over the line of what is called "pre-diabetes" which means it's higher than my doctors, or I, would like but it's not dangerously high. I've managed to keep it there by doing the "small" things like cutting out candy and soda and sugary good, managing the size of my meals, etc. That's kept it steady, but not brought it down. I finally decided that I wanted to try out some medication for it. Partly, to improve my blood sugar and partly, I must admit, to allow myself to feel that I could maybe eat the occasional donut or slice of cake without guilt. 

The new medication takes some time for my body to adjust to. The initial side effects were not fun, including basically knocking me out within an hour of taking the pills. However, after a couple of days, my body did adjust and I was able to take it and feel ok. The side effects are now minimal (knock on wood). At the doctors recommendation, I am slowly building up the dosage to the minimal recommended levels. 

As part of this whole journey, the doctor got me a prescription for the means to test my blood sugar. I'm not testing after every meal, because I don't actually need to monitor it that closely. It's really just for my own curiosity and reference at this point. So, me being me, for the past two weeks I've been testing every day in the morning before I eat and recording the results. 

At first, I felt encouraged but as things remain stable just above that pre-diabetes line, I've found myself getting frustrated. It wasn't improving. The numbers would dip down for a day and then shoot back up and stay up for days. I found myself wondering what the point was... which was when I realized that this is like trying to lose weight. If you monitor your weight every day, you're going to get frustrated. You're going to lose 3 pounds on Monday and then gain 6 on Wednesday. You're going to wonder why you bother putting yourself through all this and you're going to want to give up.

The solution is not to give up. The solution is to stop obsessively watching the numbers. Big changes in complex systems take time. Just do the work. Setbacks happen. Just keep going, doing your best... because that's all you can do.

... and this turned into a life lesson about all kinds of things without me intending it to. 

So, I'm going to end on a note that makes me look smart. :)

Onward

Week Ending 6/7

 Hey, it's me...

This will be short, because I'm totally worn out. Pretty good week. Did some writing. Getting some rest. Monitoring my blood sugar, which is new and exciting. We'll talk more about that later.

Now, I'm going to rest some more.

Onward