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I mean, we knew, but it's nice to hear so succinctly

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Me coming back to a conversation several hours later and changing the subject: Also--

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Fresh Pots - Vincent Giarrano , 2024.

American , b. 1960 -

Oil , c. 18 x 24 in.

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This is revolutionary. Never again will we have a Chernobyl disaster or a Fukushima tragedy where old people literally sacrifice their remaining life in order to take care of the reactor. Every single one needs to adapt to this immediately

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Drew some of the rabbits that have stopped by my yard (only with different colors).

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Post on my dash about medical debt reminded me of the time tumblr saved me two grand. I don't think I told y'all about it because I am out of the habit of posting everything I do on tumblr lol

So. Last December, I had a bad cavity filled, and about a week later, I woke up with half of my face paralyzed. Which, as I'm sure you can imagine, freaked me the fuck out. Fortunately I had some level-headed Discord friends who a) told me what Bell's palsy was so I could look it up and b) reminded me to call my dentist for an emergency appointment. Dentist was also pretty sure it was Bell's palsy, but urged me to go to the emergency room to get checked out, because one-sided facial paralysis is also a possible indicator of a stroke. And you don't fuck around with strokes.

Bell's palsy, if you, like me of 6 months ago, don't know, is a harmless paralysis/muscle weakness on one side of the face that can be caused by a variety of things. It usually goes away on its own after a few weeks but also you can speed up the process with steroids.

I was pretty sure I was not having a stroke, because I'm Red Cross first aid certified and I know the symptoms of a stroke, and while one-sided facial paralysis is one of them, I didn't have any of the others. Also, I had quit my shitty job in October, which meant I had a shiny new marketplace health insurance plan and hadn't even touched my deductible. But I called my parents from the car and they urged me to get checked out and promised to help me pay off the emergency room bill if I needed it, because they're good people and they love me even if they drive me crazy sometimes. So off I went to the nearest emergency room.

Emergency room staff also didn't think I was having a stroke, because I waited ALL AFTERNOON, periodically having a new person come up to me and ask me to smile, hold both arms out to the side, press down on their hands, and tell them what month and year it was. (They don't ask who the president is anymore. Hmm, I wonder why.) One guy had me drink a cup of water while he watched. I cannot stress enough that I did not have any medical tests other than a physical examination: no CT scans or MRIs, no IV drugs or blood draws, nothing.

I get diagnosed with Bell's palsy and given a prescription for Prednisone. And then they give me a phone number and tell me to talk to this person about administrative stuff. So I call, and the dude on the phone verifies my name and date of birth and insurance information, and then he says, "It looks like your copay today is going to be $2400. How would you like to pay?"

I am, to this day, kind of impressed that he didn't even stutter over that number, but I assume working in a medical call center drains your entire soul. At this point, it's about 7pm, and I've been in the hospital since 2pm, and I'm stressed because half my face doesn't work, and I know that I can't afford $2400 because I quit my shitty job with nothing lined up back in October. But, I still remember every tumblr post I've ever read about health insurance and the medical system and how you can negotiate down a bill. I am not looking forward to this process, it sounds like a pain in the ass, but the alternative is paying $2400, so I say the magic words: "Send me an itemized bill."

I kinda expected the guy to try and get me to pay up front, but he just says "Ok" and finishes up the process. I get discharged, go to the only open pharmacy at that time of night to get my Prednisone, have the pharmacist tell me the prescription isn't written right and he can't fill it, go home, and have a screaming sobbing meltdown because I have used up every single milligram of cope in my entire body. (I got my steroids eventually, and the Bell's palsy cleared up in a couple weeks.)

A few weeks later, I get the bill in the mail. I brace myself and open it...

$300.

Turns out, after going through insurance and processing and everything, they couldn't actually find $2400 worth of stuff to charge me for. Shocking! Who could have predicted!

I might have been able to argue it down even more, but I was fed up with entire thing, so I paid the $300 just to be fucking done with it. Sometimes the cheapest way to pay is with money.

What if I had paid that $2400 up front? Do I think they would have been like, "Oh, oops!" and refunded me $2k? Well, possibly, but I am not optimistic.

So, thank you to everyone who has ever posted about navigating the US healthcare system on tumblr. Because of you, I knew how to handle this situation even when I was tired and stressed.

Don't forget to ask for an itemized bill, folks.

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Brachycephalus pitanga, by renato martins

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some bookish ask you might not have been asked before ✨

is there a book you think everyone should read?

is there a book you wish you could delete from the collective memory?

what is your opinion on book clubs? are you part of one or would you join one?

do you have a favourite non-fiction book?

how do you get your bookish news?

if you had to choose a book club read, what book would you pick and why?

for each word, name the first book that comes to mind: home, sky, friendship, time, dream

is there a book that deserved a sequel but didn’t get one?

do you have any favourite topes in books?

do you hate any tropes in books?

did you ever read a book that changed you as a person or influenced the way you interact with the world?

are there any books that are considered terrible but you love?

is there a book or book series you only read because you felt like you had to and not because you were genuinely interested in it?

let’s be honest, do you judge a book by its cover?

do you start book series before the last book has been published?

do you marathon-read book series or do you take breathers in between instalments?

pick a book for each of the four season. why did you chose these books?

what is your favourite book with a non-western setting?

do you enjoy retellings and what is your opinion on modern retellings?

what author—dead or alive—would you want to meet and discuss (their) books with?

do you annotate your books? do you have a fixed system?

do you own/collect any bookish merch?

how many unread books do you own?

is there a book you really want to read but still haven’t read yet?

do your prefer buying used or new books or do you get all your books from the library?

have you seen any screen adaptations based on books that are better than the book? if so, which ones?

do you own multiple editions of a book? if so, which ones?

do you own any signed copies of books?

what is the scariest book you’ve ever read?

do you listen to audiobooks? if so, which are your favourite ones?

would you rather read a book with terrible writing but a good story OR a book with a terrible story but good writing?

would you rather read a book with boring characters but an interesting plot OR a book with a boring plot but interesting characters?

would you rather not be able to read any new books ever again OR reread any books ever again?

would you rather forget your favourite book(s) forever but never read a bad book again for the rest of your life OR remember your favourite book(s) but only ever read mediocre books for the rest of your life?

would you rather be able to only read the first chapter of a book OR only read the last chapter of a book?

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currently watching Belphie eat dry, old leaves while gagging. nobody is making him do this

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I am always thinking about every line of dialogue in the first 50 seconds of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

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Oh my god we actually did it.

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painkiller that has no actual analgesic effect but just makes you an undiscriminating masochist for a little while

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It’s so funny how people forget what certain dog breeds were bred for. A dachshund named Valerie has been marooned on a remote part of Kangaroo Island since she ran away from a campsite in 2023 and everyone in the comments was like “that is the last dog breed I would expect to survive on its own for 500 days”. Hmm. I don’t know if it’s just me and I’ve met absolute freak dachshunds my entire life but they’re tenacious little motherfuckers with an incredible prey drive. I’m more worried about the critically endangered endemic Kangaroo Island dunnart population than I am Valerie. No large predators, several species of small mammal, temperatures consistently between 55° and 75°? She’s the queen of the island now. All small marsupials quake at the sound of her footsteps.