Often this sort of thing causes no problems.
Sometimes it causes "mild discomfort," which OTC drugs can relieve. I've been on those for one billion years now.
Sometimes, eventually, as with me, it causes an ulcer, which is where we are now. I have a lovely ulcer, and am on some very nice drugs for it -- proton-pump inhibitors and something other drug, they work very nicely, but holy hell the regime is complicated.
I have to take them five times a day, and one of them I can't take with food; and one I must take with food but no other drugs; and meanwhile I have all the other drugs I must take (because I am still, always, a recovering cancer patient); and then today I discovered, looking one of these drugs up, that it can interact with one of the other drugs I'm on -- the levothyroxine for my missing thyroid -- so now I have to call in on Monday and find out what to do about that.
On the other I sold a story last week -- yay! -- and today I received the contract for it and got paid for it.
Nothing like getting paid for writing. Absolutely the best!
6 comments:
Yay story!
boo ulcer :(
Kind of my feelings exactly!
Great news on the story! I'm very sorry about the health issues. That sounds awful!!
I also didn't know that you were a cancer surviver. My goodness you've been through a lot! Wow.
Yay about the story!
I'm so sorry about the ulcer and also didn't know you are a cancer survivor. Wow.
And please don't think you shouldn't share your health woes. I've just reached the age (and number of diagnoses) to see a link on health and go there first. Oh what does that say about me?
(By the way, thanks so much for the info about how you argued for the worth of creative writing pubs. It's really helped me think about what my colleagues need in order to see creative writing as worthwhile, assuming that can be done at all. Your comment to me has opened up a whole conversation in my head! Thank you!)
It was thyroid cancer, which -- as all my doctors kept telling me at the time -- is the kind of cancer you want to get if you're going to get cancer at all. Very survivable!
But I didn't have health insurance, being an impoverished graduate student, so while I did survive, it has wrecked my finances for life -- I foolishly struggled to pay off the medical debt for about twelve years, instead of declaring bankruptcy, because declaring bankruptcy wrecks your credit -- and then ended up having to declare bankruptcy anyway.
Spoilers: When you're trying to pay off that kind of debt, there's no way to keep from falling into more (and more and more) debt. Especially when, as someone with ongoing medical issues, you have huge medical bills you keep running up. (Here's what they don't tell you: You don't survive cancer and then you're okay -- you're just constantly surviving cancer. You'll always need medication, you'll always need check-ups and expensive body scans, and you'll never be able to say fuck it, I'll just risk going without that, because yeah, cancer.)
Anyway. Sorry. I can whine about this for HOURS. Fuck the American medical system.
Though our new health insurance is SO much better. The meds that used to cost me over a hundred dollars a month are down to $30 a month. Thanks, Obama!
Yay for the story and payment! Boo for the ulcer! And boo for super complicated medical regimes! And debt!
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