Jack of Many Trades

Health Things and also Not Health Things

Originally posted: 2022-10-20

I've got... a bit and a half going on at the moment.

Bug got Covid and then P and finally last week I tested positive too. I guess it was going to happen eventually and so far it's basically just been a cold but I'm mostly exhausted. Like didn't work from home the first three days this week because I'm exhausted and so far today sitting up is just bullshit, man, it's bullshit. It's possible it's going so hard because just before it became an issue I got my flu vaccine and my bivalent booster. In retrospect that was not the best timing.

Bug was sick for all of a morning and then was fine, which was why we didn't think it was likely to be Covid until P got sick. P's got a persistent cough from theirs but is otherwise recovered.

The air quality in the PNW is shit again, which isn't helping P's cough at all.

I had to reschedule my MRI, so now that's on hold until next month. Which I guess anything that doesn't get done until the end of the year increases my chances of getting through 2022 without surgery so I shouldn't complain. But I'm gonna, because of why wouldn't I complain?

Speaking of scheduling, I'm supposed to see an endocrinologist because my thyroid's apparently decided it wants to be silly. Unsurprisingly, as my mom also had thyroid issues and ultimately had hers out, so that gets to go on the Why Is This Genetic list along with Breast Cancer But Not Breast Cancer Gene and everything else. But one of the thyroid tests got missed (they did the TSH and T4 but not the T3 for some reason), and my doctor's office wants me to get that last test before they refer me to endocrinology, and I am trying to be like "look but I'm not supposed to come in again until I'm 20 days post covid, and I know it'll be longer than that before I can get in with endocrinology, so can I maybe get referred now and get on the schedule while I wait to be able to do the bloodwork".

Still waiting for a response to that.

update! within ten minutes of posting, I got a note that the doctor cannot refer me without a T3 so... just gotta wait. Awesome.

On the upside, I can now schedule dentist appointments online, and for some reason that makes me like 400% more able to schedule appointments, so I have a dental appointment scheduled in the next couple of weeks too.

And in case that wasn't enough, we're also scheduling an appraisal to see if we can get a bridge HELOC for a down payment on a new place without having to make a contingent offer, because units in our building our selling for more than we paid even though the market is cooling? And I don't know why? But if we find the perfect opportunity it'd be nice to be able to jump on it.

Also scheduled: a professional organizer for Bug's Samhain present because my kid is weird and I love her and we still haven't figured out how to make her room work for her. We're really, really hoping that a neutral third party will be able to talk to her about decluttering stuff in a way we haven't been able to. We found someone reasonably-prices via TaskRabbit and it's not cheap but none of my tricks that work for me have worked for Bug so far, and I'd leave it go except that she gets frustrated with it. So that's happening on Samhain, before trick or treating.

Election is coming up and our ballots should be arriving in the mail today. I get to vote against slavery this year, which is a hell of a thing to be saying in 2022. Specifically it's removing slavery as a punishment for a crime from the Oregon constitution. We also get to vote on universal healthcare, not letting state reps who hide in Idaho to keep from having to do their jobs run from office again, and the mildest possible additional gun control but hey, At Least It's Something.

Fun fact: You can also vote against slavery in Vermont, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama this year!

I also get to vote for a legislator I genuinely appreciate, Ron Wyden, (the guy goes to DEFCON, I can respect that) and the candidate I hope will be our first lesbian governor, Tina Kotek, and for our congressional representative, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who ran against a much more moderate Democrat in the primaries and won, which, fuck, we need more of that right now.

Mostly that is just to say that I'm weirdly excited about a midterm election and I hope y'all are too because midterms are important.