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I should have known better, but today I took my sore ankle to the doctor despite having vowed to wait a few more days. I've only had about four hours of sleep a night for the last two nights because of pain, and this morning it was bad enough that I left work at 9 am to get to the urgent care as soon as it opened.
So they took some X-rays, and I sat and fretted about how the hell much this was going to cost while waiting for the results. Said X-rays revealed absolutely nothing. So the doctor is basically saying to me, "It's probably because you're fat"--which, I was expecting this, and I am fat, and I know that this puts stress on feet, ankles, knees, etc., but it's still hard to take. Also, I know what the general sorefootedness of working retail all day while fat feels like, and this is different.
Then she starts wanting to order a bunch of blood tests, most of which are just general "wellness" and "omg you're fat you probably have diabetes!" tests, and the only one related to my ankle is a test for, of all things, gout. I'll need to come in for the tests, she says, and then schedule an appointment with my "regular" doctor (whom I last saw in 2011 and only saw at all due to having been hospitalized that year) to follow up, and dollar signs are spinning merrily in front of me and I say, "Um, I don't have health insurance. I can't do that."
At this point the doctor (or nurse practitioner, I'm not sure) is somewhat irked that I hadn't said right away that I didn't have insurance (like it's my fault that their usual patient check-in person was absent and they decided to skip the form-filling until later). She says "Well, okay, I won't order the tests now, but you have to make an appointment to see your doctor. If you don't have health insurance, sometimes you just have to cough up the bucks."
At which point, because I've been sitting there worrying and worrying about money and hoping that my damn ankle's going to get better without expensive anything, I start to get teary.
Doctor: What's the matter? What's the matter? Crying won't help anything.
Me: *cries more, in embarrassment*
(Who says something like that? My god. I know it's hard to deal with crying people, but what an awful, awful response. And between the humiliation and my tiredness and pain, I still haven't entirely pulled myself together. I was sniffling all through the checkout while they totted up my bill, and now at home I'm crying more, damn it.)
So, anyway, the upshot is that they put an Ace bandage around my ankle, gave me a prescription for a gout drug on the off chance (I'll wait a week and see if things get better before I even consider filling it), and charged me $114 after applying all the discounts they possibly could. Oh, and gave me a strong recommendation to get signed up at the sliding scale clinic, which process involves--I'm not joking--calling them on one particular day a month at a particular time and hoping you'll be among the lucky winners of a slot.
My ankle feels no better and the rest of me feels a whole lot worse.
My boss is letting me take the rest of today and tomorrow off, which is good except for how I don't get paid sick time, and I've missed one day of work already.
Which brings me to this: a couple of hundred dollars would make a huge difference to me right now, and I don't have any family I can go to for help. I hate to have to ask for you folks' help again, but I don't see what else I can do. So if you're able to contribute a few dollars towards the care, feeling, and medical bills of a Kit, I would be very very grateful. My PayPal is kindkit64@yahoo.com. Feel free to PM or email me (same email address) if you want more info about anything; I can explain why my job situation means I can't lose two and a half days' income, pay rent and car insurance and a $114 doctor's bill and still be able to eat, but I'd just as soon not do it in a public post.
Thanks again to anyone who is able to help, and thoughts of solidarity to anyone whose own finances mean they can't.
/distress call
Your regularly scheduled service of fannish musing and complaining will resume shortly.
ETA: Thank you all so much! I should be fine now financially, which is a huge relief. I'm crying again, but in the good way.
ETA 2: I'm screening all comments, which I should have done right away but I forgot.
So they took some X-rays, and I sat and fretted about how the hell much this was going to cost while waiting for the results. Said X-rays revealed absolutely nothing. So the doctor is basically saying to me, "It's probably because you're fat"--which, I was expecting this, and I am fat, and I know that this puts stress on feet, ankles, knees, etc., but it's still hard to take. Also, I know what the general sorefootedness of working retail all day while fat feels like, and this is different.
Then she starts wanting to order a bunch of blood tests, most of which are just general "wellness" and "omg you're fat you probably have diabetes!" tests, and the only one related to my ankle is a test for, of all things, gout. I'll need to come in for the tests, she says, and then schedule an appointment with my "regular" doctor (whom I last saw in 2011 and only saw at all due to having been hospitalized that year) to follow up, and dollar signs are spinning merrily in front of me and I say, "Um, I don't have health insurance. I can't do that."
At this point the doctor (or nurse practitioner, I'm not sure) is somewhat irked that I hadn't said right away that I didn't have insurance (like it's my fault that their usual patient check-in person was absent and they decided to skip the form-filling until later). She says "Well, okay, I won't order the tests now, but you have to make an appointment to see your doctor. If you don't have health insurance, sometimes you just have to cough up the bucks."
At which point, because I've been sitting there worrying and worrying about money and hoping that my damn ankle's going to get better without expensive anything, I start to get teary.
Doctor: What's the matter? What's the matter? Crying won't help anything.
Me: *cries more, in embarrassment*
(Who says something like that? My god. I know it's hard to deal with crying people, but what an awful, awful response. And between the humiliation and my tiredness and pain, I still haven't entirely pulled myself together. I was sniffling all through the checkout while they totted up my bill, and now at home I'm crying more, damn it.)
So, anyway, the upshot is that they put an Ace bandage around my ankle, gave me a prescription for a gout drug on the off chance (I'll wait a week and see if things get better before I even consider filling it), and charged me $114 after applying all the discounts they possibly could. Oh, and gave me a strong recommendation to get signed up at the sliding scale clinic, which process involves--I'm not joking--calling them on one particular day a month at a particular time and hoping you'll be among the lucky winners of a slot.
My ankle feels no better and the rest of me feels a whole lot worse.
My boss is letting me take the rest of today and tomorrow off, which is good except for how I don't get paid sick time, and I've missed one day of work already.
Thanks again to anyone who is able to help, and thoughts of solidarity to anyone whose own finances mean they can't.
/distress call
Your regularly scheduled service of fannish musing and complaining will resume shortly.
ETA: Thank you all so much! I should be fine now financially, which is a huge relief. I'm crying again, but in the good way.
ETA 2: I'm screening all comments, which I should have done right away but I forgot.
