you just have to read my blog if you want to find out what mental health issues I have or what gender/sexuality identities I flagrantly and haphazardly combine, sadly
In the USA, it’s 100x cheaper to take an Uber to the hospital instead of an ambulance.
I don’t know if this is true or.. Like, having to pay for an ambulance that is taking you to the hospital? That doesn’t make any sense. What kind of distopian world is that?
It costs thousands of dollars to ride in an ambulance
In America some people with chronic health conditions like epilepsy literally have to wear medical IDs that say “don’t call an ambulance/911”. Some well-meaning person calling an ambulance for you will turn into a thousand (or couple thousand) dollars that YOU are on the hook for, even though you didn’t make the call. So, PSA: if you see someone having a seizure, look for a medical ID! You should only call an ambulance if: the person is elderly, pregnant, or the seizure lasts more than 4 minutes. Otherwise, wait for the seizure to pass, then ask the person if they want an ambulance when they regain consciousness.
wtf
Oh my god what.
Here in Quebec, if you call an ambulance for something they deem non-emergency, you get a bill later for like $180. But if it’s anything like a loss of consciousness, chest pains, labour, whatever, or if you’re in a public place and a a well-meaning samaritan calls 911, it’s paid for by the government.
Seriously, everything about healthcare in the US makes me want to cry.
Imagine a world where you have to wear tags to tell people trying to help you that “It’s ok, don’t try to help, I can’t afford to pay if someone tries to save my life. I’ll just take my chances and hope it’s not life-threatening.”
Literally the point of this post is that Americans do not have to imagine that world. We live in it
I sprained my ankle about 20 years ago, and the ambulance ride of less than a mile was nearly 3k. I knew what had happened, all I needed was for someone to set me on my feet and let me go, but instead the two very kind gentlemen with their cell phones decided it would be a better idea if I didn’t move at all and they called an ambulance. And a fire truck. And the police. Because that’s what happens in Saratoga I guess. I worked as a cashier at a grocery store, making clothes out of bedsheets, living in a house that should have been condemned with several people because it was cheaper. Even pooling everything, we could not afford it. So I didn’t pay. They weren’t allowed to really do anything about it, but it fucked my credit for *years*.
Renko writing essays like “As we all know, ghosts emit electromagnetic radiation in the 400 THz through 100 GHz and 50 Hz through 20 kHz ranges, with occasional additional spikes near 40 PHz and 110 kHz. In this paper, I will…”
followed a week or two later by ‘what do you MEAN ‘unscientific’???’
came across a far side book while thrift shopping and opened it to a random page only to be reminded that gary larsen is the still the funniest comic artist ever to be published
She smelled like hand sanitizer, pure and reminiscent of a hospital. Her lips were like marble, cold and smooth. Her eyes were like a stop light, you wanted them to be green but they were red and occasionally yellow.
there is no such thing as a correct body. nobody is wrong for being born or for existing. we need to stop having health education so entirely focused on what books say the perfect birth with the perfect genetics and perfect life circumstances looks like. it is mostly luck. we need schools to teach about all kinds of bodies. all kinds of ways that health can differ and that bodies can differ. it is amazing to me just how different humans can be, and how different our bodies can be. some people have more or less limbs than others. some people have three or more nipples. some people grow bone rocks. some people have a limp. some people have scars. some people have different numbers of toes or fingers. some people have skin of many colors. there is no end to the numbers of ways that people can be born and that bodies can function and be shaped.
the world is vast and amazing and diverse and we need to start acknowledging the people that live on it instead of teaching people that they should resent or reject anything other than the “ideal” birth with the “ideal” genetics and the “ideal” circumstances.
