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Healthcare vs. insurance
And now that I am healing up satisfactorily, there is no time to sit back and enjoy that, because I am being bombarded with messages from my insurance—Medicare and Blue Shield (PPO). I went online this week and tried to decipher them, and also tried to understand the policies and the logic behind them. People… Continue reading
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Healthcare via social media
Here is what happens when doctors remain uneducated about your specific condition for more than 85 years after the first mention of it in a medical journal: You start taking advice from people on Facebook. Lipoedema was first mentioned in medical journals, as far as I can discover, in the 1940s. And there is some… Continue reading
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The long slow road to healing
I’m still here, still spending most of my time on my reclining sofa with my legs up, still tired, still frustrated and kinda bored. It’s been about three weeks since I left the hospital, but I am far from past this episode. After a week of talking about it and promising to come but not… Continue reading
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Terrible horrible morphs…
…into uncomfortable and annoying. I am continuing to blister and peel, the red has further decreased and become more pale, and the heat is mostly gone from my leg; but the nurse from the hospital visited today and opined that there was still infection happening, so she has called in another prescription for antibiotics (a… Continue reading
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The terrible horrible continues…
…and grows exponentially. I just wrote a letter to the hospital’s Grievance Committee about it, because they responded to my evaluation of their services that original day in the ER by attempting to exonerate themselves from all responsibility and I am appealing their decision, so parts of this are taken from that letter, since I… Continue reading
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Terrible, horrible, the third chapter
I have limited energy, so I’m going to get through this as fast as possible. I remembered on Wednesday (when I was feeling worse) that while the firefighters and I were waiting around for the large gurney, one of them commented that they had a unit called Advanced Practitioner Team who would visit and assess… Continue reading
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Terrible horrible, part two
Taking up where we left off… Because of all the waiting and gurney-fetching, we didn’t arrive at the hospital until around 3:00. (I think I called at 1:45?) We sat in the hallway a while longer and I finally said to the firemen, This is ridiculous that I’m tying you up here just because you… Continue reading
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Melissa and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day…part one
Some people will read parts of this and think that I am a privileged person who expects the world to revolve around me. Think what you like. I’m still going to say this. I have been sick. Last Thursday afternoon I suddenly had convulsive shivering that lasted for a couple of hours, after which I… Continue reading
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Resolution!
Today was a good day! Today was the day that the sofa repair guy was scheduled to come, to see if he could fix my sofa. I thought I had mentioned it here as one of my recent stressors, but it turned out I was so focused on the builders and “the noise” from across… Continue reading
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Update on crazy
Kirsten came by yesterday and, while she was here, she delivered my note to the neighbor’s house across the street about the weird persistent noise. (She left it inside their screen door.) She declined to hand the other note to the builders. I can’t really blame her; I wouldn’t have wanted to do it either!… Continue reading
About Me
I started this blog to talk about a genetic, fibrotic fat-storing (some say autoimmune) condition called Lipoedema, which is something I began to experience in my 60s, although some see early onset at puberty, or post-pregnancy, or at menopause. The other “L” condition from which I suffer is Lymphedema, as a common secondary effect of the fibrosis that blocks lymphatic drainage. Despite the fact that one in 11 women suffer from lipoedema, most doctors have never heard of it, so on top of the pain and embarrassment of this extremely obvious malady, millions of us are out there being fat-shamed for a condition that isn’t contingent on diet or exercise for its growth. This blog was intended to share my reactions.
I have, however, reserved the right to discuss “other stuff” here and, increasingly, since January 20th, 2025, that is politics, because what else, after all, are we legitimately obsessed with in this age of fascism in these United States of America? So while the “theme” of this blog may be confusing, it is my blog, where I can talk about whatever I wish. You are not constrained to read the parts you don’t like. But I feel compelled to write about them.
MEdoubleLL 