The Engineer also Muses

Muchas Grassy Ass Amigo!

The Longest Wait February 5, 2009

Filed under: on being unwell,on me,on the daily grind — Janek @ 00:06

After the fun of the last time I dealt with Centrelink, I wasn’t keen to go rushing back in there any time soon. However, as my monetary fund trickles down to nothing, any saving would be appreciated.

Consequently, I applied today for a Health Care Card. After my session with Dr Muscly, I meandered down the street to the nearby Centrelink, and joined the queue. After 10 minutes, I gave up on standing and sat down where I was, in the middle of the room, just on the carpet. It took slightly over half an hour to make it to the nice man at the desk, who took my details and… put me into the queue to see a case worker. At least there were chairs in what seemed like Hell’s waiting room.

This wait was slightly shorter, before Chubby Older Gay Guy (COGG) came and rescued me. I had all the documentation necessary, and after we worked out how to enter my scholarship into the system, and changed my address, we thought we were done.

When my Youth Allowance was cancelled, it was just after I had returned from Hawai’i. The Department of Foreign Affairs & Trading (DFAT) had notified Centrelink I was out of the country, and this was recorded, but when I came back through immigration the youth allowance had been cancelled. Thus, Centrelink didn’t realise I was back in the country.

Back to this afternoon, and COGG and I suddenly hit a wall… the computer says I’m not in the country. It took a 25 minute phone call, and the pooled resources of about 15 people to get the computer to realise that I was, in fact, sitting right there with COGG. It just didn’t seem to believe that DFAT (which had noticed I was back), COGG, or indeed I was right.

All in all, I spent 1.67 hours in Centrelink. That’s 100 minutes. Or 6000 seconds. Just to get a Health Care Card because I’m a low income earner.

In other news, apparently the Australian Government is going to give me $950, if I read the newspaper correctly [Source: smh]. Thank goodness, as I appear to have about $10 in savings and owe about $500 on my credit card. Bring on payday!

 

Worry January 22, 2009

Filed under: on being unwell,on me — Janek @ 20:57

I’ve just returned from another appointment with Dr Muscly, where my most recent evaluation revealed that by obsessive-compulsive levels have dropped slightly, but I am still one anxious person. According to their diagnosis, my pain is caused by this, which means I am, literally, sick with worry.

I need to get some of these thoughts out of my head, and stop them from cycling around all the time. Sigh.

 

Still Alive November 24, 2008

Filed under: on Dan,on being unwell,on me,on the daily grind — Janek @ 16:43

Just reassuring you all that I’m still alive. I had a horrid experience over the weekend, with a trip to the emergency for my poor boy involved, but he’s currently at home resting and I’m trying to catch up on everything I missed over the weekend.

I’ll catch up with things soon when I get a minute to breathe…

 

Random photos from my day(s) November 14, 2008

Filed under: in pictures,on being unwell,on me,on the daily grind,on university — Janek @ 23:48

Just thought I’d share a few things with you that have happened over the past week with pictures. Yay pictures!

My Room on Monday

My Room on Monday

Just to prove a point, I can be messy too. This was my room on Monday. It’s three degrees cleaner (and 10 degrees warmer) now.

A test of the human psyche

A test of the human psyche

I know that they once said that the best way to make sure something isn’t touched is to say that it’s free… after a week only three of these were taken (yes, I took one).

My New Desk

My New Desk

Due to Mystery Ailment ’08 (I’ve been blogging about it for 6 months, you know what I’m on about), I’ve been given a desk shift. It also meant I got a desk upgrade, complete with opening window, full control over the A/C, larger desk, and a brick wall to blu-tac my pictures all over. Yay!

 

Shadow Posting November 10, 2008

Filed under: on being unwell,on my family — Janek @ 20:13

Some of you may read more than one blog. In fact, I think most of you will. If the only blog you read is my blog… well, I’m chuffed.

Anyway, some have noticed that I’ve recently been posting on my sister’s blog in her absence. I’ve provided links to my posts below, because I like seeing my stats go all over the place with outgoing links and so forth, and think of it as shameless self-promotion:

 

Protected: My Mother October 31, 2008

Filed under: Protected,on Dan,on being unwell,on indecisiveness & depression,on me — Janek @ 04:00

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Life, The Universe, and Everything October 21, 2008

Filed under: on being unwell,on me,on the daily grind — Janek @ 23:39

Things have been going reasonably well for me recently in every field except for my health. I have a wonderful boyfriend who I love very much, I have a project I seem to finally understand, I have a great group of friends I love spending time with, and Fluffy is being a good girl and helping me to maintain mobile.

If only I knew what the fuck was wrong, I might be that teensy bit more happy. “Chronic Pain with no known cause”, my most recent diagnosis, was rather a letdown. I mean, I don’t want to be hobbling around for the next few weeks, months, or years, with people coming up and saying, “What’s wrong?” and I reply with my current refrain of “Chronic pain… they don’t know why”. Dan, Kate, and all my friends have been fantastic through all of this. My family less so. I’m going to try a few other things, but I’m mostly just over it.

The shining benefit so far has been the parking permit. Oh, woo, I have my own disabled parking permit.

 

Protected: A Challenging Time October 16, 2008

Filed under: Protected,on being unwell,on coming out and moving out,on indecisiveness & depression,on me — Janek @ 20:31

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Charitable September 8, 2008

Filed under: on being unwell,on good will,on homophobia,on indecisiveness & depression — Janek @ 23:33

Feel like donating the loose change out of your pocket, or more permanently to an organisation? Why not consider one of these? I think they’re all worthy of more than just a passing thought.

 

Rheumatological Expedition September 7, 2008

Filed under: on Dan,on being unwell,on university — Janek @ 20:48

Friday was, as to be expected, a mostly horrible morning. I spent 9am to 2pm at RPAH Medical Centre, between having the bone scan and seeing the Rheumatologist.

The bone scan involved being injected with radioactive dye, and then going away for a while, and returning to have a CT-like scan done of the whole body. Now, when I got there first thing, it was quite a pleasant experience. The machine was small, the thing you lie on was almost comfortable, there was some suitable music playing in the room… I almost had a good time. Even with the injection, it was the least unpleasant of the tests I’ve had to date. Or I thought it was. But, first, the appointment with the Rheumatologist two floors up filled in some time.

I’m going to call the Rheumatologist Dr Do, because it rhymes with their name, and they seem to want to do something.

Basically, Dr Do had me strip to my underwear and then felt me up. Yeah ;) Dr Do is reserved their opinion on what it could be for the time being, suggested some medication and is supplying me with free samples, and has sent me off for an MRI and more blood tests. When I went to pay, it was classed as a “Complicated First Visit”, so I was chuffed that it was complicated.

Dr Do also said something wonderful, superb, and marvelous. Dr Do said NOT TO GO TO A PAIN CLINIC FOR NOW. Take that, Dr Worried. My friends who weren’t “experts”, my own feeling that it would be a waste of time, all of this meant nothing to you, but maybe if another Dr says it you’ll pay attention. Bitch.

After Dr Do, I had about 20 minutes to fill in, so I called Dan and Kate, then went back, hopeful, for the second part of the bone scan.

The music had been turned off. My legs were strapped together, the bed was uncomfortable, and the machine was lowered to 5 mill. off my face. It sat there for 5 minutes. Then, slowly, it worked its way along my body, until, at last, I could see the ceiling again. Several other tests of a similar fashion, involving lying at odd angles for lengths of time, ensued over the next 2 hours.

I came out at 2pm, exhausted, and then had to dash off to uni for my 3pm meeting with my supervisor that refused to end when he kept questioning my logic. Sigh.

I had a lovely night with Dan, though, involving the Queer Open Mic at uni, then mass, before home to lounge around for a while, before getting up, finding out Dan’s stall was cancelled, returning to bed for another 90 minutes, helping Kez finish moving house for a while, then back to Dan’s for another few hours. A lovely, if slightly interrupted, monthiversary time :)