minor inconveniences that are not struggles

[chronovore]

Yesterday I would have upvoted that, but today my work laptop is shitting the bed magnificently and I have no idea where to even start fixing it. As may stupid engineering things as Apple puts in their stuff, my problem rate is way, WAY lower on Apple h/w.

It's a work computer. That's what the nerds in IT support are for.

I'm a remote worker in a startup with stunningly limited IT resources. I've encouraged prioritizing an IT "minion" hire for supporting in-studio staff, and so I can send my laptop in when it's doing this. As it is, I lost 2 hours to full reboots — Win10, so full Shutdown cold reboots instead of the soft Restart — and I still have no idea why it was misbehaving.

[Raist]

Okay, I think I figured it out. The two sensors for the goddamn TRACKPAD are not getting picked up, and despite the fact that the other 20ish sensors are telling the OS that no, there is no need to fuck the CPU into oblivion and turn the fans into jet engines, it seems that Apple decided that it's a great idea to do that anyway.
Fuck's sake.

[Cauliflower Of Love]

the bore keeps going down = (

[Bebpo]

That feeling when you like a band's album but they're too small of a band that they never made a vinyl.

That hipster sadness 

[Bebpo]

I went to go see my surgeon in prep for the next surgery in my TEST TRIAL STUDIES OF STEM CELL SURGERIES and when he sold me on this study before surgery 1 he was like "no big deal, minimally invasive, minimal pain, much better than alternatives that can be extremely painful and cripple you for life potentially"

Before surgery 1 where they took a chunk of my flesh out to make the stem cells he's like "bah, little cut, you're good in a couple weeks". Meanwhile here I am SIX WEEKS LATER and I still have a big gash in my belly that's finally started to get more shallow and get closer to closing up but still changing bandages daily and for like four-five weeks it was pretty sore and bloody, got anemia from blood loss, and then was unbearably itchy. So yeah, lot more than a "little cut, no big deal"

This surgeon also usually downplays pain and is like "eh, won't hurt much, no post-op recovery instructions needed. Just take it easy for a bit and take tylenol" when I've had a couple other surgeries with him that took weeks to heal and were bloody and painful for a few weeks.

So now I meet with him before surgery 2 in this study where they put the stem cells in and stitch them up and I ask him what I should expect for recovery and pain and instead of his usual "eh, no big deal, take some tylenol", he kind of makes this pursed lips serious face and is like "in some...patients...recovery can be...quite painful...we'll be giving you some pain meds just in case"

 

Yeah, not looking forward to this!

Also CA latest doctor regulations only lets docs dish out 5 days of pain killers at a time. So if my doc doesn't want to renew them I might just have like 5 days for a very painful surgery recovering. Yikes.

Hopefully it's less bad than expected. Also hopefully works. Seems to only have about a 60% chance of success, but if it fails shouldn't cause damage and just will be back to where I am now which isn't great but manageable.

Also because it's a test, I may not even get the stem cell thing and just be in the control group. So then none of this will happen. But the study is setup where if you miss out you have the option to get the stem cell surgery at the end of the study in 9 months so I'd still go through this, just later. And you don't know which group you are in until you wake up post-procedure. FUN.


I also get to go and do 1 hour+ long MRIs once a month and then get stuck in 2 hours+ of traffic like I did today. At least I took a nap in the MRI machine so it wasn't all bad.

[Bebpo]

If you want to see some GURO GORE

Not safe for life
This is how my "were gonna just take a sugar cube chunk of flesh from you to make stem cells" wound looked like for the first 3-4 weeks.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

This is how it looks now after six weeks so it's getting close to finally healing thankfully. Will end up taking 7-8 weeks and probably leave a nasty scar.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Bebpo]

Also, between all the house stress shit for the last few months, and all the surgery shit for the past few months I'm dealing with, plus having torn my achilles tendons in January and been through two foot doctors and still can't get back to exercise now six months later beyond walks and have to drive without a shoe,

I've basically given up on any in-person human interaction for a few months and am just hoping to get past all this by the end of 2023 so I can get a life in 2024.

Meanwhile I figure since I'm not socializing/dating at all right, this is the best opportunity in my life to try to grow a wizard beard and see how far my beard will take me. I'm about 2 months now and I'm basically at Pirate stage.

[Raist]

Just need to throw a couple lit fuses in there and you're all set.

[Nintex]

My dad was treated for pancreatic cancer 3 weeks ago, success, cancer gone.
He had to stay in the hospital for a week and I had to take car of mom, who suffers from psychosis and depressions and is only able to make a sandwich and a cup of tea.
On the 3rd day she wouldn't eat, drink or literally do anything but lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. Didn't want to visit dad either.
Dad totally freaked out in the hospital, because he realized that he wouldn't be able to take care of her anymore.
Called my uncle (dads brother) to help out with mom, after 2 days of intense caretaking I got her back from the abyss and she finally joined us to visit dad in the hospital.
A few days later dad recovered enough to be allowed to go home.

On friday I get a call. "I'm in pain and your mother has lost it and can't call the doctor"
I head over to find her sort of confused downstairs and my dad crawled up in bed with terrible pain.
Called an ambulance but had to send him to the hospital alone, so I could take care of mom.
Sure enough the hospital called with the report that he had an internal bleeding and they would try to treat it.
A few hours later a call came that the treatment was a success. Mom recovered just enough so I could head over to visit him and bring some stuff.

Over the next few days he got blood transfusions and slowly recovered.
Mom also stabilized again, thankfully.
Today we were going to pick him up but then news broke that he developed diabetes because of the pancreatic surgery.
Mom had forgotten to bring her medicine, so I had to take her home first and then return back to dad.
Meanwhile the doctors quickly gave him a tutorial in insulin injections and whatnot.
After I returned, we sat and waited for 4 hours for the medication to arrive from the pharmacy and I could finally take him home.

He's home now, somewhat confused and annoyed that he has to measure his blood sugar levels and use more injections.

I've started to clean up the house because it's a mess. My dad is one of those boomers that hoards useless shit.
Some sort of milk packaging can be re-used to store paint or whatever. So the house is just filled with neatly stacked boxes of stuff.
Also loads and loads of decade old brochures and flyers stacked up in the living room.

[chronovore]

Dude, that’s not a fucking minor inconvenience. Please see yourself to the struggle thread. Fuck.

Take care of yourself first. This kind of thing can be traumatizing.