Yup. I work in an ED. Life is heartbreaking. I legit had to tell a pre-teen his dad died, on Chrismas eve, this year. That was awesome /s. It was also not the only soul-crushingly depressing moment this year. You know what I want from TV? Maybe a little pathos, but mostly a butt-ton of action, pretty people with…

This summer in my area there were a lot of people taking illicit Norco (cheap, minimal social stigma and no track marks so thus pretty popular in any demographic) that turned out to secretly be synthetic fentanyl (even stronger than fentanyl), and it was fun times! By fun times I mean sky-high doses of Narcan to wake…

Clonazepam isn’t an opioid. This isn’t meant to denegrate your experience, and I’m sure they’re cracking down on all kinds of stuff, including benzodiazepines (what clonazepam is), but just FYI.

Well, if you think about it, opiates stop you up, badly, and loperamide stops diarrhea - same mode of action.

I feel this way when I see Medicaid patients in the ED generally, but yes, especially when those patients are children or pregnant women. Many people don’t realize that it’s Medicaid that covers pregnant women who cannot afford prenatal care. Gutting Medicaid coverage for children whose parents can’t afford pediatric…

Yeah, I was terrified of accidents, and they happened because we lived in NY and sometimes a bathroom (especially on subway trips from NYC to Brooklyn) just wasn’t available. I distinctly remember getting home, my undies soaked in urine, and making up horrible 3 or 4 year old excuses about why I’d scuttled off to the…

Also, apparently a 48 year old married to a 39 year old. Age is just a number though, right?

Counterpoint - my cat will eat pretty much anything, including but not limited to plum cake and corn tortillas. I still get the disgusted look though.

Not as bad but my husband was in the ED for 2.5 days after a snakebite. He was employed at the time, had been a city bus driver for 2 years, but it was a right to work state so he was still a “temp,” i.e. no benefits, overtime, etc.. I was a student and thus making $0 per year, but with a chance of pulling more as a…

Makes him sound like JarJar, mainly.

To the first, 100% yes. Healthcare pricing right now is a mess. The uninsured get charged ridiculous prices because hospitals can just make up a number. Health insurance groups have the clout to change that number and make it into one a bit more reasonable (and Medicare/Medicaid get it changed into something that…

My (half)sister and brother still love and keep in touch with my stepfather. The man is a toxic waste of fucking space. He’s an alcoholic who’s never achieved anything in life besides fathering some wonderful people on women who deserved better than him. He beat my mother for years. He’s accused my sister of “being a…

My household is currently rocking 7 cats, i.e. fucking hoarder levels. It’s legitimately not because I’m insane, but a momma and 5 kittens showed up on my porch this summer. I tamed (ish) them with the plan of getting them to home placement via the shelter, but both the shelter and local animal rescue refused them…

Thank you yes. Seconded. For those claiming this is a nanny state, and their parents let them blow hobos in the parks at 2am because learning, and yatta yatta... Cool, you had freedom. Me too! However, I didn’t have the ability to go 45mph on a vehicle with limited safety features, on uneven terrain, minimally…

Also medicine. Yes, medicine. Know who trains in family practice (and internal medicine in programs not affiliated with prestige hospitals)? Know which doctors have practices in less prestigious, more rural locations, for example the Midwest? Immigrants. Current foreign medical graduate residents have already been…

I would just like to say, thank you to nearly all the responses for laying blame where it is due - namely the pharma companies and not doctors as a broad category. Yes, there are some individuals who are peeing in the pool, and thankfully I have seen the government going after and taking down many of these bad apples…

Yes, yes she did.

Yeah, after getting suckered into a life change by a momma cat who showed up on my doorstep with 5 kittens (add to my rational previous number of 1 cat; and yes, I did try to get rid of some, but the shelter here is apparently overwhelmed), I’m living the g*d*d kitten bowl. It’s an adorable mess.

Ummm, embarassed to admit this, but still watch Hells Kitchen and saw her on it a few weeks ago at the chefs table, repeatedly talking about how she only weights 90lbs (“maybe 96") so she couldn’t possibly finish her food. Other than that have not seen her, and I watch sufficiently shitty tv that if she’s working, she…

This is what surprised me when I went to AA (for medical training, not personally) - the perception is of people telling crazy stories of the fucked up shit they did while addicted. However, almost all of the people I heard simply spoke about how long they’d been sober, what they were working on, and what they were…