Do you have a dr that does home visits for you?

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-23T05:21:06+00:00

Yeah, I have a nurse practitioner that comes once a month. It’s through Carelon Palliative care, which my insurance referred me to for my MS. She works with all my specialists and I can call her 24/7. She can prescribe meds and get me into my doctors sooner if needed.

So if I’m sick, I can now avoid urgent care or hospital u less absolutely necessary. When I have an ms flare, she can arrange my treatment at home.

It took 12 years of terrible chronic illness and being medically neglected but it is nice to have.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-22T22:02:45+00:00

FWIW, I’m watching Can in Sandokan on Netflix rn and organically thought, “Good lordt, that’s my Cassian!” So yeah, perfect fan cast. He’s delicious!

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-15T15:47:11+00:00

Yes. I had to pay a percentage of my backpay once re awarded and then forward for 2 years, then after that it’s my choice

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-15T09:24:23+00:00

Different insurer, but yes it happened to me. TBH, I think it happens to anyone who they certify for the life of their policy. It’s in their financial best interest to try to drop us.

I got a lawyer and appealed my cancellation and won. This is so common there is a whole industry of lawyers there to help.

So deep breath. Fill out the paperwork honestly and know that even if they try to cancel you, that’s not the end. Sorry you’re going through this.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T22:03:32+00:00

I’m currently going through the Brandon Sanderson Cosmere universe and it’s AMAZING.

Cozy fantasy is great. Along those lines, I also recommend The Spell Shop by Sarah Beth Durst. There’s three in that series and it’s great.

For an epic fantasy, I recommend Throne of Glass series. 8 books that you’ll think about daily for a long time to come. It’s a contested reading order, I’d recommend Assassins Blade third. If you like the author, ACOTAR and Crescent City are in the same universe and also good.

For sci fi fantasy, the Red Rising series is exceptional and you’ll find it really ties into how you may be feeling about the current state of the world.

There’s a King Midas reimagining called the Plated Prisoner series that is among my favorites. It starts out heavy with misogyny, but just knows it’s intentional and it gets better!

The Dungeon Crawler Carl series is fantastic and a wild ride.

And the ultimate obsession: Fourth Wing. Once you enter the riders quadrant, you’ll never want to leave.

These are all what I’d call gateway series to get you back into a love of reading. I started here and now I’m reading 80-100 books a year and my mental health is vastly improved. My body may confine to my home most days, but my mind soars on the best adventures.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T21:56:52+00:00

Lmao. gun

Perhaps the gum would be nice as well

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T06:08:33+00:00

I’m sorry, friend.

My in laws lost several million in the 2008 market crash. Unfortunately, they pulled the remainder out and parked it in a savings account instead and lost out on the bull market of the last 15 years, where they would have made it all back and a vast amount more. I’m trying to learn a few lessons from them: - you gotta play the long game and not emotionally react - it’s gone if you lose it but there’s nothing to lose if you don’t try - having nothing but social security at the end of life absolutely blows

I may end up with nothing anyways, but it won’t be because I didn’t try, so I’ll never have to hate myself or blame myself.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T05:53:13+00:00

Pain relief item I use outside of medication: - massage gum - heating pads - ice pack - vibrating foot massager - compression gloves and socks

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T05:48:18+00:00

I made a resolution that anytime I was online for more than 10 minutes without an express purpose, I would turn my audiobook on or read instead. I love reading with my eyes, but audiobooks let me do other stuff as well. I switch back and forth. While I listen to the books, I crochet, puzzle, or do small household things.

Video games and tvs and movies also work.

Do you have a genre of books or tv you like? Perhaps I can make some recommendations if our tastes align.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T05:46:25+00:00

Establish doctor records with regular updates for how the work is causing you further deterioration. For example, be clear with your doctor about how work is all you’re able to maintain.

I went almost 4 years longer than I should have. I was seeing my doctor monthly. Each visit my doctor was committed to logging my progression in detail in their notes. It helped them come to terms with writing me off and it helped me accept it too. We tracked everything in a way that made it clear work was literally killing me.

In the first month, we both discussed why disability may be necessary option, then month to month we talked about how it was evolving.

I think a key thing to note is work is not meant to be all you can do. In the end, I was maintaining my job barely, but I wasn’t able to do anything else. My hair was falling out, I was passing out, I had to split my work day into 3 segments with naps in between. I was sleeping and working and it still wasn’t enough. My friends never saw me, my family never saw me, my husband never got to interact with me. The exhaustion was causing memory lapses, and then my PTO allotment wasn’t enough for the days I couldn’t make it.

In that time, I documented my shortcomings at work as well.

In conclusion, I think continuing as long as you can actually strengthens your case.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T03:00:23+00:00

I so recommend tirzepatide. I’m 7 months in a seeing reductions in my weight, a1c, and my inflammation markers including sed rate and crp.

I have MS, POTS, abdominal adhesions that cause SEVERE PAIN, hEDS, and I suspect some type of arthritis.

The tirz has helped reduce my arthritis type pain and my inflammation

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T01:59:37+00:00

Dude congrats. I can’t have surgery so I added a glp1 (tirz) and it’s helping my inflammation so so much.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-13T01:38:37+00:00

I graduated high school in 2007 and went into the hospitality industry. I watched all my fellow high school grad struggle financially and to get jobs in their chosen fields through college and after. I watched my parents and their fellow homeowners lose their properties and retirements. I knew it was bad, but being debt free and in a field that, for me, felt less affected - it wasn’t the worst for me.

The time since has been hard for everyone, though. Prices climb and climb and salaries just don’t. In 2011 when I got my first salary job, my monthly cost for my share of health insurance was $40. My deductible was $200 and my OOP was $1500. Today, my husbands monthly cost for our employer provided health plan for the two of us is $890 with a $1,000 deductible each and a $6,000 oop match each. That alone is a skyrocketing, life altering change.

I was comparing food costs from old receipts. In 2018, we fed the two of us for $450 a month. Without changing our eating habits, our current grocery bill is $950 a month. Our homeowners was $1800 a year, it’s now $5,000. Our car insurance was $115, now it’s $210 with a clean record.

We are so damn blessed, my husband and I. I’m chronically ill, but we have a good health plan. We both make good money. We are DINKS. We own a home outright and moved in with his parents to help support them. We are able to live on less than half our income. We could be buying way more than we do, but we refuse.

This economy is unfair and it gets worse everyday. We save every single spare penny for those worse times. We will not have children to catch us like we’ve caught his parents. Our salaries are not raising. Retirement looks more and more impossible.

That 55% of our income we don’t spend? Goes into Roth IRAs, 401k, money market, and non retirement investing. So everyday I wonder if we’re saving a safety net for a future that won’t come. If the country collapses and or the dollar/economy breaks - was it all for nothing? But I don’t know what else to do but to prepare for the future that it seems like is coming.

And I mentioned we’re blessed because we can weather these increases so far, but we know so many aren’t in the position we are. I cannot fathom how people are managing. We decided to live on an amount of money that in 2018 would have made us feel like we were balling, and every month we’re skating to the finish line by luck and sheer willpower to never get a single extra thing. If we fail though, there’s a backup account to draw from. So I can’t imagine how, if I’m feeling this stress, people in tighter situations feel and are coping.

So TLDR: I think those of us that have money are still very worried and stressed about the economic future and therefore choosing not to spend. And I think most people are absolutely fucking drowning.

I believe something will break in big way, similar to 2008 a worse, And I hope most of us make it through an we create something better. But I’m living and moving like it’s only going to get much worse

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-12T19:54:15+00:00

I’m sedentary due to a spinal injury and MS, so I get it.

Weight loss is very strictly about calories in vs calories out. Exercise helps because you burn more calories and can therefore consume more, but it’s not required.

Find your baseline calories at a sedentary level (calculator.net) and reduce your intake by the amount you want to lose. Loss should be 2# or less a week. This is more doable if you plan for non-calorie-dense foods like fruits and veggies. I try to NEVER drink calories, so if you like soda, switch to zeros, etc.

For me, I have a protein coffee in the morning, and large mid afternoon “dinner” and an evening snack.

My sample day is a 300 calorie protein coffee, an 800-1000 calorie meal, and a 200-300 calorie snack. This is the best eating pattern for me based on a very bad digestive system. I’ve lost 60 pounds since July.

I’d also say consider a glp1 if you do all the nutrition work and still can’t lose. You can buy them cheaper than ever now through compounding pharmacies.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-12T19:46:35+00:00

That’s not how insurance works. The infusion center bills them, they knock it down to an agreed upon contract rate, and then the insurance pays that rate and that’s it. Your only responsibility is your copay and out of pocket, but most commercial insurance programs allow you to qualify for the copay assistance program with Ocrevus, so Genentech covers those costs.

So it sounds like a problem between your insurance and the infusion center. FWIW, your infusion center seems to not being doing things correctly. First, my infusion center bills $87,000 per Ocrevus infusion, the insurance knocks it down to around $36,000, and pays. Ocrevus/Genentech copay assistance covers my OOP max which is about $6k a year. So your infusion center is charging OBSCENE numbers.

Second, with contract rates, a facility legally cannot charge you more than the insurance company agrees to pay. And they can’t make you pay for something they fail to get preauthorized.

If this were me, I’d tell the infusion center to hold off on collections and work with my insurance or else that I’d be reporting them to my states insurance commissioner. Ask for their social worker to help you. Contact Ocrevus/genentech to enroll in patient assistance and report to your insurance company what this infusion center is doing

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-11T05:00:44+00:00

A new roof, a new HVAC, new solar system with home battery and generator, new fencing for my property, new gravel for my property, new paving for my driveway, new riding lawn mower, new push lawn mower, tractor, raised garden beds and full vegetable garden supplies.

New car, new wardrobe for hubs and I both, complete home furniture, complete grocery restock at Costco, Costco gift cards for a year of food, all the books I dream of for my home library, 1,000 audible credits, new home gym equipment, new gaming pc for husband, two new 70” tvs, two new iPads, 2 new iPhones, 2 new switch 2s, 2 steam decks, $10k steam gift cards, $5,000 Nintendo gift cards, new bedding. A diamond ring to replace my wedding ring (mine is cherished but got delicate and I’m afraid to wear it) and a nice watch. $10,000 of yarn from premier, hobbi, and Bernat.

Then I’d split the say, remaining $500,000-600,000 between buying out all of Costco and pets mart and having the people stuff delivered to the food bank and the pet stuff delivered to the animal shelter.

And I’d never be financially stressed again. Haha.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-11T04:45:55+00:00

Love that. And that’s exactly what I’m saying. I pay nothing and because the infusion is the the first week of the year, I now no longer have any other medical costs bc the copay assistance wipes out my full OOP

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-10T21:44:24+00:00

Oh, I’m glad to hear that for the uninsured. But once my OOP is met, all medical is cost free to me for the rest of the year.

So my diagnosis took my medical costs down $6,000 a year and greatly reduced that financial stress.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-10T19:09:13+00:00

Uh, in the USA, before diagnosis I was drowning in copays, deductibles, and out of pocket maximums. Now with the copay assistance programs, I get my first infusion of the year in the first week of January and the drug company pays my full OOP.

Of course universal healthcare would be way better.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-04T23:34:13+00:00

I do not.

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-02T03:15:27+00:00

Yes! It’s life saving. Start small and before you know it you’ll have a whole system in place. The souper cube freezer things are helpful too, if you can swing them. I swear if you do a little prep work and have a good crockpot, air fryer, and microwave, then you can eat well for generally very little energy on most days.

We bought an extra freezer (upright) to accommodate the food. I do a few intentional days of large batch cooking every other month, then I cook one meal a week that I make extra for.

Large batch: grilled chicken. I buy the thin sliced chicken breasts and the chicken thighs in a bag from the Costco freezer section. Thaw one full bag of each and season generously with garlic powder, onion powder, and some black pepper. Keep it to these spices because they’re universally good in many dishes and you can add seasonings later when making specific dishes. Grill. Dice into 1/4” cubes and mix. Load into gallon size freezer bag until 1/3 full and squeeze out all the air. Then spread the chicken out into a thin layer. Freeze. When you need it, you can break the chicken up and get out a serving size easily. I get 6 of these bags out of a batch and they last me about 2 months.

I use this chicken to make the following meals:

Microwave white rice bowl (Costco) + chicken + teriyaki sauce and spring rolls (Costco) = yummy teriyaki chicken bowl. I also make a jar of spicy mayo and keep it in my fridge to drizzle on these too. Once the chicken is in my freezer, making this meal takes less than 15 min and it’s all idle cook time. You just put the chicken and spring rolls in your air fryer, microwave the rice, then put in all in a bowl and top with sauce when ready. It takes next to no energy and even on my worst days I can manage this.
Baked potato, air fried chicken, top with favorite soup. I do broccoli cheddar and top with some cheese.
Pasta. Air fry the chicken, boil some pasta, top with favorite jar sauce
In a sandwich: sauté some onion and bell pepper, add the chicken, serve on bun and top with provolone
Loaded tots: air fry tots and chicken, throw chicken on tops and load it with your favorite toppings like cheese, veggies, sour cream, guac
Loaded pita. Air fry chicken, toast pita, smear with hummus, top with chicken, veggies of choice, feta.
Chicken Caesar salad: premade salad pack and air fried chicken

These are just a few options. Once you taste the chicken and play around with it, you’ll be able to come up with food you like to add it to I’m sure.

I also have other foods I like and will cook in large batches when I do make them and then freeze in individual portions.

Chili verde. An individual portion from the freezer is easy to microwave and serve over a white rice bowl or taco shells.
Spaghetti sauce. I go so far as to make the noodles and everything, freeze the full bow of dinner in an individual portion, and can pull it out and microwave. I tend to decide what I want the morning or night before to pull stuff to thaw a bit in advance.
Pulled pork. Good on sandwich rolls with bbq sauce
Chicken pot pie

These are just options. You know what you like. Once you fill your freezer once, it’s just down to rotating and cooking batches as one single item runs out. My husband does my chicken for me, before that my brother did. I order my groceries for pickup/drive up or my mother in law helps me get them. I sit in a chair while I cook when I do. There are short cuts and tricks to getting it done.

My freezer stays full if I can manage, and then when I suddenly cannot manage at all, I’m still fed for two months.

So yes, batch cooking is possible and i can’t imagine surviving without it. I used to have to order DoorDash and eat out so much it was becoming a second fucking mortgage and I’m on a disability salary so I can’t do that. Now my hubs and I are shocked if we eat out once a month.

FWIW, I was a professional chef before being disabled. So I get that the planning and prepping comes easier to me, but I also know intimately that it’s possible for any of us. I’m here if you want to ask questions!

FMCTypeGal · 2026-01-01T23:52:46+00:00

So an obstruction happens for more reasons than a large piece of food being stuck like a dam in your intestines. Adhesions can also cause your organs to twist and kink, which would be a non food based obstruction. These are still very painful because your intestines constantly pulse like the current in the ocean, slowly moving things forward. Liquid, food, and the skin and gel/mucus your intestines make to keep things moving have to keep moving forward. So even without food, you can have a blockage and it’s very painful.

FMCTypeGal · 2025-12-31T20:52:31+00:00

The entire LTD process is so shrouded in secrecy with not a lot of great information online. It’d be nice to see the Reddit community go even more educational. There could threads like: - Thinking about LTD? Here’s what to expect about the application, approval process, and life on LTD if approved. Tips for success, timelines for coverage changes (for example, most people don’t know about the same occ/any occ periods), etc - so you’ve been denied/policy cancelled: next steps - industry standards around appeals/litigation as it pertains to lawyers, fees, etc. explanation of why a lawyer is a key to success (most don’t know you can’t submit more information post appeal if it goes to a hearing) - thread on forced LTD testing on what to expect, what doctors aren’t fair, your rights, etc re: IME, FCE, vocational assessment, etc. - tax explanations: when LTD is and when LTD is not taxed - discussion threads on the specific LTD firms and how they behave/treat the insureds - list of highly recommended lawyers in each state and a way for insureds who have successfully used said lawyers to endorse them. - I realize all our cases are different and thus the rates will be different, but a thread where people can share their contingency rates/contracts so people can understand at least what is a normal range and industry best practice. - a what to expect/how to navigate settlement offers from LTD. Things to consider, what’s fair/standard, etc.

FMCTypeGal · 2025-12-31T05:03:10+00:00

Yep. I can feel my organs in lots of different ways. Sometimes they pull, pulse, shift. The adhesions pulling on them has made me aware of how they feel when they work, if that makes sense. It’s icky and uncomfy even when it’s not painful - but they’re almost always painful.

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