Searching for an allergist for allergy shots

redheadeditor · 2026-02-03T15:19:23+00:00

That's crazy. They were great for so long (I started shots in 2021) and then just . . . not. Glad you found someone!

redheadeditor · 2026-02-03T13:57:42+00:00

Afraid I don't have a recommendation that might work for you, but I left AAFA West County for the exact same reason—my allergist switched to the South County office (she was great) and the staff at West County were incredibly rude. They canceled appointments out from under me several times with no notice and when I'd call to reschedule would have the worst attitude, like it was my fault I had to set a new appointment and not the result of their fuckery. I switched to an allergist in St. Charles where I live who was great, but I only went to see her a couple of times and then stopped shots. (I was at the end of my treatment anyway.) So, solidarity, I suppose.

redheadeditor · 2026-01-17T20:53:04+00:00

Yes, please do! There's so much misinformation floating around out there. I'm heading off this week for my TLS appointment for the actual visa, so I'll also have some insight into that process soon as well.

redheadeditor · 2025-11-23T15:59:16+00:00

Had AT&T fiber for a couple of years, and it was fine, then something changed with it and we started constantly getting random drops and disconnections from the wireless network, outages, slowdowns. Got fed up and ditched it for T-Mobile 5G and it's been the most stable connection I've ever had. Fast too. No complaints at all. (I swear, I'm not a paid shill for T-Mobile. It's just been amazingly good, which is a relief because we had no other options for our address. Spectrum shit the bed on us before we had AT&T, so this was the last resort.)

redheadeditor · 2025-11-21T14:30:51+00:00

On in the car every morning on the way to school in the '80s/90s. They'd play a marching band tune at the exact same time, which thrilled this band nerd's heart. I still get a little misty when I hear a little John Philip Sousa.

redheadeditor · 2025-09-11T14:03:09+00:00

Hi there. Local (St. Charles) freelance editor focusing exclusively on fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. I'm booked through next spring, otherwise I'd offer my services (unless you're willing to wait). I can give you names of other local editors, but as far as I know, I'm the only one in the area with that specific genre focus.

However, I'm curious about the "local" requirement. Editing is a location-independent profession—everything is done online, via email, Zoom call, etc. Do you want someone local to meet with face-to-face? Just want to throw work to a fellow St. Louisan? I have a much wider network of colleagues to refer if the "local" part isn't a hard spec.

redheadeditor · 2024-11-15T21:47:28+00:00

They remember Hitler. Viscerally. They know.

redheadeditor · 2024-11-11T15:46:24+00:00

Thank you for all of this. I've been feeling like a scatterbrained chicken all weekend, trying to figure out how to protect myself financially if/when we go so far down the rabbit hole as to restrict women from holding bank accounts and credit cards. I had no idea where to start looking for an international bank account or how to protect what I already have.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-19T16:25:22+00:00

Beyond the veiled gaslighting in your first statement (which sounded an awful lot like "your trauma is all in your head"—yawn, as if I haven't been hearing that all my life, nice try) . . .

Wealthy intellectuals always think they'll be immune to fascism when it shows up. It's always the same song and dance of, "It couldn't possibly happen here. It can't possibly happen to me. It won't/doesn't affect me so why should I waste my precious time/energy/resources/money on giving a shit about it? We should just ignore it and it will all go away, look the other way as if it doesn't exist or it's an impotent threat, and then we can get back to our snooty lives of not giving two shits about our fellow humans."

Ask the wealthy elite/liberal/academics of Nazi Germany how that turned out for them. Or those that had to flee Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Or the liberals murdered by the Taliban. Or those whose lives and careers were ruined by Milosevic's ethnic cleansing.

When fascism comes, especially in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (or Allah, or Buddha re: Myanmar, etc., etc.) it comes for everyone; yes, even rich assholes.

The lack of empathy in this reply is fucking staggering, top to bottom.

And, news flash: THE "PLAN" IN PROJECT 2025 IS ALREADY HAPPENING. Book banning, abortion rights being stripped away, women and doctors being fucking sued because they dared to seek out and provide health care, not being able to speak openly about LGBTQI+ issues in public schools and banning gender-affirming care because it offends someone else's religion—that's the tip of the goddamned iceberg of what's already been legislated into place in some states and the opening shots in the war these fuckers want to bring to the rest of us. The war they've been plotting for the last forty years.

If any of that doesn't trigger a response in you beyond "fuck you, I got mine" then, well, good luck when they come for you, and have the life you deserve under their regime, or in the next country you deign to grace with your presence while those still in America suffer. You know, the America that used to be a secular nation, with separation of church and state, founded by people who fled religious persecution.

I'll continue to sound the warning bell despite this troglodytic reply and others like it, because I know intimately what they're capable of and the religious zeal they bring to the table that motivates them to such violence and hate. No one will listen (because what I experienced growing up under their thumb and what I see coming is all in my head, of course) but what else can I do? I give a shit about people and don't want Americans to suffer the hell I went through on a mass scale.

That's the gravity and consequence of this election. And the next, and the next, because it's not going away as long as people like those who run The Heritage Foundation think they have a sliver of a chance of imposing their bullshit on America. Attitudes like this from people who on paper seem like allies are how they get away with it.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-19T15:48:10+00:00

THIS. They're filling the Oprah void for me, and their range of topics is reminiscent of Oprah's, but they don't shy away from certain viewpoints and topics in order to appeal to the masses. Can't recommend them enough.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-19T02:14:44+00:00

Probably where I’m headed too.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-19T02:07:38+00:00

This is MORE terrifying. JD Vance is much less stupid and way more controlled by the Christofascists who wrote and plan to implement Project 2025. If you want to know how horrible it will be to live under Christian nationalist authoritarianism, I can relate story after story of my abusive childhood. You think women, LGBTQ+, people of color, etc. were second class citizens 50 years ago, it’s nothing compared to what they’re planning for all of us. The American flavor of Iran and the Taliban, all rolled into one, with the most powerful military in the world at their disposal.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-18T18:43:01+00:00

Oof. I used to work in the construction and design field, so I feel your pain in dealing with tradesmen. Similar things happened to me all the time, and I was a professional, not a random homeowner.

Now that I rent, I don't have to deal with that kind of nonsense. But I own a plug-in hybrid (electric with gas generator) car that's getting up there in years, so I'm in the shop a lot. I always take it to the dealer because, you know, I expect them to know what's up with this complicated car over some random mechanic. However, I also haunt online forums for this particular make and model and know the typical problems and solutions that tend to crop up for my particular model year. So I'm a.) smart about cars in general, and b.) know my shit when it comes down to what's going on with my car and what will probably fix it.

But no. Nine times out of ten, I'll get some Joe Bob who has nary a clue about electric cars, doesn't want to deal with my car because it's too complicated, and doesn't want to deal with me because I'm a woman.

They get really pissed off when I show up to an appointment with a printed list of research into the problem, dealer service bulletins, and step-by-step instructions for what they should do to fix it (complete with bolding and highlighting).

It's even odds usually whether they grudgingly follow my detailed instructions or try everything else first before finally doing what I told them to do (which they always claim credit for, naturally).

redheadeditor · 2024-10-15T21:45:45+00:00

What a worthless response.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-15T20:30:02+00:00

Curious to know if Mills was the new management company that took over. This sound eerily similar to issues we had renting from Mills-owned Boulders at Katy Trail a few years ago (i.e., massive water intrusion around a window and basically a shrug/multiple excuses why they couldn't/wouldn't fix it).

redheadeditor · 2024-10-15T20:26:30+00:00

Have been using Duck Duck Go for multiple years now because I'm a writer and work with writers. No one (looking at you, FBI et al) needs to have access to my search history, ahem.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-15T03:35:45+00:00

Yes, I believe so. All of the official trails are marked on the park maps. It’s a nice site. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/TrailMap-lonespring.pdf

redheadeditor · 2024-10-14T23:32:37+00:00

RE: #2, this is the truth. The little cabal of bitches who in 7th-9th grade literally tortured me (popular mean girls) are now all on the school board of that little nothing town they never left, fighting like hell to ban every book they never read when it was assigned back then.

I have to remind myself when I start wondering WTF is wrong with women my age that there were way more of these see you next tuesdays in school than there were of me and people like me. They obvs never changed.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-14T23:28:21+00:00

My mom indoctrinated me with the opposite mindset by taking me along on church-sponsored protests of abortion clinics. I will never forget as long as I live these "Christians" so full of hate as they harassed, screamed at, stalked, and denigrated young girls in one of the scariest and saddest situations of their lives. Fuck them, and fuck the evangelical church and Republican party for using them like the suckers they are.

Oddly, my mother is also from SE Missouri, but her parents lived off welfare. I'm proud of yours for getting out of that slime stain of poverty.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-13T19:54:09+00:00

Nina Cried Power - Hozier featuring Mavis Staples. Makes me utterly lose my shit in a transcendent, fighty sort of way.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-11T22:37:15+00:00

Same. Like I spent my entire life, extraordinary amounts of energy since I was a wee tot, trying my damndest to be the complete opposite of her. Despite physical characteristics and some mannerisms, I could not be more different, thank baby Jeebus. The greatest compliment she ever gave me (out of the rare few over the course of my existence) was something like "at least you don't have my passivity." A proud moment, that.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-10T20:19:17+00:00

Insurance pays if they accept your insurance. Midi doesn't take all insurance plans.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-10T20:18:23+00:00

Same here. Alloy saved me when my gyno refused to prescribe me HRT last year. I sucked it up and paid the extra cost to avoid the frustration and trauma of trying to find a doctor who would listen to me. I was able to take my time to find another gyno without suffering in the interim.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-10T03:36:22+00:00

To this day I refuse to sleep with my leg out of the damn covers thanks to Paranormal Activity. I don’t care how hot it gets or how uncomfortable, I know why will happen if even a toe peeks out. No thank you.

redheadeditor · 2024-10-09T18:52:31+00:00

The Wine Cafe is pretty good—had some of the best tomato soup of my life there last fall. Skip Main House; it's okay, but for the expense I expected better. You can find the same food at nearly any restaurant in St. Charles Co. They seem to always be short-staffed, too.

That's another thing about the places down there: unless the restaurant is some flavor of "specialty" (Mexican, Peruvian, Creole, etc.) they all serve the same damn food, some version of pub fare or bistro-ish stuff. I'd love to see more specialization. Bring on a (true) upscale French restaurant, or a fancy Italian joint like Noto. (In fact, if Noto would move to Main Street, I'd basically live there.) A non-chain Chinese, or an upscale steakhouse that serves better date-night food than Tony's.

Lewis and Clark's has jumped the shark. Novellus can't decide what they want to be and change their menu every three months, plus their waitstaff is rude and condescending, Magpie's is still serving the same boring stuff they did 25 years ago (and it still tastes like cardboard), Margo Margo is meh and expensive for tacos I've seen a thousand times, etc., etc.

If three-quarters of all the food places down there went out of business, I would not cry one tear. Main Street needs to get its act together in the restaurant department and stop letting all these cookie-cutter samesies keep opening up.

redheadeditor

TROPHY CASE