How are you coping these days? Share your story.

They are required to triage and deem if it is an emergency .
If someone comes in with a broken leg they will treat that.

Private hospitals can then send an emergency patient that has no insurance to a county hospital if one is available.

If they have the flu they will send them home.

I do not mind answering questions.

I should add, I forgot.

One time I was in the ER and an elderly lady was in the room next to me.

She was in a lot of pain and the doctor told her she had gallstones.

She was not insured and he was sending her home, saying that it was not considered an emergency to be covered.

I felt so bad for her.

reply to post by amatrine


Are you getting a new kitty cat? I highly recommend a plumpy bulldog. They sleep, eat, and love. I couldn't imagine my life without her.

No, no more cats. It broke my heart when Majestic had to be put down. It has been four months now, and I still cry. I am a primary cat person. I do have
three other cats around 11 years old. Jes was my favorite though. He always helped me through the sick times. He just new .

I did however adopt a small dog from the kill shelter about two months after he passed. Her name is Julie and I just love her. She is a dachshund chihuahua mix. We can not get an alarm system due to credit score, so I talked my husband into a dog since Im home alone most of the time. She is good too, she only barks at strangers, not the neighborhood kids. Helps me sleep better at night.

reply to post by lilelou


what country did you go to?

reply to post by josephine


I can't answer for her/him, but for me, New Zealand is looking better every day.
I'm not joking either, it's beautiful, relatively inexpensive, english language, and nobody cares enough to hate them. So it's not a bad place to be when the kaka hits the ventilator.
The only downside, they are so outdoorsey, and I'm not much of a doer. Small price to pay though.

[edit on 7/3/2008 by schrodingers dog]

Does anybody else think that New Zealand might be a pretty good idea?

Seems like a reasonable and viable backup plan.

[edit on 7/3/2008 by schrodingers dog]

I don't really see how things could be that bad for people. I am 20 right now living in a suburb of chicago, and all my life things have been ok. My parents have always been making great money, neither of them went to college. My dad works as a postal carrier and my mom is vice president of a bank. They recently bought 2 brand new cars, and never have problems paying any bills. They also have 2 kids to raise, my sisters, and they also have to pay for my college ($30,000 a year roughly). There house gains in value each year. I have my own job to pay for my apartment/bills and make almost $20/hr. I pay for EVERYTHING for myself, except for school. I think the problem some of you are facing is your own damn fault. I have never made minimum wage in my life, and never plan on it, so I don't understand why some of you do. My first job was at best buy making 8.50, minimum wage here at the time was 6.50. also, for those that have kids, why the hell did you decide to have kids if you knew your job wasn't a steady one. and don't say you thought it was steady because working for any small company isn't considered steady. now if you worked for a major company and you got laid off i understand, but how hard could it possibly be to find a job. I am 20 years old and have only worked 2 jobs before, at best buy and at&t. and have had countless offers of employment making at least $14/hr +. most of the problems lie in the person, and you have no one to blame but yourselves. for those who don't have jobs, get off your ass and find a decent job. who cares if you're sick. if you're ok enough to post on the internet, you're ok enough to sit behind a computer at work and type. and if you have a job that pays minimum wage and cant make it by, what the hell are you thinking? there are soooooo many jobs available, and if you don't believe me just do a search on craigslist. and might i suggest if you don't have much of an education, pick a job where you could work your way up, and working at a fast food place isn't going to get you anywhere. work for a reputable company and work your way up. that way you have job security and each year you will be making more and more money. and by reputable, i mean get a job that can't be outsourced. companies can't outsource everything. any big company offers raises, even if its small, to EVERY employee each year. so stop complaining on the internet and do something about it, its your life and you are responsible for it. don't blame corporations or the government, get off your ass and find something better for yourself, stop relying on other people.

oh yeah and to those who are going to say at least you have it good, i know i do and i feel bad to those who have it rough, but complaining on the internet solves nothing, it really doesn't. oh yeah and EVERYONE i know is doing just fine. I see the same number of For Sale signs that I have seen all my life, and I constantly drive around even if it's just for fun. to say that most of america is suffering is an outrage, most of america is fine. sure, people have had to cut down on their spending, but most people are fine. i was at the mall the other day and it was literally jam packed like it is around xmas time, and i know people aren't going to the mall to buy "necessities". then, i was at six flags about a week ago, and the place was packed with people, which was unfortunate because it really sucks having to wait 2 hours just to ride 1 ride. but anyways to say most of america is suffering is just not true, just walk outside and see how many people are out spending money on pointless things like $5 for a cup of coffee at starbucks to people spending $55 to enjoy a day at six flags. and if you dont have a starbucks near your house, than maybe you should move somewhere where there is one because if you dont live near one then you must be in the middle of nowhere and if you are in the middle of nowhere and cant make it by, well theres your problem right there what kind of #ing job are you going to find making decent money if you are in the middle of nowhere, nothing.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
Fellow members,

My wife, bulldog, and I live in Washington DC. DC is an average city as far as the cost of living in the US. We have been very fortunate in our lives, we've had several successful businesses, and manage to now live comfortable lives. Not first class airline tickets and no Ferraris, but we fly business on air mile upgrades, drive $35000 cars and live in a three bedroom townhouse. For all intents and purpose we are a middle class family.

The reason I mention all this is that I want to share a conversation that my wife and I now have almost on a daily basis. It costs us about $200 a week for gas, $250 a month for cable/voip/internet, $300 per month in electricity, crazy money on food, insurance, vet bills, mortgage, taxes, medicine, doctors, dentists, storage.
[edit on 7/2/2008 by schrodingers dog]

WOW....I think you need to do some shopping around or the costs in the US are extraordinarily high. The UK is not know for being cheap and yet:

£80 ($160) per MONTH for petrol (gas) (it was £50 last year).
£30 ($60) per month tv,internet+telephone
£100 ($200) per month for gas+electricity on average.

I never buy a new car, what's the point? The damn thing halves in value in 2 years. Much better to buy 3/4 year old car and change it after 5 years This costs me £1000 per year versus £4000. Mind you folks who buy new cars tend to do so every 3 years or so which takes their costs up to about £6000 per year. What sort of holiday can you have with £5000 ($10000) yeah!

reply to post by rrrichw


Why aren't you paying for your own school?

Incidentally, in this school that you go to that you don't pay for, do they ever bother to spend a few minutes teaching about something called a paragraph?

reply to post by rrrichw


So many people are going to Starbucks that they decided to close 600 stores right?

reply to post by rrrichw


For someone so young, you are quite judgmental of others. You might want to tone that down just a wee bit.
Respect for your elders...
It's good that you have a job, and pay your bills.
Not everyone's life is a bowl of cherries OK?
Having an illness in your life DOES affect your livelihood, and your ability to pay bills. You have no right to judge others unless you have walked a mile in their shoes.
Life is not as easy as you make it out to be.
I believe somewhere down the road..you will learn that lesson the hard way.

I do not think you are an elitist, and thank you for caring about others. It’s bad here. I am a single mother. I have two college degrees, but I can’t get a full-time job. Instead, I work two part-time jobs for a total of 40-50hrs a wk. In my field, no one is hiring because they know that can pay someone like me half the money (without benefits) to work. I own my car and have little credit card debt ($1,000), but my student loads are crushing me ($60,000). I live in a trailer—yes, I’m raising my children in a trailer park. I thought I’d be in a house by now, but I can’t save and can’t afford a house. I haven’t had cable in eight years. My electric bill was $200 last month (old trailers are drafty and the A/C gets sucked out every crack and crevice). I pay $150 in gas a wk and that’s because if I’m not driving to work, I park the car and stay home. I’m a good person. My kids are honor roll/ gifted type-of kids, and they’ve never been in trouble a day in their lives…it depresses me to think that I can’t provide better. My pride keeps me off welfare, but, actually, I make just enough to not qualify (I’m one of the working poor). When my ex left me (for a younger woman), I thought I’d struggle for a few years, go back to school and get an education, and then be able to stand on my own two feet. But that “American” dream is a lie! With the way the economy is going, those who work hard will have to keep working harder and harder and harder. Life is a treadmill.
Pam

reply to post by rrrichw


Be aware that your circumstances could change in the blink of an eye...3 months ago I had a fantastic job with an unbelivable career oppourtunity (20 years old like you and being given a clean room section to run on my own...12 machines costing excess of £5 million each and it was my responsiblity to keep it running, hell I was still an apprentice and I was being given my own apprentice to train!).

This changed as fast as it took me to write this out, now I'm stuck in a rut and its starting to look like the last 3 years of my life have been wasted, this was not my fault but I dont whine about it, dont be so judgemental of others, lots of people are getting stuck at the moment.

You have to understand it isn't as easy as you're making out, you've been dealt a good hand, be grateful of that, lots of people haven't and are having to make do with what they have.

Mid 20s, mid-range salary, moderate liberal, modest home and middle class.

I'm about as average as you get, however.....

All of my friends are struggling. How does that happen? How does middle of the road middle class become above average? And I gotta tell ya, I'm still in debt, and will owe even more by the time I'm finished with school.

So what does that tell me.....

We have a problem that needs to be solved.

slackerwire, you made a funny funny, lack of paragraphicity is never good.

To our Scottish friend malcr, V8 cars and long distances make for crazy petrol costs here.
By the way malcr, my wife is Scottish from Renfrewshire, beautiful land and crazy nice people. London though is much much more expensive. Lived there from 94 to 99, dropped 350 quid a week for rent for a one bedder, smokes and drinks are steep, and Chelsea FC tickets are hard on the old wallet. Actually these days, most of North and West London are mostly occupied by foreign residents as very few locals can afford to live there. Great city though if you can afford it, some of the best times of my life.

rrrichw what an onomatopoeic username considering your financial situation.

I hope from the bottom of my heart that you remain healthy and prosperous.
I appreciate your input and your posts. I think and hope though that in retrospect you realize that judging people when they are down, and willing to open up to you and me, achieves nothing. The thing about karma, is that it doesn't care whether you believe in it or not. Ah, to be young and opinionated.

sorry double post

[edit on 7/4/2008 by schrodingers dog]

reply to post by schrodingers dog



Wow...yeah this thread is so chipper.

Two things..first of all there are people that are doing just FINE in this country. You can bet they are not going to post that on this thread (i.e some are thinking "I made 110k last year...though the economy is really bad, i will wait a couple of weeks until those $4,000 plasma tv's go on sale").

Hey that is not MY life by a longshot, just saying realize that this type of thread is not going to encourage people that have plenty of money to post. I also visit a reptile forum where people were asked how much they have spent on a ball python...some said $20,000 or more. I am not judging, if I had tons of money I would probably spend it on animals too, but believe me there is plenty of money out there.

Secondly...yes I have heard New Zealand is very nice, if you can get in. Not sure if they have the same rabies quarantine restrictions that Australia has regarding animals, but I would guess they do (6 months). Think about that if you are serious about moving.


[edit on 4-7-2008 by Sonya610]