TechnicDragon: Blog

September 2020 Update

I'm back again with another update.

August has been another rollercoaster month. While I haven't been back to the hospital for kidney stones, I had to return when I endured some chest pains. Now, I do my best not to panic and while I didn't panic that day, I was scared. I wouldn't have gone to the hospital if it hadn't been for the clots in my lung and being on blood thinners. But I was and I went.

Keep in mind, all through July, and most of August, I worked my overnight shift without any big problems, medically speaking. Well, other than burning the crap out of my thumb while cleaning the griddle on the Sunday morning prior to this last hospital visit. I ended up with a massive blister on the side of my thumb, and my co-workers suggested I use this ointment that was meant for burns. I tried the ointment and an hour later, no more pain! The area around the blister was tender, but it didn't hurt at all. Wow!

Anyway, the following Thursday was when I went back to the hospital. As I said, chest pains that had me scared due to the issues for which I had previously gone to the hospital.

As I left town, I sent a text to my manager, letting her know what was going on. My shift didn't start until Midnight that night, and so long as the hospital didn't tell me I was having a heart attack, I would be good.

Get to the hospital and after their initial assessment before moving me into a regular room to do further tests, I had to sit out in the lobby to wait for said room. Now, I will admit, my fear had diminished, but my chest still hurt and I was having some breathing issues. Maybe an hour after I arrived, my phone died. I couldn't call or text my manager to keep her updated.

I only waited maybe half an hour for that room, but then I spent several hours having blood drawn, having an x-ray taken of my chest, then taken to radiology to have an MRI of my chest done, and finally talking to the doctor only to have him scold me for missing one or two doses of my blood thinners. The thing was, after the original 30-day supply I had been given ran out, it was two weeks before I received more. The pills I'm on are expensive (as in $450-$550 per 30 day supply). They had helped out by getting me signed up for assistance, but things fell through when no one notified me that the company supplying the drug would be calling me to confirm my shipping info. I don't generally pick up the phone if I don't know who's calling. The hospital found out, called the company, and then let me know how to correct the issue. I finally got through to the company, confirmed everything with them, but it was another week before the pills arrived. (I now have 3x 30-day bottles).

One other thing. I suffer from nasal polyps, which cause all kinds of sinus problems, including sinusitis, and sometimes light bronchitis. Well, this visit to the hospital proved that my clot issue (still have the clots, only they're reducing gradually) was complicated by light bronchitis, making it difficult for me to breath (again) and making my chest hurt. They prescribed antibiotics.

So, I got back home close to nine pm that night, and I used a friend's phone to call my manager.

She was pissed.

Store policy said we had to call in at least an hour before our shift started, so someone could be found to fill in our shift. I called in three hours prior. I explained what happened and that I was in no condition to work that night. She said she would find someone and hung up.

… only to call right back. She went off over the phone complaining about finding someone so late, which she probably wouldn't, which meant she would have to work the shift herself. On and on. She was trying to guilt me into working that night. I remained silent while she spoke and only apologized for the inconvenience. (same thing we tell customers when we don't have something they want) The last thing she told me was to be in early the next morning with my paperwork from the hospital. I had asked the doctor specifically for a note excusing me from work that night.

Next morning, I felt better. I grabbed the folder with the paperwork the hospital gave me and went to the store. The manager and assistant manager took me to the office.

Manager went through the folder. The hospital had papers in there with info on the prescription I was given, as well as stuff on Covid, but that was it! The note I was promised was missing.

Manager wasn't pissed at this point. She said she was disappointed. I told her I would call the hospital and have them email the note to her. She told me not to bother. I frowned. I didn't understand why she would refuse the paperwork. She had worked with me on all of the other medical issues I'd had while working there, but the sudden change made me suspicious.

The assistant manager piped up then, pulling out a sheet of paper with all kinds of hand-written stuff on it. She started reading to me the list of issues I was being written up for. Number two was for "excessive call-ins". The more she read, the more angry I grew. They had included every little thing I had done wrong there, most of which we had already talked about and agreed wouldn't happen again. And they hadn't.

I pointed out the excessive call-ins. The night before was the first time I had called in.

"Well, this is based on all the time you missed when you first started working here."

I was even more horrified. "You cannot write me up for that!"

"Oh, we're not, but you have to admit, you have missed a lot of work."

"For medical problems that I had absolutely no control over. You know every detail of what happened."

"There was that time you called from work, needing to go to the hospital."

"Yeah, only to find out I had blood clots in my lung! I would have died if I hadn't gone!"

"Well, still, you've missed too much work."

She was still mad about my call-in the night before, though I had done nothing wrong other than making sure I had the note from the hospital.

Then she pulled out a pen and wanted me to sign it. It was technically only my first write up. I had been written up at other jobs before and accepted the punishment because I had messed up. This time was entirely different. The assistant manager even looked over the list, saying that if I messed up again, I would be suspended without pay, as well as the second time, and third time, and forth, and fifth. Oh! They were willing to keep me around even if I had messed up bad enough to be suspended a fifth time?

Another issue on that write up had been customer complaints. One complaint had been about the cat hair on my clothes. I'm sleeping in my friends' living room and don't have a closet to hide my clothes in. The AM suggested I bag my clothes up in a trash bag. I asked her if she's ever had a cat. She said "No, why?" A trash bag with something soft in it is for scratching and ripping up -- then they'll have something soft to sleep on.

Along that same line, there were complaints of cat urine smell. Due to the nasal polyps, I am nose-blind. I cannot smell anything. I could walk through the worst smelling locations and smell anything. There's also the fact that I cannot even breath through my nose. So, I had no idea I had a cat urine smell.

There was one last issue that I had to put my foot down on. The store honors call-ins for food that we carry. We have a deli full of hot food that we cook on a regular basis. Overnights, I had made breakfast in preparation for the breakfast rush. (cooked and chopped up sausage, bacon, and potato wedges, added two dozen eggs to two different bowls -- 4 dozen eggs a night -- cooked the sausage mix and then the bacon mix on the griddle, rolled up breakfast burritos with shredded cheese, wrapped them, and adding stickers so customers knew which kind they were). Then there were sausage and bacon biscuits and croissants, a plate stacked with bacon, and then a few of the regular lunch/dinner foods because the breakfast rush would buy those for their lunches at work. All of that on top of the other duties I had in the store. On a busy night, I would be pressed for time trying to get everything done.

Yet it was company policy that we have a minimum of two people on EVERY shift. I could handle things on weeknights, but weekends? It was stressful. And my nights off were always on weekdays.

Now, I tell you this to give you an idea of how busy I was, even when completely alone in the store. If someone called in for food, it was usually for something I already had ready (typically beef & bean burritos that only take 8 minutes to cook in the deep fryer). The very first time I got a call-in, I thought it was something of a joke. The caller sounded drunk. I told him that we didn't do call-ins. The next morning, I was corrected. Yet, during this meeting for my write-up, they were blaming me for a customer complaint of a call-in to which the employee had been extremely rude to the customer in response and said we didn't do call-ins. My first call-in had been during my first week. The call-in they were talking about was only three weeks to the write-up date. It wasn't me. I had accepted every call-in no matter how busy we were and the timing had annoyed me. I had also never been as rude as they implied on the phone. Never. I had twenty years of taking calls in customer service to not only know better, but to automatically treat those calls the same way. I was not going to be written up for something I did not do.

After going over all the details, Manager wanted me to sign the paper. I shook my head. "No, not until that line about excessive call-ins for absences is removed, as well as the one saying I was rude to a customer over the phone."

Manager rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she bent over the paper with the pen she had been holding out to me, and added to the excessive call-in line "without a note from the doctor".

"I didn't say change it. I said remove it."

She shook her head. "No, you've missed too much work."

I shook my head in return. "Then let me offer a solution to the whole problem. I quit." and I walked out of the office.

The manager chased after me. "There's no need for you to quit."

I pointed back at her. "You have a massive list of reasons for me to quit."

Spluttering, and probably planning on trying to convince me to stay, she said, "Well… you have to put that in writing."

I strode back into the office, grabbed the pen, and at the bottom of the write-up sheet, below the line where I was meant to sign, I wrote "I quit." and signed that. Then I stormed out.

So, I have been unemployed (again) for the last week. I will be posting a new chapter for Free Magus to my Patreon account, which means I should also be posting a chapter here as well.

Later this week, I will be posting the first chapter for Small Deaths, my sequel to Crushed Heart.

I haven't decided yet, but I have been posting the series of scenes from the gauntlet Seth had to navigate when he was trying to end the lockdown. Listed as Lockdown Scenes on my Patreon account. The idea is that the scenes could be read in any order because none of them affect any of the others.

I am looking for work again, but in the meantime, I will be working on writing up as many chapters for both stories and the scenes as I can.

So, you thought Seth was having adventures…

My 2020 has not improved since my last update.

I'm still living with my friends. The real reason behind this is our collective plan to buy 5 acres and build a house for all of us to live in together. And while we have generic floor plans ready and we know where we're getting the land (who from and where it is), we've not done much else to advance this plan. More on that later, as I'm sure you'll understand as I tell my tale of woe.

So, May's update told what happened in April. As of the beginning of May, I found a job at a local convenience store which is only a few blocks from where we're currently living. And I do mean a few blocks. I've walked it once just to find out what it would be like. Not too bad for a guy who's spent most of his time behind a desk, staring at computers.

Yeah, a convenience store. My feet hate me. As does my back. However, neither of them were the ones to give me real grief. No, that winner was my left kidney. So, the Monday after I started work, I had to rush to the hospital for a kidney stone. It was a doozy! Some 5mm. And it didn't want to move. Weird part was, all the pain and such went away on its own, without fully passing the stone - or so I thought. Just the weirdest thing, because I've passed every stone I've ever suffered pain from. So, I went home and back to work.

Only, I wasn't feeling myself. My appetite was crap. And all liquids tasted like someone had spiked my drinks with fecal matter. Even bottled water tasted bad. So, it wasn't a surprise that I ended back up in the hospital (kidney pain again) on the following Saturday.

It was the same stone. It hadn't moved, but it was making me hurt. Hospital had a time trying to insert an IV too. I was severely dehydrated. Once they did, they started pumping me full of fluids. I remember going through three bags and not even needing to go pee (any other time, one bag would have been more than enough to make me ask for a potty break half-way through.). After more scans, the doc suggested either letting fluids flush out the stone (natural) or they could insert a stent. I opted for the fluids and ended up staying overnight.

By Sunday morning, the stone hadn't moved. Doc said a stent would be the only way for them to get to it. I agreed. I couldn't exactly take morphine or dilaudid home with me to wait for the stone to pass on its own. So, they knocked me out, and tried for the stone.

Yeah, "tried."

I woke up with the stent still in place. Doc told me they couldn't reach the stone even with the stent. However, after a week or two they would go in again, and break up the stone if needed. I didn't think it would be all that bad and agreed. Boy was I wrong.

Due to having been through surgery, I took a few days off from work. The store was having personnel issues, as in - including me - four people were out sick. I had already been out most of the week and decided to go back a day early to help out. I didn't expect to actually go to the bathroom every 10-15 minutes, but that's the way it started. IT SUCKED!

Worse, I didn't have the money to pick up my prescriptions. The job pays weekly, and my first two paychecks were both delayed because payroll had the wrong account number for me (to an old, closed account I had opened for my son at the same time as my own, so both numbers are on the same card I received from the bank with direct deposit info). I finally got that corrected and had three checks all hit at the same time.

Oh, but that's not even the end of the tale.

So, go to an appointment with the doc to find out how the stent and stone are doing. I hadn't had any pain from the stone. No, only pain was when I emptied my bladder! I even saw the x-ray this time. I thought the stone was in my ureter (tube leading from kidney to bladder), and the stent only went in a couple of inches or so… Boy was I wrong! The stone was still in my kidney, and the stent stretched all the way from my bladder to my kidney!! Holy crap!!!

So, the office schedules the day to have the stent removed. June 11th. Only the way the nurses were talking, they wanted it to be sooner. I didn't understand that at the time and just nodded like an idiot.

The two days prior to the procedure, I'm more pain when I empty my bladder, and there was a ton of blood in my urine. I'm scared, but I kept in mind that I had a foreign object in my ureter. Day of the procedure, I told the nurses and doc about the pain and blood. They shrug like it was nothing (wasn't nothing to me!!). Everything goes perfect. They broke up the stone, and even found a second, larger stone that they broke up and removed too. Stent came out, no complications, everything was perfect. They sent me home with a note to take a week off from work.

This time, I followed their instructions. Maybe too well.

So, one week later, I had a follow-up appointment. Everything was clear, no more stent, no stones. It was great. I even went to work that same night.

The very next day, I woke up with this pain in my right side. Up high, among my ribs. Too far out of place to be a kidney. More like a lung. I took some tylenol, went to work, thought nothing of it. The day after that, the pain was worse. Tylenol knocked it down enough that I could work, but it was like having a dull headache. Third day (was a Sunday), I was in so much pain, I could barely breathe. It was like I had this spike in my side with metal bands stretching out around my chest. I had to call my manager to have someone take my place at work and get to the hospital.

Keep in mind, I had been tested three times for Covid. I was cleared every damned time. And even this time I didn't have any of the normal symptoms (fever, dry cough, etc.). I really didn't understand what was going on.

Now, my friends and I live in a town about eighteen miles from the main city. On the way to the hospital, I had reclined my seat and found a position that was comfortable. In fact, I was able to breathe. By the time we got to the hospital, I wasn't in all that much pain either. I was scared and confused.

ER took me in, got me settled, asked me questions, drew some blood, got a urine sample (I wasn't dehydrated this time), and ended up running a number of tests. Results came back. I had a light case of Pneumonia and Pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in my lung). The Pneumonia was so light that the pain and difficulty breathing was completely overriding any symptoms. I had to be admitted because they needed to administer anticoagulants and blood-thinners.

I was terrified. I actually told them that I would rather deal with more kidney stones that blood clots in my lungs.

And yet… due to my inactivity while recovering after having the stent removed, I was my own cause for the blood clots. I had one day of semi-activity during that recovery period (went to a shooting range, grocery store, and bought a new laptop), but otherwise, I sat in this recliner that has doubled as my bed ever since the kidney stones started.

So, I was admitted. They couldn't give me pain killers this time, due to the type of problem. I did my best to relax, remain comfortable and tried to sleep. The only real problem I had was going to the bathroom. They suggested I use this bottle they left by my bedside, however, it was way too painful to lie in bed on my side so I could. I stood up and used the bottle, and while it hurt to do so, it was better than their suggestions.

Next morning the pain had spread to my right kidney, which made breathing even more difficult. Why? Because when you breathe normally, your belly expands and contracts, not your chest. People expand their chest for breathing while they're thinking about it, but your body doesn't do that during involuntary breathing - like when you're asleep. So, using my chest hurt my side (lung), and using my belly hurt my kidney. It wasn't fun.

However, I honestly believed my kidney was better suited to deal with the clots than my lung. It is a filtration system. If a clot was left while filtering my blood, then the build up of urine would likely break it down and I would pee it away. With the drugs they were giving me, it only took a few hours for even that to work its way out. By Monday night, my pain levels were tons lower.

Tuesday morning, I was almost completely pain free. The staff said I could go home but I would continue to be on blood thinners for the next three months.

I'm back at "home" with my friends, I'm back to work, and I'm doing my best to stay active yet take it easy. Finding time to write has been difficult, and finding any privacy to write the planned sex scenes in my story is pretty much impossible, which very likely means Free Magus will be on hold for a while.

I do, however, have a number of chapters written for another story I've wanted to write for a long time. For those that remember, I wrote a story called Crushed Heart. I posted it on SOL and then removed it with the hopes to have it published. Now, while I have created electronic versions of it and posted those on sites like Lulu and Amazon Kindle, it never really took off like I had hoped. The full, latest revision is posted on my Patreon account, and I will be posting chapters for its sequel, Small Deaths by the end of the month.

Again, my apologies for the delays. I only hope to make up for that soon.

So, who else is already sick of this so-called Pandemic?

Politics and Media (stupidity) aside, I wanted to drop a note to
let everyone know that I'm okay. I don't even know anyone, who knows anyone, who knows anyone who has Covid-19. However, my lack of content has been for other reasons entirely.

Sometime earlier this year, the apartment complex I lived at was bought out. The new company wanted to update our system of rent-payment and other issues, possibly due to the 'pandemic', or just to be more in touch with modern tech. Who knows? Anyway, they set all the residents up with electronic payment as opposed to turning in money orders. Only, my listings for rent and water (controlled by the complex - everything else I had to set up for myself) were wrong. Well, the rent was wrong. The water bill was ridiculous. So, I contacted the manager to find out why the rent listing was wrong and she said that they couldn't find my renewal from last October.

I will freely admit, I'm not the most organized person, but this was news to me. I had been paying rent every since the renewal upped my rent amount (due to other buyouts of the property and those companies wanting more money rather than doing anything for the residents - different story). She said I would have to come in and fill out rental applications again. Well, we did that (my son and I), and they said we didn't qualify for any of the discounts my ex-wife received, plus since it was just my son and I, we would have to move into a smaller unit. I was okay with the move, until I found out that the rent for one of those units was $599/month.

Now, I know that in some places, that would be considered a low price for a 2-bed, 1-bath apartment. But, when your only income is a single job at $10.71/hour, and you're dishing out about $115/paycheck for child support arrears, $599 is more than a single paycheck.

So, after some back-n-forth over our options at that complex, I decided we had to find somewhere else to move. The only complication was the fact that the city I lived in was under Shelter-in-place orders. Other apartments and residences weren't allowed to accept new tenants.

Oh, but wait, the story gets better … :P

The following Friday morning, I went to work as normal. I had even arrived a bit early. After dropping off my lunch in the break room fridge, I was on my way to my desk when one of the floor supervisors asked me to put myself into "company meeting" so we could talk. I shrugged, and went to do so. When I returned, she led me out to an office in the reception area. We passed plenty of empty offices on the way.

Details aside, she had escorted me out. I was being fired. Not laid off, as the call center provided an essential function and I needed to work. She told me the issue would be reviewed by HR and I would receive a call on Monday or Tuesday the following week and I was on unpaid leave until then.

As a result, I have spent the last two weeks both looking for a place for me and my son to live as well as a new job, all while under this stupid ordinance. I've had problems finding jobs in the past, but not when the unemployment rate was so high and no one wanted to hire due to the 'pandemic'.

Fortunately, some friends allowed us to move in with them until I can get back on my feet and find ourselves a place to live. I also feel lucky that they enjoy having internet access as much as I do because it looks like the only real money that I'll be able to earn for the time being is through my writing.

So, I apologize for not posting anything new over the last few weeks. That is about to change.

Free Magus Chapter 4 is now available.

And for the patient, I will soon be posting the first chapter here on SOL!

Chapter three is posted. I won't say where. Check my other blogs to find out! :D