The dentist mailed us an estimate for Dan’s dental work. While it needs to be handled sooner rather than later, it is thankfully not the catastrophic emergency I was worrying about. The work needs to be done in three phases:
Phase I: $584 Phase II: $584 Phase III: $105
That’s a grand total of $1,273. Once we have raised enough to start Phase I, he’ll get it on the books. If you’d like to help us cover expenses, please consider sharing a link to our fundraiser campaign: Help Emily Suess Pay Medical Expenses for a Brain Tumor. (The site tells me every share can help raise another $37.)
Next Steps for My SSI and SSDI Applications
A wonderfully helpful woman at the Social Security Administration office in Effingham, Illinois called me earlier this week, because the Champaign office is backlogged and Effingham staff are helping out.
My initial application—which I completed online—was to see whether or not I qualify for SSI (income-based assistance, as in “we have none”) and SSDI (disability insurance). Do all the applying in one shot, you know.
“Can you tell me the approximate balances of any checking and savings accounts you have?” she asked.
I gave her the estimates, and she let me know that I have too much money in my savings account for the income-based assistance. (I won’t after paying September’s property tax installment, so I can ask them to fire off my application at that time, if I’m still waiting on an SSDI ruling.)
Before telling me that my application was being sent off to Springfield, IL for review and denial/approval, she helped me clarify my answers. (Seriously, some of the application questions are ambiguous and could be interpreted at least six different ways.)
My Current Mood
I’m doing very well, all things considered. While I struggle to complete activities I took for granted 10 years ago, I am content with the dynamic nature of my abilities and disabilities. I wake up in the morning thinking to myself, Even if this is all I am capable of accomplishing for the next 20 years. I can do that. And be happy.
I know not every day can be like that. And that’s okay too.
Next Monday is my Temodar allergy test. To get accurate results, there are many medications the allergist has asked me to stop taking. Things like Benadryl, hydroxyzine, nortriptyline. (Not that I take these things regularly, but I’m especially supposed to not take them right now for reasons I will assume are obvious.)
Medical cannabis is not on the no-no list that was mailed to me, but then it wouldn’t be. So I took myself off of it too. Because I don’t want to have to repeat any tests or suffer the consequences of inaccurate results.
So when I got up this morning stiff, sore, unrefreshed, and the most not-morning-person I’ve been in a couple of weeks, I said out loud “I miss you, Pot.”
Eating half a medical cannabis peanut butter cookie with a scoop of ice cream at 7 p.m. has become something of a ritual for me. Like being tucked in by my parents when I was five. My 1:1 CBD/THC cookie kicks in about 9:30 or 10:00 pm. It’s then you’ll find me relaxing in my recliner until I can’t keep my eyes open and I move to bed.
I sleep well until my dexamethasone hunger and the rising sun wake me up. And let me tell you, after literal years of pain-related insomnia, good sleep is perhaps my favorite thing about cannabis.
But that’s not really what this post is about. It’s just my roundabout way of explaining to you why I was up and restless last night and how I knew that Dan was awake all night long too, despite trying to shuffle quietly around the house.
***
“You had a rough night? You were up a lot.”
“Yeah,” he said. “This tooth.”
His tooth has been nagging at him for months now, since about the time I was hospitalized. And because Dan has this habit of doing everything for me and pretty much nothing for himself, he’s been ignoring it. Or trying. I’ve noticed the Anbesol sitting out on the bathroom counter a lot more lately.
“You’re calling the dentist tomorrow. I know we don’t have dental, but we’ll figure it out,” I said.
“OK.”
“You have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first and all that shit.”
“I know.”
“You’re no good to me dead, Poehlman.”
***
This happened with another tooth a few years ago, and it turned into an emergency room visit and oral surgery a few days later. (Dan takes a biologic that makes him a high risk for infection, and the tooth abscessed, and…)
He has promised to call first thing tomorrow morning. If he requires oral surgery this time too, it will mean finding someone who can 1.) sit in the waiting room while he’s under anesthesia and 2.) drive him home when he’s finished and asking staff what time the X-Men are coming over for dinner.
It will also mean asking for more money from our support system.
As everyone’s probably tired of hearing by now, we have no income at present. So in preparation for the costs associated with The Next Thing™, I’m adjusting the goal for my YouCaring campaign and asking you to consider giving—or sharing the campaign on your blogs and social media.
