@RickiTarr technically, I don't have to take the pills every day, just "as needed" which ends up being like 5 out of 7 when things are going really, really well
@RickiTarr 12 pills and a twice monthly injection for health reasons. They don't really make or keep me healthy so much as stop my body from giving up. Then there's 8 a day to reduce pain levels to not severe enough to want to stab people with a spoon for breathing too loudly. My mental health is a different story and a constant fight with my penny pinching GP, when strong enough to fight.
@RickiTarr Diabetes ($$$), BP, statin, two brain meds and prilosec. Plus a vitamin D in the morning and a melatonin at night. 53 in a couple months, but wouldn't have made it even this far without all the above. Also used to be on various hormones to control my effed up repro system before I got it nuked (which I highly recommend.)
@RickiTarr I take a dozen doses of various things prescribed by doctors every day at specific intervals and literally keep a med journal, and have for years. It’s a total riot.
None of the above includes vitamins either, I take B1 daily and sometimes B12 and small amount of Zinc if I haven’t eaten much meat recently.
My body has virtually no B1 at all for …unknown reasons… TBD, hopefully soon.
I don’t want to be a forever patient, but life happens, damn it.
@RickiTarr I can see how that looks crazy to Americans because most Americans would go bankrupt on what my family just swallows daily in medications (I prepare the weekly pill doses, so I know), it will be easily 3 dozen different medications between us, but medicines are a) cheaper here b) paid mostly by public healthcare.
Literally for a small samples it looks like private insurance copay in the US is higher than what our public health system pays in total for the “same” pack of medication.
@RickiTarr inhaler for my asthma, two puffs twice a day (total four)
Before covid I only needed an inhaler on extremely rare occasions to relieve. This one is combined relieve and prevent.
@RickiTarr A couple of years ago, I went in a very short space of time from having no prescribed medicine at all, to buying pill boxes so I could organise all the meds I now have to take at various times during the day.
@RickiTarr I take two Zyrtecs, Vitamin D, a Bayer Aspirin, and two squirts of Nasacort in each nostril two times a day thanks to Long Covid. Oh and Multivitamin too.
@RickiTarr I take 2 prescription pills, 4 pills without prescrip but recommended by doc, and use 2 prescription powders. I also see a therapist regularly. Oh, and I am a person with a uterus and other female reproductive doodads, so I see a gynecologist at recommended intervals to keep all the doodads healthy.
I am a 47yo forever patient. I have been a forever patient since age 12.
"Trans people are forever patients" as a "warning" is a monumentally disingenuous paradigm.
@RickiTarr I take HRT every day for menopause symptoms so I don't stab someone with a fork. I guess I'm a forever patient too just like people who take HRT every day to be themselves.
@RickiTarr Two pills & a once-a-day inhaler. I'm a "forever patient" as I'm A) alive & B) utilize the miracle of modern medicine for what ails me as I need it. The alternative is to NOT receive medical care & suffer until something kills me.
@RickiTarr antidepressant, antipsychotic, statin, baby aspirin, and Flonase. Anyone who thinks I need a walk in the woods instead can have all the seats.
@RickiTarr I don't get substrate chauvinism. Some people use the homebrew dopamine their brain produces naturally, I use the top-shelf high-grade stuff in a bottle from the pharmacy. 😄
@RickiTarr Oh, we're all on the same stuff. Some make it themselves, others have to buy it.
My response to "Oh, you're on an anti-depressant", is usually, "Yeah man. So are you. Mine just has a prescription." 😄
@RickiTarr Got a small cocktail of them at the moment, but the biggest reason is my lack of a baby maker. Mine was silly and tried to kill me at a young age. It's gone now. HRT ever since.
@RickiTarr I've been a forever patient for 45 years because of chronic kidney disease.
I got my new kidney almost 10 years ago. Now that everything has settled down (mostly), I take 12 pills every morning and night, which includes anti-rejection meds, supplements to keep my body in balance (and yes, I eat balanced meals), and those that help my brain shut up so I can sleep.
This doesn't include acetaminophen and other pain killers as needed, thanks to arthritis and Prednisone.
@RickiTarr IME people with attitudes like this always have the hardest time coping once they pass a certain age, and their own poor health catches up to them. it's a bitch when you end up needing the same pills, assistive devices, and accommodations you always sneered at other people for using.
I was a child when I didn't take pills. I became a teen and needed pills to keep the chemically caused depression from taking over my mind and destroying my life.
Forever a patient!
The cysts in my ovaries caused intense pain, so I took hormones to prevent them from growing.
Forever a patient!
Now I take a dozen pills a day to keep my immune system from killing my kidneys and heart.
Forever a patient!
If you aren't already a forever patient, you will be someday.
@RickiTarr I present my pillbox where all but two of the medications in it are required to keep me mostly functional as someone with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension + Sleep Disorders + plus other fun stuff
@RickiTarr indeed. Tomorrow, that box will include around $12000 worth of medication when my pulmonary meds arrive. During a brief period a few months back, when it included the awful awful inhaler pictured below, it includes around $30000 worth of medication. Thankfully, there is no black market to make up for the nice felony theft that it would cost someone to steal these from me.
@RickiTarr truly is and if anything why don't they change the systems then if we truly that much of an issue make working hrt easier and streamlining the process so it's just a regular manageable thing but ofc they won't do this there's no money in it and fuck us right our existence is optional.
This argument is so flawed, it's just another shit take... and if anything my health is more manageable now vs what it was when I wasn't trans so idk what the fuck there smoking.
@JigglyWyvern
The health care system we see and experience is a side effect of the real purpose of the enterprise, which is to pay dividends to shareholders and exorbitant salaries to CEOs. Also to pay the salaries of everybody who works in and adjacent to health care. It’s complicated.
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