GRIPES

[red750]

Finally got to do what I've been waiting to do for some time.

 

The phone rang and after a short period, a female Indian voice said "I'm from the technical department of Telstra about your internet connection."

 

I said "What colour is your underwear?"

 

"What?"

 

"What colour is your underwear?"

 

"None of your business."

 

"And neither is this call any of yours. Piss off." and hung up.

[Yenn]

Oh so politically incorrect. I must try it.

Usually when I answer the phone they just hang up. Maybe I should instead of saying my name, just do some heavy breathing.

[onetrack]

I've got a mate who says in a conspiratorial tone - "Can you hear the voices? I can hear them! They keep talking to me, telling me to kill people! I'm going to have to do what they say!"

By that stage, the caller has usually hung up, probably convinced they've called the local asylum in error.

[red750]

On 01/01/2021 at 3:57 PM, red750 said:

My gripe is with hospitals. Every time you have to go to hospital, you have to fill out a wad of forms listing all you previous medical history, medications, allergies, etc.,

They're still at it. My wife was returned to Epworth Hospital by ambulance last night. When my daughter went to visit with clean clothes today, she had to fill out the forms again. Third time in four weeks.

 

On a positive note, however, this week we received a letter from DHHS, the one you normally receive in November or December to say you are nearing your Medicare Safety Net, and asking for confirmation of your Medicare card details. I rang the number, got through to an operator in under two minutes (who would believe), confirmed the card and was told we had already exceeded the annual net and would receive increased Medicare refunds for the remainder of the calendar year.

[red750]

Here I go again, becoming a grumpy old man.

 

Life is becoming so stressful. What, with my wife's daily radiation treatment (I know it's difficult for her), but her foul moods, caused by the lack of a thyroid and the failure of the hormone treatment which is supposed to compensate, her hair trigger temper at everything I do, the doggo wanting constant attention, and my son still working from home after nearly 8 months. You have to walk on eggshells not to disturb, and he has a video conference almost daily which seem to last an eternity, and you have to be careful not to get in the background. I believe he goes back to the office 8 March, unless Dictator Dan pulls another lockdown. When will life ever be normal?

[old man emu]

I sympathise with you and your wife. Although my wife has long finished her radiation treatment, she is still in constant pain from a few things. I've hardly heard her laugh for so long in day to day things. I can't say much to her because she is centred on her ailments. She complains that I don't talk to her, but when her comments are mostly about her pain, and there is no way I can remove it, what is the point of talking? Last night she said she wished she could go to sleep and never wake up.  How do you counter that?

 

And when you take over the usual tasks a wife does around the house, you never do them the way or to the standard she wants, despite your best efforts. So you shut up; leave her along and try to occupy yourself in ways that do not disturb her. Bloody misery for all and sundry. And my dog only seems to love me because I feed him or comfort him when there's a thunderstorm overhead.

[onetrack]

It can certainly be pretty hard sometimes, when life and life events start to become overwhelming. It pays to get out and about as much as you can, and try to socialise with others.

Even just taking a walk and chatting to someone can be uplifting when you're down. Most people, particularly older people, are happy to chat - and many are desperately lonely.

 

Then you have to remember, that you're not the only one doing it hard. There are huge numbers of people battling with major illnesses, loneliness, stress, and quite often, huge financial problems.

The bloke who has a workshop and yard behind my yard, in the little country town about 130kms NNE of Perth, where my yard is, is a typical example.

 

Rob is 80, but still reasonably fit. But his wife, who is 3 yrs younger than him, had a completely debilitating stroke in 2015. She spent 4 mths in hospital, and then they sent her home.

But she couldn't walk, could barely talk, and needed constant care. She can't even wash herself. So Rob became her full-time carer.

But she needs help constantly, and Rob lives waiting for constant phone calls from her, for help.

He goes down to the workshop to do something, and usually he doesn't get any more than half an hour there, before his phone rings, and he has to go home, to the other end of town.

 

He's getting a little help from another Govt-assisted carer, who comes in a few hours a week. But it's still a constant battle for both of them. 

The docs told Rob she'd never walk again, but after 6 yrs, he's managed to get her to "walk" about 8-10M, before she has to stop. 

 

Rob's worried what will happen when he starts to become less able and more limited in his abilities. There's no retirement village, care facilities, or any aged care of any type, in this little town of 200 people.

The town doesn't even have a pub, it has one store, and a part-time cafe that runs about 4 hrs a day during the week. There's no medical facilities of any type in town.

Rob and his wife will eventually have no choice, but to move to a bigger town soon, at least 100kms away, where there's major care and medical and aged facilities.

 

Yet they're quite happy where they are, they've been there since 1981, and Rob ran a mechanical repair business there for 25 yrs, before he retired, and shut up his business in 2006.

They enjoyed 9 yrs of happy retirement before this disaster struck them down, and ruined their retirement.

I know Rob is under a great deal of stress, and there's no relief from caring for someone who is in such poor physical condition and who needs virtually constant care and assistance.

I trust he moves soon, to a place where there's more people to help him out - because if he has a stroke, or a heart attack, or a debilitating fall (as many older people do), then the prognosis is grim for both of them.

[old man emu]

That is a constant fear - becoming incapacitated yourself.

[spacesailor]

I went through the same with my mother,

Almost overwhelmed me and had to shout loudly for help.

We ( wife & l ) were granted a two week respite, whith mum going into a care facility.

The OGRES at centerlink just kept sending more & more forms to be filled in !.

The proverbial poo hit that fan when l rang the 'the home care' nursing people and told them l can,t cope.

The head manager came, the same day with another nurse, when shown the stack of papefwork l had to fill in that week, she rang the centrelink manager and TORE A STRIP OFF HIM.

We hardly get any forms now only notifications.

Lost mum a good few years ago. After my hair turned white,

spacesailor

 

[red750]

Centrelink. Grrr. My daughter gets a carers allowance (takes my wife to most of her appointments, blood tests etc. and does her washing.) She has to notify C/L any time my wife is in hospital for 24 hours or more so they can reduce the allowance, even though my daughter is still running back and forth to the hospital.

[willedoo]

It's been a fair while since I was on the carer's payment. I remember the 24 hour ruling with hospitalisation. The ironic part is that you are allowed X amount of respite away from the person cared for, without it affecting the payment. But with hospital stays, they shut the door very quickly.

 

The hardest part of the process I found was getting past my father's f*ckwit of a doctor. He was one of those arrogant tools that thought his tax dollars shouldn't go to welfare. There is a list of questions on the application form for centrelink to determine if the person has age related memory loss. This has to be asked by the doctor and signed off on. At that stage, my dad couldn't remember what happened five minutes ago, but the doctor kept prompting him and giving obvious clues until he got all the questions right.

 

I had a couple of attempts at applying through that fool of a doctor. Finally my sister tore strips off him and told him how I'd given up my job and spent my life savings caring for my father, and needed the payment. He signed the papers after that. Any sort of caring is a tough enough gig, but it's made much harder if the support mechanisms and bureaucrats aren't up to speed.

[nomadpete]

I don't want to add to all your difficulties by adding my own. I feel for your pathways . I get it.

 

I'm on the other end of it all.

My wife is the one who keeps watching over me, worrying. I don't want her to but she can't help it

Over the last couple of years I've had open heart surgery (she feared my heart might not know her after it), then a stroke. More ICU time. More worry what it'd bring. Recovered well.

Then two separate hernia ops - they were easy. Then back surgery which only lasted a week, but had half a year of failed 'recovery'. Followed by another back surgery with lots of titanium bits and pieces. This time after five months, I'm weaning off the opioids addiction. A fortnight ago I spent a week in hospital with another mild stroke - dealing with infuriating incompetence of the hospital. It's now been a fortnight and they still haven't done a MRI to assess the damage.  I'm constantly trying to not show any pain or symptoms because of the co-suffering I see in my wife. She's constantly looking for symptoms, expecting to have to call 000 at a moment's notice.

 

I really feel for all you carers. Please take care of yourselves, no matter what they may say when at the end of their tether with pain and frustration, your loved ones really care about you and want you to take care of yourself.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Jeez, Nomad.. We all hope the last stroke was, as strokes go, minor, and you're back chasing the spring chicks ASAP (of course, only in a cheeky way).  Not being able to get an MRI is a travesty.. A wealthy country... Pigs arables, when it comes to using it for the greater communal good.. which is the same in most countries these days...

 

Give your missus a big hug from all of us... And, well, accept a decent handshake!! ;-)).. and, well, I would say a Cascade... or  a nice Chromy Pinot Noir... both my favourites of those beverages.

 

[pmccarthy]

I wish everyone well and feel grateful for my own situation.

[old man emu]

“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet”
― Helen Keller

[Marty_d]

Did she get his shoes?

[old man emu]

Like Helen, I didn't hear.

[Marty_d]

[red750]

Today was the first day of my wife's super radiation treatment. They said to be at Austin Hospital  in Heidelberg, a distance of about 25 km, by 7:00 am, earlier would be good. My wife, who likes to be on the safe side, said last night, up at 5:00 am, not a minute later. This morning she came to my room and said get up and look after the dog, I'm getting in the shower. I looked at the alarm clock and it said 4:37.

 

We set off fot the hospital and I was surprised at the traffic on the road before 6:30. Got to the hospital a bit before 7:00 as requested. They got her into the theatre gown at.....wait for it....10:40. Hospitals!!!!

 

Later, when I went back to pick her up, they couldn't find her. I was transferred to at least 6 different wards. I said to one ward, one day they will invent a computer so you can search for a patient.

[Jerry_Atrick]

A gripe for our US brethren (picked from a post on linkedin.com):

Jeff Bezos
2009: $6.8 billion
2020: $184 billion

Mark Zuckerberg
2009: $2 billion
2020: $103 billion

U.S. Minimum Wage
2009: $7.25
2020: $7.25

 

[red750]

Musk has overtaken Bezos apparently.

[red750]

Whoopty-doo!! Now I can go out and order my Learjet. Pensioners are GETTING A RISE!!

 

As from 20th March, my wife and I will each receive an extra $6-30 per fortnight. That will hardly buy a cup of coffee a fortnight!

 

The new total is $718.10 per fortnight ---- EACH. Don't tell the electicity or gas company. They might put up their rates. I hear the health insurance companies are increasing their premiums.

[spacesailor]

TIE THE TWO PENSION,S TOGETHER

Polies & oldies together !.

BY THE DOLLAR NOT PERCENTAGE. 

lt should stop those big government pay rises.

They couldent live and give the pensioners a BIG payrise, like they give themselves.

spacesailor

 

[red750]

Further to my previous post, we just received an email advising the premium increase on my life insurance policy. Considering the enormous pension increase of $6-30 per fortnight, the premium increase without an inflation increase in the cover is $47 per month, and $62 per month with inflation cover, the pension increase won't go far. And we still have to wait for the health insurance increase. We pensioners certainly live high on the hog.

[Yenn]

Red I am surprised that you have life insurance. Of course it will go up. At your age nobody could say that you were a good investment for an insurance company. I gave up life insurance many years ago, I reckoned it was not worth the premium, same with health insurance, but I think living in Qld makes health care less expensive, we can go to the hospital for emergency care for free.

The insurance that will go up is house and contents. I have trouble finding companies that will insure me, because living downstream of a water supply dam I am considered to be a flood risk and premiums can vary by 3 or 4 hundred percent.