Random Rants Q': I protest against subtitles

[Sommerswerd]

Until this happens:

Then we will forget about our differences and all join hands in humanity and brotherhood , to unite together to go slaughter the aliens down to the very last tentacle

 

[Takhisis]

So a 404 error - image not loading is what we need for universal brotherhood?

 

[Sommerswerd]

So a 404 error - image not loading is what we need for universal brotherhood?

It was working for me... but since I know its you that matters, not me... I'll try to replace it...

EDIT: There, all fixed... was it everything you hoped and dreamed it would be?

 

[Takhisis]

I… can't answer.
I'm too busy staring.

 

[Gori the Grey]

I think its probably going to take a space alien invasion to unite humanity, but there's always hope.

For a space alien invasion? or for humanity to unite?

I'd bet on the former.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Last night I was able to get through to a counselor associated with the ER where she went, who told me that she was admitted to a standalone Behavior Health Center on the other side of the city because the Behavior Health Ward at their facility was too full to accept any patients.

(I happened to be less than 3 miles away from her yesterday as I went to pick up the Habitat truck from a specialist repair shop nearby.)

I was expecting a call from her this morning, but we got none.

I just got off the call with someone from the hospital where she is currently located. This worker has not met my sister personally and can only say what is in the records.

They are planning to keep her for 10 days and then release her with a 30 day supply of medications and arrange a followup with her normal psychiatrist.

They said she is not really stable enough to talk to us today, but we should try to call tomorrow evening.

She is currently suffering from a psychosis that includes a strong belief that she is pregnant again, but their tests all show she is not.

I filled them in on her history including my concerns about how her husband has been treating her.

They gave me an ID number we would need to have them even acknowledge her presence, much less talk with her.


I am still expecting her husband to drop by our house tomorrow to pick her up, and am not sure what to tell him to explain her absence. The ER doctor had recommended against telling him where she is.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@MagisterCultuum You might tell him she left in a cab or uber and you don't where she she went. It was a surprise to you.

 

[Takhisis]

Are there police/social services available?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

My sister's husband called several times today. Eventually I picked up and admitted that my sister had gone to the ER. I was honest that I had not spoken to her since she called the ambulance and that the doctor told me she was not stable enough to talk with anyone yet.

I spoke to her primary psychiatrist at the hospital a couple hours ago. He said that when my sister came in she thought she was having a stroke, but that she is physically fine. She complained about not being able to do basic things to take care of herself, but today she was bathing, dressing, grooming her hair, eating, ect., like normal. Yesterday she was having tantrums flailing around on the floor, but today she is just pacing and fidgeting a lot. They said she is still manic and cannot stay on one subject long enough to have a conversation. My mother and I are the only ones she gave them permission to discuss her situation with.

Shortly after getting off the line with the hospital her husband called again, this time on my cell phone instead of the landline. He sounded more irritated than worried about her this time. He asked me to confirm my lie that I had not heard from her and did not know where she is. After doing so he asked again, but using the name of the facility where she is located. He says he is standing outside and that they told him they had just spoken with me about her condition.

I had been led to believe that they would not even confirm her pretense there without the patient ID number.

He insisted that I give him the patient ID number. I declined. When he demanded a reason why, I told him that the doctor at the ER had told me that he suspected domestic abuse before talking to me and suggested not sharing her location with him.

Her husband insisted that he had done nothing wrong and that any delusions of abuse are obviously just products of her sick and addled mind. I told him that I disagreed, that there are enough signs of coercive control and anger management issues that I was not inclined to share the ID unless and until she specifically told me to do so.

He asked if she had any concern about the children, which are still with his family. I could only say I am sure she loves them and wants to have them with her as soon as she is stable enough, but that I honestly have not spoken with her personally and the doctor did not bring them up.

He kept pressuring me to give him the patient ID, saying we could do it the easy way or the hard way. I ended up hanging up on him after several instances of him repeating that if I did not give him the ID he was going to come to our house to force him to give it to him.

I then called the hospital back and described the call with him. They said that even with the patient ID number, HIPAA laws will not let them share anything with him or have him visit or talk with her without her express written consent. I texted that to him to discourage him from coming here to try to get the ID number by force.

I just left another message with her regular psychiatrist, this time getting through to some office staff instead of voicemail, and am waiting for her to call me back.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@MagisterCultuum Good for you! Well done.

 

[r16]

head of the page , uhm , what makes you people think that me leveling the White House will solve the world problems , like me having no tentacles ?

 

[The_J]

@MagisterCultuum I hope you and everyone else get okay through this situation.

 

[Takhisis]

MC, you're posting your relatives' names again.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'm still waiting for a call back from her regular psychiatrist.


I called the hospital again and was transferred to someone who said they would check on my sister and see if she is up for talking with us. She said that my sister is able to talk but is still psychotic, so we are unlikely to be able to make much sense of what she says. The call got disconnected, but I'd confirmed my phone number first. My sister called me a few minutes later.

She was certainly rambling, but not as incoherent as I'd expected based on their description.
She is very uncomfortable there.
She said someone accidentally punched her in the nose earlier.
She finds some medicine that they are giving by an injection instead of pills to be bothersome. At one point she said it is making her worse, while at another she said she feels ok shortly after getting it but worse when it starts to wear off.
She said one hand has a rash like an allergic reaction to something.
She complained about noise from other patients and the bright lights. She said that when she passes under the lights she sometimes feels like she is going to faint, and sometimes her vision gets transfixed by a light and she cannot focus on other things.
In general she feels like she is walking like an old person with poor balance, often afraid that she will fall down.
She constantly complained about being thirsty (a side effect of medications) and cold (as she did not bring many clothes). She wants us to bring more things for her to wear.
She wants to get out as soon as possible, as she feels it is not a place she can rest. She also thinks that there are too many noises for her to rest as either our house or her husband's though.
She said that she made a mess (I think the meant either vomit or spilling a meal, as she also said she is eating better now) and was afraid that 'he" (under further question she said her husband) would find out and insist that she clean it up herself before anyone like his mother sees it. Someone (I guess a nurse or orderly) then got frustrated and told her to clean it up herself then, so she did but got her hands dirty in the process and could not find anywhere to wash them.
She cannot remember sending those two messages for prayer requests to her friends around 3:30am, or specifically why she wanted prayers or why her husband was so angry.
She said she was upstairs holding her baby boy when something felt off, and that her husband didn't respond when she called.
She was afraid that she was having a stroke, so she called 911.
He was upset with the ambulance arrived. She was trying to get clothes together when he shoved her and dragged her back into the house (or maybe into the car after dismissing the ambulance, that point was unclear), and asked if she wanted the world and her kids to see how crazy she was.
She said he seemed upset to see how much cash she had on her, as she didn't think he expected her to have so much.

She seems to be denying that there is anything abusive now. She said she wants to see him and hug him, but is also afraid to talk to him because she expects he will be upset about her causing so much trouble and costing so much money for medical services.

She said she tried to ask them to contact her husband before she had them call me, but the only phone number she could remember the landline we've had most of our life.

She doesn't know where her cell phone is but thinks it is with him.

She very much wants to be with her children.

She wants me to contact her husband and his mother to explain the situation and give them the patient ID so they can call or visit her.

 

[The_J]

What a mess, again sorry to hear .

(and there are names in the post again)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I ended up calling an abuse hotline for expert advice on what to do about my sister's situation. There was a long wait but then we talked for the better part of an hour. I felt like I was rambling almost as much as my sister for some of it, but it was good to get things off of my chest. She definitely agreed that he seems quite abusive, but said I should go ahead and share the ID as he would probably blame her for me withholding it if I don't. I asked for advice on a draft of a text I was thinking of sending him, including the patient ID. She said to cut out almost everything except the fact that I talked with her, that she approved me sharing the ID, and that she wants him to bring her warm clothes. She said I was writing as if to a rational person who has her best interests at heart, and that no good would come from even expressing a hope that he try not to be too angry when they talk. She said the important thing is that I don't remind him that I ever even considered the possibility of abuse, so that he won't do as much to try to isolate her from me.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Progress in baby steps. Learn as you go.

 

[Takhisis]

tl;dr sounds almost as if you were in a rescue attempt.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The day before my surgery, I made arrangements with the grocery store for regular deliveries in March on a pre-set schedule. It's a short list, made up of things that I often buy, and are the basics of all my lists. Deliveries are to be made Saturdays.

So... my supper tonight was applesauce. Literally. The twit who took the order and wrote down the instructions and swore up and down that this would absolutely be No Problem Whatsoever... didn't even pick the order, let alone have it delivered.

The store doesn't do Sunday deliveries, but when I called to find out why my order never arrived, I was told that they'd "try to figure something out." She offered to pick the order tonight and deliver it whenever.

I told her no, I wanted it picked the same day of delivery. There is no way in hell that I'm accepting day(s) old egg salad from the deli.

My family has had a membership there for over 50 years. I've forgiven them a lot of mistakes since I started doing phone orders 8 years ago, but when it comes to things that are necessary to help me deal with medical issues, I'm rapidly running out of patience.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Until this happens:

Then we will forget about our differences and all join hands in humanity and brotherhood , to unite together to go slaughter the aliens down to the very last tentacle

During their first summit, Reagan asked Gorbachev: If the US was invaded by aliens, would the Soviet Union help or side with the aliens? He said of course the motherland would help fight the invaders, and that was a major icebreaker in their personal relationship. I also like to think it is a true vision of what would happen.

Different alien invasion topic:

I agree that personal experience can be very effective at ameliorating people's anxieties about other people. A few years ago, someone was able to conduct a study by way of a fortunate coincidence. I can't remember the details now, but there was a White community that had a sudden influx of Latinos, I think somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and the people who did the study were able to conduct surveys of the White residents' attitudes towards Latinos before and after the two groups getting to know each other, and the results were notable, if not dramatic. But clearly, it's impractical to expect people to get to know a "representative sample" of every other subgroup of humanity. We need to be able to not lose our minds when dealing with people we don't already know and understand. I worry that if getting to know other people is our only way to combat fear, intolerance, and hysteria, then it will never end - it'll just change shape, like the monster in The Thing. A century ago, it was Italians and Catholics; today it's transgendered people and Latino immigrants; and apparently people are attacking Asian-Americans again..? I mean, WTH... So there will be another group of people tomorrow who seem too different or too threatening, for no real reason. I don't know who they'll be, but bank on it. Maybe, as with Asians, we'll go back to demonizing and attacking some of the people we thought had assimilated, like Catholics and Eastern Europeans. 'Round and 'round we go. If we don't get better at this, it'll just keep happening.

I think we're moving past this revolving door of 'hated alien population of the week'. As much as it can and should be derided for excess, so-called Woke and Cancel Cultures are an earnest move in this direction. And while the heat of the moment serves up plenty of examples of stupid cultural warfare, I think the overall trend is strongly in favor of acceptance and moving past hard racial divides, particularly among the young.