Dental issues, pain, and a broken system
I have multiple major dental issues right now, including abscesses, that will require root canals. At LEAST one of them is due to my dentist- who I love being around, he’s cool- screwing up my teeth. Most of it started as a combination of having inherited both soft teeth (bio dad) and grinding my teeth (mom) and having ADLS deficits. but neglect to treat things when they started by one dentist and poor work from another has led to things being pretty serious.
(BTW, if you want to help encourage me in improving some of my self ID’d ADLS stuff, check out my Health Month Profile. You can also watch the charts tracking my progress. And next month I’ll need another Sponsor so I can have more than 3 goals- this month I have a Kimberly W to thank.)
In any case, We’ve known I’ve needed the first root canal for what will be two months next week. The second we’ve known about for about a month. I’ve been on a number of antibiotics and things in the mean time. But in PA, when you are on medical assistance you need pre-approval from their offices for root canals and the like. And that can take months. Which, in my case, it is. And it is creating larger and larger issues.
In any case, this past week has been intense to say the least. At the JRC rally & March on saturday, I took so much tylenol I vomited. Thursday before, I took more than 12k of Naproxen, and was still in pain. I’m at a point where I’m essentially doing serious damage to my stomach and possibly liver if I try to use over the counter pain meds.
Today and Yesterday, I haven’t been able to eat properly. I had A sandwich and a couple bites of soup all day yesterday. Today thus far I’ve had half a serving of rice noodles.
I’m currently at my Aunt Lisa’s, and Yesterday we did the try-every-home-remedy thing. Clove oil only helps on a very temporary basis. We did the tea bag thing, and that didn’t work. So I packed my gums with raw crushed garlic, and that helped enough to eat that sandwich, and another application let me fall asleep last night. I’m not entirely sure why it helped, but it did. but packing my gums with raw garlic all the time isn’t workable.
However, Medical Assistance- which is what I have- doesn’t transfer out of state. I don’t know why, other than an assumption that poor people can’t travel ever, or that we become magically immune to health issues and needs when visiting family. I don’t know. But it’s fantastically screwy.
We had to get a pharamcist to call the Dentist and convince him that he actually *can* send a script across state lines. He thought he couldn’t. He can, I just can’t have MA pay for it here. So he sent over the next step up of antibiotics- making this course 4- and a perscription pain killer. Which, unfortunately, is not completely getting rid of the pain. It’s helping- I’m not forcing myself from screaming any more- but it’s still pretty damn intense.
My options are basically the ER. There really aren’t other options under the current system for me apparently. Not for this issue.
You have to reach crisis point- a more expensive treatment option- for them to care. To get any treatment. And the reason for the beaurocratic nightmare that the MA system is currently?
“We are trying to save the tax payers money!”
By waiting until only the more expensive options are available? really? I sometimes really think that the real hope is that us poor folk will just kill ourselves in order to “un-burden” the rest of the state. The poor- or at least our well being- are expendables in this society. Particularly under this governor’s administration, but in general as well.
I”m sorry, I’m angry and in pain. And I think, Wow. I’m not the only one effected by this. There are other people in this system, some of whom have fewer “natural” supports available.
I can’t fathom how people can believe that this system is ever effective. I mean, I’ve tracked people’s reasons, but I can’t connect how those reasons could make sense. I’m not asking to have it explained- I’ve been trying for years to understand this general type of phenomena- it’s just that that sort of thinking seems so wrong and bizarre that I *can’t* get it. I don’t have it in me.
Between this and the whole housing bru-ha-ha, I have some super critical posts for my blog-blog at some point.
Friday, 1/20(the 2nd Anniversary of the “Citizens United” decision, Occupy Pittsburgh will hold a permitted protest Action against “Citizens United” and Corporate corruption of our government and body politick. We’ll have a permitted rally Friday, 1/20 at 4pm, in Market Square.Then we’ll got to nearby PPG and posting, ceremoniously and theatrically, a Peoples’ Bill of Indictment for environmental crimes(toxic pools)\Mdavis as well as a People’s Subpoena for their ” Certificate of Live Birth”, underscoring that they don’t have any, and so, should not have “free speech” rights to unlimited financial contributions, which corrupt our government and body politick.Then we can proceed to 625 Liberty Ave., location of gas-fracking, EQT’s Headquarters and do the same there…Then we can proceed up 6th Ave., to financial criminal BNY Mellon and posting, ceremoniously, a Peoples Bill of Indictment for their crimes against the people, as well as a People’s Subpoena for their “Certificate of Live Birth”.Then, we can proceed to the Federal Courthouse to rally for a “Move To Amend” the Constitution to undo the “Citizens United” decision. ….We’re going to be busy, with a dynamic, vociferous, rather than a static event , so folks are encouraged to arrive early, promptly, 4pm Market Square, Pittsburgh to protest against Corporate take-over of our government, Corporate corruption and pollution. And for an amendment to overturn the infamous “Citizens United” decision.Visit the OccupyPittsburgh.org web site.
ASERT Autism Resources on FB
Western PA.
I went through ASERT for assessments to update my Dx a couple years ago, and continue to try to go through them for referrals in the area to services. (They connected me with the social skills group therapy that I’ve liked/found not cure-oriented for example.)
I found something today that removes the qualms I had about sharing them widely.
On their FB page (linked) They like ASAN, AWN, and other similarly oriented orgs. They don’t have a single Aut $peaks page liked by their page.
*bounces, shares*
UCP Central PA Part Time Employment Announcement
Family Support & Community Mapper QUALIFICATIONS: The position requires a high school diploma or equivalent. Ideal candidates possess excellent oral communication skills, outstanding organizational skills, attention to detail, proficient computer use including Microsoft Office and the Internet, and experience with data entry. Family members of children with disabilities are preferred. Part-time 25 hours/weekSeptember 20, 2011
UCP has a part time position open in the Family Support Service department in Camp Hill, PA.
JOB TITLE:
FUNCTION:
HOURS:
Qualified candidates should submit their resume to Roxanne Daniel – email: rdaniel@ucpcentralpa.org , US mail: UCP Central PA, 44 South 38th Street Camp Hill, PA 17011, or fax: 717-975-0839.
New Research Details Transgender Inmate Prison Stories
A Philadelphia-based collective released a report called “This is Prison, No Glitter Allowed” on the experiences of transgender and gender variant people in Pennsylvania’s prison system. The research, in which 68 percent of respondents identified as black, adds to a growing body of work that looks at how transgender inmates fare when incarcerated.
Drawing inspiration from similar research carried out in New York and Washington DC, the group Hearts on a Wire surveyed 59 transgender and gender variant recently or currently incarcerated individuals in Pennsylvania, most of which were placed in men’s correctional facilities.
(Source: drowningwaveshasmoved)
Save The Date:Welcoming and Affirming Practice: Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex (LGBTQI) and Cultural Competence Training
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
WHAT: Welcoming and Affirming Practice: Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex (LGBTQI) and Cultural Competence Training *
TIME: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
WHERE: Holiday Inn Harrisburg- Hershey
Exit 80, I-81604 Station Road Grantville, PA 17028Phone 717.469.0661
HOW TO APPLY: Applications coming soon
* A $40.00 fee will be charged for continuing education credits
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Anna Auch at 1-877-243-3033
This training is made possible through a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – SAMHSA grant awarded to the Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers Association.
This comes out of the work we did through Keystone Pride Recovery Initiative (KPRI), which focuses on the needs of LGBTQI folks who access PA’s Mental Health services. For example, making sure that people can be allowed to access gender appropriate beds in the hospital, including non-binary consideration, and unisex bathrooms at MH facilities, or Banning conversion therapy at service providers covered by the various BHMCOs in the state. We also encourage providers to allow the “consumer of services” to self ID family- aka, recognizing family of choice and family of birth aren’t the same thing.
Riders Against Gender Exclusion (Philly, PA)
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) sells weekly and monthly transit passes. You walk up to the ticket window, drop your pants, wait for the salesperson to figure out what’s between your legs, and accept the pass emblazoned with the “Male” or “Female” sticker they assign you. Then, every time you ride the bus, train, subway, or trolley, you have to drop trou again and wait for the driver to match your pass to your genitalia.
Well, ok, so they don’t actually require the nudity part. Which is where things get complicated… Every person buying a weekly or monthly transit pass has to ask for either a “Male” or “Female” pass, and every time they ride, they have to show the pass and have their gender verified by a SEPTA employee. And because SEPTA employees don’t check between your legs (and because what’s between your legs and your gender can be a lot more complicated than that pink/blue game we play with newborn babies), SEPTA doesn’t always get its guessing game right. Then, you might have to pay an extra fare, have your pass confiscated (no refunds!), and/or be subject to harassment by SEPTA employees and riders.
This is about:
This is about a campaign to demand South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) immediately discontinue the use of gender-marking stickers on their monthly and weekly transit passes. For all of the reasons above, and because transit authorities have no business checking what’s in our pants!
Had reason to refer someone to them (Trans woman with a disability pass was having trouble with drivers because her pass reads “M” still) today and figured I’d share the resource.
Pennslyvania: Artist Search- Works For Me Calendar
If you are an artist who lives in PA and you have a disability, this is a great chance for you to showcase your talent! Through this calendar, you can help raise awareness about employment supports for those who have a disability. This calendar will feature information about work incentives and will also include selected artwork, and this is where you come in! Here are some guidelines if you would like to partner with us:
What you can send: (Must be original art you have done yourself; include title of the artwork, full name of artist, phone number, email address)
- Photographs
- paintings (picture of)
- Sculptures (picture of)
- Wall hangings, textile designs (picture of)
How you can send it:
- Better to use a digital Camera rather than a cell phone camera.
- A picture taken by camera and sent by file through the computer.
- A picture as an email attachment that has .jpg or .gif at end of file name
- Please send only the best picture for each artwork
- Limit of one picture for each email
- Please limit artwork to 3 items per artist
Please submit all artwork by email to: worksforme@iu11.org
Please submit all artwork by July 15, 2011.
*Artists will be contacted in August 2011 if their work has been chosen, and winning entries will be featured in the 2012 calendar. Calendar artists will receive public recognition regarding their accomplishments. If questions, contact: 1-800-360-7282, ext. 3719
… Is it just me or did someone throw this CFP together by copy pasting meeting notes??? o_0 i don’t know. I just know that this got emailed to me on a list of things that someone at OMHSAS PA came across.
PENNSYLVANIA PEOPLES (and friends)!!! I have a big issue
I have a big issue I’m going to be talking about here in the next couple of days, and I would really like for you guys to support and spread word. It has to do with Mental Health Services and Dis rights and classism.
So, yeah, I will really really want your support/reblogs/blogs/general awareness spreading here soon.
<3 <3 <3
Nico: ALERTSent at the request of the Behavioral Health, Intellectual...
ALERT
Sent at the request of the Behavioral Health, Intellectual Disability and Autism Coalition
(Formally known as the MH/MR Coalition)
Governor Corbett will present his proposed budget in on March 8. As you may have heard, there almost certainly will be funding cuts to many…WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK FELLOW PA RESIDENTS GET ON THIS SHIT NOW
As an active advocate (In addition to the activism stuff I do on my own time) in PA, there’s stuff going on all the time. Now, there’s not a for sure that Corbett will abandon us. But I feel that his background makes me leery of any of the promises he has made, so I think it is mega important that we write in.
His political background is one that shares with those who think that cutting all DPW PA budgets would be a good budget balancer. Has historically called those with MH issues and DD folk who don’t fit what fills for their Pity boxes burdens, characterized as criminal, and seen as unworthy. Now, he’s said in his promises that he isn’t planning on following this history. But I still think it prudent to be skeptical, and to remind him what we want.
shewhoisanna replied to your link:Fayette County Wants Judge To Nix Music Church Suit Church Of Universal Love And Music Suing County Over Zoning Issue
Yet another reason I plan on moving the fuck outta Pennsylvania someday. Every day I get more and more ashamed of how the people in this state behave.
I stick around in part because I don’t have the money to GTFO and partly because of the fact that we should be safe, and maintain our rights, no matter WHERE we choose to live. We shouldn’t have to self segregate in order to be safe as who we are, be we disabled, queer, of a non-white race or a non-european ethnicity, of a non-christian (or even liberal christian!) faith… the list goes on.
I have little left to lose by sticking around and being obvious, trying to build tolerance, however vainly it might seem or feel.
Not to say if I had a financially accessible and sustainable way to move I wouldn’t. But I don’t see it as an urgent thing, or my inability to move as horrible. What’s horrible is that rural places have become a place where bigotry is culturally acceptable. Even the jokes city folk make about rural America point out that it is culturally acceptable for rural america to be a haven for bigots. And it’s NOT OKAY.
That said, you aren’t ashamed of me are you? I’m a fellow PA person. Venangoland (Venango County, PA) representing!
Non-Discrimination policy, boarder effects, and some comments
The link is to the new Non-discrimination policy. (You can get a little more background in my last post.) Basically, it explicitly adds Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Intersex status, and/or Sexual orientation- actual, perceived, or potential- to the non-discrimination policies of The BHMCOs (behavioral Health Managed care organizations) and State Hospitals in PA, and affirms that as such, discrimination complaint procedures can be followed with this population as well.
What these bulletins could mean beyond PA
You’ll notice that the scope is the BHMCOs. Thing is, most BHMCOs aren’t contained within a single state. There’s a number of them, and some of them- such as Health Choices- have contracts with multiple states. But for a number of them, it would mean that major policy changes- like adding GLBTQI to ALL the nondiscrimination policies for MH in PA- would be effected more broadly. A BHMCO will more likely just add that stipulation to it’s general non-discrimination policy, and for the other populations they work with. While it is guaranteed, there’s a chance that the DD services consumers interact with will have the non-discrimination policy added as well, and that it might even end up in their interactions with other states. (They would exceed the requirements of some states and their contracts with the MHBCO, not violate them.)
Additionally, we have had some support from the feds to bring information on the work of KPRI to other states. This doesn’t mean it *will* happen, just that there’s potential that the work we are doing here in PA could help those of you who aren’t.
How this reflects “GLBTQI” rather than just “GLB” work.
I want to take this moment to point out that a lot of the queer centric work we see going on Erases the experiences of Trans and gender non-conforming individuals while still asking for their help.
While we Laud DADT being repealed, we forget or erase from our perception that even though Trans folk fought for the repeal, they aren’t covered by the repeal. (There are a number of trans blogs out there for you to get details on this, though genderbitch is one source, especially if you are looking for a battle maiden who recognizes that the US military isn’t all that great regardless.) Even though we use the term “LGBT” when we talk about what a victory it was, it wasn’t- it was a “LGB” victory, perhaps, and one that our Trans and Gender non-conforming brethern were allies for, but it was not a victory for the Trans community.
Same goes for ENDA, or Marriage rights, or for most of the non-discrimination work we see touted by the queer community in the mainstream. We dropped trans from ENDA work. We Erase how Marriage equality could effect trans people, and effectively remove them and silence them in the equation.
So I’m so, so glad/blessed feeling to be able to say that this wasn’t so for this work I/We’ve been doing in PA. And I hope that we can maintain this view/approach as we continue our work, and as we spread our work to others.
This is how you use the term, "a step forward for GLBTQI Rights"
So, I’ve been working with other people in our Mental Health system on an initiative called Keystone Pride Recovery Initiative (KPRI), to address needs of the GLBTQI (“pride”) population in the mental health system (“recovery”) in PA (“Keystone” state.) (FYI, I have issues with the “recovery” terminology, but I leave that battle to my co-advos and activists who get to be our battlers.)
We just got two things we’ve been working on through the process, and so I’m *finally* authorized to share this with y’all. This link is the “Affirmative environments” bulletin. This is designed to make the environments in which people pursue Mental Health services less discriminatory. An excerpt:
Affirmative Environments: Provide an environment that is affirmative for consumers, staff, and visitors who identify or are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender variant, or intersex. Efforts to ensure such an environment shall include, but not be limited to:
a. Implementing policy and practice that prohibits hate speech or acts of intolerance on the part of other consumers, staff, or visitors;
b. providing a physical environment that supports diversity and inclusion of individuals regardless of race, sex, age, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity;
c. allowing consumers to identify whom to consider family with respect to participation in family programs;
d. providing housing in residential facilities, for gender variant individuals, that is consistent with the gender with which the individual identifies.
BH-MCOs and providers should use the following opportunities to make their environments more affirming of LGBTQI people:
e. As forms, paperwork and data collection instruments are updated, revise them toinclude questions that account for differences in sexual orientation and gender identity.
f. When facilities are renovated, make provisions for some restroom facilities to be designated as non-gender-specific.
Other portions include refraining from conversion therapy, training cultural competence (you can see some of the details on that, but it would include things like using the proper pronouns, not shaming people on basis of gender or sexual identity, etc.), following the other bulletin on non-discrimination and ensuring a certain number of people who specialize or are certified to work with GLBTQI specific issues.
The Downside of this: it’s limited to the Behavioral Health Managed Care organizations and their contracted providers. This means it doesn’t apply to County Mental Health or State run facilities. You can thank a combination of politics and… well, mostly politics, considering who PA elected as governor.
I’m posting the other bulletin next, along with some implications.
