How do fundies afford it?

[Pecansforeveryone]

I remember the movie John Q with Denzel Washington dealing with a father desperate to find an organ for his little boy. They were uninsured or had some bare bones insurance. Very interesting movie. 

[Jana814]

48 minutes ago, Pecansforeveryone said:

I remember the movie John Q with Denzel Washington dealing with a father desperate to find an organ for his little boy. They were uninsured or had some bare bones insurance. Very interesting movie. 

I remember that movie.  I can't remember why they wouldn't put the kid on the list. 

[Sobeknofret]

On 5/26/2018 at 12:11 AM, feministxtian said:

There's a food bank here that we've hit up a couple of times. The cool part of it is that if you're a Vet or Vet spouse, you get to go to the front of the line and they load you up bigtime. When we were really struggling it was a godsend. Between that and the church that gave away bread, fruit and fresh veggies, we made it through that time.

I have some issues around food after going through serious food insecurity a few times as an adult. I can't relax about food unless my pantry is full and so is my freezer. Its not like I'll over eat, I barely eat twice a day...but in my fucked up mind I'm saving the food for my husband (it was my children back in the day). 

I really need a good therapist, don't I? 

It's weird, but I do the same thing, and we've never been food insecure. I feel strangely uneasy if the fridge and cupboards aren't overflowing, and I almost get panicky about it sometimes. I have learned to moderate myself, but it's still a struggle. I should find a good therapist too.

[feministxtian]

1 hour ago, Sobeknofret said:

I should find a good therapist too.

Wonder if we could get a group rate! 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’ve been chastised multiple times by family members and friends for not keeping enough food in my house. It’s probably because I hate wasting. So I don’t over buy anything with an expiration date within a week or two. So I don’t overbuy veggies, fruits, dairies, or meats.  I just go to the store once a week and when it’s a day or two before my weekly grocery trip, my fridge looks bare. I also throw out anything expired so I don’t have lots of expired stuff just sitting in there for weeks on end. But my kids always have something to eat. They may just have only a choice of a PB&J or Mac & cheese for lunch when it’s time for me to get to the store. But I do overbuy paper products when they are on sale. 

[samurai_sarah]

33 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’ve been chastised multiple times by family members and friends for not keeping enough food in my house. It’s probably because I hate wasting. So I don’t over buy anything with an expiration date within a week or two. So I don’t overbuy veggies, fruits, dairies, or meats.  I just go to the store once a week and when it’s a day or two before my weekly grocery trip, my fridge looks bare. I also throw out anything expired so I don’t have lots of expired stuff just sitting in there for weeks on end. But my kids always have something to eat. They may just have only a choice of a PB&J or Mac & cheese for lunch when it’s time for me to get to the store. But I do overbuy paper products when they are on sale. 

Why would anyone even bother to comment on that? Surely what matters most is that you and yours are fed. Anything else is besides the point.

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 minutes ago, samurai_sarah said:

Why would anyone even bother to comment on that? Surely what matters most is that you and yours are fed. Anything else is besides the point.

I think it’s because my fridge does often look quite bare right before I go to the grocery store. Yet so many people have nasty old leftovers taking up space although they are much too old to be eaten. We eat our leftovers or throw them out. And condiments are sparse. I swear we don’t have as many condiments as most people. Ketchup, mayo, bbq sauce, hot sauce and salad dressing. That’s about it for condiments.

[Briefly]

3 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’ve been chastised multiple times by family members and friends for not keeping enough food in my house. It’s probably because I hate wasting. So I don’t over buy anything with an expiration date within a week or two. So I don’t overbuy veggies, fruits, dairies, or meats.  I just go to the store once a week and when it’s a day or two before my weekly grocery trip, my fridge looks bare. I also throw out anything expired so I don’t have lots of expired stuff just sitting in there for weeks on end. But my kids always have something to eat. They may just have only a choice of a PB&J or Mac & cheese for lunch when it’s time for me to get to the store. But I do overbuy paper products when they are on sale. 

I stopped in on the way home just to get milk and the grocery store had a buy-one, get-one on ground hamburger in large packages of around 3 pounds.  We normally eat ground turkey, but at the moment we have about 6 pounds of ground beef in the freezer.  I separate it out into 1 pound packages and some of it is in patty form now.  Because it was cheaper that way.  I know what you mean about the fridge looking bare right before grocery shopping trips.  I'm going to actually buy groceries tomorrow.

[pandora]

On 5/28/2018 at 11:57 PM, hoipolloi said:

There have always been rumors of celebrities or the wealthy jumping the queues for organ transplants, but the fact is that once you're eligible to be on a list, it's a matter of time, physical availability (for both donor & recipient), and biological compatibility. Personal preference has nothing to do with it. 

Hell it's more than rumors, here's Natalie Cole going on TV to say she needs a kidney (due to Hep C caused by past drug abuse) and getting a directed donation from a fan. 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/01/natalie.cole.kidney/index.html

https://people.com/celebrity/natalie-cole-was-full-of-gratitude-after-kidney-transplant/

The Mickey Mantle thing sounds sketchy, but for most celebrities who get organs quickly, it's not due to any queue jumping- no amount of celebrity lets you do that currently (at least in the US). It's that anyone can choose to do a directed donation, and people who have lots of fans hoping to keep them alive are gonna have a larger pool of people eligible to choose to do that. Directed donation looks pretty unfair when you look at what was happening with that Jacob guy or Natalie, but they're generally a pretty good thing- one member of my family is alive because a sibling (living donor) was able to do a directed donation (congenital condition, no substance abuse). The way to think of it is generally less cutting in line and more stepping out of line. For people getting a small bit of liver, or a lung lobe, or kidney (stuff where the donor can be live) the people from whom they're getting a donation wouldn't be donating organs otherwise, they're just doing it for their relative or friend, so it's not taking anything away from the people ahead of you in line, it's just shortening the line for everyone else. Chain donations are a thing for the same reason. So I don't begrudge that someone was able to tap their relatives organs for Jacob-  thank goodness hospitals have systems for trying not to waste organs.

[Anonymousguest]

Wouldn't a patient also have to meet a minimum medical criteria? At the point of the organs being offered he was in a coma and not responsive. They did not have a diagnosis yet, and actually there was no true diagnosis because she didn't pay for an autopsy and it was during the initial procedure to do a biopsy that things went South. She said later that the first hospital, the teaching hospital in Denver, would not year him anymore. They wanted her to let him die because there was no hope. Which is why she had him transferred to Porter, which I think is a new Adventist hospital. 

At the time everyone was saying how horrible that is etc that the best hospital wouldn't even treat him, but then he died 2 days later anyway. 

[Jana814]

I thought Natalie Cole got a kidney from her son. 

[Howl]

15 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Yet so many people have nasty old leftovers taking up space although they are much too old to be eaten.

*hangs head in shame* but *lifts head, brightens up!* totally inspired to clean fridge today and cook up all the greens that have just a few days to go. 

MUST. RESIST.  spending hours on google looking up recipes, then, oops, no time to clean fridge. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

3 minutes ago, Howl said:

*hangs head in shame* but *lifts head, brightens up!* totally inspired to clean fridge today and cook up all the greens that have just a few days to go. 

MUST. RESIST.  spending hours on google looking up recipes, then, oops, no time to clean fridge. 

Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. It’s pretty normal to have expired food and old leftovers in a fridge. My husband is beyond weird about leftovers and expired food. He won’t go near them. I have an iron stomach so I will eat stuff a day or two past the date depending on what it is and if it smells ok. 

[Lisafer]

14 hours ago, Briefly said:

I stopped in on the way home just to get milk and the grocery store had a buy-one, get-one on ground hamburger in large packages of around 3 pounds.  We normally eat ground turkey, but at the moment we have about 6 pounds of ground beef in the freezer.  I separate it out into 1 pound packages and some of it is in patty form now.  Because it was cheaper that way.  I know what you mean about the fridge looking bare right before grocery shopping trips.  I'm going to actually buy groceries tomorrow.

Please be Maxwellian about this ground beef. You need to defrost it, cook it, mix it with onion, freeze it again, thaw it again, and cook it in something else before you eat it! Only then can you achieve the tastelessness required for true godliness!

[Pecansforeveryone]

35 minutes ago, Lisafer said:

Please be Maxwellian about this ground beef. You need to defrost it, cook it, mix it with onion, freeze it again, thaw it again, and cook it in something else before you eat it! Only then can you achieve the tastelessness required for true godliness!

Sweet baby Rufus, I have never ventured Into the Maxwell thread! I see I have made the right decision. 

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

spending hours on google looking up recipes, then, oops, no time to clean fridge.

We must have been separated at birth!

 

[Carol]

Here's an FYI that I hope helps people. I turn my refrigerator to the coldest setting and it really helps all kinds of food items last.  I buy the Costco kale/quinoa salad two at a time and have had it last two weeks past the sell date.  Lots of other things, too.  The colder the environment, the longer things last.

I have never known food insecurity.  My heart goes out to everyone who has experienced it or continues to experience it.  Please use food banks, please use EBT cards.  They exist for a reason and there should never be any shame attached to them.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, Carol said:

I buy the Costco kale/quinoa salad two at a time and have had it last two weeks past the sell date.

Another Costco item that has an amazing half-life is their organic milk (comes three cartons to a box). It's pricey for milk BUT if you don't use a lot yet still need to have it on hand, the stuff lasts for weeks, unopened.

Ditto on food insecurity -- have never known it and am happy to pay taxes & give to food banks so that others can feel the same way. 

[pandora]

14 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

Wouldn't a patient also have to meet a minimum medical criteria? At the point of the organs being offered he was in a coma and not responsive.

Yes! I didn't mention it because I felt like it had already been covered upthread, but yes very much so! There's a whole lot of boxes you need to tick to be eligible for a new organ even if you have a donor at the ready, and even more boxes you need to check for compatability with that donor. Screening includes the very good reasons you're mentioning (is this person gonna die anyway?) to the amount of time people with substance abuse issues need to be clean and sober before being eligible, to personal assessment things like will this person reliably take their immunosuppressants and do they have a strong support system. Then you have to match with the donor on a bunch of small things that you don't think about like CMV. It's a mindnumbing list of stuff.

[Anonymousguest]

53 minutes ago, pandora said:

Yes! I didn't mention it because I felt like it had already been covered upthread, but yes very much so! There's a whole lot of boxes you need to tick to be eligible for a new organ even if you have a donor at the ready, and even more boxes you need to check for compatability with that donor. Screening includes the very good reasons you're mentioning (is this person gonna die anyway?) to the amount of time people with substance abuse issues need to be clean and sober before being eligible, to personal assessment things like will this person reliably take their immunosuppressants and do they have a strong support system. Then you have to match with the donor on a bunch of small things that you don't think about like CMV. It's a mindnumbing list of stuff.

I suspect the "match" in this case was simply both people being the same blood type. She did say she understood why he wasn't a candidate after she got him moved, but at that point she hadn't mentioned publicly his addiction to wine. 

I wonder if the drinking played a part in him not seeking medical help when the jaundice started. I also wonder if the oils exacerbated the damage to the liver, since 37 is really young to die from fatty liver disease or cirrhosis. 

[feministxtian]

6 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

I wonder if the drinking played a part in him not seeking medical help when the jaundice started. I also wonder if the oils exacerbated the damage to the liver, since 37 is really young to die from fatty liver disease or cirrhosis. 

A woman I worked with died of liver failure due to alcohol at the age of 34. I don't know all the details but from what I understand, she was a heavy drinker. So, it is possible to die at a young age from booze. The original drummer from Styx died at the age of 47 from a combination of liver failure and having varicose veins in his esophagus. 

Years of excessive drinking began to take a toll on his liver. In the mid-1990s, as Styx was about to embark on its first tour with the classic line-up since 1983, John fell seriously ill and began battling cirrhosis of the liver, eventually dying of gastrointestinal hemorrhaging and cirrhosis in Chicago; he was 47 years old.[2][3][4][5]

[Anonymousguest]

1 hour ago, feministxtian said:

A woman I worked with died of liver failure due to alcohol at the age of 34. I don't know all the details but from what I understand, she was a heavy drinker. So, it is possible to die at a young age from booze. The original drummer from Styx died at the age of 47 from a combination of liver failure and having varicose veins in his esophagus. 

Years of excessive drinking began to take a toll on his liver. In the mid-1990s, as Styx was about to embark on its first tour with the classic line-up since 1983, John fell seriously ill and began battling cirrhosis of the liver, eventually dying of gastrointestinal hemorrhaging and cirrhosis in Chicago; he was 47 years old.[2][3][4][5]

And then there are people like my FIL who have been alcoholics for decades with seemingly no physical effects. His own brother died young from some kind hemorrhage related to alcoholism.

[pandora]

6 hours ago, feministxtian said:

A woman I worked with died of liver failure due to alcohol at the age of 34. I don't know all the details but from what I understand, she was a heavy drinker. So, it is possible to die at a young age from booze. The original drummer from Styx died at the age of 47 from a combination of liver failure and having varicose veins in his esophagus. 

Years of excessive drinking began to take a toll on his liver. In the mid-1990s, as Styx was about to embark on its first tour with the classic line-up since 1983, John fell seriously ill and began battling cirrhosis of the liver, eventually dying of gastrointestinal hemorrhaging and cirrhosis in Chicago; he was 47 years old.[2][3][4][5]

 

My hand involuntarily went to my throat when I read this  ouch, man.

[feministxtian]

2 minutes ago, pandora said:

My hand involuntarily went to my throat when I read this  ouch, man.

Styx is my favorite band. I will NEVER forget hearing the news that John had died...I was driving somewhere and ended up pulling over for a good cry. I'd only seen them live about 5 times by then and was planning to see them again later that summer, and the hope was that John would be well enough to play a few dates. Well, it never happened. 

This is the song that Tommy Shaw wrote as a tribute to John...you can hear their voiced breaking and cracking. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtGDQ1KvZU

 

[Mrs. Bean]

10 hours ago, feministxtian said:

A woman I worked with died of liver failure due to alcohol at the age of 34. I don't know all the details but from what I understand, she was a heavy drinker. So, it is possible to die at a young age from booze. The original drummer from Styx died at the age of 47 from a combination of liver failure and having varicose veins in his esophagus. 

Years of excessive drinking began to take a toll on his liver. In the mid-1990s, as Styx was about to embark on its first tour with the classic line-up since 1983, John fell seriously ill and began battling cirrhosis of the liver, eventually dying of gastrointestinal hemorrhaging and cirrhosis in Chicago; he was 47 years old.[2][3][4][5]

I had a patient who was in full blown liver cirrhosis due to alcoholism, she was only 26. She told me she started binge drinking in college and never stopped.