Carlin and Evan 13: Living on SM Income

[AussieKrissy]

12 hours ago, HereticHick said:

If Carlin were still driving, I'd bet we'd see a "oops, my car's battery is dead because I forgot to charge it....giggle, I'm such as silly girl" video.

I roll my eyes cause you are bang on correct...

[GuineaPigCourtship]

I probably already mentioned this earlier in one of her threads, but I had a very close friend from a young age that developed epilepsy and she only had sporadic seizures on her meds.  She would go a while with no seizures and back to life as usual, and then a few months later she'd have another and lose her license.  Maybe two years ago she was back to driving after 6mo seizure free and she had a seizure while on the highway, flipped her car and got severely injured.  I worried about her driving for years because of the risk of seizure and was horrified but totally unsurprised when it finally happened.  Carlin, while dealing with these scary health issues, is lucky enough that she can get rides and has a lot of support.  I think for the sake of her husband and two young children she ought to prioritize any testing the doctors recommend to get as many answers as possible instead of pretending it's better and driving again at 6 months.

I think Evan is aware of the risk and would probably rather she not drive, but he's not "headship enough" to forbid it.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Yeah I think Carlin rules that roost.

I hope Evan can hold her back at least on driving for awhile.

I'm sure Carlin thinks she's "cured" if she can go long enough to drive again. And won't be thinking about a random recurrence one day. I hop over time she can get a better sense of how this will progress for her. AND get that test done!

[marmalade]

3 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

Yeah I think Carlin rules that roost.

I hope Evan can hold her back at least on driving for awhile.

I'm sure Carlin thinks she's "cured" if she can go long enough to drive again. And won't be thinking about a random recurrence one day. I hop over time she can get a better sense of how this will progress for her. AND get that test done!

She's not doing the test. She'd have to go off her meds and might have an "episode." I'm not sure if that puts her back at square one with respect to driving, or if being in a controlled setting doesn't restart the clock.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

6 hours ago, marmalade said:

She's not doing the test. She'd have to go off her meds and might have an "episode." I'm not sure if that puts her back at square one with respect to driving, or if being in a controlled setting doesn't restart the clock.

I agree I don't think she will but I hope she will. Maybe Evan can convince her.

They really ought to know what they are dealing with before having another child. Right now they're making SM money and the boutique seems to be making money but  both of those things could easily go away. If they had invested the cost of that Tesla, they'd probably be able to completely retire one day off only that investment. I sincerely hope they have also put money away for retirement/savings/etc. Even if SM continues to pay in general - I'm pretty sure for their type of content the interest is going to go down as they age.

[llucie]

10 hours ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

 

I'm sure Carlin thinks she's "cured" if she can go long enough to drive again. And won't be thinking about a random recurrence one day. I hop over time she can get a better sense of how this will progress for her. AND get that test done!

In the last vlog were she talked about her illness she said she knows it is a permanent issue and that she will have to take medication for the rest of her life, that to me doesnt sound like she thinks she is "cured".

[GuineaPigCourtship]

She knows she'll have to manage it with medication, but that still doesn't mean she realizes that she may still have breakthrough seizures her whole life.  I mean, she may very well realize that but we don't know that she does and even for people with a lot of education and medical knowledge it can be super hard to internalize that.  There must have been a lot of going through the various stages of grief about this but acceptance would be HARD and she's said multiple times that she hopes it just goes away.

[GutenbergGirl]

On 6/22/2023 at 8:23 PM, GuineaPigCourtship said:

She knows she'll have to manage it with medication, but that still doesn't mean she realizes that she may still have breakthrough seizures her whole life.  I mean, she may very well realize that but we don't know that she does and even for people with a lot of education and medical knowledge it can be super hard to internalize that.  There must have been a lot of going through the various stages of grief about this but acceptance would be HARD and she's said multiple times that she hopes it just goes away.

My mom was a geriatric RN for 40+ years, so I was raised in nursing homes, and around medical stuff in general.  

I was diagnosed with diabetes in my late 20s, and still, at 48, I still just hope it'll go away.  So, in this case, I can see where Carlin is coming from.  She's so young to have been diagnosed with a debilitating disease, and I do feel for her, for that.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, GutenbergGirl said:

My mom was a geriatric RN for 40+ years, so I was raised in nursing homes, and around medical stuff in general.  

I was diagnosed with diabetes in my late 20s, and still, at 48, I still just hope it'll go away.  So, in this case, I can see where Carlin is coming from.  She's so young to have been diagnosed with a debilitating disease, and I do feel for her, for that.  

We have something in common! I spent a lot of my youth in nursing homes because my mom couldn’t always afford a sitter. She worked in a nursing home so we were there a lot. 

[marmalade]

43 minutes ago, GutenbergGirl said:

My mom was a geriatric RN for 40+ years, so I was raised in nursing homes, and around medical stuff in general.  

I was diagnosed with diabetes in my late 20s, and still, at 48, I still just hope it'll go away.  So, in this case, I can see where Carlin is coming from.  She's so young to have been diagnosed with a debilitating disease, and I do feel for her, for that.  

I don't think Carlin has been officially diagnosed with anything. They just know she's had sone "episodes" and medicate accordingly. She refuses to get the test that could give her a real diagnosis. 

Edited June 24, 2023 by marmalade

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Yeah and not having an actual diagnosis, using THE appropriate test, really limits how accurate any prediction about her prognosis may be. 

I wonder if her Dr.s have said anything about her prescriptions. In my experience they'll provide them for a short term but don't like to keep giving them if you aren't up to date on simple things like bloodwork.

How does that work if you never even do the diagnostic test?

[llucie]

In today vlog they said they are just waiting on the doctors to schedule the 5-day EEG and that they have been following up as recently as last week, doesnt sound to me that they are avoiding any test but who knows.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I haven't watched today's so thx for update.

I think they did conveniently not schedule it or follow up for a long time. Maybe they've felt some pressure from somewhere to finally do it.

[marmalade]

6 hours ago, llucie said:

In today vlog they said they are just waiting on the doctors to schedule the 5-day EEG and that they have been following up as recently as last week, doesnt sound to me that they are avoiding any test but who knows.

This is new information. Let's see whether she actually follows through. 

[llucie]

I cant imagine them not wanting to do the test. Just for the youtube content i think they would do it. Also evan did say there were some issues with the schedule of the test, with the doctors forgotting to schedule it, so it doesnt seem it was their fault or that they were avoiding it.

I will say that i dont understand where this thinking that they distrust doctors or medication is coming from. I also remember people doubting Carlin would take the medication just because she mentioned the secondary effects (which is very normal!). Now that she has been taking them for a year i guess people have moved on from that. I know some fundies are anti modern medicine and distrust doctors so i guess it could be coming from that perspective but that doesnt seem to be the case at all with Evan and Carlin. They literally go to a doctor in every other vlog, if its not for Carlin it is for one of the kids.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

They go to urgent care or ER a lot. That's different from having a doctor managing your care, coordinating care between different areas, and monitoring you over time.

The fact they constantly go to ER/urgent care actually makes me wonder if they even have a regular dr.

 

I dont think she distrusts doctors necessarily but she clearly went through a long period of denial of having any serious issues. She repeatedly said she just wanted it to go away and seemed to genuinely hope it would (presumably through prayer). 

The "doctors forgot to schedule the test" is a really weird excuse.

When I need a test done I schedule it. The doctors don't.  Even with a waiting list -you get on the list. If you don't hear back you call and check in. You don't normally go "oh well" for months.

I personally think Evan is the one pushing her to follow up on her health. But we'll see how it goes.

 

 

[marmalade]

52 minutes ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

When I need a test done I schedule it. The doctors don't.  Even with a waiting list -you get on the list. If you don't hear back you call and check in. You don't normally go "oh well" for months.

 

 

THIS! 

I've never had a doctor's office say they would schedule an appointment/procedure/whatever. It's up to the patient to get the ball rolling, and to plow through the red tape for the big stuff. 

[fluffernutter]

She wants another baby, they have a fancy new car that she might like to enjoy, it makes sense that now she wants the clear to be able to drive and conceive. I think she's trying to solve the illness stuff to make those things happen. I wish that she would've been more proactive just for her own sake. This is of course just my speculation. 🤷‍♀️

[SoSoNosy]

I have had various doctors tell me they would schedule a test of some kind; they tend to either take their time or delegate it off to somebody who is overloaded.  I eventually got a call, or just gave up and made phone calls myself.  I kind of think the type of test that's being discussed here would have to be scheduled by a doctor's office.

 

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by SoSoNosy

[marmalade]

7 minutes ago, fluffernutter said:

She wants another baby, they have a fancy new car that she might like to enjoy, it makes sense that now she wants the clear to be able to drive and conceive. I think she's trying to solve the illness stuff to make those things happen. I wish that she would've been more proactive just for her own sake. This is of course just my speculation. 🤷‍♀️

She could have gotten answers as early as last fall. It was her choice to dock around in hopes that it would go away. 

[Keys]

I work in the field, and can confirm that sometimes these kinds of delays do happen. Either a referral is faxed and the fax gets lost or doesn’t go through, or the physician may forget to send the referral in the slew of other paper work. Usually they tell the patient, “the wait time should be around xyz, but if you don’t hear anything, either call the place the test tasked place, or call us and we can look into it”

[marmalade]

8 minutes ago, Keys said:

I work in the field, and can confirm that sometimes these kinds of delays do happen. Either a referral is faxed and the fax gets lost or doesn’t go through, or the physician may forget to send the referral in the slew of other paper work. Usually they tell the patient, “the wait time should be around xyz, but if you don’t hear anything, either call the place the test tasked place, or call us and we can look into it”

Delays are not the same as actually scheduling. They've implied that the doctor was going to do everything. They dropped the ball by not being proactive, which IMO is an indication that this wasn't a priority for them.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I could see a delay of a month or 2 if you had the sort of dr who was actually making the appt(big if). But to sit around for months on end and not follow up? Knowing that there's still going to be a wait between scheduling and the test? 

I just did a bunch of dr appts. Before I left I reviewed my to do list with dr 

1. Get the blood work 

2. Schedule the next test 

3. Fill the prescription if needed when bloodwork comes back

4. Make sure follow up with primary care.

Absolutely all of that was my responsibility. She sent me on my way assuming I'd do it myself.

These days you can usually message your dr and get a response within a day. So it just doesn't make any sense to me....unless you don't actually want to do the test and don't really want the final diagnosis.

 

But anyway. We all come to our own conclusions.

Until they really answer an ask me anything for hard questions, we can only speculate based on their personal shiny happy people personas. 

[Keys]

1 hour ago, marmalade said:

Delays are not the same as actually scheduling. They've implied that the doctor was going to do everything. They dropped the ball by not being proactive, which IMO is an indication that this wasn't a priority for them.

No for sure! I was just saying that it is, in fact, possible that the doctor forgot to send in the referral, or that it got lost before it reached whoever schedules the test. But of course, some responsibility is on the patient as well, to say, hey, it’s been awhile and I haven’t heard about xyz test scheduling. I’d better call or message them to look into it”. Maybe priorities, maybe not wanting to find out the result of the test. Who knows 

[llucie]

7 hours ago, Keys said:

No for sure! I was just saying that it is, in fact, possible that the doctor forgot to send in the referral, or that it got lost before it reached whoever schedules the test. But of course, some responsibility is on the patient as well, to say, hey, it’s been awhile and I haven’t heard about xyz test scheduling. I’d better call or message them to look into it”. Maybe priorities, maybe not wanting to find out the result of the test. Who knows 

Anyone that has dealt with medical red tape before knows this kind of thing happens a lot. Or maybe i just had the worst luck.