I’m a recovering alcoholic. Haven’t had a drink since November 22, 1996.
• I’m a smoker. And serial quitter. One day, I swear, I WILL defeat this ***ing addiction.
I am on disability, due to an immune disorder that causes chronic pain and fatigue (fibromyalgia – what a bullshit diagnosis). Adam used to make a living as a photographer, but Bush’s fabulous economy forced him to go back to work in the film industry.
• My husband and I are college educated people (though I dropped out of the University of Michigan to move to California with my first husband and royally f*** up my life for a solid decade). Adam's parents were wealthy and my mother was solidly middle class. Our combined income now puts us somewhere on the edge between middle and lower-middle class. Before I became disabled, my son and I already qualified for MediCal and Medicare because our income had become sufficiently low. However, as our income stagnated over the past four years, my MediCal benefits were cut and my share of cost increased to the point where we could not afford to avail ourselves of medical treatment.
Fortunately, last year Adam became eligible for health insurance through his union (though continuing with that coverage depends on his working at least 300 hours on union jobs, which are scarce). It came just in the nick of time, too – shortly after getting the healthcare benefits, I had to undergo testing for uterine and ovarian cancer. I might have been tested and treated months earlier, but opted not to seek yearly physicals because of the increased share of cost through MediCal. However, should the worst diagnosis have come to pass, I was more worried, frankly, about our share of the expenses than I was about dying. Twenty percent of a medical crisis is enough to bury us. It turned out to be a problem easily remedied with a D&C and birth control pills, incidentally. Two treatments I'm sure the Radical Right Wing Neocon Christofascist Zombie Brigade would love to make virtually impossible to receive...
http://tinyurl.com/nvjts
Fibromyalgia is no "immune disorder". If she had lab tests, they would all be negative. Although perfectly healthy, she managed to get a bogus diagnosis so that we taxpayers can pay for her upkeep.
Being idle contributes to her obvious mental disorder. If she was working she would have better things to do, people to be around, and a check on her break with reality.