[Twister's Scrapbook] Total Turbulence

[Twister]

... Hi! I'll be honest. I didn't really have much of a plan for this first post in this Scrapbook. Originally I wasn't even planning on making myself one since I didn't know what I should even use it for. Then I figured; Why not? Besides, I've a hilarious video to share once I've got my introduction out of the way. Figure I could use one of those. Hello everyone. I'm Twister, or that's what I go by here what with the lack of well-known characters to identify with. I'm 20 years old, turning 21 later this month. Currently a student picking up on leftover subjects to get a full set of grades before I attend University, I'm a Behavioural Science and Psychology enthusiast with a deep love for roleplaying and writing as well as certain kinds of videogames. And music, of course. I live in Sweden and my native tongue is Swedish, though I've spoken and written English actively for so long now that it's almost, almost safe to call me bilingual. ... Granted, whenever I speak English my tongue seems to swell up in my mouth and your "th"s and "w"s are horrible. :| I'm not sure what else to say. Feel free to ask questions and I'll answer! I'm usually very open about myself and I take no offense to questions asked. ... That video. I'm going to post it now. Here!

[Twister]

Whoever hasn't watched this totally should. It sends a pretty good message about storywriting, beyond everything else it talks about.

[Twister]

"At least it's not boring." - me So, I've been absent from Mizahar for a while now. First it was illness. My physical health deteriorated and made sure to pull my mental health down with it. That's fine, by me. I mean, you can recover from it. No big deal. The "At least it's not boring" line is one I've used many times with my parents and family to describe our lives and the story of our household, in short. There's always something going on. Usually it's not a good something, but it's something. We, if any family out there, can never claim to lead boring lives. When things start to look up, something new always comes along to keep us on our toes. All of this makes us stronger as a family, but it is starting to get a wee bit annoying. A couple of days ago, I was hit with some bad news. I was coming out of illness and feeling pretty pumped to get back in action so I could pull my mind off of things and stop staring into the wall for hours on end. Then my grandmother contacted the hospital I've been awaiting word from for months, and they gave us some news that I'm not really feeling too happy about. I'll give you some background to this, first. I'm very overweight. I've always been. It's something I've tried many times to do something about, but I just don't have the character or the willpower to go through with any major life-changing efforts. Because I can't deal with this on my own, we were speaking to a doctor at a local clinic before summer about getting me in line for overweight surgery---it'd be that one final push I'd need to get started with changing my life around; a great tool for me to use so I don't have to fight this battle completely unarmed, you know? In order to get in line for the surgery, she would have to interview me and then send in a recommendation to the local hospital to give me a time there, where more doctors would talk to me and make a risk assessment before they could tell me whether I was cleared for surgery or not. The catch here was that the doctor I saw was completely and utterly disinterested in me. I could feel it when she looked at me and when she spoke to me. She had no interest in me or what I had to tell her at all. Not to mention... she was 45 minutes late to our appointment. We checked ourselves into the clinic and sat down to wait. Ten minutes in, we see her previous patient leave her office. After him, she exits and walks off to the personnel cafeteria. She was fully aware at this point that we were checked in and waiting for her. 35 minutes later, she comes out of there and calls us into her office. Please note that we had been sitting right next to her door the entire time. There was no way she'd missed that we were there, especially seeing as we were checked in. They tend to notify the doctors when their patients arrive, after all. Once she finally called us in, I felt extremely uncomfortable speaking with her. Have you ever had that really negative feeling about someone you just met? You know right away that you don't like them? That's what she was to me. She didn't care about me. She had no interest in me. She was barely listening to my answers to her questions. It didn't help that we had to sit there in her office and wait for her once again when her colleague called her about some computer-related issue. Really? It couldn't wait? Like, ten minutes? That's how long the whole interview would've taken if she engaged more in it! Instead we had to sit there, me and my mother, awkwardly looking at eachother in silence for five minutes while she was lazily leaning over her desk, clicking away at her computer, with her colleague on the other end of the phone line. After our meeting with the doctor, I went to take some tests on my blood and urine. No big deal. I had to wait for a while here, too, before they let me in. I didn't mind so much because the doctor who took my tests seemed to care. She apologized to me and talked to me while she was preparing the needle and she, overall, made me feel comfortable. That was nice. I could forgive her for being late, since she seemed perfectly aware that she was. It was a busy day, and I had full understanding for that. Once all that was done, we went home. And we waited. And waited. And waited. No word from the clinic or the hospital. We assumed it was because it was summer. People go on vacation around that time. So, we were lenient. We decided to wait, give them the benefit of the doubt. Once they got back from work, we were sure they'd contact us and process our errand, and if something serious showed up in my tests, they'd notify us. That's just the reasonable thing to expect, right? Apparently not. Two days ago, my grandmother got fed up with having to wait for them. She contacted the hospital to ask if the recommendation ever came in from the clinic, and it turns out it hadn't. The doctor I saw at the clinic had gone on her vacation and not offered me a second thought. She hadn't sent in my request and papers to the hospital, and she hadn't bothered telling us the results of my tests. They weren't good, I'll tell you. It turns out I have body-wide infections and that my liver isn't working like it should be. In short, I'm slowly being posioned because my liver can't handle filtering out the filth. What this means is that I'll have to go back to the clinic and take more tests, since those test results are by now months old. Who knows how much worse it could've gotten in that time? And, they most likely will have to put me on antibiotics to combat the infection. Suffice to say, we're reporting said doctor to the authorities for neglect and incompetence. It makes me angry. I'm not in any direct danger as far as I know. But... when was she going to tell us? I could've just gone on without knowing about this if my grandmother hadn't contacted the hospital for us. I wouldn't have noticed anything until my liver shut down entirely. I had never expected that this kind of neglect would occur in the public Swedish healthcare, but I guess this gives me a rare look at the dark underbelly. I can't blame the hospital for this happening, though. Only the doctor at the local clinic. I sincerely hope they penalize her. If she's so disinterested that she ignores her patients like that, then... she's probably better off pursuing an entirely different kind of career.

[Radiant]

Twisty, I've read the whole thing and it makes me want to rage at that fool of a doctor. In my country, some doctors are only interested money, money, and money. If they see a patient as poor, they would act like that "doctor".

I sincerely wish you get everything sorted up, we miss you here.

[Shiyami]

Find a can of gas, and a match. That's for the car. Now go find the neglecting doctor, and throttle her!

Get better soon! 'Cause if your sick for long enough, damage may be irreparable. And that really becomes a hindrance >.>

[Twister]

Well. As it turns out, the blood tests had also revealed that I have Type 2 Diabetes. This is something they failed to inform me of even when my grandmother called the hospital. I was told of this today when we visited a specialist on the subject of overweight/obesity and he told us that the surgery we were wanting was probably my last viable option at this point. So I suppose that's the only good thing that's come of this, and it's good that we know now why I've been so tired these past few months. Not only because of my Sleep Apnea, but also because of the Diabetes. At least my errand's sent on to the hospital now, as well as a Diabetes specialist and a sleep-disorder lab. Finally, something's actually happening. I'll be back in action ASAP!

[Inari Lorak]

Forgive my language, but people can be such dicks. No worries though because the good shall prevail! We're all rooting for you, the storm will pass and you'll be getting some sunshine and rainbows soon!!

[Twister]

. I don't use this Scrapbook much. Can't say I like using it, but I thought I'd go ranting and rambling about things today. So, earlier today, I got the summons to the hospital that I've been waiting for. For a long time now, I've been waiting for them. It's a relief, but at the same time it's making me very nervous. It means I'm in the system, so to speak; that I'm getting in line for that surgery I wanted. For real! Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic. I really need this surgery and all the help the hospital will be able to give me to deal with this. Let's just say it's a long time coming, like you might figure if you've read any of my previous scraps. ... They're not very many. What will happen now is basically this: I go to the hospital on the 10th of January together with my mother. We will be there from 7:45 am to 11 am, and we'll be listening to doctors talking to us and other patients in the same line as us about the surgical method, the risks of the procedure, suggested diets, so on. We'll also be given lunch at the hospital, like an example meal of what sort of stuff you'll be eating for the rest of your life but, most importantly, after the surgery is over and the few months to follow. After that, we'll go back in to see doctors and diet experts while we wait to be processed for the surgery itself. We'll be keeping journals to keep track of just what sorts of things we're eating, how much and how often in order to prepare us for the time after the surgery when we will be eating six times a day. I don't know about you, but that seems like a lot. ... It might be because I'm used to no more than a meal or two a day. I don't really eat more than that. Usually, I skip breakfast. I don't really feel like eating in the morning, and other days I just sleep in and miss breakfast hours altogether. I don't eat lunch very often. Usually I'm just not very hungry during the day, but I wait until dinner instead and have myself a good meal then to make up for what I didn't eat during the rest of the day. Of course, not every day looks like this, but that's usually the case. There are some major habit changes coming up when it comes to food, for me. First of all, I need to eat three proper meals a day with snacks inbetween. Breakfast, lunch and dinner with a fruit or some yoghurt between meals and as an evening snack. I need to start drinking a lot more water and cut back on coffee. Additionally, I know I'll have to eat vitamin pills for the rest of my life in order to get the necessary nutritients every day. I won't be able to get all of it from the food alone since, first of all, I won't be eating near as much as I'm used to... And because the food's just going to fly through the system. That's part of the point of the surgery, after all. Speaking of journals. My doctor I've been seeing about my diabetes gave me one. Now I have this small measuring device and a needle-puncher that I use to measure my own blood sugar levels a few times a day. It's really nifty, and it's very interesting to see how they fluctuate depending on what I do or eat, or what happens to them when the medicine wears off. My mother's calling me a hobby-diabetic, though. She laughed at me the first time I was told I had diabetes and thought it was hilarious. I realize now that it was just because, when our doctor was talking about all the signs of the disease while my mother was also in the room, she recognized more of the symptoms in herself than she did in me. A few days later, she went back in to said doctor and tested her blood. Surprise, she's also a diabetic. While I shouldn't really be happy about that sort of thing, that just means me and her are in this together. Somehow, that makes everything much easier on the both of us. ... Even if hers is much worse than mine, and it's a wonder she hadn't gone in earlier to test it. Her feet are either in pain or completely numb and her eyes are starting to get blurry. Read the signs! Anyway... What this means with the summons to the hospital is that, in the coming months, I'll most definitely go under the knife. It's with horror-mixed anticipation that I'll be floating through the Christmas holidays, waiting for my doctor's appointment. At this rate, I'll be a new person before summer next year. .

[Twister]

. I don't know why. This song just helps me focus when I decide "It's clobbering time!". .

[Daedalus Dagwood]

That made me laugh when you mentioned being called a "Hobby-diabetic". It made me laugh since it reminded me of the first few years when i was going through the mentality of adjusting to a new lifestyle.

I myself am a Type-1 Diabetic and have been since 2007. When I was first told that I was a Diabetic I couldn't believe it since I was an active person. I regularly worked out, practiced martial arts, and at that time I was trying out for a school basketball team. However, my symptoms hit suddenly and rapidly. I wholeheartedly agree that reading the signs is a must. Frequent trips to the bathroom, Unquenchable Thirst, and Losing Weight Without Trying (For me I went from 225lbs on a Monday to 150lbs on Friday within a week.)

Twisty, I keep a blood sugar and food journal as well. The first for necessity, though the food journal is just for my personal benefit. I think it is because I am a physical person who needs tangible lists to look at in order to keep my blood sugar in check. I don't see myself as a "Diabetic", but more so as a "bodybuilder" who takes count of what my body intakes. I eat six times a day which through text sounds like a lot but portion control makes up most of it. Also family is a great help for support when things begin to feel like 'unnecessary work'.

Anyway. I am sending nothing but love and good vibrations your way and hopes your surgery goes swimmingly.