earache epitome of incomprehensibility It wasn't mine. But my brother's room is downstairs, about directly under mine, and he couldn't sleep at all Saturday night, and pain makes him angry. He wasn't only wailing but, every so often, stomping and moving the door or chair and yelling in frustration. The first time he woke me up I was thirsty anyway. I asked him what was wrong, I recommended some Motrin ("already took it") and then two mediciney-minty-smelling skin ointments that are supposed to relieve congestion and muscle pains, respectively ("won't work - but let me try anyway"). He thought it was just a build-up of wax, something they'd given him oil for at the pharmacy. The second time I got up, I had to pee anyway. But I was annoyed. Why did he have to keep me awake? What good did that do? The phrase in my head was "You keep crying, I'll give you something to cry about" like the stereotypical abusive parent, even if it didn't make sense in that context. I did start in a low voice, warningly parental: "[Y.]. You keep making noise. I can't sleep. Okay, I'm being selfish, but I don't want you to wake up Mom and Dad. They have work tomorrow." Yes, on a Sunday; Dad started at 10, Mom at 11 - she's just doing a thing part time, playing piano for the church, but still that's a responsibility. He said I was just making him feel worse by adding guilt. But that he'd try to be quiet. In bed again, I dreamed of a book being called, ominously but nonsensically, Morgue Salsa; a fuller but still brief dream had me in a car going past the Brandenburg Gate. I'll put that in dream_Germany. Anyway. In the morning, we weren't sure what to do. The clinics were closed. I said I could go with him by bus to the hospital while Mom and Dad went places, but by then the pains weren't sharp anymore. He was just sore and tired. In the afternoon Dad came back and said someone had advised him it might be an ear infection and, if so, it was good to get it seen to ASAP so it didn't damage his hearing. So last night, Y. and Mom and I were able to get some sleep, but Dad cut his short, getting up at 6 so he could be ready at 7 to call the clinic. "Try to book online," he was told. The booking system didn't work. He called another. "Call back later," he was told. He called back later. "Sorry, we're all booked for today." Y. wanted to know: is there any healthcare system in the world that isn't on the brink of collapse? And why was Quebec especially bad at this?? but his angry ranting at least isn't physical pain and maybe ear infections can go away but he should be able to get an appointment grrr it's not fair that I have a doctor and he doesn't even before I had doctor I could just *go* to a clinic and get seen eventually even though I had to pay someone $20 to squirt water in my ears once (not a fetish, I promise) it still was something not that I'm advocating for a privatized system but there should be more investment put in the public one or else it's effectively private, creating haves and have-nots pah But anyway we are planning to head over to Westwood_Park and watch the solar_eclipse on the hill when it gets more eclipsey. 240408 ... e_o_i Ah, I forgot to say what happened. After the eclipse, his ear began again with the pains, and he headed to the Lakeshore Hospital. To their credit, the triage nurse saw him in less than half an hour and, in just a couple more minutes, booked him an appointment at the clinic for the next day. Turned out it was just wax build-up and not an ear infection - easily taken care of. It was just one of those things where something relatively non-dangerous was really, really painful. 240430 ... e_o_i (And yup, Quebec health care is a bit fucked, but the brotherblob COULD pay more attention to getting check-ups. E.g. for his teeth. He didn't have a dentist appointment in years and now he has to get a root canal. Recent_searches saw me looking up the "expanse" (i.e. expense) of the procedure and it ain't pretty.) 240430 what's it to you? who go blather from