h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

* waves*

It's 06.22 and I'm still awake, i.e. a circadian rythm perfectly adapted for Washington DC. Maybe I should get myself an air ticket and for once not suffer from jet lag.

My thyroid has stopped working and the thyroxine replacement seemingly never kicks in. Or maybe it has a little, I don't need to wear fleece jackets indoors all the time anymore and I don't sleep most of the day.

Anyway I know very well the feeling of not getting around to choose DVD to watch and notice all the stuff at home that ought to be done but not will, at least not in the foreseeable future.

Leaving the Lair takes its tolls. Wednesday I went food shopping for the first time in à month and a half. princess followed and did most of the carrying. Still I had to rest several hours before I could get around to turn on the PC and pay some bills.

I had hoped for a good night's sleep. Yesterday evening I was at the Opera and listened to two Brahms symphonies. The Symphony Orchestra did both the 3rd and the 4th at the same concert. I must admit it was à little odd to hear two symphonies in a row so to say, but the overall impression was good. Next Friday it's contemporary ballet. Not exactly my cup of tea, but prejudices are to be challenged. I have an all season ticket this autumn in which the ballet is part. Otherwise I doubt I would have bothered.

I hope you'll feel better soon.

Crappy Sci-Fi movies are good to watch when you're ill since you usually can switch off your brain and over muscular male torsos

Hi.

That's a good idea about crappy sci-fi movies. There must be some in the cupboard somewhere. There are also some silly sword-and-sandal movies with lots of nicely built men in very short tunics pretending to be ancient Greeks; they're probably just as good.

How long have you been on the thyroxine replacement?

I've taken thyroxine since early October. The tricky thing is to start low and then gradually increase the dose until the blod levels are satisfying. This means increasing by a half pill every other day every third or fourth week... very slow pace another reason why internal medicine with subspecialities never was my choice of ing

Since I've become rather absent minded I had to get one of these plastic pill boxes where you put all meds for the upcoming week. I was never sure if I was to take one pill or one and a half pill on a specific day. I put a note on the billboard in the kitchen but forgot to look...

I must see at the Health Central on a regular basis and leave three - four small vials of blood each time. Then my GP ponders about number of pills to be taken until next time. She's an experienced and skilled colleague, but not a computer guru... which sometimes makes things ... ... somewhat complicated.

To simplify; our social insurance system pays sick benefits up to a certain income level (rather low) and then public sector employers and most (larger) privat employers pay more up to a level of compesation decided by the Parliament. After one week sick leave you need a medical certificate from your doctor stating that you due to à medical reason are unable to work. Nowadays those certificates are submitted electronically... I guess I don't have to say more...

My last certicate was to be written by my GP in late October, I got my copy in the mail yesterday, after repeated phone calls during the last two and half weeks. My boss is à resonable woman, so she has accepted that I'm long overdue with the paperwork. I will hopefully get half my paycheck today which will cover rent and bills with what is left since my last (normal) paycheck. The rest from social insurance will show up... eventually ... They are notorious for their delays.

Well, it's past 09.00 and I'm still awake. Better get up and take à walk to w*rk and leave that darned medical certificate. It only lasts until Wednesday when I'm up for the next appointment with the GP. Guess I'd better deliver the papers before they are totally overdue.


who finds it tricky to write on an untameable iPad

All of that paperw*rk sounds perfectly dreadful - I'll never quite believe in Swedish efficiency again.

I've been using my holiday entitlement to cover my illness since I ran out of sick leave. I still have to get medical certificates, which strikes me as unfair if I'm officially on holidays. Fortunately on 1 January I'll be credited with another year's worth of sick leave - not long to go now.

The social insurance bureacracy is getting more and more ridiculous. .

We used to have a very generous health care system and of course it was misused by some people. The pendulum turned the opposite direction and now it's à down right parody. Our conservative government has decided that everyone shall work and provide for themselves.*

Sick leaves are not decided by doctors anymore, but by social insurance officials without any kind of medical training or education. The certificate provided by the doctor is merely a suggestion. There are very detailed rules about expected absence from work for specifik conditions, and if the poor doctor dares to use other words and sentences than found in the "guidelines", you don't get your sickpay without more investigations... I mean you can't expected à high school educated official to think by themselves...

So far i got one letter stating I shouldn't bother about that letter if I was employed. Otherwise I had to contact them before à certain date or I wouldn't get any sickpay. The letter was dated appr. three weeks later than said date and arrived to me another week later

Six weeks into my sick leave I felt it would be in order to get some money, so I took to explore their website, and found I could log in using the same electronic system used for the Tax return and smilar. So I did, filled in a form stating time of absence, illness and whatever more they wanted to know. Some days later I got a letter asking for the same things... New check at website, yes my electronic form was accepted...

Today I got a letter asking me from which date I was ill...important for the "rehabilitation chain". Nowadays you are not supposed to get well, you are supposed to get rehabilitated. Thus the officials must determine if that rehabilitation shall be regarding to your own work, other work that might be provided by your employer or any kind of work anywhere in the country. Nobody can be on sickleave more than à year, unless you are dying of cancer. Then you may be on sickleave longer. But only if you really are dying.

One of my coworkers died of ovarian cancer earlier this year. She had the guts to live almost two years after she was diagnosed. She wanted to work the periods she felt better, not full time but as much as she managed. That was OK by everyone except... guess who?

I better stop this rant now, I only get . The latter might also be caused by the fact I've not slept for some 30 hours. I'm trying to stay awake until bedtime in order to turn back my screwed up circadian rythm. Oh, think of the youth when you could work both day, night and day again and don't be bothered. Glad I'm not a junior doctor anymore.



* Unless you are an ex-minister or MP when you get a huge pension which seemingly can be kept for ever even if you land à new well paid job.

Dq, that is worse than anything I could imagine - and I'm a career bureaucrat. I've seen bad public policy before, but nothing as bad as that. You have my sympathy.

Good luck with sleeping, too.

<<< For when you wake up...

Thanks for

I actually did manage to stay more or less awake until midnight yesterday and slept reasonably well this night. I decided to put away my dealings with the social insurance for the weekend. Instead i've spent a good part of the afternoon getting retail therapy. City visits with my daughter tend to end that way.

An animal charity I'm member of have a nation wide "cat day" today rallying for awareness of animal cruelty, cat rescuing and such. Because of that some additional purchases were done and now there are excessmas gifts fot cats as well as more cat food in the storages.

Not that the cats - or I - cares about excessmas, but the hatchlings do, so this year there will be some family gathering, hopefully at my daughter's.

Getting any better?