Blood

Today I saw a two child pile up. When all that could be heard was wailing, I rushed to the scene and picked up a little two year old. Carrying her over to the bench, I asked her what was hurting. In reply, she threw her bloody hand onto mine.

Today a child bled on me. The dangers of blood born pathogens are pounded into you since you were in preschool: you could get AIDS. Or Hepatitis B. Or any number of other horrible diseases.

After brushing off the excess blood from my palm, I led the girl inside to clean her up. Ten minutes and a new bandaid later, and she was happy as could be. Yet all I could do was worry. What had I been exposed to? Given that she's only two years old, it couldn't be anything much, could it? The blood didn't get into any open wounds, which is a definite plus, and I washed it off within minutes.

Sometimes Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a curse.

Things to Do Before I Move

Things I need to do before I head for North Carolina:

1. Find temporary housing. Why, oh, why do they not tell us what city we'll work in until after our two week orientation?
2. Get tuberculosis test and medical exam for the Early Childhood position.
3. Visit the eye doctor, and find a low-cost provider of contact lenses. I no longer have vision insurance.
4. Visit the dentist. At least I'm covered for the basic exam!
5. Refill all of my medications, allergy meds in particular.
6. Pack. And repack. Then pack again.
7. Load up on cough, cold, and flu medications. Do not even think about waiting until I actually have a cold.
8. Figure out route to North Carolina. Only twenty-six hours of driving!
9. Find cell phone charger.
10. Load up my Sony eReader with books.
11. Burn audiobooks to a CD.

Not too intimidating of a list, right?

Health Insurance and Clinical Trials

My health insurance might lapse soon with all of the school closures due to the recent education reform. I'm currently covered under my mom's insurance (luckily, until I'm 25). This is a blessing, as the medications I'm on for OCD and depression cost $300 a month before insurance.

Barring me finding a nice paying job with full health benefits after my term with AmeriCorps ends, I'm going to have to turn to clinical trials. There are a few good ones in Washington state. There are some that just act as an adjunct to your current medication (which makes it less risky if you get the placebo rather than the drug that they are testing). Those wouldn't be too bad.

If that fails, I'll have to look into selling my plasma again to pay for my medicine. When I was in college, I donated my plasma twice a week, every other week, for $120 a month. This was my grocery and gas money. It bought me vitamins, fresh fruit, and enough gas to get to my internship and back every day. It wasn't too painful or risky; plasma is replenished in the body every 24 hours. As long as you made sure that the nurse wore clean gloves every time he/she checked up on you, you were okay. If I were desperate, I could donate up to eight times a month, for a grand total of $240. That almost pays for my medications!

How do you pay for health care?