1407 As Subtle As Her Teeth.

by

Blatant Nina is blatant.

Sorry guys. I fell asleep. I’ll talk when I wake up, okay?

Man alive. I am so sore. My back is just destroyed from this lack of activity. I’m just rolling around on the floor in an attempt to loosen up my muscles. I need to elevate my foot but I’m going nuts. I’m sure I’ve been up on it way more than I should be. I’m hardly what you would call active, but I wasn’t aware just how much I wander around until I couldn’t do it freely anymore. It’s not that I even like going outside particularly, but I had gotten used to my little routine of going to the post office and whatnot. I tell you what though, I have got to get some actual sleep soon. If this fucking cpap doesn’t start doing something soon I’m going to have to figure out something else to do. I can’t function of this shitty sleep and it’s starting to really mess with my sanity. After the fucking ordeal of the hospital I never got any time to fix that whole sleep deprivation thing before I started this new torture. I swear it’s like it just spends the whole night blowing allergens in my face and I wake up like I escaped from the Happening. This thing that is supposed to make me healthy is killing me, Smalls.

The mask is just not right. I don’t think my face is abnormal, but it just won’t keep sealed. I tightened it up, but then I woke up with this headache and the back of my skull was asleep, which is kind of terrifying because You should just always be able to feel the back of your head.

Did I ever tell you about the office where I got the cpap? It was this crappy, dirty, old office on main street. Unfinished, unprofessional, and off putting. The lumberjack secretary didn’t help matters any. It was like “This is where they’re keeping the machine I’m supposed to breathe with…?” Another example of American health care being the best in the world, he said sarcastically…

I did a huge stack of Patreon drawings yesterday. If you didn’t get yours yet just be patient. I’m on the case. Nobody has contacted me over the go fund me rewards yet. If you want one I put a post on the account. I’m not actually in direct control of it, so I don’t get messages from the system it has inside. Or whatever it does. I don’t really know how it works, I just let Ian do everything.

Thanks to whoever sent me the anonymous present. That was way too nice of you. I’m not going to say what it was so that if you ever change your mind about wanting me to know who you are we’ll be the only people who know. Except for The Teen, who made me open the box in front of her and then told me it was stupid, I was stupid, and I didn’t need it. When she asked me why you sent it I said “Good things happen when you do things for people other than yourself on the internet.” Then I got her the aloe so she could rub in all over he skin because of MY SICK BURN!!

(I actually stuck the bottle in her bed after I got it from the bathroom and asked if she wanted me to apply some, just to mess with her a little more. XD)

I’ve been hoarding boxes for shipping stuff but I finally broke them down so they could be stored more easily. The all fit in a really big box I have, so I cqn use them when I need them, but they take up much less space. I mean boxes are like 3 bucks or so depending on the size, so why waste that?

I still haven’t got my bill for the hospital yet and it’s really starting to bother me. If I understand my insurance correctly I have to pay 30% of the total. It’s going to be so bad. I don’t understand how someone goes through cancer or something really serious that takes a long time. I mean it must destroy their life even if they survive. I’m all for everyone taking care of their own business, but man… It seems like there should be a better way.

It makes me want to donate money I don’t have to people who also don’t have money. Which makes no logical sense. It’s kind of like when someone I like who has a Patreon signs up for my Patreon and I want to sign up for theirs. I’m like “We should just share our content with each other so we don’t have to pay the fees…”

I just need to be better at things. Work harder at everything and really make some obvious progress. I feel like Krillin in the last seasons of Dragonball. This little dude at his limits surrounded by exceptional people who just can’t be any better at anything. I think that if Krillin hadn’t gotten Android 18 he would have killed himself. Because he was just out of his depth all the fucking time at the end. Actually that’s not right. The fact that Krillin knows he’s fucked all the time but stays right there trying to help is what makes him awesome. I mean he was basically done being a viable fighter by the Frieza saga, but he just keeps hanging with Goku even though people keep showing up to kick his ass all the time.

I guess there are worse people to be like than Krillin… Like Yamcha, or Chioutzu.

50 Comments

QUICK ED KICK HER IN THE KURIBOHS AND RUN AWAY YELLING RETREAT WHILE WAVING YOUR ARMS LIKE A MAD MAN!!!
I would to that…in fact i’ve done that…works everytime…just make sure not to run in the middle of market…lots of stuff for her to pick and throw at you…

Seems like she doesn’t mind the idea of being bit by Ed…

Hmmm. Clearly Nina believed in the use of the clue by four…

Nina is a dangerous predator.

Doctors and hospitals used to be affordable out of pocket. idk what the f happened.

Dangerous? Perhaps a health hazard, on account of her great stamina, but not dangerous…if anything, she’s a brilliant motivator!

Go back and get the respiratory therapist to fit your mask to you. If it doesn’t improve, there are hundreds of mask designs. It took me a couple of trials before I found just the right one. Now, I sleep soundly all night. The mask I wound up with is minimalist, and I sometimes forget that I’m wearing it. There is no excuse for them not correcting the problems you are having with your CPAP.

I agree with this statement. I’ve been diagnosed with apnea for 6 years, and it took some fooling around to get a mask that works for me. The nasal pillow works for my wife, but I had to go to the whole face (covers my nose and mouth). Make them work for your dollars.

I completely agree with all of the above. The place I go is professional, clean, well run, etc. Do you have options in where to go, or does your insurance require you to go to specific providers/vendors?

Same here. I’ve been on a CPAP a few years now and I had to switch from the initial mask they gave me to a full face and I have a chin strap as well to try and hold my mouth closed when I sleep. Kind of annoying at first, but damn my quality of sleep was night and day after getting it dialed in.

Hang in there, Jackie. :(
Take more rest if it helps with these crazy ass errands like going back to get a new mask when leaving the house is like dying after 30 minutes.

We need you around a LONG time, not a short time. Don’t kill yourself quickly to do the story, just to end up not around to do the story.

And for gods sake Teen, give the man a ****ing break!

Wherever you had your sleep study done should be able to recommend a better mask design and supplier. Apria is a nationwide supplier, and they deliver. They also have a wide variety of masks/nasal pillows and headgear. Their have respiratory therapists on staff that can show you different options.

I think Ed is having respiratory issues, too. Fortunately, Nina is up for some mouth-to-mouth!

I feel your pain in re the medical bill crisis. After a prolonged hospital stay for a ruptured appendix and another E.R. visit for complications of same, I totted up the charges for the year and ended up about $180 short ot the amount that would allow me to deduct one cent of it on my U.S. Income Tax. Thank you, Mr. Obama. Just one more stop on the road to Socialized Medicine, which the U.S. Government will screw up even worse than England’s, for political reasons.

I suspect that if it wasn’t for her Summer School course in Remedial Empathy 101 (which she is obviously failing) The Teen would have no class at all.

… Obviously you don’t understand how the British NHS works, although as you refer to “Britain” as “England” you probably haven’t experienced it.

“Britain” is the WHOLE PLACE”, “England” is the part South of Hadrians Wall and East of Offa’s Dyke.

Having experienced American medicine first hand, at my employer’s expense I’m only glad I don’t have to be subject to it.

The key problem with the NHS, sometimes described as “the nearest thing the English have to a religion” is that it was the product of a concept of “socialism” very different from what presently passes by that name.

Love Nina! Though she looks like she’s about to give the poor guy an aneurysm. As far as the cpap- what kind of mask do you have? I had the nose-and-mouth covered kind, and couldn’t sleep for crap. Then I got the nasal pillows, and it made a huge difference. Point being- maybe the mask is the wrong type, or the wrong size.

I’ve used a CPAP for years to control my Apnea. You need to patronize a store specializing in medical supplies to medics and the general public. They’ll have several models to choose from. Nose pillows (which I use) and/or masks work for different people. Try each and see which one is best for you. Get a licensed Inhalation Therapist to assist you in determining what pressure is needed for your condition.

Jackie, as others have said, you seriously need to get your CPAP looked at/get a better mask. It should NOT be waking you up with difficulty breathing, it should be doing the opposite! The pressure in the machine can be adjusted (in most models) and yours might not be calibrated to you correctly. And it sounds like your mask is wrong for you. I know it’s hard to do much of anything right now, but get that shit fixed ASAP! Good sleep is so important for healing!

Ed,
From one Ed to another…if there was ever a time to be very bold and deliberate in your actions, now is that time.

Responding to your comment about wanting to donate to other Patreon people when you don’t have any money of your own …

You could always, I dunno, put up links to Patreon people that you like and would like to see get more money. I could probably give a buck or two more to other people, if someone would just suggest someone they thought needed it …

Advertise for each other. It would also help broaden my scope in Patreonland, since I don’t get out there much.

It has been my experience(and apparently scientifically proven) that poor people are more generous than well off people because we know what it’s like to have nothing.

…there IS a “better way”. That’s why there is a campaign going on over here in UK to block American health care companies from any involvement in the NHS, it’s why medical bills are the largest single cause of personal bankruptcy in USA but NOT in Canada (which has a system much like UK), Australia, Europe or just about any other country with any credible claim to be civilised.

Obama tries to introduce a system which by European standards is still grossly inadequate and half the press and political structure is pretty much accusing him of being Stalin, Castro and Benedict Arnold rolled into one, WTF is WRONG with you people?

To paraphrase the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri: “We’re all a bunch of cowboys!”

To all “right-thinking” Americans (defined as those who agree with the Founders), making sure that everyone has access to health care isn’t the government’s job. It’s your job to take care of yourself, and the government’s job to stay out of the way so that you can.

According to our Constitution (i.e. the law of the land) the government is to establish justice (run the courts), insure domestic tranquility (the police), provide for the common defense (Army! Navy! Air Force! Marines!), promote the general welfare (that’s GENERAL, as in it applies to EVERYone or NO one), and secure the blessings of liberty (be consistent about it). Nowhere in there does it mention providing for the poor or ensuring access to health care. These are important things that need to be done, but it’s not the government’s job to do it. They’re supposed to be handled by “we the people”. Handing off our responsibilities to an institution that is historically (and I’m talking the last few thousand years, here) prone to corruption and abuse is at once lazy, selfish and ultimately doomed to failure.

Sorry if I got a bit loud, but you asked!

Wull, yeah… Having a medical care system which operates as the largest single cause if personal bankruptcy, and deprives a significant percentage of the population of any sort of medical care, counts as “promoting the general welfare” and “securing the benefits of Liberty”?

I work in the offshore oil industry and I’ve had experience of working with Americans, and for American companies. My honest opinion is that American employees put up with a lot of abuses I would happily walk away from, because they are scared stiff of losing their medical insurance, and I don’t have to care about that.

And that’s not including your primitive system of taxation, which actively discriminates against US citizens working overseas.

See, now you’re making my point: the US government, as currently practiced, has virtually nothing to do with following its Constitution. The corruption and abuse has infiltrated pretty much beyond the point of repair; certainly past any easy fixes. The amount of suffering and deprivation the people would have to put up with in order to put things right, pretty much precludes it happening. Historically, cultures in this condition generally end up with a despotic police state, and wonder how it happened.

One of my friends was having trouble sleeping recently and is the sort of person for whom sleeping pills do not work. She found some Melatonin 5mg vitamins at the grocery store and said that although they don’t work miracles, they at least help regulate her sleeping cycle and she has improved a lot. Not sure if that would help you but it might be worth a shot if you haven’t already tried them.

Also, thanks for keeping up the comic! I really look forward to stopping by every week.

Random thing, I’ve laided on my pillow weird, and I think it cut off circulation to the back of my head. Because I’d once in a while have the back of my head fall asleep. So it could be your awkward sleeping position in the hospital bed, and nothing too scary. I know hospital beds are so weird compared to normal beds.

So maybe that’ll be one less worry on your list of worries?

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