A month or so ago, I wrote a diary asking for advice or help for my friend, who had a serious physical ailment and no insurance. Kossacks came and gave great advice and pointed me towards places she could go – low-cost clinics and other help in her area. Using this knowledge we managed to procure her an appointment, and she was able to get the first thorough examination she’d ever had for her health problems – and I can say without doubt that it would not have happened without those Kossacks there to give me a helping hand.
It reminded me of one of the best things about this website, and something I think we tend to overlook or take for granted because of the tense nature of the current political landscape and how focused everyone is on that...but Daily Kos provides more than just the political, and I think underneath that is something that’s almost more important. The personal.
More below
Firstly a quick update on my friend (I’ll call her Jane), whom I wrote about here. I tried to convince Jane for nearly a week after I wrote that diary to get help immediately, but due to a lot of circumstances, it just wasn’t going to happen. (She had a good reason for not wanting to go to the ER – the last time she went with severe stomach pains that had her doubled over crying, they gave her a prescription for Vicodin and told her she might have a gallbladder issue, she should get some tests done. And that was it. She still is unable to pay off the bill for that visit, and didn’t want to get hit with another thousand-something dollars for a Vicodin prescription and being told ‘you sure need to get some tests done!’) However I managed to convince her to convince her mother to get an appt scheduled for Dec 21st – better than nothing – at a low cost clinic in her area of Washington, somewhere near Tacoma I think.
She was finally able to get a doctor to do a thorough examination, a very nice female doctor who listened to what she said and actually asked her questions about her symptoms (and there were many, I helped her compile a list of things that had been wrong, and it was a good page and a half long) – in face Jane probably got her first examinations in years.
They said it could be her gallbladder, a stomach ulcer, a couple things more I can’t remember or Crohn’s disease (I believe that’s the name for it) ...we’ll know more when the tests come back.
The most important thing about this is that it’s a first step – a step she didn’t have before. And you can’t imagine the relief she has because of this...she’s still worried about how to pay for these tests, but just knowing something instead of nothing...she said she slept all night with no pain (due to the medication they gave her) for the first time since April. She was choked up when she said it. I can’t imagine how good that night of sleep must have felt...
That’s thanks to Daily Kos, and I mean no hyperbole. It wouldn’t have happened without the gracious, generous and wonderfully kind and helpful people here. The people that answered my diary convinced me of the seriousness of Jane’s problem – which led me to work harder to convince her to get something done now.
I also want to thank the amazingly generous people who did donate to the Paypal I set up, the donation helped pay for the doctor visit, as well as her prescriptions, and for her to not have to worry about money on that day was the best Christmas gift I could give her, so thank you so much.
~
But aside from an update on Jane, the main reason I wanted to write this diary was to show that there is good – a whole lot of good – that comes from Daily Kos. I’m amongst those that has noticed a decline in the communication between all of us here, and that can be chalked up to a lot of things – but I feel underneath it all is people forgetting that at our core, we’re all here for the same thing. It’s something more than the individual issues...it’s what they represent. It’s progress.
Progressive, to me, is just that...someone who strives for progress in the world; someone who, at the very heart of the matter, simply wants to leave the world a better place than when they found it. Not keep things the same, not the status quo.
And we fight about the why, and the how, but that doesn’t change the fact that we simply want things better. There’s many ways of making things better, big and small – and sometimes I feel we concentrate too much on the big.
We want to make people better too.
And that means caring about them.
And I have never seen a website where people care more than this one.
There may be some cynics who say that I’m fiddling Kumbaya while Rome burns, but I’m not saying at all that we need to always agree, or always play nice. We need to speak our minds, raise our voices and fight for what we want, and we can (and sometimes should!) disagree, and should always talk about those disagreements. I myself have a lot of anger about a lot of things going on right now, but I try to turn that anger towards the right parties, and not my fellow Kossacks.
I might not have gotten my point across well and I apologize for that, I’m not that good of a writer. I’m just saying that ... this website does good things, and we shouldn’t lose sight of that. And during this season where so many have so little, we should all strive to be as generous as we can – and there’s many ways to generosity that doesn’t include gifts or money. We can be generous right here on Daily Kos.
Listen to someone today. Especially someone who might not be listened to a lot.
Give someone a smile, a compliment, a hug.
Let people know that they matter. Even those that you disagree with.
Because to me, that is really the crux of what we are trying to do, that’s what making the world better means.
All races.
All income levels.
All beliefs.
All lives.
Make the world the kind of place where nobody has to feel like they don’t matter.
Thank you Daily Kos, for helping my friend feel like she matters.
~
Merry Christmas everybody, and a very happy holiday season. I’m working a double shift today/tonight so I won’t be able to answer much until later tonight, but I’ll definitely be back to answer inquiries.
Oh and if anyone wants to help my friend financially, drop me an email at the address listed, as I’m taking art commissions to help her out. (I hope I’m allowed to talk about that here.) My style is a comic book/anime amalgam, and I draw mostly character art – so if you’re looking to get your WoW or story characters drawn, or perhaps as a late Christmas gift for someone else – drop me a line.
[small update]
Thank you for the diary rescue and also the rec list (!!!), I was just hoping this message could bring some good feelings all around.
Also, I just heard from Jane, she's playing Rock Band with her stepsiblings at her dad's house right now. I knew she wasn't planning on going because of the stomach pains, but she decided to after getting those meds. And she sounds like she's having a blast 8D