Not sure where this will belong...

[Snakeadelic]

Some of you may know me from the IotD thread where I've been commenting for a short time. (Hi, Bruce!)

Yesterday I had to go to the emergency room twice. The diagnosis was angioedema (sudden massive swelling of tissues due to retained fluid) caused by my blood pressure medication. This initial attack was catalyzed into disaster by the dual-forked disaster of constant exposure to allergens (the neighbor downstairs--I had to double up on temporary meds today because she did laundry and almost put me BACK in the ER because I have to walk through her laundry vent to get anywhere) and stress (the neighbors upstairs, who ignore the terms of their lease on more things than just drunkenly screaming f-bombs at their kids while hitting said kids).

Preliminary research shows me angioedema can and will come back any time it wants, and that I am at risk of a potentially fatal attack at any time for at least the next several years if not the rest of my life. And while this attack blew my face up to disfiguring proportions, angioedema's favorite trick is "I'm gonna swell your trachea shut RIGHT NOW". Guess I'm glad it didn't start with that one!

No one can make my apartment home of 8 years safe ever again--neither law nor landlord have any power here. In case you're wondering about kids (like the kindergartener who's spent most of her life crashing around her great-grandmother's apartment below mine because she is LOCKED IN, not allowed to use the playground she can see from the living room because her caretaker cannot keep up and she will not return when called) I have been strongly advised NOT to call protective services. Around here they don't help the kids, but they will find a way to get ME kicked off disability if they want because their promise of anonymity is pure (unladylike word or two here).

Several of my collections will not be able to travel with me. I'd like to know where to post a thread offering such items for rehoming.

I do not have PayPal because they won't take my verified bank account as proof my identity hasn't changed, and they won't give me any assurance of who would be reading the email they demanded with a photo of my driver's license and original social security card. Guess I didn't shop enough on the little taxpayer money that keeps me afloat, because I believe it is my responsibility to you US taxpayers to live RIGHT on your money, and that means within my means so rent, utilities, and food come first. I actually feel quite lucky that I will never qualify for a credit card.

I have a few interesting books, a few very old stuffed animals if my family does not reclaim them, MANY fancy rocks ranging from local beauties I've picked out of the Bitteroot River to cut semi-precious stones ready for jewelry design, and a substantial collection of Magic: the Gathering collectible playing cards.

I am not interested in money; it brings me only grief if I try to extend my income past what I already have. If someone points me to the best part of the forum and anyone wants anything I list (with photos as needed or requested, of course), my favorite form of payment now is going to be pay it forward to someone who needs your help someday.

So, any ideas on where the first list draft should be posted?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey babe.
I guess Nothingland as that's the everything that doesn't go anywhere else spot. However, you've started this thread so why not do it here. If big brother objects they can move it.
See, the perfect solution, pass the buck.

[Undertoad]

Home Base is actually the everything that doesn't go anywhere else spot. Good luck Snake.

[Snakeadelic]

Forgot to update this one! Most of the messes have actually been solved!

Several weeks of research, with the aid of some pretty fierce advocates, turned up no safe places for someone with my challenges to go, so I didn't have to move out in the end.

The angioedema is probably going to be with me a very long time--I've had a further 5 attacks, 3 in my face and 2 in my digestive tract (where it does not play nice with IBS or PMS) since Christmas. Other research told me there are 4 kinds of angioedema, 2 acquired and 2 hereditary. Only one, Acquired type 2, is associated with the blood pressure medication I was on at the time.

The downstairs neighbor is absolutely furious with me and likely to remain in that mood for a very long time. It seems that because she had to "make so many concessions" to my "unending list of unreasonable demands", she has been denied the company of her family. All the vehicles belonging to her family other than the kindergartener's mother, however, stopped showing up early last year or so--WAY before this past Christmas. No different vehicles ever replaced them; her family just stopped coming by if not to dump the kid or round her back up. When I described the childcare situation downstairs to one of my advocates, they flat called it child abuse.

The real question, on my end, is why this woman who can still drive doesn't visit her family where they live. Everyone who knows me knows I do not drive (it's hideously unsafe since vehicular stupidity is a huge panic trigger for me), so unlike her I can't just get in a vehicle and go somewhere that doesn't sound like a one-person re-enactment of the Masai Mara wildebeest migration.

A dryer vent shunt did get built. Because there are no federal housing subsidy funds coming into this property, however, it turns out it's totally legal for the owners to read the letter from my MD stating that if my exposure to stress and allergens could not be reduced I would have to leave the property for my own safety and then demand that a disabled tenant pay out of their own pocket for a life-saving building modification. The neighbor I take care of nights stepped in and assumed the financial responsibility, as he is apparently VERY fond of my ongoing oxygen addiction. The shunt is in MY garage where only the maintenance staff can get to it, and while her laundry still stinks of fake floral it no longer makes my eyes burn or coats my mouth and nose in noxious-tasting oily residue. Three of those 5 angioedema attacks happened within 10 minutes of having to walk through her dryer vent plume before the shunt went on, and I haven't had one since it was installed.

I very nearly wound up banned from the gem & mineral society's field trips, but a different neighbor who has actually gotten pretty interested in what he sees underfoot while walking his dog joined the club so I could have a driver available who'd be familiar with the "trachea may slam shut without warning" risk but not disposed to panic.

And to top it all off, the drunken fratboy (unladylike words here) moved OUT. The new tenants have a 5-year-old boy, 2 'bully breed mix' rescue dogs, and a baby on the way, and they don't make half the noise that kid downstairs (who was never a tenant or on her great-grandmother's lease) used to. They're sweet, friendly, and interested in being good neighbors--as an added bonus, none of them wear perfume or cologne, and whatever they use on their laundry has yet to twitch my allergies at all.

Traveling will always be risky, which sucks. But it will be possible--I have a VERY understanding psychiatric prescriber who has 100% confidence that I do not abuse tranquilizers. I've still kept up with dispersing rocks, just for the sake of having space because I want to go find more rocks. I joined a lapidary forum and have gotten a surprisingly enthused response to my offer of "I send you a Priority box of random rocks and if you like them you pay it forward". Some of my MtG cards will be going to one of the members there, and a few others have already landed with the fella my sweetie of coming up 13 years this summer games with.

Much improvement remains to be worked on, but I'm feeling a LOT more safe and solid these days!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Throat slams shut? That would indicate to me, at that point I could cop a feel and you couldn't yell. Hmm...

[DanaC]

That's really good to hear, snakes. I'm so glad things are on a more even keel for you.