My Mom’s SO slipped week ago on the Monday night outside their home late in the evening, and broke his hip 🙁 It’s been such an icy, slippery weather that’s caused so many falls that they only got to operate on him two days later on Wednesday. He’s still in the hospital. He was moved to the rehabilitative ortogeriatric hospital which specializes in exactly these sort of injuries. He’s been doing well but he’d like Mom to visit every day and she’s not up for it. She needs to rest too! The hardest thing I think for him is that he is a heavy smoker, and can’t smoke at all in that hospital – he can’t get to the smoking area by himself (it’ too long a walk for now) and certainly nurses won’t take him. They say he might have to stay in the hospital even up to a month. They say on their webpage that the goal is to rehabilitate so well that the old person regains his mobility level he had before the fall (or better), if at all possible and so can safely return home and active life. Sounds good! But all is up in the air right now as to what, when and so on and so forth.
I myself self haven’t slept in 48 hours now. I just lay awake and tossed and turned, did not sleep a wink. I tried to take a nap starting a few hours ago, and I think I catnapped maybe? I feel slightly lighter as if I did. I saw a nurse in my health station who had consulted with my GP, and I’m going to try Tenox which helps in getting to sleep. I’ve used it before several years ago when I had bad insomnia and then it helped. So we figured to try and start with that. The triage nurse in the phone was very kind and thorough when she interviewed me when I called in first thing in the morning, took at least 15 minutes to speaking to her. Last week I had only slept every other night, and Monday night I didn’t sleep at all and had 2 migraine attacks during the day then, with another trying to break through the rest of the evening and last night. I hope Tenox helps! It’d be a lot easier and faster than anything else.
Yesterday in addition to the migraines I had a bad day: I was cold, then hot, then cold, restless, couldn’t concentrate on anything, walked back and forth, and my belly hurt due to either having my period or just general Crohn’s Disease fuckery or maybe both, I’m still not sure. The hot/cold thing, restlessness etc. is quite often usual now during certain type of my migraine. The bad thing is I was supposed to partake in a job searching course arranged by TE-toimisto which was mandatory once I had agreed to it, so today when I hadn’t slept for 40+ hours come morning, I had to contact the health station to get a permission slip/doctor’s note to give the unemployment agency. So that’s fun. Bureaucracy. But it’s a good thing I did it – I managed to participate yesterday because it’s a remote course done with MS Teams, but I was walking in front of my laptop and in pain the whole time. And think the properly as I like to do, fill the tasks. I couldn’t have dealt with that today at all. So I’m in sick leave today and tomorrow because of insomnia and it making my migraine worse. The course is tomorrow too but the nurse said the important thing now is to cut off the insomnia because sleep is so important but also because the insomnia is aggravating the migraine and that should tried to be cut off, given my history, so I’ll miss tomorrow’s course too. It’s a 3 day course, and I miss 2 days of it.
I’m actually sad about it – it was about the current jobs situation in my area, and current ways of finding a job which I could use an update on considering the last one I had was in 2017. Also about CVs, how to make an effective application for different types of jobs. The teacher still shares the docs with me because I was on for the first day, and there’s free personal tutoring available with this course, and he said I’m welcome to contact him when I’m feeling better. So that’s nice!
Moikka! I’m sorry to read about your bad experiences. Sometimes I am not happy with some things in my life, however, when I read about your experiences, I realize how insignificant my problems are in comparison. I just moved from Tampere to Espoo and it’s indeed very slippery here, I preferred much more the snowy landscapes a few weeks ago, even though it was colder. Today I also slipped and fell down, later I found that some of my things were damaged, I was quite angry about it, but then, at least I am fine. I hope you will eventually find a job. I was unemployed for a few months last year, sometimes I really felt hopeless, so I can’t even imagine how it is to be in such a situation for so many years! Paljon voimia sinulle ja läheisillesi!
Kiitos! I love snow and cold, they don’t bother me at all! I don’t mind this kind of weather too much either, just the slipperiness – but I still much prefer it to summer. I’m glad you didn’t hurt yourself! Do you have liukuesteet for your shoes? I don’t yet but next time I’m going to Prisma or K-Citymarket I’m getting them, to prevent from slipping on icy. Being unemployed sucks, glad you didn’t have to suffer it for too long. I myself I’m in a situation that my health problems make getting and keeping a job pretty much impossible. I think I should be on disability, but my illnesses are the wrong type to get that. So I feel like I’m in kind of a limbo.
That happens to me a lot too, I’m mired in my bad feeling but then I read what some other person is going through and the health problems they are having, or how the healt care in their country doesn’t work, and I realize I’m not that bad after all, that it could be a lot worse.
For me winter landscapes are one of the best things about Finland! They bring back childhood memories for me, when there used to be similar landscapes during the winter in my home country, Poland. Nowadays it hardly ever snows in Poland, some Finns I talked with tell me that it also used to be more snow in Finland in the past than now. I guess now winters in Finland are like they used to be in Poland some 20-30 years ago!
Yes, I have liukuesteet but I didn’t have them on my shoes when I fell. Now I started to use them and I feel much safer now! Actually, a few days ago I moved to a new flat and liukuesteet were already here. They were left by the previous tenant, who was one of my colleagues in my new job. He finished the job a few weeks after I started, and moved to his home country, Greece. So I got a new flat quite easily and also liukuesteet! I’m sure he wouldn’t need them in Greece!
I hope you are at least receiving some unemployment benefits. I heard about Kela that they often reject applications in cases when someone is unable to work and it seems obvious that that person should have disability allowance. But they don’t care because the person doesn’t have the “right” disability. When my contract with the Tampere University finished, I had a so-called resource agreement, which meant that I could use some resources of the university but I didn’t receive any salary. Its purpose was just to finish some research projects that I was working on. While applying to TE-toimisto I mentioned that. I wasn’t sure if it was really important but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to inform them about it. Later I realized that it was a mistake. Kela denied unemployment benefits because they considered that I am employed, even though I clearly stated that I do not receive any salary from that resource agreement. Later I got a job so I didn’t care much anymore. But it shows that they don’t care about the person’s real situation, they are just applying some rules. Of course my situation was not that bad but there are people for whom it would make a huge difference. Like in your case, even if it is obvious to everyone that you aren’t able to work, Kela doesn’t care about it, they only care that your illnesses are not the “right” type. Each person’s situation is different, and, I think, should be considered individually.
That’s true about there using to be more snow! I born in 1974 and when I was a kid and teenager, it was normal to have temperature around -20 degrees all through the winter and lots of snow even here in Turku for most of winter! We lived in a suburb and used to be able to go skiing nearby but no more. And everywhere all the time there were trucks loading the snow piled by snow blows on the side of roads because there was so much of it had to be taken away, but this winter I’ve seen loading the snow to trucks only like once and many previous winters not a single one! It’s really different now, so much so that in my mind winter is usually not a proper winter anymore!
I’m am receiving unemployment benefits, thankfully! It just feels weird because it’s the wrong benefit and TE-toimisto makes me jump through hoops to get it, even though we all know that nobody will hire me, and if by mistake they do, I’ll have so many sick absences that I’ll be let go ASAP. It’s just like you said – I don’t have the “right” disability, so people like me fall through the cracks in a way. And yeah, TE-toimisto/KELA doesn’t care whether you make any money in employing yourself – just how many hours you work and whether they can decide that you won’t have the hours needed to look for/take a job in addition. It’s so stupid and ridiculous. I think perustulo (basic income) would be the best solution – it’d free people from daily worrying about feeding themselves, jumping through bureacracy hoops. And they could easily take a job of few hours without having to wait for KELA calculations about that month’s benefits. It’d be so much more stress free life when the basic necessities such as food and rent are taken care of!