Agreed, nightmare. If you had worked hard and became a multimillionaire, even after your ex and lawyers took 70%, you could avoid this shit and give your sister the bird. Maybe bought the Seahawks too. ;)

Power of Attorney. OPM does not recognize Power of Attorney

I thought refusing to recognize power of attorney was illegal, even in Seattle! I had nothing but paperwork Hell being on welfare there for almost 10 years awaiting a disability hearing. At one point, I had a case manager who was in the "legendarily awful" class. Called her once when my food stamps were like 8 days late and I'd gotten no mail, and her exact answer was:

"Oh, I misfiled a piece of your paperwork and because it wasn't where it was supposed to be when I needed to look it up I closed your case." She also canceled benefits 10 months out of 12 on one of my roomies, and when that dude got his disability hearing the judge was so pissed he had that case manager (whose college degree was in business management, not social services) investigated...and FIRED. Getting a state worker fired ain't easy!

Then again, I also thought banks were required by law to treat cashier's checks like cash, until my sweetie put his entire bank account into a cashier's check for us to use on getting a place in Montana, and going alphabetically down the list for 3 counties I hit Farmers State before I got a bank willing to even consider a cashier's check.

BigV, I'm pulling for ya with heart, soul, and mind!

My mom's falling apart physically, but is finally in a situation where I don't have to worry about her not having on-site help if she needs it, which is good because we live 700 miles and 3 mountain ranges apart. Not exactly a quick jaunt.

And your narrative touches on several reasons why if I ever have to see downtown Seattle again, I wish it could be with a tactical nuclear device on my person!

Grav, hope all stays well with the Dgr elders for a good long while! Sounds like a stress break for your whole family is in order.

DanaC, I know how that feels. My mom waited like 3 years to tell me she walked around for over a year with the back half of her heart paralyzed due to viral cardiomyopathy! Didn't want me "too scared" about the fact she could easily have just dropped dead making coffee some morning. Luckily, in her case her heart eventually started doing ALL of its job again.

And what's upsetting me today is my own health. I mean come on, really? I already deal with:
Severe Generalized Anxiety Disorder (with associated panic attacks and mild OCD)
IBS
Osteoarthritis
TMJ (my whole life, not the kind you get gritting your teeth--the kind that warps your lower jawbone your whole life, to the point that it's changed the shape of my outer AND inner ears)
Tinnitus--related to the TMJ, and in my case very severe, constant multiple notes in both ears.
Loose connective tissue. All of it. I can now pop in like 3 places that aren't joints.
Massive congenital swayback
Terrible teeth no matter what kind of care I take of them. Seriously, my anti-dry-mouth toothpaste is $20 a tube and I'm still losing teeth. Sometimes my fillings pop out while I floss. Last summer the dentist was fixing a broken uncrowned root canal and the crown next to it--post included--popped right out of my jawbone. Never had any trouble with the other 3 crowned root canals he's done for me!
Acquired Angioedema, Type 2 (catalyzed by an ACE inhibitor drug for blood pressure control) which can kill me by slamming my trachea shut any damn time it wants for the rest of my life.
AND NOW we can add costochondritis! This is the sudden inflammation of any or all cartilage in the ribcage. I haven't taken a full breath in over a week because my lungs won't inflate properly. Half the time I can't move my left arm without screaming because much of the inflamed cartilage is where that particular joint ties into the ribs. All I can do is take Aleve (which does not work on me--I got to try it when it was so new there was no OTC version) or Motrin (which makes me bleed internally) and wait. Maybe a few days. Maybe a few weeks. Maybe a year.

I find that upsetting.

I also find it extremely upsetting that after 9 years on permanent disability, now that we have a Republican-dominated administration, I've suddenly gotten a letter stating that I have to prove I am still permanently disabled. W. T. F.??? Why the hell do these people think I was forced into a legal hearing over it in the first place? One that resulted in a ruling of PERMANENTLY UNABLE TO WORK. From a JUDGE. Not a social worker, not an agency, not a committee--a JUDGE.

Tell us about your SSRI experiences

Thank you, Snakey.

About five days of flu/head cold and the sinus pressure to go with. Worst. Headaches. Ever. I don't know that I would live with this kind of pain. My whiskers hurt. All the teeth on my left side are screaming. I can feel my eye blink from the top of my head all the way to my chin. I've took everything. Nothing helps. Can't sleep. Can't lay on my left side, and that's the side I sleep on most of the time. Anbesol helps the tooth part. For about five minutes.

Worst. Headaches. Ever.

Have you tried Claritin D?

That's Daddy's Little Helper when I'm feeling like you're feelin. Of course, it's a precursor to methamphetamine so you have to show ID to buy it over the counter, but it's Worth. Every. Penny.

But if you skip that and just go to methamphetamine, you won't have to show an ID.

FloNase smells like shit and costs $30 a bottle, but it gets the job done. You'll be draining within seconds.

*takes notes*

After I use Flonase daily for a few weeks, I get nosebleeds.

But it work amazingly up until then. The generic CVS brand version works great too and is slightly cheaper.

Simple saline spray used to work just as well for me, but I'm sworn off of all of them.

I'm a huge fan of neti pots, myself. But you have to use them daily for maintenance, they don't help much once you're completely blocked.