homepage
  roll on christmas  
click here to find out more about ship of fools click here to sign up for the ship of fools newsletter click here to support ship of fools
community the mystery worshipper gadgets for god caption competition foolishness features ship stuff
discussion boards live chat cafe avatars frequently-asked questions the ten commandments gallery private boards register for the boards
 
Ship of Fools


Post new thread  Post a reply
My profile login | | Directory | Search | FAQs | Board home
   - Printer-friendly view Next oldest thread   Next newest thread
» Ship of Fools   » Community discussion   » Hell   » What the hell do you want?

 - Email this page to a friend or enemy.    
Source: (consider it) Thread: What the hell do you want?
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Why in the fuck do people insist on telling me their alarming symptoms and then refuse to see a doctor or take so much as a bloody aspirin? I'm not God, I can't cure with the wave of a hand, and it only leaves me to sit up all night worrying. Or evolving creative ways of murdering said individual, should they survive the night.

I could chew steel and spit nails right now.

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Amanda B. Reckondwythe

Dressed for Church
# 5521

 - Posted      Profile for Amanda B. Reckondwythe     Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Why in the fuck do people insist on telling me their alarming symptoms?

Anyone in particular, or should we draw names out of a hat? A close friend? Family member? Total stranger? Client? Enquiring minds want to know!

--------------------
"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.

Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
I'm attempting to be vague. Because I will probably calm down at some point, though right now I could pulverize this individual and save myself the worry.

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468

 - Posted      Profile for Golden Key   Author's homepage     Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
LC--

Sometimes, people just want to be heard, without any attempts at problem-solving. It can be really, really hard to figure out what they want. Asking, gently, what they want from you (simple support, cursing the problem on their behalf, brainstorming) sometimes helps. Sorry you're going through that, and good luck.

--------------------
Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")

Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
X reported symptoms tonight suggestive of deep vein thrombosis; in the past X has come to me with concerns about possible stroke several times. Yet X refuses to even take a fucking aspirin which is first aid for the kinds of strokes X is most likely to experience. Furthermore, X gets on their fucking high horse and says "You know I don't believe in drugs." Fuck no, you only take about five pills daily, and I am intimately acquainted with them by virtue of facilitating your medical care for yonks.

ETA: Asked what the hell they wanted, X said "I just wanted to know if this looked swollen to you," added a lot of gratuitous* information about radiating pain, and indignantly rebuffed any suggestion that it might be due to unusual exercise 36 hours ago. Apparently X wishes to be thought at serious risk, but refuses to have action taken on that perception.

[ 02. June 2017, 04:48: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Lyda*Rose

Ship's broken porthole
# 4544

 - Posted      Profile for Lyda*Rose   Email Lyda*Rose   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
"Okay. Thanks for sharing. Night."

--------------------
"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano

Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Can I punch their lights out? Please, please, pretty please?

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330

 - Posted      Profile for mr cheesy   Email mr cheesy   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Please don't come and visit South Wales and stand on a bus-stop. You'd be very welcome, but I don't think you'd like it.

Here it is very common for random people to launch into long explanations of their health ailments. The other day someone was telling me all about their vision problems, their children, their grandchildren (and how they've miraculously passed a driving test despite having x health complaint) and their neighbour.

I've never experienced anything like it, and I thought I'd been to quite a few different places around this country and the world. It is like nobody has any inhibitions about their own health and think that other people are rude if they don't want to engage with them.

The best policy seems to be to nod, make small "I'm listening" noises and hope that the bus arrives soon. Once one is on the bus, it seems that the obligation to talk is broken and one can sit elsewhere without offense.

--------------------
arse

Posts: 10697 | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
ThunderBunk

Stone cold idiot
# 15579

 - Posted      Profile for ThunderBunk   Email ThunderBunk   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
I have a friend who hails from Swansea and is the epitome of what you are describing, to the point where I have to be feeling either very strong or very deaf to engage him in conversation.

--------------------
Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".

Foolish, potentially deranged witterings

Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010  |  IP: Logged
Amanda B. Reckondwythe

Dressed for Church
# 5521

 - Posted      Profile for Amanda B. Reckondwythe     Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
I have a friend who is obsessed at the moment with constipation and who is also convinced he has incipient Alzheimer's (he doesn't).

My point upthread is that it may make a difference who the complainer is. Family member or good friend -- perhaps he is desperately reaching out, or perhaps he is just making an ass (literally, in the case of my friend's constipation) of himself.

Total stranger -- you are under no obligation to listen.

In any case, perhaps humor is the best approach. I can say to my friend, "I always knew you were full of shit; now I know it for a fact!" or "I'm surprised you can remember what a bowel movement is, let alone remember how to have one, given your condition."

In the case of a stranger, you can say, "That's nice. Now if you'll pardon me, I'm busy telecommunicating with Cook about tonight's supper."

--------------------
"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.

Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061

 - Posted      Profile for Brenda Clough   Author's homepage   Email Brenda Clough   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Perhaps they don't have anything else to talk about. If vision issues make a book impossible, you could get them an e-reader?

--------------------
Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page

Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014  |  IP: Logged
Tubbs

Miss Congeniality
# 440

 - Posted      Profile for Tubbs   Author's homepage   Email Tubbs   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
X reported symptoms tonight suggestive of deep vein thrombosis; in the past X has come to me with concerns about possible stroke several times. Yet X refuses to even take a fucking aspirin which is first aid for the kinds of strokes X is most likely to experience. Furthermore, X gets on their fucking high horse and says "You know I don't believe in drugs." Fuck no, you only take about five pills daily, and I am intimately acquainted with them by virtue of facilitating your medical care for yonks.

ETA: Asked what the hell they wanted, X said "I just wanted to know if this looked swollen to you," added a lot of gratuitous* information about radiating pain, and indignantly rebuffed any suggestion that it might be due to unusual exercise 36 hours ago. Apparently X wishes to be thought at serious risk, but refuses to have action taken on that perception.

Yes it looks swollen. Are you going to anything about it or is our work done here? Would you like some tea now?

X sounds perfect normal to me. They want to be fussed over but nothing that involves doctors or practical stuff that might actually make a difference.

Tubbs

--------------------
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it up and remove all doubt" - Dennis Thatcher. My blog. Decide for yourself which I am

Posts: 12701 | From: Someplace strange | Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

 - Posted      Profile for no prophet's flag is set so...   Author's homepage   Email no prophet's flag is set so...   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Having had my mother and father travel here (9k miles), have an obvious stroke which was emergency treated, then refused all follow-up (MRI, drugs, medical stabilization etc), change plane tickets and return home to Mexico, then have a second stroke, fall, break her hip and die, I may be able to understand a bit of this. Anger and grief together are bloody difficult. So may be mothers. If she hadn't died I might have throttled her. Emergency treatment for stroke may be too good because it allows denial.

--------------------
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/

Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged
mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330

 - Posted      Profile for mr cheesy   Email mr cheesy   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
If she hadn't died I might have throttled her. Emergency treatment for stroke may be too good because it allows denial.

sigh. this could easily be my mother.
[Paranoid]

--------------------
arse

Posts: 10697 | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
sabine
Shipmate
# 3861

 - Posted      Profile for sabine   Email sabine   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Why in the fuck do people insist on telling me their alarming symptoms and then refuse to see a doctor or take so much as a bloody aspirin? I'm not God, I can't cure with the wave of a hand.....

You've just described the life of a social worker.

After 3 conversations max, saying "I'm so sorry, it must be very scary and difficult for you" can become like a mantra. Another mantra (used only inwardly) is "ive done all I can, take now it God, PLEASE, goodnight."

The irritation you feel is real. If there is no caring, there is no need to deal with emotional aftermath. But even those of us who are​ paid to find solutions aren't paid to stay up at night. The trick is to get the situation out of your (universal your) head when it's not productive to be there.

Hope this isn't a relative (not asking) because that does complicate things.

Also hope I didn't sound too directive. Good luck.

sabine

--------------------
"Hunger looks like the man that hunger is killing." Eduardo Galeano

Posts: 5887 | From: the US Heartland | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Tubbs:
They want to be fussed over but nothing that involves doctors or practical stuff that might actually make a difference.

Tubbs

Ding ding ding! This is the correct answer.

And yes, it's a bloody relative (I have lots, so this won't narrow it down too much) and so I can't use most of the tactics I'd use on a random person from the community. And the staying up at night is an involuntary reaction secondary to wondering if a relative is about to kick the bucket on my watch (and one I am rather fond of, when they are not being a -- you fill in the blank).

[ 02. June 2017, 17:14: Message edited by: Lamb Chopped ]

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
And Sabine, you are entirely correct and the directive thing doesn't matter a jot. (Wanna come administer some "social work" to this individual?) [Devil]

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
rolyn
Shipmate
# 16840

 - Posted      Profile for rolyn         Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
There does seem to be a trait in the human psyche for -- Help me, help me, help me.........fuck off I don't want your help .
Something I tried to good effect once was 'Oh really? Then why not come to our healing and prayer group next week , they'll fix your ache in no time! '

Never heard another word on the matter .

--------------------
Change is the only certainty of existence

Posts: 3206 | From: U.K. | Registered: Dec 2011  |  IP: Logged
sabine
Shipmate
# 3861

 - Posted      Profile for sabine   Email sabine   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
And Sabine, you are entirely correct and the directive thing doesn't matter a jot. (Wanna come administer some "social work" to this individual?) [Devil]

Toward the end of the initial 50 minute session, I would make a phone referral to a clinic, make a note of the appointment time, and pass it to this person with a sympathetic squeeze​ of the hand. I would give assurances that while it may be scary to see the doctor, only medical professionals can truly address the issues.

Repeat for more than one individual per week.

Oh, and there is a reason social workers go out for drinks at the end of the day on Fridays (or Thursdays or Wednesdays).

It's not that we don't care, but sometimes boundary maintenance is stressful.

sabine

[ 02. June 2017, 19:22: Message edited by: sabine ]

--------------------
"Hunger looks like the man that hunger is killing." Eduardo Galeano

Posts: 5887 | From: the US Heartland | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430

 - Posted      Profile for Bishops Finger   Email Bishops Finger   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
mr cheesy, in Wales, has described the usual scenario at The Bus Stop here in Kent.

I'm OK with chatting to The Glums about their health problems (I can usually gain points by talking in great detail about my brain tumour, and its removal), but once they start getting racist (common round here - 'Why don't They send all them bloody foreigners back home, and give Us back Our Country?'), I walk away.

I know one old chap (he travels frequently on The Bus) who just needs someone to talk at - his wife died last year, so he's lonely. He doesn't need help, just a sympathetic ear, which I'm happy to provide.

BTW, the main Bus Stop in town has a regular daily service to Slovakia , so one often sees those horrible, brown, foreign people going Home...I usually say to them dobrá cesta (good journey).

IJ

--------------------
Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)

Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004  |  IP: Logged
Dark Knight

Super Zero
# 9415

 - Posted      Profile for Dark Knight   Email Dark Knight   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
Please don't come and visit South Wales and stand on a bus-stop. You'd be very welcome, but I don't think you'd like it.

Here it is very common for random people to launch into long explanations of their health ailments. The other day someone was telling me all about their vision problems, their children, their grandchildren (and how they've miraculously passed a driving test despite having x health complaint) and their neighbour.

I've never experienced anything like it, and I thought I'd been to quite a few different places around this country and the world. It is like nobody has any inhibitions about their own health and think that other people are rude if they don't want to engage with them.

The best policy seems to be to nod, make small "I'm listening" noises and hope that the bus arrives soon. Once one is on the bus, it seems that the obligation to talk is broken and one can sit elsewhere without offense.

A stern countenance, together with music playing through earphones, generally do the trick.
Although I've never been to Wales, so maybe it's not enough there.

--------------------
So don't ever call me lucky
You don't know what I done, what it was, who I lost, or what it cost me
- A B Original: I C U

----
Love is as strong as death (Song of Solomon 8:6).

Posts: 2958 | From: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged
Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430

 - Posted      Profile for Bishops Finger   Email Bishops Finger   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
I don't possess musical earphones (Engines Of Satan that they be), but I do possess a countenance of stern and melancholy aspect.

Doesn't seem to work on The Glums, though.

[Disappointed]

IJ

--------------------
Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)

Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004  |  IP: Logged
sabine
Shipmate
# 3861

 - Posted      Profile for sabine   Email sabine   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:


And the staying up at night is an involuntary reaction secondary to wondering if a relative is about to kick the bucket on my watch

I've been where you are. Sometimes being related results in having absolutely no credibility in the eyes of the person we wish to help. In such cases--all too plentiful with my parents--I invited a person they liked (a nurse) to drop in for a visit. The same suggestion from her mouth as from mine was heeded.

Hoping for the best (and for rest for you, LC).

sabine

--------------------
"Hunger looks like the man that hunger is killing." Eduardo Galeano

Posts: 5887 | From: the US Heartland | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
Gamaliel
Shipmate
# 812

 - Posted      Profile for Gamaliel   Author's homepage   Email Gamaliel   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
@mr cheesy, (who will understand) 'Oh, the hiraeth!'

I grew up in South Wales and although I've encountered the sort of thing mr cheesy describes to a lesser extent elsewhere - and it's interesting to hear that it can happen in Kent too - I've never seen it to the same extent.

There's a Welsh fella who lives round the corner from me here in Cheshire. The other day he treated me to a blow by blow account of his prostrate cancer and successful treatment in gleeful detail. I could have performed the operation myself had I not switched off after a while to prevent permanent brain damage ...

Meanwhile, here is a solution for Lamb Chopped.

Suggest suppositories. Offer to administer them. Large ones.

--------------------
Let us with a gladsome mind
Praise the Lord for He is kind.

http://philthebard.blogspot.com

Posts: 15997 | From: Cheshire, UK | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Lyda*Rose

Ship's broken porthole
# 4544

 - Posted      Profile for Lyda*Rose   Email Lyda*Rose   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Ew. Have a little compassion. On Lamb Chopped.

--------------------
"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano

Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
romanesque
Shipmate
# 18785

 - Posted      Profile for romanesque     Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
On the other hand... I used to live in a very rural community. Sitting in the doctor's waiting room one evening for an asthma check up, a chap walks in. Lithe, late-50s, weather beaten, checked shirt, almost certainly a farmer. He goes to the receptionist and asks for an appointment. At this point I can see what appears to be his hand hanging from about one third the normal amount of wrist in a tea towel.

She says she's not sure, he's quite composed. Was he a member of this surgery? Yes. When did he last visit? Thinks.. 1971. She goes to look for records but can't find him. What is it about, is it an emergency? He holds his arm up and all hell breaks loose. Farmers, innit?

Posts: 119 | Registered: May 2017  |  IP: Logged
no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

 - Posted      Profile for no prophet's flag is set so...   Author's homepage   Email no prophet's flag is set so...   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
It is hard to maintain empathy people you know and are supposed to love, let alone to develop it for strangers or strange people with whom you're acquainted. Sometimes the communication is about loneliness I think, and fear, and they are not seeking direction or advice. But we're talking of different cases in different situations.

When I was a therapy dog hospital, and long term care visitor, it was very clear that many were dealing with the legacy of bad decisions to not follow medical advice or to have not sought it. I started this after my mother died, and it gave me understanding of the sorrow and loneliness in a different way. I think people have regrets sometimes about being just who they are and how this plays out in their lives. They don't state it directly though. (Sorry if I'm rambling on in Hell of all places.)

--------------------
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/

Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged
balaam

Making an ass of myself
# 4543

 - Posted      Profile for balaam   Author's homepage   Email balaam   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Can I punch their lights out? Please, please, pretty please?

That would make their symptoms worse.

So yes, go for it.

--------------------
Last ever sig ...

blog

Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528

 - Posted      Profile for Lamb Chopped   Email Lamb Chopped   Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
Well, X isn't dead yet.

I hope I get brownie points for not altering that state of affairs.

--------------------
Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged
Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468

 - Posted      Profile for Golden Key   Author's homepage     Send new private message       Edit/delete post   Reply with quote 
LC--

Heck, I think you deserve *Girl Scout* points! [Biased]

--------------------
Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")

Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001  |  IP: Logged


 
Post new thread  Post a reply Close thread   Feature thread   Move thread   Delete thread Next oldest thread   Next newest thread
 - Printer-friendly view
Go to:

Contact us | Ship of Fools | Privacy statement

© Ship of Fools 2016

Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.5.0

 
follow ship of fools on twitter
buy your ship of fools postcards
sip of fools mugs from your favourite nautical website
 
 
  ship of fools