Neptune Aquatics

Sometimes this hobby is trying..

S

sfsuphysics

Supporting Member
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Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

So a couple days ago a guy I helped out when he moved his tank from New Jersey to SF, came over for some corals out of my softy tank, he's absolutely amazed by it. Well I gave him a bunch of corals, then later on I noticed a bump on my middle finger's knuckle (where it meets the hand)... well I didn't think much of it, then it started hurting... then I started to think about it. I figured something poked me in the hand... AGAIN. Not sure what, don't care what, but something did it. Now the thing here is my health insurance was cut off through my employer in September, so I'm rubbing antibiotic ointment on it, put the dotted line around it to see if it spreads, because the last time it happened, I let it go for a couple days (weekend) and it got really bad, I mean REALLY bad, luckily some top of the line antibiotics and maybe some cleaning of the wound (I didn't watch the doctor as she poked at my hand), and I was fixed in no time.

However now with no insurance I'm a bit more worried, more so, where the hell do I go? Just any ol' hospital? I would like to go before it becomes an emergency situation simply because that's cheaper, but do regular hospitals have urgent care that's not emergency care prices? I've been spoiled all 34 years of my life by having health insurance so going to a doctor is a no brainer, I call a number and they take care of me, so I'm unsure how it works in the real world!

Then through curiosity I went to the Kaiser website (my old health insurance), and decided to look around and see what they said about my health insurance... actually I was hoping I still have it and some how the employer still got the bill or just to find out how much it'd cost me to get insurance (in a rather naive way thinking I could fix it all). Well low and behold my Christmas miracle came true! I still have health insurance until the end of THIS month rather than ending at the start of the month. So needless to say I'll live in my little secure world for another couple weeks and get this taken care of, even though it's not quite as bad as the first time it happened although it is noticeably puffy (the definition between two knuckles is gone). Also I found out about something called COBRA which continues coverage or something, basically something I never knew about before but I need to look into ASAP before my coverage goes out.

So back to the why this happened, I put my hands in my tank and got careless with movement or something (still don't know what did it, but money is on a vermatid snail or mini feather duster tube). As my first line says, shame on me, since this is the second time this happened, it makes me really wonder about the dangers lurking in our tanks, even from non-obvious sources, I mean hell I didn't lick a palythoa or anything. But I think I'm really going to need to change my habits of what I do when I stick my hands in the tank. The problem is if it was one of those snail/worm tubes I don't know if even a thick pair of dishwashing gloves will prevent a puncture, those are about as thick as one can get while still being nimble. Either way, it is some food for thought, if this ended up costing me a bunch (either financially or health wise) I would have had to really consider whether or not I wanted to keep that tank.

Anyways, I got a doctors appointment to make.
 
I always wear gloves when moving or doing anything in my tank. Besides buffering my crazy clown who attacks my hand everytime, who knows what kind of crazy bacteria lives on this rock and corals from all the remote places in the world. A LFS told me a story of a doctor who owned a tank and contracted a very weird infection that no one could diagnose.

Hope all works out and it gets fixed up fast
 
Yeah, they took a culture the last time it happened, and the culture came back "negative" whatever the hell that means. Apparently nothing grew after 72 hours, but I'm not an MD (or biologist) so I don't understand some of that stuff :D
 
Hope your alright!

I really should change my habbits as well. Ive never gotten hurt or specifically infected by anything, but i never wear gloves and often kill zoas and palys with my fingers on purpose.
 
Yeah I've done that too Daniel, those ugly brown palythoas just try to rip them off.... either way it is eye opening to realize that having this hobby (with habits like my own) without health insurance is not something you should do.
 
I was thinking about ordering a case of some triple thickness nitrile gloves for just this reason. Right now I use simple latex gloves with rubberbands at my wrists. I think I want a bit more protection though. I'm just trying to get the cost from the people we order gloves from.
 
When I first started I ordered a package of 100 of "horse gloves" shoulder length for sticking your whole arm in a horse (use your imagination), but I don't know if it was the way the seams were, but they puncture way to easily. I also use the latex gloves, but for whatever reason water gets in those as well, even if I have a rubber band so tight it cuts of circulation.

However I think dishwashing gloves should give me a happy medium between finger agility and protection from punctures to a certain degree, I might try some of those. Although if you find out about those triple thickness ones let me know, I'd be interested in being a guinea pig on them.
 
I have a call in to see how much they are. I also need to figure out what kind of boxes they come in and how many to a box. I have a feeling that they will be a bit expensive. But my hands are worth it.
 
Sign up for cobra to extend your coverage, but you do pay alittle more for it. You need to talk to HR about questions. Are you not teaching anymore?

Anyways, I like the coralife arm gloves....nice and thick, but I don't always use them.

Oh....that is what you get for giving away coral and helping people : ) I hope you learned your lesson. I forgot about this when I was helping Ian with his tank 2 weeks ago.
 
Good luck Mike - COBRA coverage is pretty nice and has been around for quite some time now.

Every one of current and past employers have COBRA
 
Hey Mike, hope you recover quickly!

The nitrile gloves are pretty durable and much more puncture proof than the average latex glove. While certainly possible that a vermatid snail or feather duster tube could cut through a nitrile glove, I think ifor the most part, it would take a pretty forceful movement to do it. We use both types of gloves in our lab, and the nitriles are quite a bit more elastic and hardy than the latex variety.
 
I cut the crap outta my hands today in my constant re-aquascape of Hildy's tank (she always wants "more, bigger"
). I don't have insurance, and am constantly bothered by it, but due to preexisting conditions it's SUPER expensive (severe anemia bordering leukemia, and a "trick" shoulder). I'm not sure about SF county, but in SM if you go to your county hospital you can file for low income healthcare, which I have. In case of an emergency, my bills would be much lower, and I can work out payments. The program has been taxed lately (you know why....), and the benefits are not what they were, but it's an option if you have no others.

Oh yeah, I know I should wear gloves, but I don't like to be ham handed in $10,000+ setups that I can't afford to replace if I were to scratch, or blow out a panel dropping a stupid rock.

Good to hear you're aright Mike, infections suck!
 
Hope you get better soon Mike!!!

I think going to regular doctor would be cheaper.. Just ask them how much... The medicine probably cost more than doctor's fee. :(
 
Sounds pretty scary, Mike. Come work fulltime at Chabot, we have awesome benefits. Definitely get the Cobra coverage.
But then again, why work fulltime if you don't need to/
 
Arnold: I'm still teaching, just at the school that I was teaching enough to get insurance I'm not teaching anymore, apparently they were supposed to send me something regarding jumping onto COBRA, I have to find out what it'll cost though, right now at my age group it'll cost me $210 a month for a $50 copay noprescription plan.

All: Thanks for the kind words, I'm on a couple antibiotics now so it it should be better in no time, I was hesitant to take aspirin/ibuprofen for the pain before because if my body was trying to make a fever I didn't want to inhibit that at all. The doctor visit was a total waste of my time though other than getting the prescription, he wanted to "numb it up first" and said mixing the lidocaine with sodium bicarb makes it not hurt as much... yeah it still hurt... and all during the procedure I felt everything, he kind of scraped along the top to see if anything was still stuck in there, said no... so he put me through a bunch of pain, and gave me my scrip....

Phong: Nah the antibiotics luckily were out there long enough to have generics and only cost $15 a piece without insurance, with it I paid $5, without insurance the visit would have cost easily over a hundred bucks. Its funny, I almost felt like this was an interceptor deal... I know what I need, so why can't you just give it to me :D (rhetorical)

Steve: Haha, yah, I think the commute will grate on me though, when I worked in San Pablo I usually went against the direction of the commute, and got to use the carpool lane, and I still really didn't like driving it.
 
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