Why I'm Holding a Sock Full of Hot Rice on the Side of my Head

Today I woke up with one of my least favorite afflictions, an ear infection.  Though I work full time, I'm one of the millions of Americans with no health insurance, so I'm hoping to not have to see a doctor for it.  Purchasing insurance on my own is cost prohibitive because the level of insurance I could afford would only help me in the case of hospital emergencies, so the every day ear infection, check up, or blood work would still have to be paid out of pocket.

I don't get paid sick time at my job, and I have bills to pay.  Because of this, I worked all day today, despite intermittent waves of dizziness.  I also had to not let on that I was having any problems because my boss is the type to send you home if you're sick.  He may think it's a nice gesture and that he's showing compassion, but when you need the money, being forced to go home (unpaid) can be incredibly problematic.  I started saving up an emergency fund to try to help with scenarios like this, but other circumstances arose and forced me to drain the fund.  I'm having a good time monetarily.

I took some Tylenol at work today, and while it has the fever under control, it did nothing for the pain, so I've been in misery all day.  Now that I'm finally home, the sock full of hot rice is providing a little relief from the pain.  I hope this doesn't get worse, I'm still paying off outstanding bills for my last set of medical issues.

My job is supposed to start offering health insurance in January, so fingers crossed that nothing awful happens between now and then.  It was supposed to have started this month, but when we applied, all the applicants except me were denied for pre-existing conditions, which left us with not enough people to qualify for a group discount, so my boss scrapped the idea of getting us coverage, but will try again for January.  I don't qualify for health insurance through the state because I'm not pregnant and I don't have any kids.  I "make too much money" to qualify for sliding scale in most clinics, so I'm stuck paying for everything out of pocket right now.

I don't want to go off on a tangent about it while I'm not feeling well, but all I will say for now (with a sock on the side of my head) is health care reform: yes please.