Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

For the last week or so my daughter, who’s currently spending some time with her mom (Rachel) in Virgina, has been having a sore belly on and off and throwing up. She didn’t have any other symptoms but we figured it was prudent to go see a doctor — and it’s good that we did because the initial assessment is troubling and they have to do some further xrays with tracer chemicals and so on. If the bills keep climbing then she’ll be back here sooner than expected since healthcare here is single-payer/public (ie. paid for with taxes rather than privately)… And it’s nuts. With just a few doctors and a few tests, the bills have already approached $5000 (for a variety of reasons insurance didn’t/couldn’t happen this past while). It’s insane and offensive. Luckily I have the money to be able to pay for this — although I wouldn’t if the numbers got much higher — but I know there are many people choosing between the health of their family and the health of their finances.

And what really gets me is that overall, the American public seems to think this is a good idea… And what’s worse, even if they didn’t, there doesn’t seem to be any political way to convert America to a single-payer public system. Who could someone even vote for to make this happen? It makes me incredibly mad and incredibly sad at the same time, and now that I’m actually caught up and victimized by it, it’s really upsetting personally as well. That said, I also have a minimum of $500 a month in prescription fees for my own medical problems… I know that’s not much, but it still has to be paid, because for some bizarre reason that I can’t figure out, in Canada prescriptions — which are legitimate and unavoidable medical costs, right? — are not covered (neither are eye appointments, glasses, or dental appointments, but that’s a whole new debate).

Anyway, more positively, I was able to pay these bills quickly to a large extent because of sales from my Etsy store giving me a small fluid float of cash that I was able to quickly send down to Rachel to appease the doctors. One of the thing that makes it all even more offensive to me is that the hospital was refusing to do potentially life-saving scans without 80% of the fees being paid up-front. I know that almost every American I know can tell me a horror story that’s a million times worse than what I’ve just described, but still, this should not happen in a so-called “first world nation”.

Thank you again to everyone who has supported my Etsy shop. And it may surprise you to hear me say this but thank you as well to everyone who has continued to support BME after I left since ultimately that money does at least partially support my daughter. But I wanted to mention, in positive news, that I made some very cool new additions to my Etsy shop (especially in the zombie rings category because I’ve improved some old designs with new stone-mounting skills I’ve learned) that I wanted to mention here. As always, my “PAY WHAT YOU CAN” policy remains in place, where you can optionally apply up to a 50% discount if you need it. As much as it’s important to me to make money to, among other things, pay medical bills, it’s also important to me as an artist to get my work into (or “onto” in the case of rings!) the hands of people who appreciate it.

Click the pictures to jump to the relevant shop page:

Blue Zombie Eye Ring
Whoever heard of a blue-eyed zombie? Made using a chrysocolla.

Moonstone Zombie Eye Ring
That’s more like it… looks like an ethereal cataract!

Mummified Zombie Ring
This gaunt character has a pair of pyrite (fool’s gold) eyes.

The Brainiac Maniac Zombie
Caitlin’s exact words: “THAT RING IS PSYCHO!!!”

Half-Head Zombie Ring
I’ve used a pair of glossy 8mm black onyx cabochons as eyes.

Malachite Jester’s Mask Ring
This itsy-bitsy ring is for the daintiest fingers I make stuff for.

Lego minifig with Star Ruby
Since people keep asking, I made another one…

That’s all I added today, but I actually made much more than that because I had some commission work and orders to put a final polish on as well, so it was a busy but successful day. I think I’m pretty good at channeling stress into productive labor, and I can’t imagine a bigger thing to worry about than the well-being of my daughter.