Tag Archives for chronic illness

My Home Is Quiet Once More

After two weeks of lots of activity and chatter, my home is quiet once more. My cousins returned home, overseas, on Sunday and they left me with great memories and a gaping silence. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep up the pace of activity needed to show them a good time and, more importantly, to occupy the attention span of a six-year-old, while still managing to take care of my health, but I somehow managed to do it; and I had fun in the process. Now that they’ve left, my home feels oddly still and quiet, unlike it never has before. To tell the truth I started missing them before they left for the airport.

I didn’t know that having constant company could be so good for my health – emotionally and physically. While my cousins were here, I had a few days of terribly intense pain, but because I wasn’t alone with it, I think I was able to cope better with it than I usually do. I had the foresight to plan rest days in between activity days that involved taking them out to see city sights and some attractions that took us out of the city for the day. Although those days were hard, not missing any pain medication doses and the distraction of chatter and laughter, helped me deal with all the movement and long drives. I also took full advantage of the days that I scheduled for rest, whether it was sleeping in or taking afternoon naps, that my body made it clear I needed – and still do need.

Surprisingly, I was able to cook many of our meals, which I did with pleasure. I think I might have forgotten how much I enjoy cooking for people these past few years while I’ve been ill and, at times, barely able to cook for myself. My cousin was a big help in the kitchen, doing the after-dinner cleanup and helping with some of the prep when I needed it. I don’t think I would have been able to do as much for as many days, if she hadn’t been so supportive. I didn’t even mind getting up early some mornings to make breakfast for my finicky youngest guest, who was very particular about what she would eat for which meals, and how precisely some items had to be prepared. Children’s food preferences don’t always make sense, but I was thrilled when we finally hit on a few items that became acceptable daily staples for her.

Not everything went smoothly for the visit, but nothing ever does in life. They were able to connect with some other family and meet some of my close friends, but most of the 14-day visit was just the three of us. The only hiccups were due to bad weather (rain or extreme heat) that kept us indoors, the odd event not proceeding as planned, or my body making it impossible for me to do much. There were also playdates that never materialized with the children and grandchildren of friends and family, which I had organized in advance to make sure my cousin’s daughter had company close to her age as often as possible to play with, but it was hard getting everyone’s schedules to sync up with so much happening every day.

My Home Is Quiet Once More

With all that activity going on, I didn’t have any time for the anxiety that had gripped me ahead of their arrival to set in again. I also didn’t have much time to myself to do much of the creative things I usually spend my time doing. Before they arrived, I bought my cousin’s little girl crayons, pencils, and markers, and matching sketchbooks for the two of us, thinking that would be a clever way to get us to do something together. Until yesterday, I didn’t drawn a single line in my sketchbook. There was so much activity to plan, whether it was our meals or what attraction or event I had planned for us to do – and I desperately needed the rest days in between – that drawing or doing anything creative was impossible. My cousin’s little girl, however, had plenty of time to play and draw, so my refrigerator is now covered in drawings and handmade birthday cards for which I am truly grateful. When I look at them, my home feels a little less quiet because their bright colours evoke memories of laughter and good company.

 

My iPhone 6s: Screwed By Apple

Illness has ways of removing things from our lives that we take for granted when we are moving through the world in a healthy body. For instance, I haven’t had sex for more than three years mainly because I haven’t been in a relationship since the arrival of my illness, but more importantly because I’m in pain all the time. However, this morning after getting off the phone with the Manager from my local Apple Store I felt as if I’d been screwed  for the first time in more than three years – my apologies for the vulgar characterization.

In a conversation filled with platitudes, customer handling jargon, and loads of BS about saving the environment; the outcome is that I will not get a new phone to replace my brand new, shiny, Space Gray, iPhone 6s, which I recently purchased and was defective out-of-the-box. Instead, a phone that comes from Apple’s service inventory will replace my new phone that I was so happy to have purchased. The Manager did her very best to assure me that the quality of the ‘service phone’ will not vary in any way from my brand new, shiny, Space Gray, iPhone 6s because it comes from the same assembly line as all new Apple phones – with the only exception being the fish logo missing from the front of the box. However, none of what she said reassured me.

My iPhone 6s -Screwed By Apple

My brand new out-of-the-box iPhone 6s was defective and, according to the Manager, the only way to replace it under warranty, less than two months after it was purchased, is with a phone assembled with random components meant to revive a previously defective phone; I don’t find that at all reassuring. I also don’t find it reassuring that this Manager could not understand why such a policy, which was not disclosed to me during my earlier visit to the store, would not only be unappealing but also unacceptable to someone who had just shelled out hundreds of dollars for what is marketed as a “most advanced” product. When I pick up my replacement phone from the Apple Store: I will know it is not the same quality product I spent a considerable amount of time making the decision to invest such a great sum of money in. I will also know that Apple has done the expedient thing to save the company money at the cost of customer loyalty.

I know that many people will think I’m making a mountain out of a molehill. However, when you get ripped off by a mammoth company and they smile while doing it and tell you they have no options because Apple has no process “to return your defective phone to inventory” and you know that options do exist, it’s a pretty shitty feeling.

 

My iPhone 6s: A Service Phone Is Not The Same As New

It’s bad enough that I have to cope with an undefined illness that causes me extreme pain daily. However, when I pay hundreds of dollars for a new phone manufactured by a company worth more money than I can even imagine exists; it fails ‘out-of-the-box’ and they want to replace it with a refurbished phone, which they refer to as a “service phone”, it’s a bit more than I can bear.

It took months for me to decide whether to upgrade from my fully functioning iPhone 4, which never presented a single issue in the four years I owned it, to an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, or iPhone 6s Plus. Making the decision wasn’t hard because of any vastly unique differences in features between each phone model. It was hard because of what I need the phone for now, which is phone calls, taking pictures, and whatever features distract me from my pain and how long I would probably wait before upgrading again – I no longer work so I don’t necessarily need the highest level of functionality. I finally chose the iPhone 6s with the highest level of memory available so I won’t have to worry about storage, while still keeping moderately current in the coming years, on what I believed would be a phone as reliable as my old iPhone 4. Well, it didn’t turn out that way.

Shortly after purchasing my iPhone 6s at the end of June, I started to notice some functionality issues. The main thing, which at first I considered a minor glitch would happen while writing messages with the phone’s native messaging app. Unfortunately, that glitch turned into a bigger problem and started affecting other messaging apps. Because it’s a brand new phone, still under warranty, I contacted my service provider’s technical support. When I explained the issue, they walked me through some general troubleshooting steps, but soon realized that it was a product issue that had to be resolved by the manufacturer. They gave me the Apple Support contact information for my country and started me on what I assumed would be an uneventful manufacturer technical support process. However, if you’ve ever had a technical issue with any of your personal electronic devices, you know that there is no such thing as ‘an uneventful manufacturer technical support process’.

I had two telephone support calls with Apple Support that did not help to resolve my issue, which meant I had to make an appointment to see a support representative at my local Apple Store’s ‘Genius Bar’, which according to Apple is “[t]he best place to get support for Apple products.” After my phone was put through some diagnostic tests the support representative decided that the issue was not software related and that my phone needed to be replaced because my ‘glitch’ was definitely a hardware problem. He told me that my ‘new phone’ should arrive in the store within five to seven business days, and that I would receive an email to let me know when it arrived. Today took me beyond the five to seven business-day window and since I still had not received a follow-up email telling me I could pick up the replacement phone, I decided to call the Apple Store.

When I called the store, I asked a question that had been in the back of my mind since last week. Because it struck me as odd that I wasn’t given a new phone right there in the store I had to ask: Was my brand new, shiny, Space Gray, iPhone 6s being replaced by another brand new, shiny, Space Gray, iPhone 6s; or was I to get a refurbished phone? When I asked my question, the store representative responded by proudly telling me that I would receive a ‘service phone’. What’s a ‘service phone’ I asked? She told me “it’s not an ‘out-of-the-box’ phone. It’s a phone that has had parts replaced but it’s just as good as a new phone made by Apple.” I asked her if she understood the meaning of the word ‘semantics’? She said she did. I then told her that I had no interest in receiving a refurbished phone for the brand new ‘out-of-the-box’ phone I had recently purchased. She responded by telling me that’s the policy of the company. I told her that the service representative I met with when I brought my phone to the store never mentioned that I would not receive a brand new phone to replace the one with the ‘glitch’ for which I recently paid hundreds of dollars.

Shockingly, she responded with a question about whether I still wanted her to hold the phone for me. Meaning, would I prefer to keep the phone that didn’t work properly. I immediately asked to speak to a manager. She returned to the phone after a few minutes to tell me that there was no manager “immediately available” to speak with me, and asked if I would prefer to come in to the store to speak with one. I told her that if I came in to the store to speak with a manager it would not be pretty, so my preference was to have one call me as soon as possible. She took my details and I made it clear that I would be widely sharing this undisclosed policy of replacing defective ‘out-of-the-box’ phones with a ‘service phone’. That seemed to shake her confidence that an Apple ‘service phone’ might not be “just as good as a new phone.”

I’m still waiting for a call from an Apple manager. I’m angry about this. I’m angry that Apple, a company that prides itself on producing the “most advanced” products and providing top of the line support, would have this policy that is equivalent to pulling a fast one on their customers.

 

U2 – Volcano (Songs of Innocence)