the downside to free healthcare is wait times, as most people take preventative action rather than waiting for the worst case. it can be frustrating, and i've had relatives who have had to wait a few years for urgent operations. at the end of the day i think it's still more than fair though, and i'm really grateful to live in a country that has a system like this in place.

Ah yes, well you see that happens here anyway. There have been stories (at least one of which I know) where someone waiting for an urgent operation for some cancer-related condition received the appointment to their house several days after they had already passed away. No joke.
Go raibh mhat agat

^ Yeah, x2 on that Trollheart. Sometimes it's difficult to know which is worse; being the sick person drugged up to the eyeballs or being the relative-in-waiting.
Also ghastly before reaching the hospital when it's down to you to make the call and decide, Yes, this is an emergency... just horrible. I'm so glad that you and Karen have pulled through.

^ That sounds pretty awful too, Qwerty. I hope you are eating carefully and that you get some appropriate treatment soon. In the end, (oops, sorry about that), in the end some unpleasant probing is a price worth paying, right?

In retrospect (and after discussing it with his therapist) it probably wasn't what it looked liked, he said most young boys will touch themselves for comfort and to calm down, so it was his coping mechanism mid-tantrum, it just was also accompanied by anger and it just threw me into high alert. He's doing a lot better now, in every way. Mom and son are both seeing the therapist monthly.

I get that but idk, I've always been good with kids. And now instead of babysitting/raising four siblings for free I get to create my own contracts and charge wine yuppies top dollar. I'd rather be around kids than coworkers (which is the number 1 item in the cons list for leaving my current job).

Maybe his therapist doesn't know what the **** they're talking about cause I've never heard of a little boy harming their dick out of stress. Perhaps the therapist just doesn't want to sound like they (probably she) aren't qualified to be giving an opinion on the subject. That really does sound like complete and utter horse ****.

Glad things worked out for the best Troll!

idk dude. it was an isolated incident as far as i know, and he is doing better.

like of course i get flashes of albert fish but ****, what am i gonna do, i've taken all the steps i can, now it's just wait and see. this is what early intervention looks like.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5479100/

I don't know, maybe the therapist or parents or whoever relayed this information to you just doesn't want to be honest and tell you the truth that this kid has serious issues.

I went back and read the original post

https://media.giphy.com/media/wYyTHMm50f4Dm/source.gif