More tales from the trenches
Another annoying day dealing with the health care system.
I had a 9:30 appointment with my PCP this morning. At 9:01, as I'm rushing about, I get a phone call from the doctor's office telling me that not only is he not in today, he's actually on vacation and won't be back for several weeks. Oh? And you're telling me that now? Idiots. One of the main reasons I wanted to meet with him was to get a renewal for some pain meds and talk with him about the Lipitor he's having me take for my non-existent high cholesterol. Guess that'll have to wait, huh.
I'd called them the Friday before I left for Vegas because I needed to have my Tylenol 3 prescription refilled. I had been stealing from Dar's stash, but I really thought I should have my own. Call me crazy. So I called in to my doctor's office and left a message on the refill line. Of course you all know what happened. No refill was called in to the pharmacy. So when they cancelled on me today, I brought up the refill issue and got a run around again. Yeah, they'd try to see what they could do. No promises. Because it's only pain medication. No real need for that. I am such a wimp, apparently.
Then there's the Lipitor problem. My testing has shown that I have artherosclerosis of the abdominal aorta. Hardening of the artery. Precursor to stroke and heart attack. No joy. My cholesterol levels are fine. Wonderful, even. They always have been. But my doctor, wanting to be proactive, prescribed 20mg of Lipitor a day for me in hopes of heading off more plaque build up. OK, I appreciate that. BUT . . . I was doing some research and found that not only does Lipitor cause liver problems, it also has little to no effect on the abdominal aorta. Thoracic, yes. This is from a recent study, so I can't fault my doctor on not knowing that, but I certainly want to talk with him about it. I'm compromising by not taking it as often as it's been prescribed. I'm not sure if that's actually being at all effective, but at least I can fool myself that I'm doing something.
The other nonsense of the day involved getting the much-anticipated cookie test. (Cookies!) Dar and I ran some errands this morning, and I came home to find a voice mail from the speech pathologist who will be running the test. She'd like to schedule it on a Wednesday ASAP. Please call. She only works M, T, Thr, so call before she leaves the office today. Well, you can't say I didn't try. And try. And try. And try a couple more times, too. But you know, when you won't answer your fucking phone and your fucking voice mail box is FULL, there's only so much I can do. Stuff like pisses me off to a very large degree. You can probably see your screen melting a little because I'm all pissed again just typing this. So now I have to plaster my room (and myself, probably) with sticky notes so I'll remember to call her on Monday.
It was cold and windy and grey around here, and the forecast is calling for snow within a few days. We still have to get the snow fencing up. We still have to get a snow blower because for sure this year there's no way I'll be shoveling. We still have to clean out the garage so we have someplace to put the snow blower.
I need to go back to doing job lists. You non-list makers point and laugh at those of us anal-retentive types wo live by the list, but really . . . they work. And there is great satisfaction in being able to cross things off the list, too. It's all win.
I made spicy black bean soup with turkey kielbasa this evening, but it wasn't very spicy because I can no longer tolerate garlic (kill me now!) and I could not find the chili powder. Dar dug some out for me and saved it near the end, thankfully. Other than that, running errands, shopping, and cleaning up around the kitchen and the cat litter boxes, it was a slothful day. I've been stiffer than a Brit's upper lip all day. Past few days, really. Maybe, like the Tin Man, I just need to be oiled. Feel free to run with that image.
Oh, I found a great air pump! Yes, I'm easily pleased. Stop laughing. It's at the 24-hour convenience store/gas station in Listowel, and not only is it free to pump air (as it damn well should be) but it has a wonderfully loud beeping noise that let's you know when your tire is properly inflated. As mine most certainly were not. It was bad. So bad even I could tell that tires were low. But now they are round and firm and we can actually feel the difference while tootling down the roads. And really, stop snickering.
I had a 9:30 appointment with my PCP this morning. At 9:01, as I'm rushing about, I get a phone call from the doctor's office telling me that not only is he not in today, he's actually on vacation and won't be back for several weeks. Oh? And you're telling me that now? Idiots. One of the main reasons I wanted to meet with him was to get a renewal for some pain meds and talk with him about the Lipitor he's having me take for my non-existent high cholesterol. Guess that'll have to wait, huh.
I'd called them the Friday before I left for Vegas because I needed to have my Tylenol 3 prescription refilled. I had been stealing from Dar's stash, but I really thought I should have my own. Call me crazy. So I called in to my doctor's office and left a message on the refill line. Of course you all know what happened. No refill was called in to the pharmacy. So when they cancelled on me today, I brought up the refill issue and got a run around again. Yeah, they'd try to see what they could do. No promises. Because it's only pain medication. No real need for that. I am such a wimp, apparently.
Then there's the Lipitor problem. My testing has shown that I have artherosclerosis of the abdominal aorta. Hardening of the artery. Precursor to stroke and heart attack. No joy. My cholesterol levels are fine. Wonderful, even. They always have been. But my doctor, wanting to be proactive, prescribed 20mg of Lipitor a day for me in hopes of heading off more plaque build up. OK, I appreciate that. BUT . . . I was doing some research and found that not only does Lipitor cause liver problems, it also has little to no effect on the abdominal aorta. Thoracic, yes. This is from a recent study, so I can't fault my doctor on not knowing that, but I certainly want to talk with him about it. I'm compromising by not taking it as often as it's been prescribed. I'm not sure if that's actually being at all effective, but at least I can fool myself that I'm doing something.
The other nonsense of the day involved getting the much-anticipated cookie test. (Cookies!) Dar and I ran some errands this morning, and I came home to find a voice mail from the speech pathologist who will be running the test. She'd like to schedule it on a Wednesday ASAP. Please call. She only works M, T, Thr, so call before she leaves the office today. Well, you can't say I didn't try. And try. And try. And try a couple more times, too. But you know, when you won't answer your fucking phone and your fucking voice mail box is FULL, there's only so much I can do. Stuff like pisses me off to a very large degree. You can probably see your screen melting a little because I'm all pissed again just typing this. So now I have to plaster my room (and myself, probably) with sticky notes so I'll remember to call her on Monday.
It was cold and windy and grey around here, and the forecast is calling for snow within a few days. We still have to get the snow fencing up. We still have to get a snow blower because for sure this year there's no way I'll be shoveling. We still have to clean out the garage so we have someplace to put the snow blower.
I need to go back to doing job lists. You non-list makers point and laugh at those of us anal-retentive types wo live by the list, but really . . . they work. And there is great satisfaction in being able to cross things off the list, too. It's all win.
I made spicy black bean soup with turkey kielbasa this evening, but it wasn't very spicy because I can no longer tolerate garlic (kill me now!) and I could not find the chili powder. Dar dug some out for me and saved it near the end, thankfully. Other than that, running errands, shopping, and cleaning up around the kitchen and the cat litter boxes, it was a slothful day. I've been stiffer than a Brit's upper lip all day. Past few days, really. Maybe, like the Tin Man, I just need to be oiled. Feel free to run with that image.
Oh, I found a great air pump! Yes, I'm easily pleased. Stop laughing. It's at the 24-hour convenience store/gas station in Listowel, and not only is it free to pump air (as it damn well should be) but it has a wonderfully loud beeping noise that let's you know when your tire is properly inflated. As mine most certainly were not. It was bad. So bad even I could tell that tires were low. But now they are round and firm and we can actually feel the difference while tootling down the roads. And really, stop snickering.