monkey5s | Entries tagged with health

...is predictable. It wasn't a complete waste of my copay because I was overdue for bloodwork.

But still, she just made sympathetic faces about my open sore on my ankle from the edema (now with bonus fungus infection), and (yup) referred me to the wound clinic in the city south of us. And yes, nagged me gently about getting a mammogram again. At least since my weight was down, and I reported trying to eat better, she spared me the 'really should try to lose weight' talk.

She also followed up on my colonoscopy, which... that doctor failed to send her the updated info after the pathology of the single, tiny polyp he found and removed, so she was relieved that at least I had been advised to repeat the procedure in two years. And I told her my tale of insurance woe over the varicose vein ablation procedure that is still pending (she said she finds it frustrating that we hear all the time about how expensive it is to have medical ANYTHING happen, yet how many people are the insurance companies paying to sit in a room and routinely deny coverage?).

So the wound clinic is supposed to call, and until they see me I will just continue to be SOL, ankle-wise. Also, I discovered that my new, digital weight scale here at home reads 5.2 pounds lighter than theirs. So that made me grumpy. OTOH, despite having stopped taking the amlodipine (because it causes edema, so fuck that shit), my bp was a perfectly fine 122/68, on just the lisinopril.

Next stop, WOUND CLINIC, with bonus endless copays! And still have to fight over the varicose veins procedure, plus I haven't heard from the vascular surgeon's business office, to find out just how much of what insurance doesn't pay, I will have to cover. Ugh.

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/558915.html

= Significance of event difficult to convey to outsiders, therefore burbling here instead of FB =

I WALKED DOWN TO THE CORNER OF THE STREET!

No, really, that's the sum total of the achievement. I was first intending to just walk out the front door and around to the kitchen door, just to get out. It had been a gorgeous, sunshine-and-blue-sky day, which I had spent inside because... reasons. Mostly beta-blocker lethargy reasons. But as the sun went down, I finally realized I had had it. I needed to go out.

When I stepped out onto the front walk, I turned to the right, toward the last vestiges of the sunset. I was going to look at it, then turn around to walk around the house as planned. Instead, I thought, wow, the temperature is well above freezing, there is a very slight breeze, and I feel good. So I started walking, telling myself I would turn back as soon as I felt tired.

When I got to the corner, I stopped and looked up the block to the next corner. That will take some doing, the uphill slope is pretty solid on that leg of the block (because it goes a little more downhill from the corner before it starts back uphill). And I turned around and started back to my own corner, this time trying to stand more upright and lean less on the walker (which slowed me down even more, but it was its own workout). Then I walked past the house and around to the kitchen, like I had planned from the start.

Most amusing to me was the cat accompaniment I had on the way back. When I turned around and started back, Dash showed himself as having been waiting on the front porch of the first house from the corner, the one that's two apartments with only the top one occupied right now. He came out to the sidewalk and paced me a few steps before walking onto the public strip. Miss Chloe meowp!ed at me from under the evergreen bushes in front of the next house, came dancing out the the sidewalk and behind me. Shortly thereafter she raced past me, back towards home. Dash caught up with me again at the house beside ours, then peeled off to whatever he needed to tend to. So. I was well taken care of in my little walk.

And thus we see months of dithering and digressions ended- I walked to the corner AND IT WAS GOOD. NOW I KNOW I CAN DO IT AND WILL BE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO DO IT AGAIN!

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/544111.html

Yep, blood pressure was still very high. OK, I will deal with that.

First, the doctor tried to get me to see about a sleep disorder test. Which, no. Not right now, thanks. I'm still paying for two tests that she insisted I really truly needed IMMEDIATELY this past May. And I got to pay quite a bit last December for the test that she insisted was crucial IMMEDIATELY, which I wasn't able to get at the emergency room (as she insisted I visit to get that test RIGHT NOW), but got to waste most of the night there, anyway, only to come back in the early morning (and driving back down after 90 minutes of sleep was even less fun) to get the test she wanted. So no, I will think on the sleep disorder test, but right now my night time wake-ups are all bathroom-related.

For the hypertensiion, she put me on two medicines, a diuretic (I've done that before) and a beta blocker. The beta blocker made me very unhappy. My anecdotal knowledge of beta blockers is that they slow down your heart by reducing the effect of epinephrine. This would make it... difficult, let's say, to start exercising like I am trying to get myself geared up for. Cause, you know, "dizzy" or "fainted" are not exactly things that improve your cardiovascular health.

Research online just now shows that beta blockers can reduce pressure in the eye by lowering aqueous humor secretion- which would help with my one eye that is having some problems. So that would be a good thing I did not know about. On the other hand, use of diuretics and beta blockers together has proven to increase risk of developing diabetes.

The side effects of the beta blocker sound like fun: dizziness, fatigue, low blood pressure, diarrhea, weakness, slow heartbeat, and weight gain. Yeah, thanks. I've already regained weight I had lost last winter.

This diuretic is different from the one I used to get. This one is also an antiandrogenic, which... aren't we all exposed to enough of those through toxic chemicals in the environment? As a result, the side effects for this one, in addition to the really exciting PEE CONSTANTLY, include ataxis (gee, I hope not), rashes and dry skin. My skin is already pretty dry, so this does not thrill me.

I have a month's dose of each, and a return appointment this Friday to be sure the drugs are at least beginning to have the desired effect. The only unmistakably good thing about all this? Both drugs are on the "free' list at Kroger's.

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/538443.html

I knew I had two CT scans to pay off from last month. I had received the billing for the first, just today I received the billing for the second. I wanted to set up a payment plan to take care of what I owed (since no, I don't have $876.76 lying around). They gave two customer service phone#s on the bills, a local call and an 800#. They stressed that you could reach a customer service rep at these #s between the hours of 7am and 8pm. I started trying to call before 7pm.

It's a highly-detailed automated phone system. Up front, they tell you about the hours for reaching a rep. Then you have to dance through giving your account#, followed by your date of birth. Then there are other options.

None of which appear to include actually being able to contact those elusive customer service reps.

I then went online, set up my account there, they offered a "payment plan" that was really high, and gave you the option to call their customer service #s to set up a plan different from what was on the screen. The same #s I had already tried.

They did give an e-mail address, so I have e-mailed them to ask how I'm supposed to talk to someone when the automated service won't give me that option. The automated reply to my e-mail claims I will hear from them within two business days. Can't wait to see what options they give me! < / sarcasm >

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/533745.html

Today I was scheduled for another CT scan to check on my navel herniation. The surgeon said the scan I had gotten a week earlier (for the adrenal adenoma) stopped about 2 inches shy of what she needed to see. I had gotten a reminder call yesterday morning about this scan, and we had to do the dance of, "No, I don't need to be there two hours early because it is NOT with the contrast dye," vs. "It says on the order that it IS with the contrast dye."

Later in the afternoon, while I was away from home, I missed a call from pre-admission for the facility. I was puzzled, since I had never gotten such a call for the scan I got two weeks ago. I didn't find the message until they were closed, so I returned it this morning as I was getting up to go in for the scan. And towards the end of that call, I got a shock.

Seems that my insurance won't pay for SQUAT until my deductible out-of-pocket is met- no percentage covered or anything. Deductible is $5000. So, as the pre-admission person was traveling along through her documentation, she told me I was expected to pay $661.14 for the scan today, how did I want to cover that? Oh, and she sees that I also had a scan back on May 2, so that's another $661.14. They take credit or debit cards, or electronic check.

First I told her I had no idea that I owed that. Also, I was going to have to cancel this scan today, because ACK! DEBT I CAN'T COVER RIGHT NOW! They make you call a different number to do that (clearly to avoid the panic cancellation like I was trying), so I called them and that person sent me along to the financial assistance department. They will send out a form for me to fill out, and no, I wasn't expected to pay for anything today, although it would be good if I could put a little down.

I decided to go ahead and get the scan today, since I do need to know if there's a problem with the herniation. It took about five minutes. That's about $132 per minute. Somehow I don't believe any of the people who have to do things regarding the scan get ANYWHERE NEAR that amount of wage.

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/531889.html

Got the call from the doctor's office with my blood test results from my visit there last week.

Cholesterol levels = improved! The LDL went down 15 points- it's still a little elevated (110, optimal is under 100), the HDL went up 19 points (from 21 to 40- that's now the low end of good, we women should aim to get it over 50), and triglycerides went down 62 points, though they were still within normal before.

This time they ran an A1C test for blood sugar, instead of the usual blood glucose test. It was 5.8, which he said was a little high but not too bad. I did my own research later, and normal results for non-diabetic people is a range of 4.5-6.0.

Here's the one thing that irritates me about my doctor. She wanted to offer me a prescription for Metformin to help me get my blood sugar down. METFORMIN, the diabetes drug. EVEN THOUGH I DON'T HAVE DIABETES. And the jolly side-effects of Metformin include the whole raft of gastro-intestinal miseries, but also the worst ones can be lactic acidosis and liver failure. I politely declined the offer.

She has also consistently tried to get me to take statin drugs for my cholesterol. I refused those consistently, as well, since I am fond of my liver just the way it is. At least they've stopped pushing those on me.

Oh, and the best news? My potassium was fine. YAY! The whatever-it-is on my adrenal gland is not messing with my blood chemistry (at least in that regard). So that's a relief.

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/530752.html

=the Rocketing Into Decrepitude edition=

So, the little bitty cyst on my finger that had been just an annoyance for months, last month decided to increase in size. Since it was just past the end of the nail bed of my finger, this increase made a blister-looking bump at the base of the nail. It kept looking like the skin was getting thinner over part of it, like it was going to pop. And yeah, it was sensitive, and even more aggravating.

This morning a tiny little hole opened up. And I discovered that the stuff inside was more of a gel than a liquid. Weird, and icky, and I tried to express more of it than the bead of clear stuff that came out first, but not much more came out.

I've kept antibiotic ointment and a bandaid on it at work. That's off now, and it's a little sensitive from me poking at it all day, but I don't think there's infection. It's on the finger with the tendon damage, and that finger tends to be stiff/tingly/numb anyway. It's a little less of a bump at the moment from the, uh, gel squeezed out this morning.

But, the bigger (and more decrepit) news was my teeth. I'd had problems with grinding my teeth at night, so I went back to wearing the bite plate when I went to bed. But in the past week, the teeth that had been extra-sensitive got much more so. They never hurt except when I bit down on something- but then they complained for as long as there was pressure. I have an appointment for a cleaning in mid-June, figured I'd see about it then.

So today I was eating carrots for lunch, and absent-mindedly bit down on that side. AND BROKE A TOOTH. Looked like a corner of a molar, and it's on the inside of an upper jaw tooth, so my tongue keeps fussing at it but it's not cutting my cheek or anything.

I put a call in to the dentist, even though it didn't hurt, just felt weird. It's a tooth that had lots of filling work years ago, and I think the filling part is intact. When he called me back, he said that unless it really bothers me, it should still be fine to wait until my appointment. Since it broke off, it probably won't bother me like it had been, but it may well have extra temperature sensitivity.

I don't think the broken tooth does. But the tooth below it, the other half of the bruxism sensitivity? That is singing like crazy when I sip a cold drink. So I'm guessing it's cracked, as well, and just hasn't broken yet.

And today's rover shift was only two hours- but I had two episodes of the cracking, screaming knee pain that made me leave the front desk person on her own because I had to sit down. A coworker today "gently" suggested that I might want to look into something sit-down, like telemarketing, as a different career path.

I can't think of many jobs that would be worse, for me. But yes, I do have to start looking for other income. TO PAY FOR MY DENTAL WORK, if nothing else.

Crossposts: http://monkey5s.livejournal.com/508781.html

For a Saturday with LEGO club, it wasn't bad. Oh, I still had to sit down, painfully, more than once. Rover-1 is grueling for me that way, even on the less-intense days. Today the boss did OK until about 11:30, then he started feeling sore. I think he's finally understanding that the doctor really was serious when he told him it would take a good 6 weeks to fully recover from the hernia surgery.

Tonight was the Library Lovers Nite [sic] party. I was going to just stay through from the end of work to the party, as usual. In the past I've tried to help with the set-up, though I don't sign up to cover shifts since it's too difficult for me to do the standing around and carrying things from the back. But today, the boss got the schedule for next week done just as we closed. He was putting them into everyone's mailboxes, and I had him hand one over the desk to me, to post at the workstation I was using. I looked at it, and squawked "Rover-1 EVERY DAY I WORK? Not even Rover-2, Rover-1?!" He told me he was working on making the rover shifts shorter. Well, not for me. Every shift I have is 4 hours- just exactly like I have been having. Only, you know, I "only" had three Rover-1 shifts this past week, and then two days of Rover-2.

To say I was unhappy would be a bit of an understatement. I ended up just sitting there, at the computer, looking at Knitty patterns online for the entire time between getting off work and when we needed to go to the meeting room for the group photo that one of our imminent retirees asked us to have done. I was also fairly surly for the photo, but that's not unusual.

I contemplated just going home after that, but I went down to the magazine room to check on the jigsaw puzzle, and stayed there for almost an hour. I did, even, manage to get a few pieces linked. We had one teen who was like a machine, he was so sharp at it. But he left when the Middle School Jazz Band started up, so I bet he had a friend playing.

Then I went home.

And I can tell that Monday I will have to pursue retirement planning with OPERS. Because the idea of facing crippling pain every single fucking day I come to work is too depressing- and angering, really- to deal with anymore.