It's summer and a doctor visit.

 

I had my first doctor visit in about a year on Aug 1. It went well and things are okay, just a few mix ups and bumps to go through. I set up a new doctor because I have issues with doctors of some nationalities, simply because of past experience.

So let's just say I have a mistrust of male (doctors) of Eastern European/Arabic persuasion. I've had to deal with the in retail and it is not a pleasant interchange. Anyway, my assigned doctor was male Arabic sounding name and at a local clinic. I'm sure there are plenty of wonderful doctors out there but being female I prefer to have a female doctor now. 

I then discovered there was a difference between Sharp Community Health (which they had assigned me too and Sharp Reese Stealy. I decided to look for a female doctor at my preferred location about ten minutes away. Nurse Practitioner and I designated her for my appointment. I got a call the morning of my appointment saying that there was a problem because she was in SRS and not Sharp Community and they couldn't find her in the doctor listings because she's a NP. Hooboy. I spent about twenty minutes or so on the phone getting that straightened out, another female doctor was assigned to me as my primary and my new card would be out to me this coming week. 

Doctor visit is still covered,  no problems with that just utter confusion because I was also operating on no food in about twelve hours because I knew they would do a blood draw. Lovely thing about the new system though is they send you the pre-appointment form to fill out online and that's done before you even get there. Then there's a day before 'check in' message you get, so you just have to do that and then walk in to the office close to your appointment time, they check you in with your ID and insurance card and you're set. Well with the snafu of my doctor change I still had to sign an appointment consent form but that was only a minor bump, didn't have to wait too long for them to call me.

I am still over 200 lbs sadly, but blood pressure, temp and O2 was good. I need to write down what I need to talk to the doctor about before hand because when the nurse and the doctor both asked if I had any questions I thought a moment and said no. No I don't have questions but I have concerns about a few things like my cataract and hearing. 

I like my doctor, she's young, attentive, smiles and generally has a good 'vibe' if you will. I told her my biggest complaint was my arthritis and what I was taking, I hadn't taken anything for two weeks due to painful burping (I thought she would interject and ask about other symptoms of ulcer but she didn't) and I was feeling ten years older than I am. She agreed with taking naproxen, turmeric and the glucosamine as well as getting back on the calcium and multivitamins. She circled the numbers for mammogram and bone density labs and put in the order for a blood draw. 

That's when she asked if I had any questions which made my mind go blank. I can email her and ask for another visit to discuss those issues luckily. 

So the bloodwork came back good and not so good. Good news is kidneys, liver and thyroid were all normal, calcium was even good and blood count was fine. So my worries about those issues from the naproxen were alleviated. But.... cholesterol was 'pretty high' in her words and to switch to a heart healthy diet but if I wanted a prescription for it then let her know.

Hmm. Yet another pill to take that is prescribed or wing it with diet.. I'll take diet first and see if she wants to go a follow up appointment. 

But let me tell you, that naproxen (and other stuff)... better living through chemistry. For a week or two now since I stopped taking that I was aching everywhere, my knees were complaining climbing the stairs, even getting on and off the toilet I needed to lean on something, my hands were hurting more and just generally was feeling like a rusty old machine that needed a good cleaning and grease. Seriously. I am on day 2 restarting the naproxen and my knees don't hurt, I can move around easier, hands are still cranky but not as much. I am not going through that again unless doctor says so. I surmised that taking 10 pills all at once may have been the issue because I've now divided up the three supplements that are double doses per day so I have a 'morning' set for first main meal of the day and then late night snack for the rest. I forgot to take the second set last night oops.

So that's my excitement for this month so far. It is hot as Hades for the next week and a half, mid to high 90's, maybe high 80's for a day or two but it is miserably hot outside. So we are closing up early and keeping the ac running all the way after dark when the temp outside gets below 80.

That reads about 98 in the shade a few days ago and the trend has kept up. Such is summer, my garden is wilted at the end of the day when I go check on it, but it perks up over night. Doesn't look like I'm going to have any tomatillos or tomatoes this year but peppers are at least fruiting. Oh and the squash too. I'm getting almost all female fruit flowers and no males. Can't have babies without boys so this year has been pretty much a bust for variety.

 

 

Rocky's favorite place to lay when I'm cooking since the only other spot is my prep surface (the one with his paw in the sink) and the floor is not an option when there's only two feet of space and I move around a lot. If there were ever a better image to show just how small my kitchen is, those are good ones. He's almost flea free but I have another two weeks before I can give him another full dose of the flea control. 

Time for another snack and moving around a bit. 

It's haaahhhht, no fun.