Healthcare

OK, I know I am the worse procrastinator and have complained about my doctors office before. I really should be changing. I have no problems when we go, everyone is friendly, seems concerned and says they are going to order the right treatment. You leave feeling like your needs were addressed. Later you call the pharmacy to see if your meds are ready......they only called in one, not the other. After giving Rick a big lecture about stopping his blood pressure meds on his own and how these new ones don't have the same side effects, then they never sent the script in. Which in turns makes Rick blow and this BP probably went through the roof.

This is what always happens at this office. No follow through. We have appointments for the echo, carotid studies, MRI but no follow-up appointment. Now I do believe patients have to be proactive about their care but it has to be a 2 way street. And I can almost guarantee that if Rick doesn't call next week to find out the results we will never hear back from them. Even if they do find something wrong. And then Rick will be labels non compliant. Which is why I can't get him to go in the first place. They never ordered the sleep study for his C-pap even when the heart doctor sent them their recommendations.

So I will call them today and remind them we didn't get the order for the blood pressure medication and if what I suspect is going to happens happens I will definitely change doctors. Speaking of which, no we did not see our doctor again. I haven't actually been able to see My Doctor for 2 years. I always get someone else. Sigh.

Now this morning Rick looks pretty good. He is already talking about canceling the tests but hopefully it is idle talk. I am going to cancel my PT and change my appointment about my shoulder and hopefully can keep the appointment with my hand doctor. I don't want my surgery delayed.

This was scary for me. Rick has always been pretty healthy and I can't imagine what I will do if anything happens to him. I love his ornery self and would miss the daily battle of wills. So he had better take care of himself. His dad had a stroke about this same age. So he has a family history.

Thank you everyone for the prayers, not only that he was OK but that I was able to drag his sorry self into the doc's, LOL. I can lay down the law when I have to. Should be an interesting week. I can't wait to see his reaction to the MRI and it looks like we will reach our maxium out of pocket within the first month of our new insurance. I told Rick, think of it this way, the rest of the year will be clear sailing then.

Ta all.

Update

OK, its been a long day. They think Rick had a TIA or a small stroke. His blood pressure was elevated and his mouth is still drooping but everything else looks good. So they started him on Plavix ( at blood thinner) and a new blood pressure medication and he has to have an echo, Carotid duplex and a MRI of the head. Of course we can't get in for the tests until next Wednesday. Which just happens to be the only day I have all kinds of tests and PT for my shoulder and to see my doctor for my pre-op tests. I am not a stroke nurse but I am concerned about starting a blood thinner until we find out if he is having a hemorrhagic stroke or one from plaque. Starting a blood thinner if he had a bleed could kill him. So I am concerned. Time to call in some favors and talk to friends who know more about strokes then me.

Rick as usual is denying that anything could be wrong. Everyone sees the drooping but him and it took me a few days. to talk him into seeing the doctor. You have 3 hours with a stroke before it is too late to do anything and it took me 4 days to talk him into going. And even then I didn't really tell him about the appointment until a hour before. Men! This could explain lots of things that have been going on for the last year but we shall see what the tests show. And I will be off until Thursday to watch him.

Thank you for all your prayers. I hope everything works out and I really hope he doesn't cancel by next week or refuses to take his medication. Somethings he turns really stubborn about.

Asking for support

I am taking Rick into the Doc in about a hour. We think he might have had a small stroke. Prayers please.

Another post

Good news. The arctic ice is thicker then it has been since 1976 according to the news. If your old enough to remember that was smack in the middle of when the wacko's were trying to scare us into believing that the ice age was coming. So I guess that means the global warming wacko scare is over although actually they are now saying the belief that we were in a global warming cycle caused by Man was over officially in 2008. Gee, I must have missed that screaming headline. Not that they are going to get rid of any of the programs that have sprung up like toadstools on a rotted stump all over. Carbon saving this and carbon saving that and tax you for this and tax you for this. Next they will be working on how to handle the horror of the coming ice age. We are all doomed.

As you can tell I woke up raring to go today. Actually I am not sleeping well. Darn shoulder makes it impossible to find a comfortable way to lay. Even with a sleeping pill I have only been averaging 5 hours fitful sleep. That celebrex has had zero effect. Its like taking a placebo. Glad I didn't pay for it. So I have been laying around reading my latest book, Liberal Fascism by Johah Goldberg. Great book by the way. It is a must read, this and the Forgotten Man if you want to get an idea of what coming and be in any way prepared. We are already seeing repeats of the New Deal and other failed programs returning plus I now hear speeches that are almost verbatim to speeches from the last depression. Scary since the last depression was prolonged by at least 8 years due to government interference. They just refuse to admit it didn't work plus also a lot of people got very wealthy back then on all these failed programs. I can think of a select group that should profit very nicely from the backs of the people they were elected to Serve.

So obviously being in constant pain and lack of sleep has made me cranky. I haven't been posting much of anything I couldn't point, paste and copy lately as it is difficult. But my son got my laptop working again so I seem to have an easier time typing on this. Mostly I have been listing photo's after photo's after photo's. I can do that with one hand.

19 days until my surgery. I have been doing some housework, the tree is down and the livingroom looks sparkly and clean but bare. You can do a lot of dusting even with one arm and vacuuming is possible also. The house will be clean by surgery if it kills me.

I go to PT today. See if that helps. The rest of the day, try to not answer the phone as work is wanting me to work. I missed Wednesday due to just feeling terrible and they called me yesterday wanting me to work. It is so hard to do just lifting 5 pounds and my entire shoulder and now back hurt from me favoriing the stupid thing. Just let me heal up as the very last thing I want is to have to have this surgically repaired. Haven't I been though enough whine whine. Sheesh.

Well, I had better close, Whiny and cracky, what a combination, I won't post again until I have something sweet to say, maybe. Unless something ticks me off so much I have to post. Like letting Caroline Kennedy have a seat and treating her like a princess right after they made so much fun of Sarah Palin who had more experience and qualifications in her toenail then Ms Kennedy has in her entire body. But royalty Kennedy's of course would have a place in this liberal new government. What change is this? Same old same old, just younger faces.

Question, I caught the tail end of a report about some city starting up a new government program to go into the schools and start weighting your children. If they weight to much they will send home letters to the family. I suppose they will have a certain amount of time to comply and skinny those chubby kids down before they get slapped with abuse charges and the chubby child is removed for its own good and put on a fat farm. OK maybe I am exagerating some but it sound farfetched enough that I can see it happening. So anyway, anyone hear what state is starting this program up? I missed which state. Thanks.

History lesson

Sweet and Clean

While I sat in the reception area of my doctor's office, a woman rolled an elderly man in a wheelchair into the room. As she went to the receptionist's desk, the man sat there, alone and silent. Just as I was thinking I should make small talk with him, a little boy slipped off his mother's lap and walked over to the wheelchair. Placing his hand on the man's, he said, 'I know how you feel. My mom makes me ride in the stroller too.'.

________________________________
As I was nursing my baby, my cousin's six-year-old daughter, Krissy, came into the room. Never having seen anyone breast feed before, she was intrigued and full of all kinds of questions about what I was doing. After mulling over my answers, she remarked, 'My mom has some of those, but I don't think she knows how to use them.'

___________________________ _____
Out bicycling one day with my eight-year-old granddaughter, Carolyn, I got a little wistful. 'In ten years,' I said, 'you'll want to be with your friends and you won't go walking, biking, and swimming with me like you do now.' Carolyn shrugged. 'In ten years you'll be too old to do all those things anyway.' ________________________________

Working as a pediatric nurse, I had the difficult assignment of giving immunization shots to children. One day I entered the examining room to give four-year-old Lizzie her needle. 'No, no, no!' she screamed.
'Lizzie,' scolded her mother, 'that's not polite behavior.' With that, the girl yelled even louder, 'No, thank you! No, thank you!

________________________________
My wife left the car unattended for only a minute, but it was long enough for our two-year-old to climb in, throw the car into reverse and crash into a lamppost. He was fine, but the car wasn't.
I had a hard time explaining who was behind the wheel to the insurance company. After a pause, the adjuster asked, 'Do you let him drive often?' ________________________________

One afternoon while I was visiting my library, I noticed a group of preschoolers gathered for story time. The book they were reading was There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. After the librarian finished the first page, she asked the children, 'Do you think she'll die?' 'Nope,' a little girl in the back said. 'I saw this last night on Fear Factor.' __________________________________

My sister had been ill, so I called to see how she was doing. My ten-year-old niece answered the phone 'Hello,' she whispered.
'Hi, honey. How's your mother?' I asked. 'She's sleeping,' she answered, again in a whisper.
'Did she go to the doctor?' I asked. ' Yes. She got some medicine,' my niece said softly.
'Well, don't wake her up. Just tell her I called. What are you doing, by the way?' Again in a soft whisper, she answered, 'Practicing my trumpet.' ____________________________________

On a brutally humid day, I walked past a miniature golf course and saw a dad following three small children from hole to hole. 'Who's winning?' I shouted.
'I am,' said one kid.
'Me,' said another.
'No, me,' yelled the third.
Sweat dripping down his face, the dad gasped, 'Their mother is.' _____________________________________

On the way back from a Cub Scout meeting, my grandson asked my son the question. 'Dad, I know that babies come from mommies' tummies, but how do they get there in the first place?' he asked innocently.
After my son hemmed and hawed awhile, my grandson finally spoke up in disgust. 'You don't have to make something up Dad. It's ok if you don't know the answer."

Work, what fun

Well I went to urgent care today as my shoulder is still pretty sore. I possibly have a rotator cuff tear. So I am on celebrex and will be starting physical therapy for it to see if it improves. I am suppose to be on a 5 pound lifting restriction with this left arm so it should be interesting a work. But it worked for the knee when I hurt it so we shall see.

We are slowly taking down the tree finally. It takes as long to get it down as it does to put it up. The room looks so bare. I love the house decorated for Christmas.

New tax today I have heard about. They are now talking about a wheel tax and head tax. What the heck are those? Next they will be taxing you on heart beats.

Well, my posts are short but my wrist is really on the blink. I will be happy to have the surgery and get this latest ouch over with. I have to be charge at work today so maybe I can get by without lifting much.

Diesel Fitter

Sven and Olaf worked together in a Minnesota

factory....and both were laid off. So...dey went

to the Unemployment Office together.

Asked his occupation, Olaf said, 'Panty stitcher.

I sew da elastic onto da ladies cotton panties.'

The clerk looked up panty stitcher. Finding it

classified as unskilled labor, she gave Olaf $300

a week in unemployment compensation.

Sven, when asked his occupation replied,

'Diesel fitter.' The clerk looked up diesel fitter...

and it was classified as a skilled job. So, the clerk

gave Sven $600 a week in unemployment compensation.

When Olaf found this out, he was furious! He

stormed back into the office to find out why

his friend and co-worker was collecting double

his benefits.

The clerk explained, 'Panty stitchers are

unskilled labor and diesel fitters are skilled labor.'

'Vat skill?' yelled Olaf. 'I sew da elastic on da

panties. Olaf puts dem over his head and says,

'Yah...... DIESEL FITTER.'

Days off Rock

I am thankful I have a job and thankful it pays well but extremely thankful that I have the day off. I hurt my shoulder last night trying to get this heavy patient up. He was like dead weight. Once we got him standing it was better but getting him to a sitting position and then standing was very hard. 2 of us got hurt. I just slathered biofreeze on my shoulder and took some tylenol and if it isn't better will go to urgent care. Its my bad arm also. Sigh.

My son was over yesterday and is so upset. His cable went down like 3 days ago. He didn't know why so called them. Turns out they shut it off because his roommate was illegally downloading movies and I don't know if he was selling them or just giving them away. Dan didn't know anything about it as they work opposite shifts and rarely see each other. Dan is really into gaming and now he can't get internet. I told him to go down there and see what he can do to straighten it out. When he called his roommate on it the roommate just stormed out. So Dan is worried he will be arrested. Thing is they should be able to tell what computer was used to download the movies. It hasn't been going well with his roommate. He doesn't pay rent half the time and leaves dirty clothes all over but never does dishes. He cooks for his girlfriend but doesn't clean up. So Dan is going to have to ask him to leave.

Well, I am going to try and sleep. I have a hair appointment and if I don't feel better have to go to urgent care. Take care all. I am slow getting to everyone blogs on my long stretch but I'll be around.