Monday, May 19, 2014

Post-Vacation Odds & Ends

So, I'd planned to spend Wednesday after Chad & Mel left sleeping in. Then I remembered that I had an appointment with Dr B on Thursday and hadn't had my blood drawn for labs yet. I called his office to see if I could reschedule and then next appointment wasn't until July. I knew he'd kill me if I waited that long, so I told the girl to leave me where I was on the schedule and made myself get up and go to the lab. He prefers to have labs done a week ahead of my visits, but I prefer not getting stuck by needles and at least I went.


Then I wanted to go home and go to bed, but I hadn't eaten for 24 hours (always have to do fasting labs), so I stopped at Panera for a snack. Harriet had called me and let me know my monthly pattern was in at the Needle Nest, and since it had been a while since I'd been over there, I decided I might as well go then. Stopped at Starbucks for more me-fuel, and hit the road. Spent way too much money as usual, but had a good time doing it. I may go to the stitch retreat she's organized in September. I wasn't going to at first, since it's the weekend of Dad's birthday, but we're not traveling for it this year, so I may go ahead.

The reason we're not traveling for Dad's birthday this year is because we're going to the Spencer Family reunion/Uncle John's birthday in July instead. Uncle J will be 87 this year and he told Mom that he didn't care if any of the others made it down, he wanted ME there. I don't know if I'll be able to get the Friday off that I need since we're short-handed in the office again, but I'm going to do my best. Worst case- I work and then drive straight down afterward.

But I digress-

Kept my appointment with Dr B on Thursday. He was thrilled with me. I'm down 15 lbs again, my blood pressure was down, my blood sugar was down, I'd actually checked my blood pressure at least once since my last visit and could tell him what it had been (117 over 75), and I promised I was going to the eye doctor on Friday. I really was planning to- Mom had cleared her schedule to drive me if they needed to dilate my eyes. I can drive after dilation, but my vision gets blurry and I'd prefer not to. Anyway, I don't have to see him for 6 months now. We still haven't figured out what to do about the fatigue and he vetoed my request for an antihistamine pump.

After my visit with him, I dropped by the eye doctor clinic since it was right across the street, to see if they could schedule me for Friday. (They're normally a walk-in place) I explained that I needed the specialty diabetic eye exam and the receptionist said "Well, we can take you right now if you'd like. There's nobody waiting at the moment and 2 doctors are free." Might as well do it, right? So I did.

The good news is that the diabetic exam doesn't require dilation. The better news is that my eyes are very healthy, although I am totally blind without glasses. The doctor asked me if I was sure I was diabetic because the state of my optic nerves didn't indicate it at all. (Dr B is going to love that) Then we did the rest of the tests and I was handed the delightful news that I have graduated to bifocals. Yay. I kind of knew it was coming since I find myself looking over my glasses more often than not when I have to read small print.

Then we got to my favorite part of the eye doctor- picking out new glasses! Of course they didn't have the same frames I already had in stock, which is a shame because I love these. (yes, these- will explain in a minute) I finally found a pair of purple metal frames with sort of squoval (squared oval) lenses that I liked. Then I picked a pair of silvery framed sunglasses- real sunglasses this time, not just regular glasses with dark lenses like my last pair. The total, after my insurance discounts, was $750. GULP. Now I remember why I go so long between eye doctor visits. Luckily I had signed up for the flexible spending card when we did insurance last year, and Dr B had changed me to some less expensive meds, so I was able to pay for them.

However, I'm still in my old glasses at the time of this writing because my new Rx was so jacked up that they had to special order both pairs of lenses and it will take nearly 2 weeks for them to come in. Yeah, I'm special like that.

Friday rolls around and I get a call from my mom that Dad is going to the hospital AGAIN. It seems he'd been suffering tummy troubles all week and didn't mention it until late Thursday night. Dr B had worked him into the Friday schedule, freaked when Dad told him what he'd been experiencing (won't go into detail- you're welcome) and immediately ordered his admittance. Then he said, and I quote, "What it is with your family?!? I finally get one of you functioning correctly and another one breaks!" (No HIPAA violations here- he has permission to share our records with each other)

We spent most of the weekend dancing attendance on the old coot. Mom & I did go get Chinese for dinner on Saturday, and we had another batch of Pigs in the Blanket for Mother's Day dinner. I bought her a copy of Book Lover's Scrabble, so we're looking forward to playing that the next time I'm over.

Sadly, my vacation ended, so it was back to work. Blah. I really need to win the lottery so I can live the life I'd like to become accustomed to...

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