I have had a love hate relationship with my many doctors over the years. I think it would help if I could have the same doctor, but since I am a lifelong military dependent, that is not likely to happen anytime soon. In fact, here you don’t even have the choice to get a doctor downtown. I would like to know why in its infinite wisdom did Tricare assign me a new PCM out of the blue, but left my son with his old doctor? The doctor he has a serious personality conflict with, but I get along with just fine. It’s like they said, “Hmmmm. She has all kinds of things wrong with her. She has her own pharmacy in her house. Let’s use her as a test case for all new doctors/PA’s and move her all over the place. She couldn’t possible benefit from continuity of care.” And then…” Hmmm. 18 year old boy whose biggest problem are his injuries. Boring. We will just leave him where he is.”
Case in point: I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for my tarsal tunnel. Tarsal tunnel is like carpal tunnel, except it is in your foot and ankle area, and it hurts, a lot. Since I have fibromyalgia, if I say I hurt…I hurt! Since I was there I decided to combine appointments, and get my refills for my medications renewed at the same time. This just might have been a mistake!
I went to the doctor hoping to get some relief for my poor, poor foot that I am seriously considering murdering. I think if I cut it off it would hurt less. Since I have been doing super good at going to the gym, my foot is rebelling. Rebelling. Good word. Maybe I don’t need to murder it. Maybe I can just ground it. Anyway, I was hoping, hoping, hoping to get some advice about my foot because if you look up tarsal tunnel on the internet there is not a lot there. There is a ton about plantar fasciitis, but since they are 2 different things I wanted to make sure I would not further aggravate my foot by using the wrong technique.
This appointment was with a new P.A. I don’t know why they gave me a new PCM since I was specifically put with someone that was supposed to be a good internist because of my Fibromyalgia and PCOS, etc., but they did. This new P.A. has a one track mind. She was friendly enough, but all she cared about was renewing my meds and running blood work to make sure my meds weren’t harming me. This is great. I want her to care about that, but considering I can’t hardly walk without shooting, sharp pains, I would also like her to care about that, too.
I had to pull every bit of information about my foot out of her like detective in an interrogation room. She didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, but one good thing that she might have told me was mentioned in the paper on (believe it or not) plantar fasciitis. The paper said to stop doing whatever it is that is aggravating the foot. Since I did tell the P.A. that I had been (am) going to the gym for an hour and a half to two hours a day five days a week, that might have been a really good thing for her to mention.
But! That was not the main concern I had about this visit. The main concern? I went in for my foot, and she never even looked at my foot. Not once. This does not make me feel very confident in the level of care I receive!!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Fibro Friday Revisited
Ok, so I have totally, totally failed at Fibro Friday. Unless Fridays only come like twice a year in which case I have totally ROCKED Fibro Friday, and you’re welcome! Just in case Fridays come more often, though, I am here to say I am going to give it another shot.
I am going to change up my original plan, though, and call it Fibro and Fitness Friday. Since the beginning of the year I have been doing really well with going to the gym and watching what I eat with the exception of 3 days this week where I let illness, school stress and the stress of my husband getting a lung biopsy get the better of me. I believe if it had been one or the other or even if illness was removed from the equation I would have done better. So, anyway, since I have been doing well on the fitness area, I am going to add it in as added incentive to get my rear in gear.
Some things I have learned about my fibro since I last wrote:
1. PMS week is an especially vulnerable time. I often have flares this week.
2. The flare related back pain I get has been greatly reduced since taking on a regular workout schedule.
3. Sometimes my flares take on flu like symptoms right down to a sore throat, coughing and sneezing. (This is not the case with this cold, though, since EVERYONE in my house has it.)
4. If I start out slowly, I can work up to quite the workout—right now I am at 25-35 minutes on the elliptical and 60-85 minutes on the treadmill every day.
5. I really, really need to listen to my body. This I am not so good at. (I know you are shocked!)
So, here goes! I am going to give this another shot (not with a needle, I hate those).
Oh, and yes, I know it is Saturday and not Friday, but, you know, Fibro and Fitness Saturday just doesn’t have the cool alliteration that Fibro and Fitness Friday does. Besides, I wouldn’t want to accidently get all perfect with this at once, now would I?
I am going to change up my original plan, though, and call it Fibro and Fitness Friday. Since the beginning of the year I have been doing really well with going to the gym and watching what I eat with the exception of 3 days this week where I let illness, school stress and the stress of my husband getting a lung biopsy get the better of me. I believe if it had been one or the other or even if illness was removed from the equation I would have done better. So, anyway, since I have been doing well on the fitness area, I am going to add it in as added incentive to get my rear in gear.
Some things I have learned about my fibro since I last wrote:
1. PMS week is an especially vulnerable time. I often have flares this week.
2. The flare related back pain I get has been greatly reduced since taking on a regular workout schedule.
3. Sometimes my flares take on flu like symptoms right down to a sore throat, coughing and sneezing. (This is not the case with this cold, though, since EVERYONE in my house has it.)
4. If I start out slowly, I can work up to quite the workout—right now I am at 25-35 minutes on the elliptical and 60-85 minutes on the treadmill every day.
5. I really, really need to listen to my body. This I am not so good at. (I know you are shocked!)
So, here goes! I am going to give this another shot (not with a needle, I hate those).
Oh, and yes, I know it is Saturday and not Friday, but, you know, Fibro and Fitness Saturday just doesn’t have the cool alliteration that Fibro and Fitness Friday does. Besides, I wouldn’t want to accidently get all perfect with this at once, now would I?
I'm so, so sorry
A few months ago, September 1st to be exact, we closed on schedule for the house I was so panicky about. The last few months have been spent moving in and painting and planning and painting and yard work and painting. And did I mention painting? We have painted almost every room in the house, and we love it!
Part of the fun has been planning all the things we want to do to make the house ours. This is something we have never been able to do since we have always lived either in base housing or rentals near the base where we lived. Now that we have our own home we have had a blast doing whatever we want to our home.
There are many things we would like to do, and nothing we have to do because the man who built this house did a great job. We want to do things like finish the basement, put up and backsplash and turn the second kitchen into a den/study. Yes, you read that right. We have 2 kitchens. Right next to each other. The other weird thing is that off of that second kitchen there is a bathroom/laundry room that has two doors… one into the kitchen, and one—Into the master bathroom. So, side by side are 2 kitchens and 2 bathrooms.
Today, while contemplating my lack of a broom closet it occurred to me that the space behind the door connecting the 2 bathrooms in the master bathroom would make a great broom closet. Right off of the laundry. We would need to turn the regular door into a pocket door, and half a wall built, but I think it would be perfect. My son, however, not so much. Guess why. No really. Guess why my 18 year old son does not think I should have a broom closet built…Money. He thinks it would be a waste of money. This is my son who all through high school when talking about what kind of car he wants did not talk about some fast sports car or a powerful, cool truck. All he cared about was that the car had good gas mileage. Really. I think my son has been possessed by a 45 year old CPA.
I write all of this to apologize. I sincerely apologize to the future Mrs. Brendan. If you want to do something that is beyond what is actually needed, really needed, not just a convenience or nice looking, you are going to have your work cut out for you. On the bright side, he will probably be a millionaire.
Part of the fun has been planning all the things we want to do to make the house ours. This is something we have never been able to do since we have always lived either in base housing or rentals near the base where we lived. Now that we have our own home we have had a blast doing whatever we want to our home.
There are many things we would like to do, and nothing we have to do because the man who built this house did a great job. We want to do things like finish the basement, put up and backsplash and turn the second kitchen into a den/study. Yes, you read that right. We have 2 kitchens. Right next to each other. The other weird thing is that off of that second kitchen there is a bathroom/laundry room that has two doors… one into the kitchen, and one—Into the master bathroom. So, side by side are 2 kitchens and 2 bathrooms.
Today, while contemplating my lack of a broom closet it occurred to me that the space behind the door connecting the 2 bathrooms in the master bathroom would make a great broom closet. Right off of the laundry. We would need to turn the regular door into a pocket door, and half a wall built, but I think it would be perfect. My son, however, not so much. Guess why. No really. Guess why my 18 year old son does not think I should have a broom closet built…Money. He thinks it would be a waste of money. This is my son who all through high school when talking about what kind of car he wants did not talk about some fast sports car or a powerful, cool truck. All he cared about was that the car had good gas mileage. Really. I think my son has been possessed by a 45 year old CPA.
I write all of this to apologize. I sincerely apologize to the future Mrs. Brendan. If you want to do something that is beyond what is actually needed, really needed, not just a convenience or nice looking, you are going to have your work cut out for you. On the bright side, he will probably be a millionaire.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)