Sunday, January 07, 2007
Happy 2007!
Copying more medical records, this time before my appointment with a new rheumatologist tomorrow. I have seven YEARS' worth of stuff to copy from two previous rheumatolgists. I also requested that both former docs send my x-rays to the new guy, but with the holidays, repeated snowstorms in Denver and such, I don't know if they have been received or not.
Shortly after my last post, Dan's sister called and asked us to come by to celebrate New Year's Eve with her and the rest of Dan's family. I really didn't want to go because I felt absolutely horrible, but Dan promised we'd only stay for a little while, so I agreed. It's about a half hour drive out to his sister's house.
After we got there, they wanted to play Scattergories (?), which I'd never done before. It was fun, but I tired easily and got worse with every round we played. By 9pm, I was pretty much done in and needed to go home.
Once we got home, I had my usual scrambled egg and cream of rice, and then Dan and I attempted to watch "A Prairie Home Companion". We both fell asleep at various points in the movie, but I woke Dan up about 10 minutes before midnight and tuned in one of the countdown shows. What I didn't know was that it was not tape delayed like they do in Denver, so it was already after midnight on the show, and we missed the "Happy New Year" part, but we could see a hint of the fireworks in downtown Sioux Falls, so we contented ourselves with that.
On New Year's Day, I felt even worse, so I kept a low profile for the most part. Dan's family wanted us to go out to his sister's again, but I just couldn't. I honestly can't remember exactly what it was I did all day.
Tuesday, I had my appointment with the new primary care doc. Fortunately, she was nice, and she was willing to take on my complicated case and prescribe the medication not handled by the rheumatologist, the opthalmologist or the dentist. That way, I don't have to go out and find eight specialists like I had in Denver, which is quite a relief as I am at the maintenance stage right now for treatments and tests.
One thing she did confirm for me is that I have Reynaud's. I had a toenail that had turned purple (which she said was probably a bruise under the nail), and in the course of looking at it, she noticed that despite the winter boots and thermal socks I'd been wearing, my feet were completely white and ice cold. She said this is pretty common amongst people with multiple autoimmune diseases.
Wednesday, I went downtown to get South Dakota license plates and a handicapped placard since the primary care doc had filled out the form for one the day before. Unfortunately, I found out only after entirely too much walking around and standing in a very long line that I couldn't use my previous registration to get the new one (even though a sign on their wall said I could), that I would have to go back home and find the original title! When I did this and came back to the courthouse, the line was twice as long, but I cheered up considerably when I found out that there was no charge for the handicapped placard, that I was allowed one placard for each of our cars, AND that the cost for the license plates was approximately one-sixth of what I'd had to pay in Denver!
On the way home on Wednesday, I dropped off six of the prescriptions the new primary doc had written. I had nine total, but it was too soon to fill three of them. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was out of my thyroid meds, and my insurance wouldn't cover the omaprazole because I had exceeded its 90 day limit for it, despite the letter my gastroenterologist in Denver had written stating that I had a chronic condition warranting continuous use.
Thursday, I had to run some errands such as depositing Dan's paycheck and a refund we'd gotten for our escrow on the previous house. I also went to Kohl's to exchange some pajama bottoms I'd gotten for a present because they were too large for me. This ended up being a much more arduous process than I'd anticipated because it was quite a hike from the front of the store to the back where the nightwear was.
Then on Friday, I stayed home and attempted some unpacking. As usual, I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked before the back spasms and horrible exhaustion sidelined me. But I did get the master bedroom mostly done except for some stuff that goes on the walls and finding the rest of my jewelry.
Yesterday, Dan took Chip to a groomer while I tried to organize the basement a little because Dan had invited his family over to look at the house (I would have preferred he'd waited until we'd finished unpacking). Dan moved some boxes around for me into a more orderly fashion, but there was no time for me to do much more than to unpack some of the stuff that went into the command center. Everyone came by about 6:30 to take the grand tour; Chip had a fit barking at our niece, but he eventually calmed down, and everyone seemed to like the house ok.
Well, there's a lot more I'd like to go into, but my hands are killing me, and I still need to get some other stuff done on the computer (like putting six months' worth of checking account info into Quicken!), so I'll stop here.
But in case I haven't said it before, good riddance, 2006!
Shortly after my last post, Dan's sister called and asked us to come by to celebrate New Year's Eve with her and the rest of Dan's family. I really didn't want to go because I felt absolutely horrible, but Dan promised we'd only stay for a little while, so I agreed. It's about a half hour drive out to his sister's house.
After we got there, they wanted to play Scattergories (?), which I'd never done before. It was fun, but I tired easily and got worse with every round we played. By 9pm, I was pretty much done in and needed to go home.
Once we got home, I had my usual scrambled egg and cream of rice, and then Dan and I attempted to watch "A Prairie Home Companion". We both fell asleep at various points in the movie, but I woke Dan up about 10 minutes before midnight and tuned in one of the countdown shows. What I didn't know was that it was not tape delayed like they do in Denver, so it was already after midnight on the show, and we missed the "Happy New Year" part, but we could see a hint of the fireworks in downtown Sioux Falls, so we contented ourselves with that.
On New Year's Day, I felt even worse, so I kept a low profile for the most part. Dan's family wanted us to go out to his sister's again, but I just couldn't. I honestly can't remember exactly what it was I did all day.
Tuesday, I had my appointment with the new primary care doc. Fortunately, she was nice, and she was willing to take on my complicated case and prescribe the medication not handled by the rheumatologist, the opthalmologist or the dentist. That way, I don't have to go out and find eight specialists like I had in Denver, which is quite a relief as I am at the maintenance stage right now for treatments and tests.
One thing she did confirm for me is that I have Reynaud's. I had a toenail that had turned purple (which she said was probably a bruise under the nail), and in the course of looking at it, she noticed that despite the winter boots and thermal socks I'd been wearing, my feet were completely white and ice cold. She said this is pretty common amongst people with multiple autoimmune diseases.
Wednesday, I went downtown to get South Dakota license plates and a handicapped placard since the primary care doc had filled out the form for one the day before. Unfortunately, I found out only after entirely too much walking around and standing in a very long line that I couldn't use my previous registration to get the new one (even though a sign on their wall said I could), that I would have to go back home and find the original title! When I did this and came back to the courthouse, the line was twice as long, but I cheered up considerably when I found out that there was no charge for the handicapped placard, that I was allowed one placard for each of our cars, AND that the cost for the license plates was approximately one-sixth of what I'd had to pay in Denver!
On the way home on Wednesday, I dropped off six of the prescriptions the new primary doc had written. I had nine total, but it was too soon to fill three of them. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was out of my thyroid meds, and my insurance wouldn't cover the omaprazole because I had exceeded its 90 day limit for it, despite the letter my gastroenterologist in Denver had written stating that I had a chronic condition warranting continuous use.
Thursday, I had to run some errands such as depositing Dan's paycheck and a refund we'd gotten for our escrow on the previous house. I also went to Kohl's to exchange some pajama bottoms I'd gotten for a present because they were too large for me. This ended up being a much more arduous process than I'd anticipated because it was quite a hike from the front of the store to the back where the nightwear was.
Then on Friday, I stayed home and attempted some unpacking. As usual, I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked before the back spasms and horrible exhaustion sidelined me. But I did get the master bedroom mostly done except for some stuff that goes on the walls and finding the rest of my jewelry.
Yesterday, Dan took Chip to a groomer while I tried to organize the basement a little because Dan had invited his family over to look at the house (I would have preferred he'd waited until we'd finished unpacking). Dan moved some boxes around for me into a more orderly fashion, but there was no time for me to do much more than to unpack some of the stuff that went into the command center. Everyone came by about 6:30 to take the grand tour; Chip had a fit barking at our niece, but he eventually calmed down, and everyone seemed to like the house ok.
Well, there's a lot more I'd like to go into, but my hands are killing me, and I still need to get some other stuff done on the computer (like putting six months' worth of checking account info into Quicken!), so I'll stop here.
But in case I haven't said it before, good riddance, 2006!
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