Day +22 – line out; another step

Tuesday August  7, 2012
Quail Run RV Resort Lot 15
Wesley Chapel, FL  33544

 

I’m out before the sun is up today to run my miles.  I have a deadline to meet.  I have to run, stretch, exercise, shower, have breakfast and leave for Moffitt by 9:15.   Whew……..  I made it.

We are actually early for David’s 10:00 appointment at the BMT Blood draw clinic.   That takes about 15 minutes.  Then we wait for an hour to see the doctor.  Only we don’t see the doctor, we don’t even see the PA.  Today we see the Chinese Nurse Practitioner from whom we learn nothing.   It seems the less sick you are the less likely you are to see an actual doctor who knows anything about you as an individual.   Why are we seeing her anyway as the blood results aren’t available until long after we are gone from that office so whatever she has to say is based on last week’s results.   Oh well……..

She does suggest that he reconsider napping in light of having trouble sleeping and only do that if he REALLY thinks he needs it. 

The major reason for even coming over is to get his central line removed.  This takes another 15 minutes but by the time we leave, we have been at Moffitt 4 hours for these two 15 minute necessaries and the 30 minute unnecessary NP visit.   There goes most of the day.

But here’s his new look.  He’s very happy with it and will be even happier on Thursday when he can take off that big bandage and go to a band aid.  Great to have no more dangling ports.  MUCH easier to take a shower.  One more step toward “normal”.

 

 

We ask about driving, Ms NP doesn’t know so she leaves to ask the PA and is gone about 15 minutes.  She returns to say it’s up to you if you feel competent.  OK then, won’t be long before it’s time to schedule a student driver session.  LOL!!   He’ll be back behind the wheel if all goes well.

 

While I’m waiting around for all these medical things at Moffitt and even before we get there, starting about 9:30 am, Carrie calls with her computer problems.  Her laptop won’t connect to her own DSL.  First it does, then it doesn’t.  She goes to the library.  Won’t connect there.  She goes to Starbucks. Works there.  But not at McDonalds.  Finally she breaks down and calls her DSL provider who will send someone out tomorrow to look at the line.   She then calls Dell with whom she wisely has a 3 year warranty.  While she’s working with them, the machine crashes. They think she has hard drive troubles and are sending her a new one.   She’s an unhappy camper having to deal with all these technical issues and calls about once an hour until dinner time with the latest update and her frustration with them.   I tell her she can fly down here and we’ll help her with it.  LOL!!!   But in the end, she has all kinds of things scheduled to happen tomorrow.

 

I waited to post this blog in order to have the blood numbers.  We forgot to go back up to BMT and get them printed out.  We’ve been looking on line for them but they won’t show up until some medical higher up signs off on them so who knows when that will be.  I am VERY anxious to know if his WBC has turned back upward.  After 24 hours they still aren’t posted so it’s time to start calling someone.  Guess we know better now than to leave the building without them.   David calls Dr. Alsina’s assistant who gives him the 3 numbers we are most interested in.  So now I have the chart to post and as you can see the whites are down even further, the platelets are GREAT and the hemoglobin is plodding along with quite a ways to go yet.

 

 

We get home around 3:00 after a quick stop at the grocery store.  Since it has been an all medical day so far, why not keep it up and try to work out all the insurance issues around the eye doctor visits I’ve had to have over the past 6 months.  I need to get them straight so I can have my eyes examined and get a new pair of glasses.  Some sort of coating they put on the lenses is coming off apparently and it’s really making my vision “cloudy”.  Not good for the designated driver.   I can wear my contacts but they are mostly for distance and when I’m inside the RV with them in, I can’t see anything up close.   Geeze Louise these eye changes are such a bother.

 

I call the eye doctor to see how they submitted the claims that are not being paid.  Pretty sure this is a “code” problem.  Then, while I work on dinner, David calls Medicare to see why they wouldn’t pay them.   That’s an ice pack over his shoulder to keep the swelling down from the line removal.

 

All this would have been unnecessary under a single payer system. The military has one, the congress has one, Medicare is one and I don’t know anyone who isn’t going to sign up for Medicare or thinks it should be eliminated.  So what is all this concern about socialism anyway?  Just give me the same plan that Congress has FOR LIFE and I’ll be as unwilling to change as they are.   SIGH…………….

 

 

I fix spinach stuffed baked potatoes and a mushroom sauce to go over them for dinner.  You can eat them with or without the sauce. Declared delicious by all two of us.

 

 

 

 

David is feeling pretty good today.  He says on a scale of 1 to 10 he’d grade it a 7.   He took THREE walks, did the spirometer and had NO naps.   I think he’s a pretty hard grader.  He’s seemed closer to his usual self.    But we’ll see tomorrow if he overdid.

As for that spirometer, I tried it today and boy am I impressed.  That thing is HARD.  I can’t get it above 2150 and he can get it all the way to the top 2600 at least one or more out of ten times.   Sheesh, I’m going to have to practice.  I think he’s learned how to expand his diaphragm or something.

 

I’ll close with my latest ‘wish we hadn’t had to spend the summer in Florida’ idea.  The Good Luck Ducks sent me a postcard of a favorite place of mine on the Grand Canyon South Rim, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter’s Watchtower.   I have the card on my mirror to remind me of the places I will go to or will return to next summer and the summer after that.. 

SO if you are in a place this summer where I’d rather be – color that JUST about anywhere unless it’s as hot as Florida – you too could make my mirror wall (an infamous distinction) by sending a gorgeous postcard of your place to

Sherry Boyd
6946 Old Pasco Road  Lot 15
Wesley Chapel, Florida  33544

Do your part to help amuse the bored.  J
I’ll post updates of the mirror from time to time.

Thanks Ducks for your inspiration!!