Let's Chat Shall We

 

   Oh my goodness, you might want to grab a nice hot cup of coffee for this one.  I have so much to say and share and this is my outlet to do so. 😀  Don't say I did not warn you all.

   Yesterday I had to go and get my bloodwork done for the year so I could refill my medications.  I chose to go to the small town office instead of the bigger office that is connected to one of the hospitals (my doctor practices out of both).  I am so glad I chose that option as they spaced out the appointments at the small office to try to limit contact among the patients.  My doctor, who is a wonderful and caring man, and I had a long talk about many things including my health and the pandemic and how it is affecting the care of patients in the hospitals.

  A. My health...we are going to try my on gabapentin since my pain levels are getting to the point where it is making me nauseous.  He said there is absolutely no reason for me to have to feel that way and we are now in the process of trying to get approval from the insurance company to try that.  If they will not approve it, there is another medication in the same "family" that we will try.  He also wrote all my other medications for 3 month at a time refills.  He and I both agreed that it would help with my anxiety levels to not have to go out so much and, because I am higher risk even though I am vaccinated, it would help to keep my safer since there would be less possibility of exposure this way.  We also agreed that I can schedule a bone density test when things calm down since I would like to avoid being at any of the hospitals for any reason right now.

   B. Our hospitals in our area are extremely strained at the moment.  Since we are right on the Washington/Idaho border and Northern Idaho hospitals are in crisis care mode, they are sending a lot of their patients to Washington.  This, upon the heavy load we have with our own patient levels, is causing problems.  Apparently our largest hospital, located in Pullman, has converted at least part of the maternity ward into a covid care unit.  Patients that would normally go to Pullman are now going to Colfax for care, causing that hospital to fill up quickly.  I could see the strain of my doctor's face as he talked about it and he said it was only going to get worse for awhile.  He is very worried about the way things are going.

   C.  We talked about my 4 year old grandson Steven who has been exposed multiple times to this virus through daycare and is once again at home on quarantine for 14 days because 2 more kids at his daycare tested positive for the virus and Steven was in direct contact with them.  He has to quarantine, but his parents, do not unless he ends up with symptoms.  They are now trying to juggle who stays home on what day since they both have lots of commitments at work at the moment.

   D.  I also learned that all of his patients that were vaccinated, who did get breakthrough cases of covid, had mild cases and some were even asymptomatic and some only learned they had it when they were routinely tested because they were awaiting surgery or were being admitted to the hospital for other reasons.  My doctor is a gerontologist, so most of his patients are elderly and high risk for this.  And yes, it is funny that I chose him as my doctor, but my body acts and feels old, so there ya go!  Plus, he knows about fibromyalgia, and many doctors around here do not.  I feel blessed to have him.

*  Please keep the doctors, nurses, cnas and other medical staff in your prayers.  They are dealing with so much right now and their stress levels are through the roof.  Thank you.

   After leaving my appointment, I decided to just drive in and pick up my prescriptions.  I had 2 that needed to be handed over in person and 2 that were called in.  Yes, I drove...this turns out to be a bad decision later in the day.  My doctors office is a 1/2 hour drive north on country roads. So I drove there and then back home to pick up a few things before heading in to deal with my prescriptions.  Now where I shop is 1/2 an hour's drive south.  So before I have even headed into town to shop, I have been driving for an hour total.  So I head into town and I am feeling a bit tired and already know that I will be paying for this later...but I am stubborn and just want to get this done, so I stupidly do it anyway.  Upon my arrival at Walmart, it is a madhouse with so many people doing walk ins for the vaccines.  The pharmacist is the one who has to administer them so she has to keep stopping filling prescriptions in order to do so.  I am told to come back in half an hour to pick up my meds, so I go to the Grocery Outlet to pick up some things there and look for cottage cheese since I want to make lasagna this weekend.  No cottage cheese to be found and I notice that some of the prices are going up and there are lots of gaps in the produce area.

   I finish up there and head back to Walmart only to be told that it is going to be another 7 minutes before my meds are ready...ok, I have some shopping to do there anyway, so I go and try to pick up the things that are on my list there.  No cottage cheese and the dairy area is almost empty.  No green onions and lots of gaps in produce with much of it looking really sad.  Lunchmeat is looking very empty and limited but prices have shot up.  Sports drinks...good luck with that!  I did manage to snag the last canister of Gatorade sports drink mix though.  Supplements are cut in half from what they usually have and what they do is in short supply.  I again head back to the pharmacy and am told again that I need to wait.  This was 25 minutes after they told me 7 more minutes.  They were slammed with those walk ins and only 3 people working so I understood that they were stressed, but at this point, so am I.  The lady that I was dealing with does not speak English well at all, so our communication was also difficult.  I ended up just paying out of pocket for one of my prescriptions since I could not get her to understand that I just wanted it sent to me once they were able to fill it under the insurance.  UGH!  (I am still waiting for the gabapentin to be approved)  I went to check out and the self check out machines were having issues and rejecting debit cards.  I had to run mine twice and some people could not get theirs's to work at all at the other machines.  I am so frazzled that I left my groceries there and had to go back to grab them.  I unload the groceries into my car and feel like I am missing something.  I look at the cart to see my cane in it.  UGH!  I go and grab that.  So by this time I am so sore, tired and frustrated that I decide to just grab dinner on the way home.  I pick up Chinese food from the deli and finally also locate some cottage cheese at this 3rd store.  It is way overpriced, but I get it anyway.  

   By the time I arrive home, I can barely walk and my whole body is screaming at me.  I unload the car and put away the groceries and settle into my recliner.  Jeff gets home, we eat and visit via facetime with Josh, Lauren and Tate, and then I head to bed to lay down.  I am exhausted, in tears and hurting so badly, but I can't sleep.  Yes, I way overdid it yet again and no, I will never learn.

   So here we are, the next day, and I am still in huge amounts of pain.  I did manage to finally get some sleep and now have laundry going.  The cats and I are out on the back porch watching the squirrels as they are busy getting ready for the cold months ahead.  I can literally see the weather changing minute to minute.  Today is a day of transition weather wise.  I have so much to do out in the garden and am praying that I can get to at least some of it later.  I also need to remember to cover up the tomatoes and the cantaloupe and pepper bed later tonight just in case of frost.  There are more berries to be picked and frozen, apples to pick, squash and tomatoes to be harvested, applesauce to be made and swiss chard and kale to be harvested and processed.  They may have to wait until tomorrow and I will pray for no frost.

   There is so much more I want to say but my back, neck and shoulders are telling me I need to go and lay down again.  So I shall listen to my body and do so.  Be blessed all!