First of all, let me tell you a 7:40 appt clear across town is rough! I had to leave the house at 6:50 this morning, which if you are calculating, I had to get up an hour before that! Getting on base at that time of the morning is a treat….everyone is heading to work and lines are slow but moving. I get there and pretty much am seen right away, I mean they shouldn’t be running late as I am the second appt of the morning! The doctor I have been seeing since on the BP meds was on a contract and it is up and they are trying to renew it so in the meantime, I get Doogie Houser who is overworked and didn’t mind telling me so. He didn’t mind telling me that he thinks the contract things is a pain in the ass either. While I agree with him, simply because this particular doctor was one I liked. S0 – my BP didn’t register on the automatic machine thing and I am thinking that is a problem. It sure doesn’t have any problems letting me know when it is high! Manually it was 116/76 on meds of course. One good thing going my way so far!
Now, I tell him the other two reasons I am there (issues with nasal dripping blocking my ears, and my ongoing for YEARS eczema or psoriasis (depending on which doctor I saw.) I try to tell him I have never been given a referral to a Dermatologist not for lack of trying. I was just given meds after meds for it till finally in the last 5 years I said screw it. I kept the flare-ups down and knew what to use to help when I had one. Keep in mind, one doctor over the last 20 years told me I shouldn’t have moved to the south and one told me not to stress, and (this is good) one told me not to get my hands wet ever. HaHa! Jackwagons (Thanks Tracy for the “label”.)
This doctor is young, fresh out of Medical school I am guessing or close to it. He must have been at the top of his class because according to him, my skin rash could be anything from what I was told to a symptom of diseases I do not want to know about…AND he said he would recommend a biopsy of the skin to rule of others. Now, I am smart but I was like a 4 year old hearing that I couldn’t have a cookie…upset and ready to throw it down! Come on now, you don’t tell me that all the years I have been seen for this not one doctor wanted to do any more than give me steroid creams! So he mentioning test after test he wants me to get done…I asked him how these tests were done. All done with taking blood. Oh yay!! I also get to have the normal tests run too, which I am ok with. I just wonder how many freaking tubes of blood they will need to take from me!
The nasal thing…apparently he thinks it’s allergies so I get to snort some stuff and take some stuff too. If it will unblock my ear so I can hear better, ok!
The thing that irks me is I do not have a choice at the moment to see an off base provider. You have to live 30 miles or more away from a base clinic to do so. I am looking into writing a letter to the insurance to see if I can. I have heard it’s possible but I also heard it’s not. Worth checking though. I already hate that retirees are on the bottom of the appt chain…a two week follow up appt takes a month to be seen. I found ways around it though. When you do get to see someone, it is hardly ever the same person you had the last time. Ok now in the past I have only gone to the doctor if I needed to so when I call for appts I am usually told it’s someone new…not my problem – my problems is when you do go you have to tell your history OVER and OVER because they don’t know you. I would like to know what they write in my file because it seems like they write a lot! Maybe they are typing up their “to do” lists or emails and fooling us! Whatever they do, they don’t read much what they write.
Today, Doogie wrote a lot with words I am sure the spelling bee champ would not know how to spell. You see, he was dictating what he was typing. Somewhere in there I heard I was being given a referral! I think. Hmm…I hope.
So if you’re healthy till you are 45, you will start to fall apart. I am going to put myself back together, not going to be like Humpty Dumpty.
(P.S. Spell check kept wanting to change Doogie to Doggie….I found that very funny LOL)
