Too Many Health Care Visits

This is not been a good year so far mentally and physically. Mentally taxing because of the several medical visits we have had to make, and physically taxing because my husband is having some inconvenient and annoying health issues. Unfortunately these issues are not clear cut, and he is not used to being sick or ill or uncomfortable. Since January we have been seeing health care professionals for annual checks, acute care checks, lab work, video calls, prescription fills, etc. It is giving me a taste of what the future will hold. And of course I also had routine visits and more are planned for next month, adding to the fatigue. We have never had to deal with so much at one time - without a resolution. And since my husband is a retired surgeon, he isn’t happy until there is a definitive answer - which may never happen. So there was blood work on Monday, and a test yesterday in the outpatient department that was very uncomfortable. With that comes all the inevitable discussions and nightmares about getting old and dying. Neither one of us has had a decent nights sleep for quite a while. It is difficult to think about. It makes both of us irritable and cranky - even though everything so far has been negative. You know you are seeing the doctor too often when you know the password to your patient portal by heart. Next week there is another appointment. Since the pandemic out lives just haven’t snapped back to the way they used to be. I miss the old days. 

Phenomenal Lab Work

After a bit of a rough patch last year, my husband went in for his annual exam this week. What he had has been resolved but it took a few months. He is a very healthy person for his age and for that we are very lucky. His biggest issues are allergies of unknown origin and lately a few dental implants. So lab work is always a part of any annual exam. Unfortunately the phlebotomist wasn’t available when he went to the office - which is right across the street. So we set up an appointment for yesterday at Virginia Hospital Center. Even with an appointment we had to wait twenty minutes but all of the paperwork was already completed on line. We found a parking spot right in front and headed to the OP lab. Within the hour the results were already available to check. How things have changed since we were both practicing in health care. Anyway, everything was completely normal except for two items that make no difference - CO2 and vitamin D, and they were hardly off the mark. I don’t know a lot of people who have such great results including myself. So it was a day to celebrate! His doctor said with the way things are with him another ten years wouldn’t be a surprise. Now that’s good news! 

Blood Screens, Horse Pills, and MORE Exercise

We had a bit of a scare when my glomerular filtration rate was askew. I could see a kidney transplant in my future. So last week we went for a repeat blood screen to see if it was really what the last report showed. Aside from that, I stopped taking thyroid pills in November because of side affects, and started simvastatin in February, but has to decrease the amount because of more side affects. Since cardiac surgery and high blood pressure runs in my family, I've been taking pills for that for over thirty years. My doctor called yesterday to give us the good news about the kidney function. That turned out to be okay - BUT! I need to start taking thyroid again, increase the amount of Vitamin D capsules, and exercise more - oh, and watch the sugar intake. Even though the cholesterol was ok, the triglycerides are not. I'm the kid who always had to take pills with orange juice and barely could get them down without choking. I used to marvel at the amount of pill bottles my mom had to bring with her when she visited us in Milwaukee. Now my medicine chest is beginning to look more like hers. We already walk every morning at an average of 2.4 miles per day, I do 50 sit ups every evening, and use our little exercise bike in the afternoon. Since I had a frozen shoulder diagnosed in March I've been doing shoulder exercises daily. Our diet already is very Mediterranean. A lot of this is hereditary I know. We are just thrilled the results are as good as they are, but the horse pills are hard to take. Things could be a lot worse and I am so thankful for what we have. I just wish the pills came in smaller sizes! 

My MedStar Connect

Both my husband and I had careers in healthcare. He was a surgeon, and I was a nurse in the corporate office. We were used to being in any health care environment, navigating though them, and knowing who to go to and who to stay away from. Since we moved to DC, it's a coin toss. We have no idea about where, what or who. So we decided to stay in the neighborhood for primary care, annual visits, and routine labs, etc. Since everything is on line these days, we also have an account with Med Star, so you can use the portal to make appointments, ask questions, renew prescriptions, or request results of lab work and tests. My husband had his annual visit this week and wanted to see the lab results. They were supposed to be a available on line. The cholesterol and BP were available, but not the other blood work. Whenever we tried to check for it, we just couldn't get through. Now there is another level of authorization that requires more passwords and user names. We decided to just ride over to the office and request a hard copy of the results. Some things are just a pain in the neck to get to.  Luckily, the office is just down the street and he was in and out in five minutes. But regardless of the way you get the results, the best part was that everything was completely in the normal range. We couldn't be happier, even though we really miss all those familiar faces.