Finally! A Doctor Visit With Good News!

Since late last year we have been seeing too many doctors. It started with a GI doctor, then a cardiologist, then a urologist, then a general visit, then physical medicine, dental, then an ENT - and those were just for my husband. And after all of them there were more tests, new prescriptions with awful side effects, and more follow ups. It seemed like we were making weekly trips to the outpatient center. Luckily things were tolerable and nothing horrible ensued. But it really puts things in to perspective and limits our lifestyle - especially since the pandemic. And for two months I have been dealing with plantar fasciitis which has been a very slow going process. That means no more morning walks for a while, ice packs, foot exercises, splints and new walking shoes. Between my husband’s dizzy spells caused by medications and my foot hurting it’s been a real drag. Yesterday both my husband and I had our routine six month eye appointments. Last year at this time I had cataract surgery in July on one eye and the other was done in August. I was keeping my fingers crossed that nothing more would surface this time around. We both have glaucoma that is controlled with eye drops and I have some weird retinal thing. The visual field test is at least less bothersome with the new virtual field test equipment. And for the first time that test was a winner. I had the best results in five years and my eye pressures were good. So both my husband and I were able to leave the office without a worry and no need for any more follow ups - except to make appointments in six months. It was  wonderful feeling! 

Another Doctor Visit

It has not been a good year health wise. No, there is nothing earthshaking thank goodness. But the number of times we have had to go see a doctor is more than it has ever been. So this week we found ourselves at the ENT office because my husband now has ringing in his ears of the pulsatile nature. So in order to avoid any catastrophic issue like a stroke or something we thought it best to have it checked. Of course, additional tests are always needed outside of removing wax buildup and having a hearing test - which turned out fine. We needed to schedule a CT angiogram to check the blood vessels, the head and neck. Of course most of these tests are negative, but until one knows it can be worrying. I’m not sure how older folks maneuver through the health care system anymore. You better know how to pay for parking before you leave the parking structure and know how to email a prescription before the test can be scheduled. It was an ugly reminder at this office that filling in paper work can be tedious rather than completing documents on line before you arrive. These physicians are not the usual system docs where all that information is already stored on line so it all had to be re entered - using paper and pen. Of course another appointment needs to be made for a follow up visit and we are already in to August. Then come the eye appointments and the dental visits. I suppose we should just get used to it. 

Eye Doctor Visit

It’s bad enough to see a physician once a year, but having to go twice a year is not only more expensive, but can be nerve wracking. My husband and I try to keep our eye appointments together. It just makes it easier to get it done at one time. When our last eye appointment was due, he needed to have a procedure done related to his cataract surgery from three years ago, and subsequently his eyes were checked as an after visit. I hadn’t made my appointment and by the time I got around to it it was past the six months mark. But I wanted to get it in before the end of the new year because all of the deductibles had been paid. So I got an appointment for Friday, December 23 - a day no one wants to work. In spite of the atrocious weather last week both my husband and I walked over to the office. He kept me company and would be on hand in the event I would need to have something done. Even having been in health care for thirty years my anxiety level sky rockets whenever I see a doctor. My heart races and my blood pressure climbs - which is why I alway bring a history of these measurements to share. My eye pressures have been on the higher end for as long as I can remember. I’m currently taking drops for that and it’s been “stable.” The doctor needed to recheck the eye pressures because they seemed a bit high this time. I asked him if my eye pressures would rise like my blood pressure  - and he said that could be likely. In any event the pressure was already lower with the second reading - which is what always happens. Aside from the fact that I still don’t need cataract surgery and everything else was in check makes me happy. I can’t tell you how many visual field tests and optic nerve photos I have had. Then out of the blue I lost vision on the right side of my right eye this week. I haven’t had this happen for at least four years. It’s almost like a migraine event with eye involvement. It’s scary, but usually subsides once I lay down, take two aspirins, and rest a bit. Thank goodness I know what it is and have had about eight instances of this since it first started way back around 1980. I’ve been on baby aspirin ever since after having had a CT scan and a neuro consultant. I have a lot of little things wrong with me and they are starting to add up. Let’s hope this new year is good to us. 

The Long Commute to the Doctor Office

We moved to northern Virginia ten months ago from DC. We finally decided it was time to make appointments with new doctors in our new neighborhood. It was difficult getting to the offices in DC when we lived there. It would be even worse if we tried to keep going. So the eye doctor is about a block away. That was our first appointment. My husband needs to have cataract surgery which requires a pre op physical. We made appointments with the new internist, but not in time for his surgery. So he needed to see someone this month just for the pre op exam. Yesterday we visited the same office we will be going to routinely, but with another doctor who was available. If the eye doctor was one block away, this office is literally across the street. In fact, our building is essentially next to this office building. We needed to arrive by 1:15 and left the house at 1:10. Since the office is on the other side of the building you can’t see our house from the sixth floor on that side. But when we were walking out, you can see our house through the door. It’s the best commute we have ever experienced and very handy at this point in our lives. The dentist is literally one block in the other direction. Let’s just hope we end up liking all the new faces. One thing is for sure - getting there is just so easy. 

Changing Doctors is Hard

We moved to northern Virginia nine months ago. We waited for a while to change doctors and now the show begins. After spending a lot of time searching for what we thought we might like, the main factor was if the office was near to where we lived. We needed an internist, an ophthalmologist, and a dentist. I already found a hair salon, and it was two blocks away. Along with finding the doctors was then getting medical records transferred. Our first experience was with the ophthalmologist - and his office was literally one block away. We had requested the medical records but I don’t think they arrived yet. The old office was paper intensive and it cost $30 each for records to be copied, etc. Regardless, my appointment turned out to be routine, but my husband needs bilateral cataract surgery. Of course, that has to to be done in an office and surgery center that is ten miles alway from where we live. But at least it’s in Reston where the driving is easier than in DC. So after reviewing all the pamphlets and information, we needed to take a ride to the “other” office today to get some eyeball measurements taken before the surgery is scheduled at the end of February. This office is obviously the main office and the office by our house is the satellite. Hopefully all the follow ups can be done closer to home. Having cataract surgery is taking a lot of appointments but there’s no way getting around it. We hope we will like our new doctor. So far, so good? 

DC DMV Medical Report Headache

It is such a pain to go anywhere around here. What should take half an hour is two hours. My husband got a letter from the department of motor vehicles saying he needs to submit medical authorization for his drivers license renewal. Because we don't trust the mail service around here, we literally like to hand carry official documents and pick them up when they are completed. Lucky for us, the eye doctor was available today to complete the form, but the problem with that is she is located at Washington Hospital Center, a huge medical complex that is a pain to drive to, get around in, and escape from. And of course the parking ticket was a dud as it could not be read by the machine when we tried to pay, so it took even longer to find the parking attendant and get that addressed. While we were at it, I'm trying to relearn how to drive in the city, so whenever we go anywhere lately, I drive home. This time it meant going to our primary care doctor office in our neighborhood first. Today is rainy, there is always construction, the streets are congested, there are too many one way streets, and pedestrians are always jumping in out of nowhere. It gives me a headache! I dropped my husband off and he returned within five minutes or so. He always gets the runaround there and I have a feeling it will take forever to get a call to pick up the document. On the way home he said this is a great way to keep your mind sharp. All I can say is that it feels like such an archaic way to access this information and have hard copy documents in this digital age. These are the days I wish we lived somewhere else. But that somewhere else just isn't very clear to us just yet. 

A WOSM Visit - Frozen Shoulder and Cervical Spondylosis - Great

I retired a little over a month ago, and towards the end I noticed my shoulder hurt when I had to raise my arm after going through the metal detector. Since then, I've been having a great deal of pain when making specific moves. Since it didn't get any better, I decided it was time to finally see someone about it. And being in the health care business, we always think the worst - it had to be a tumor. It was always so much easier in Milwaukee, because we knew health care professionals that we worked with. Here, it's a toss up. So we made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon at the Washington Orthopedic and Sports Medicine clinic for diagnosis and treatment. And because we prefer easy parking and any place away from downtown, we chose the Sibley Hospital office building location. It takes at least thirty minutes on a good day to drive there. Once there, the usual paperwork was filled in - of course, it is out of network and the bill was ridiculous. After a couple X-rays right there in the office, the doctor checked me and the X-rays and said I have cervical spondylosis and a frozen shoulder - great! No tumors! And these types of things "just happen." At this time I need to start physical therapy twice and week for 4-6 weeks, and then see how it goes....MRI, surgical intervention, etc. All I can say is it could be much worse, but how do people pay for this stuff? We have insurance and it's really expensive. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope this is all I'll need. 

A Very Bad Dream - But it Wasn't

It's not a good thing when your doctor asks you what emergency room you'd like to go to. I finally made an appointment to see my doctor related to nagging abdominal, chest and pelvic discomfort, a swollen leg, and a rapid heart rate. Being a nurse and my husband a physician, the symptoms pointed to only one thing - or so I thought - and I was looking at the world through very uncertain glasses as we drove those miserable miles in heavy DC traffic to Sibley Hospital. I always preferred being on the other side of the bed - as an ICU nurse and then as a director for all the critical care units. It was an interesting international flavor at the hospital - my emergency room physician was Korean, the techs were Russian and Chinese, and everything was so different from a technical and documentation perspective than it was when I was practicing. I felt like I was in good hands, but feeling really awful about upsetting my husband and cursing our family for moving to Virginia. Regardless, it's always the small things that matter most, especially the communication of what's going on, even if it's nothing going on. Luckily for me the major findings were negative, but I do need to follow up given I still feel the same and my family history slants toward other issues. These sorts of episodes make you stop and think. Life is just too short and it's good to be reminded once in a while. Everything looks very different today - in so many ways. 

A Hot Date - or Two, or Three - at Sibley Hospital

Elmbrook was a great community hospital in Milwaukee. It was a part of the large health care organization I worked for before moving to DC. I had surgery there and knew the place well. We found its counterpart at Sibley Hospital in Palisades. Unfortunately we had to use their emergency room at least twice since moving here, and a third time to bring a friend. I really don't like tertiary care facilities for routine things and try to avoid them at all costs. Most of my health care career was in such a place near downtown Milwaukee. Going to Washington Hospital Center for eye surgery was a genuine pain. The past week, however, has taken us three times to Sibley...on Wednesday for a doctor visit with a neurosurgeon and an X-ray; last night - Friday evening - for an MRI; and today, to pick up the report of the MRI. It's about 25 minutes away - without traffic - through Georgetown and the Whitehurst Freeway, or via Rock Creek Parkway and Massachusetts Avenue. Until you know the results of any medical exam it is very hard to relax and concentrate. Since my husband is a retired surgeon, and I am an RN, sometimes you always think the worst. Luckily, the news was good based on the report. He will probably need to see the doctor one more time  - which would be a fourth trip there. But at least this time we can go without a dreadful feeling.