New Floor

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Ass u me nothing

So I don't blog about my hatred of doctors just to grumble.  Really, I find it comical.  How can so much bad really happen to one person.

So at my last visit, endo wants me to decrease my dose from 6 grains to 4.  That's a pretty big jump.  Trying to be compliant, I go down to 4.  5 months later, I feel like crap again.  Exhausted, no energy, forgetful....basically everything I feel when I'm undermedicated.

So I call the office...I'm due for some bloodwork and lady says, Come on in!  You don't even need an appointment for that.

OK, great!  I am assuming that she has my chart and/or screen pulled up telling her that I'm due and there are orders waiting to be filled for labwork.

So, Sean takes a long lunch today as we are having some work done on a car, so I have him drive me over for the blood draw.  In and out...5-10 minutes, we'll go have lunch.

They call me back and she looks over my chart and says there are no orders.  I haven't been seen since February, so I should have had an appointment in June because he wants to see me every 3 months.

Every 3 months?  What the heck for?  The extent of the visits so far have been waiting forever because he's always behind, he comes in and feels my neck and either says he feels something, or he does an ultrasound and verifies that my thyroid is indeed gone.  He says my pulse is fast and to quit the caffeine, or he throws some heart-slowing (!!!!) drugs at me.  Bye, see you next time.

So I'm getting upset because I already hate doctors, I don't feel like this one even reads my chart or knows me from Adam, and I sure don't want to waste my time every three months so he can get paid for nothing.

They take the blood, but, he wants to see me to know why I want an increase in meds--which I understand, but obviously having lab RESULTS in hand makes that conversation more productive.  So I guess I have to wait.

Meanwhile, as I have time to sit and stare at the wall, I'm having a lovely pity-party about thyroids and wanting my old life back where I wasn't dependent on a doctor for a life-sustaining drug, where I wasn't begging for anything to help me feel better, where I wasn't completely wiped out and exhausted all the time.  Add to this that I haven't slept well for several months and it was a grand party.

If you know me well, you know that I don't get emotional often, but when I do, it is almost always a big, blubbery, full-on-tears-and-snot cry.  So the nurse comes in and asks the rhetorical "how are you today" which sets off the cascade.  She was not expecting that!

So after some calming down, the doc comes in and they are checking off all the labs that need run.  He is listening to my lungs/heart and says my heart is racing...again...and nurse tells him I was just crying.  At some point, I mention that my referral is probably expired...and low and behold, it is expired.  Everything comes to a screeching halt.

They give me a phone to call the referral people.  I get an after-hours line, which transfers me to the nurse-on-call, who asks who my doctor is (which I don't know because I haven't seen him in a year and he may have PCSed by now), who trasnfers me to some message machine that says the office is closed (it is 1pm), and if this is an emergency, please dial 911.

So I give the phone back, tell them nobody's answering, it is all closed today.  They look at me pitifully, and say sorry, they can't do anything.  And that blood they took will be thrown away, I'll have to get redrawn when I get my new referral.  Sorry.  Hope I feel better...

Yeah.  Me too.

So an hour later, I go out to the car full of Sean and the kids who were waiting that whole time for nothing.  Sorry guys.  And now I have a post-cry headache.

Oh and I forgot to mention that the nurse-on-call tried to look up the name of my physician, so I gave her my name and birthday.  She said I was not in the system.  I have been "in the system" since I married Sean, so something is completely wrong there.  If ever a medical issue went smoothly without any sort of problem, I would probably die of shock.

Toddlering

It doesn't seem fair that babies grow up so fast. One day, Zoe was toothless and crawling around, the next (literally) she has 7 teeth and is walking across the room. Baby to toddler overnight. Since I'm bad about keeping baby books, I'll mention it here. 13 months and 2 days old, Zoe took steps unassisted. It is becoming more common, although she still wants to hold your finger. She is still a rough sleeper. I blame the nurses at the hospital. She slept like a champ until they realized they forgot to test her blood sugar and decided to poke and prod her to wake her up so she could eat and test at specific times. Like 10, midnight, and 3 am...she was totally asleep! Leave her alone! She still seems to be on that schedule of waking... Anyway, a new phase begins.

6 months go so fast.

So I get a couple of minutes to write! Yay.

School starts and it seems there is never time for anything. Plus, Tae Kwan Do takes up 4 nights a week. I feel like I'm barely ever home...and it shows. We are still cluttered and full of boxes. Not that being home would help...Zoe keeps my hands pretty full, so it is hard to get anything done.

Zoe. She is rolling all over and trying to inchworm places. We are so not ready for a moving baby. I know I wanted a crawler, but it really is easy with babies who go straight to walking...you are there helping them walk everywhere so it is easy to teach "no no" if they try to get into something.

Nathan seems to be doing very well with school. I just heard from another mom that several kids fight over sitting by him at lunch. Nice to hear these things.

Abby is glad to be back with her old friends. Almost too glad...the school pretty much sucks compared to the Kentucky school...never thought I'd say that. Kentucky gave her advanced reading, independent study, gifted class, and really pushed her in many areas. This school...nothing. Nothing at all. I emailed the teacher and she said that things take time to get organized, but the most they do is leveled reading groups. Sorry, but why does that take a whole month to set up? She also said she was going to test Abby for reading first, but it hasn't happened yet. So big deal...even if Abby tests as a college kid in reading, apparently they won't do anything for her but put her with the "high" level reading group. I get so irritated, but lack of gifted education is sort of a pet peeve of mine.

Anyway, we did look into options a bit. There is a private school nearby that focuses on getting kids ready for college. If you test into high school reading, but are only 8, by golly, you get high school reading. If you are 15 but need 4th grade reading, by golly, you get 4th grade reading. Small classes. High expectations. Test scores off the charts. We talked to Abby a little bit, but her chin quivered and she didn't want to leave her friends AGAIN. I get that, really. She has been in a different building with different friends every year of her schooling so far. I know she enjoys being back with kids she knows. I just hate that this school seems to have put a giant stop sign in front of her and isn't letting her go anywhere.

Sean seems to like his job. I get to meet him for lunch sometimes, so it is a nice change from him being in Overland all day.

Charlie has a spot on his back. I thought it was like a pimple, or a cyst...let it have a chance to go away. Finally took him to the vet and it is possibly cancer, but we caught it pretty early. We hope the medicine will clear it up...if not, he will get surgery to have it removed which will be "curative" according to what I've read. He doesn't seem to be sick. He still cuddles and purrs and begs for food, so it's good to be a cat.

As for me, I will be starting Get Smart with Art again. I wasn't going to do it with Zoe here, but I got sucked back in. I enjoy the challenge of it, trying to come up with something the kids will remember. Abby still remembers some of the ones I did for her class in Kindergarten. I will just have to get creative about babysitting. This month, Sean is stepping up. Yay daddy.

So between school, TKD, and the baby, we are busy busy. Anyone want to come clean the house for me?

One month already

Well, we've made it to the one month mark. No complaints, really. She likes to eat nearly constantly, so it is very rare that I have both hands free for typing like this. She is taking a nap at the moment.

So, I've been trying to relearn how to do everything with one hand tied behind my back...I mean, one hand holding a baby. I really don't know how I did it before, other than Mom was across the street and maybe I did everything when she was holding the baby. And Sean was deployed, so food was Hungry Man and Banquet because it didn't make a lot of sense to cook just for me. Abby and I ate TV dinners a lot unless Nana made dinner for all of us. Cooking for 4 is a much different story. And I really haven't figured out a good routine for that yet. Mostly I have to wait for Sean to get home to hold Zoe or for him to make the dinner. Typically, that is a time frame when she is hungry and doesn't want to sit and watch. She wants to be held and eat. I guess we'll find a groove somehow.

Nathan has transitioned beautifully. He is always asking, "Do you like your baby?" and checking on her. One time, I laid her in our room to go to the bathroom and Nathan walks by saying, "I give an eye on Zoe." And he'll go in there and stand by her and talk to her until I get back. One time, he brought a book in and was reading to her. He's such an excellent big brother! When she starts fussing, he'll tell me, "I think Zoe needs you!" or, "I think Zoe's crying." He is very protective and sweet to his little sister.

Abby hasn't seemed phased much. She tends to play with Nathan and keep him busy which has been great for me because I'm always sort of stuck nursing and can't do much. She did say last night that Zoe gets all the parent time and she just gets Nathan. Of course, the few free minutes I do have, she would rather work on the computer or do one of her many projects, so I guess that's another area we need to find a groove. She hasn't seemed to mind playing with Nathan. Since her friends down the street have moved, Nathan and Abby have become best friends and great little playmates. The cars from carsland go and visit the pets from petshopland and vice versa.

Anyway, we are still figuring out a Baptism. I'd like to do it soon, but we don't know where. We haven't been going to chuch much here because, frankly, we are lazy bums and like to sleep in on Sundays. Plus, I'm apparently a stuck-up type that figures why forge friendships in a place we'll only be for a year. Why put out the time and energy? So I could try to do it here or wait until we get back towards our old Fulton church, which will be a couple months. The church here seems friendly enough, but I don't know anybody. Abby was baptized at 2 months old, and Nathan at almost 2 weeks. Just a loose end needing tied.

We are getting excited about the move. Heck, I've been ready to move since we got here. We both agree there is not much here we will miss, if anything. And Kentucky will not be on our list of places to return to. The only good thing has been Abby's school, and having a baby on St Patricks day in Ireland. I will not be sad to leave.