Time and Date

October 30th, 9 am. Dr. L is going to try to do this laparascopically. If so, I am off for 2 weeks, and then back to work. I really like the sound of that.

I have picked up my FMLA paperwork from his office. It is interesting that the Doctor's office charges $15 just to fill out the paperwork - the same price it would cost me for some actual face time with a real Doctor!

Everything is sore, ad I just don't feel well at all.

To top it off, I hit a Deer on Sunday. So sad, and it just keeps replaying in my head! Not cool!

You have GOT to be kidding.....

Before moving to the present, I must document the phone call I received from Dr W., my General Practitioner. Being unable to reach her by email, on Tuesday I sent her a fax with my new Diabetes dosing, and the general plan for my gynecological abdication. She called me Thursday morning, and wants to know if I am "sure" about the hysterectomy, and don't I want to have CHILDREN????????

What? Oh good heck. No, my eggs expired when I turned 40. (I am now 43) I explained that I have no one with whom to have a child, and even if we kept one of the ovaries (presumably the left with the smaller, "only" 6 AND 8 cm cysts, as opposed to the 9 and the 11 cm cysts on the right, both of which are uncomfortable), they are taking my UTERUS! How does she expect me to have a CHILD without a UTERUS!

The need to reproduce is primal, I understand. Why has this not been more than a passing thought since I was 25, and even then it was forced, and artificial. Selfishness? The thought that I would mess up and be a bad parent? Matthew 9:25 talks about eunuchs. Am I one of those? I guess I will be, whether I want to be, or not!.......

3 for 3

Well, now....wasn't that fun? LOL Seriously, it was fine. We decided to take the uterus (there are a bunch of fibroids, and it does not look right on the sonogram), and both ovaries. Whether or not we take cervix will depend upon the results of the pap.

Here we go...

Dr. V cut my meds back a little! Yay! I take one less pill per day. I also went, and had my pelvic ultrasound follow-up, and my blood work done.

I got the copies of the films. It is clear that the cysts are larger, not smaller. Somehow, I knew that...maybe it was that they wake me when I roll over at night. Or that I can feel them now.

Dr. L called Monday. He wants to see me right away. I need to bring my latest labs, and the results of my last pap.....I say, "You mean the one I had done in 1998 in Utah?"

...Yeah. I am having a pap tomorrow, as well as talking about surgery. Dr. L. was NOT pleased...

Labor Day irony......

I spent Labor Day weekend mostly asleep. Friday night I was in bed by 10. Sunday afternoon, I lay down at 1:30 to take a short nap, and cyst pain woke me at 8:45 pm! Monday, I also went to bed early, stayed inside, and did not exert myself. I am soooo tired; I have fantasies of falling asleep under my desk at work. Despite timed doses of caffeine, I am constantly sleepy. Thursday is my next Doctor's appointment. I hope my Endocrinologist has some answers for me....

The 'white pill week'.......

I am on the off week of the birth control. It feels like I have appendicitis. I have trouble walking, even straightening up. I slept 10 hours yesterday, I can't wait to go to bed tonight...

BC and Insurance Rant....

So, here I am.Doctor L. is going to try to shrink the cysts with low-dose birth control pills. My research on this approach would indicate mixed studies on this, but I was more than willing to take a 6-week break from his driving will to remove 3 internal organs quickly. I am at the end of the 2nd week, and do not feel different. I set an alarm, and take them every morning. The ones early in the month cause nausea, but not much more........

May I go on a diabetes rant for a moment? Not the disease, it is what it is. I am taking responsibility, and taking care of myself. It is the glucometer companies. My first drugstore brand glucometer was off by allot. Up to 80 points.

My Doctor gave me a glucometer that is more like the ones on TV. Because the prescription she wrote was not for my exact model (though she did get the brand correct) the pharmacy refused to charge my insurance, and wanted $1 per test strip! I wound up calling my Insurance company for 45 minutes (well, a helpful fellow in Delhi, actually) to get the exact verbiage that I then called in to the Doctor's assistant, so that the Doc could write me a new prescription for test strips. What would I do without Health Insurance? Do people really pay $1 per strip? I buy my strips in 2 vials of 50, so 100 strips per month. Some strips don't work. Some strips are used to calibrate the machine. If I was paying $1 per, and it did not work, I'd be furious. With my $10 co-pay, it is $.10 a piece......a 90% markup for non-insurance carriers on something that someone needs to decide if they need medicine so they won't die, go blind, or trash their kidneys? Are you KIDDING me?

Then, there is the records-keeping. I was impressed that my machine kept 500 blood glucose records in its memory. There is great advertisement on the glucometer's website about down loadable FREE software - complete with "helpful tips". Whatever. Free means it will contain a bunch of advertising, spyware, cookies, and all of that. No thanks. But if you did want to use it……the puzzle became how to get the numbers out of the machine, and into the computer software. There needs to be a cable......The Doctors office said to ask the pharmacy. The Pharmacy said they sell medicine, not cable. Shouldn't something that is essential to the function and use of the machine come with it? Apparently not.Found the cable, on one of 2 online pharmacies suggested by the Laboratory website.....Hmmmm, payola? The cable is $35, NOT covered under Insurance……

Forget it. I will write them down, and fill out my Endocrinologist’s forms that way.