My journey to better health

Found a plan that has two of my doctors...they are willing to take my third one IF I get preauthorization before each appointment and his staff is willing to bill them (they've already said yes to that).

So for the time being I don't have to change my doctors. But they will do this to me every single year...hopefully they won't drop this insurance company from the choices they give us Medicaid patients to choose from.

Glad to hear that it's going to work out. Hopefully, health care will settle down after a while. Things are a big mess now for all insurance holders.

They're taking away my dental though. Now if I need a tooth pulled (the only thing they covered) I will have to do it myself again. That kicks in Oct 1st. I will however be able to fill more than 4 prescriptions a month (I think). I sure hope so.....I haven't had my nasal spray for a month and the allergies are kicking up, the post nasal drip has my throat sore too.

Hopefully they'll change the arthritis meds in October to one that doesn't raise my eye pressure or BGL like this one does. I get siphoned for blood Wednesday....hope they find a good vein.

As I wean off the prednisone my BGL are slowly dropping more towards the "what's normal for me" range. Eye pressure too...thank heavens.

I can't even consider prednisone. It makes me feel yucky. I know Gateway can't take it because of his heart condition, and Archimedes couldn't take it because of his intestinal problems. I wonder who really benefits from the stuff.

I'm weaning myself off it faster than the rheumatologist would like (I haven't told him). So far no bad effects. It does make me a bit nauseous....so no worries about "increased appetite and weight gain" he was warning me about.

I wonder if methotrexate makes your eye pressure and BGL go up.

Now that I'm weaning off the prednisone I'm seeing a difference: lower BGL in the morning (since I no longer take an evening dose), and higher for dinner (after the morning dose has kicked in).

I can only hope my eye pressure improves after I'm off it for good. It's higher now with meds than the day I was diagnosed! I hate to imagine how high it would be without those glaucoma drops....

My eye pressure is not dropping even though I'm down to less than half the dosage of prednisone I was on. So now I'm on two different drops for the pressure. Doc was nice enough to get me a sample bottle to try the second drop....my insurance is still getting processed at the pharmacy so can't refill anything yet and he knows it. We'll see in about 10 days if it's working to drop the pressure. Hard to find a good time to put that one in though: it's twice a day, 12 hours apart, so I either have to stay up late or interrupt our movie nights to match the morning times.

The new drops are working somewhat. I'm back in the high-normal range but not as low as I was before starting the arthritis meds.
And the past two tests were clean for cancer....FINALLY a couple tests that didn't find something wrong with me.

Now that I'm off the prednisone my BGL are back to normal. Now to see if my eye pressure is too; had a followup exam yesterday with eye dilation and pics. I even got to see what the back of my eyeballs look like. Had no idea if what I was seeing was good or not. We'll see....
Still on two different eye drops and after a bit of drama with the insurance, finally got the prescription filled for the second one (was using samples before but he ran out of those). So far I'm in the high-normal but manageable range according to the doc.

Now searching for a rheumatologist who takes my medical, the old one won't anymore. Having a LOT of trouble finding one without having to drive 120 miles to Chicago!

I actually had a huge spoonful of real stuffing yesterday, and cool whip on my pie....yet woke up to a 71 today. HOORAY!

I've been getting the email newsletter from the American Heart Association for years now.  I joined a heart health long term study today sponsored by them.  They're looking for more people for this study too.   Health eHeart Study if anybody is interested, they're looking for all sorts of people with all kinds of health conditions. If you want to join go here: https://www.health-eheartstudy.org/

Got this after my survey:  My name is Kourtney Imburgia and I'll be your coordinator for the Health eHeart Study. That means that if you have any questions, need more information, or want to comment on how we're doing, I'm your go-to person. Feel free to get in touch any time at coordinator@health-eheartstudy.org or (415) 51-HEART (4-3278)

With my extensive family history I thought it would be a good idea to do this.  You only fill out a survey once every six months.  Sometimes they might suggest you see a doc based on your answers.

Dr. said yesterday that my weight is "very stable". Guess she doesn't get too many patients whose weight only varies by 2 pounds. Despite my less than perfect lungs I had an blood oxygen saturation of 99%. Even the nurse was amazed at that considering I have asthma and a history of multiple bouts of pneumonia and pleurisy. Said my lungs have obviously adapted to my reduced capacity and are now more efficient to get the job done.

Did the heart stress test yesterday.....second IV in my life. Got it in on the first try though it never did quite quit hurting. My pulse and pressure was stubborn, they had me practically running on the treadmill before they started to rise. Tech commented, "We have to get your pulse up to at least 144." Seemed to take forever....and only took 8 minutes for me to come right back down again. Started out with 76 pulse, 108/74 pressure....more comments on how that's on the low side.

Results from the before/after heart pics a few hours later: NO problems of any kind found.

Minor foot surgery yesterday to remove a hard lump from the ball of my foot. Being sent off to a pathology lab to find out exactly what it was. I find out late next week. Definitely NOT a callus as my former doctor thought.

Right now it's throbbing a bit and I will get to see what he did when I soak it in Epsom salts and rebandage it per instructions later today.

Did you find out what it was?

They called it a "deep callus". Never even knew there was such a thing as that. Online research told me it's usually caused by a dropped metatarsal bone. It will probably come back so more surgery in the future. Oh Joy........ Sometimes they even trim the bone to stop it. (I bet that hurts like H#ll!)

So far the hole is 3/8" across and 1/8" deep, and still weeping lymphatic fluid. Hurts and itches. Have to soak it in Epson salts every day until it finally stops seeping. My mom had an inspiration on Sunday after I soaked through my socks every single day: in addition to the 4 layers of gauze and paper tape to hold it on, we added a piece of panty liner (under the tape, over the gauze). That way it won't seep through to my sock again. It's very thin but catches anything that soaks through. I did manage to get the blood out of one pair I wore home after surgery and the lymph out of the other before she had that brainstorm.

So far still seeping......hurt like the devil yesterday...not so much today. Now to wait and see if my insurance pays for this or not.

Are you on Medicaid? It should...

Yes I am. They tried to deny my eye doc for the routine glaucoma eye tests done earlier this month....we're still trying to get them to pay for that. I don't have $80 for that bill. I can't even imagine how much my foot cost.

It's getting visibly better, the hole is about half the size it was on Day 1 and I only get a speck of blood on the bandage now (too much walking on it lately, it hurts today) so still have to do the Epsom soaks.

That is what I have here in Michigan. As long as everything goes through my primary care doc, it's covered.

This is something that doesn't need to go through the primary doc. My first visit to this guy was referred....now it's just followup care. Shouldn't need referrals for ongoing followup care and I will argue the point with Medicaid if I have to. Why should they waste taxpayer money on an office call to see the primary to get a referral for glaucoma followups with another doc? That would be a waste of her time and mine, not to mention all the paperwork it would generate.

My open referrals like that expire after one year. This might just be a matter of your primary doc referring you again

Good lord.....that will be a pain in the @$$. My new primary doc is very busy and doesn't even know this guy.

This very thing happened to me last September. My original primary care physician just didn't come into work one day. As it turns out, she took a job as an ER Doc. My new primary care physician had someone in his office that just works with insurance companies on referrals. The only thing I had to do was make sure promises were kept. If such a person works in your doc's office you wouldn't have to schedule another whole appointment!