Category: health
-
On Hold
Some doctors send me a post card asking me to make an appointment. Others send me a text message, or has a robocall tell me it’s time to make an appointment. So now I’m on hold waiting to make an ob/gyn appointment. I’ve got a sleep doc appointment for next week, presumably to check I’m using my CPAP. Then I should probably call the pulmonologist to renew…
-
Medical Crap
Nothing like a call from the service-that-provides-CPAP-supplies saying “Hey, your insurance said you’re not covered” on a Monday. I have checked websites and made calls; yes we have insurance for the next year. Then called back about CPAP supplies and also sleep doc appointment. I wish the US didn’t insist on letting everyone involved in patient care extract their executive bonuses. I’m happy to pay for my…
-
Year In Review…Kinda
We don’t quite have one “lockdown now” date. Hubs went to the Seattle Sounders Opening Day game on March 1, 2020, and the next home game on March 7, 2020. The programmer (along with Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech employees in the area) started working from home March 4th, 2020. Our last eating out day was March 8, 2020. It’s been a long year. I will preface…
-
Happy Saturday
In no particular order: My household continues to abide without strife, hooray. I appear to have hit on a balance for strength training and stretching that keeps my knees happy and doesn’t disappoint my back or hips or anything. else. Yay. My state, Washington, has decided to start vaccinating more non-frontline workers who are under 65, and even to count comorbidities, so I may be vaccinated sometime…
-
Who thought knees were a good idea?
You may remember that I can’t take NSAIDs anymore. I’ve also written about knee issues, and that recently I wasn’t having them. Apparently I tempted the fates or something, because last weekend I managed to do something to my left knee. The good thing is that I have been able to treat it with using my cane more to reduce strain; elevation; an ice pack; and doing…
-
Life Without Ibuprofen
I became aware of ibuprofen in high school, as a reliever for period pain. I used it with happy abandon for assorted cramps and pulled muscles. When my knees started hurting, I used ibuprofen. Headaches weren’t much helped by ibuprofen, but that’s what acetaminophen is for. Eventually I had knee issues that ibuprofen didn’t handle, I added physical therapy exercises to ibuprofen. I didn’t stop taking it.…
-
Yoga revisited
I never really stopped stretching, but now I’m starting to do a few yoga poses again. I stand in a “warrior” pose and marvel at how my mat holds my feet still, and I remember being able to have my feet further apart without any of the balance wobbling I’m doing. I remind myself I used to spend 30 minutes on the treadmill and when I started…
-
Review: The Relentless Moon
The newest Lady Astronaut book from Mary Robinette Kowal is fun. It features a 50ish woman, Nicole Wargin, who finds and defeats bad guys in an alternate world where the space race started in the 1950s; by the early 60s, there’s a moon base and a mission to Mars. Nicole is an ex-WASP who admits she was probably only accepted to astronaut training because her husband, Kenneth…
-
Disabled or not?
A person with a disability is defined as: A person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; or A person with a record of such a physical or mental impairment; or A person who is regarded as having such an impairment. – NW ADA Center “Disabled” is still a term I wrestle with. I have a disabled parking permit…
-
Medical Tests of the Itchy Sort
In May 2018 I was short of breath. I thought I might have pneumonia. Turned out they found a pulmonary embolism and I spent 4 days in ICU. I was finally discharged to go home and rest. This also came shortly after a kidney stone and high blood pressure diagnosis, and I was really, really, tired. But my lung capacity, while better than with the PE, still…
-
Hand Laundry Never Ends
As many women know, hand washing of bras is recommended to keep them in good condition. This is not necessarily a huge burden! Hand washing of pantyhose is also recommended. Thank heavens I don’t have to wear pantyhose. And then came…compression stockings. Compression stockings are often recommended for people who are on their feet all the time, who are flying, who have had lymph nodes removed, and…
-
Vitamin B12. Joy.
Researchers have found a possible link between lack of vitamin B12 in early life and insulin resistance later. (Link has both video and text; video does at times assume fat is a problem, but overall explores why type 2 diabetes is not brought on by eating too much.) I’ve written before about being deficient in Vitamin B12, so you may understand that this is a bit closer…
Living ~400lbs 