The Adventures Continue

I have included three pictures today. One is the floor plan of our house that I found in a drawer this morning. Our house is a mirror image of this one, plus we have French doors out of the dining room into the lanai, but otherwise, that's it! The other pictures are the sofa in the living room and the one DVD tower in the Florida room.

While I was at radiation yesterday, Mark put together the first of the four DVD towers. It held a combination of 52 DVDs and VHS tapes. I think it looks gorgeous. It was nice to have one and a half boxes emptied. He said it took a bit over an hour to do, but a lot of that time was spent locating parts and deciphering the picture instructions. IKEA does not use words! Then we worked together to unwrap the sofa, put its little plastic legs on (taking bets on how long plastic legs hold up!), and putting on the slip cover. Again, there are no words, just pictures, so it was interesting getting that slip cover on. The cushions and the cushion covers did NOT seem to be the same size. I smashed and smashed the seat cushions into their covers and zipped them up. They look awkward, but maybe if we sit on it enough the fabric will stretch out and the cushions will fit better. Still, I'm very pleased with our purchases and can't wait for Mark to get the other DVD towers up. I think we'll need about 6 more towers, but we'll get them later, maybe when we go back for the dining room table and chairs.

If you read yesterday's blog, you know we did not love our new family doctor. I have received many email comments about it. Most of you would leave his practice immediately and look for someone better. You are all probably exactly right, but Mark and I have decided to stay at least through our two month follow-up appointments on May 16.

Meanwhile, my daughter Evey gave me permission to include her email comments about the situation. In case you don't know, she is a Certified Athletic Trainer working in a Physical Therapy clinic in CA and on track to get a Masters in Applied Nutrition in December of 2011. One thing I love about her is that she is not afraid to speak her mind! She says what she thinks and she is usually right. She is a strong woman! Here are her very wise remarks to me yesterday regarding our doctor visit.

"That doctor sounds awful. You will never weigh 115; Hell, I'll never weigh 115. That's just unthinking, textbook regurgitation and is absolutely the wrong way to be a doctor. He should have asked you questions about your lifestyle before even recommending anything. Just irritates me. If I just told my patients they had to do water aerobics, 80% would walk out, 15% would be unhappy, and maybe 5% would do it. And I wouldn't know which ones had access to a pool, knew how to swim, or felt comfortable enough to wear a swimsuit in public because I didn't even ask if they liked swimming instead of running.

Sorry, he just sounds awful to me. And we talk a lot about patient trust, ability to relate, and compliance in my classes. He fails."

She pulls no punches, and she's right. He did fail in our eyes as a good doctor. I wonder if he knows that is how he is perceived.

Meanwhile, the medical adventure continues. On Tuesdays, after my radiation treatment, I stop in for an office visit. At least Tuesdays make me feel like my co pay is legitimate. LOL Anyway, yesterday he said my skin is turning pink, so he prescribed Fluocinonide cream. He said they call it the F-cream! At least HE has personality! I am to apply it morning and bedtime and use the aloe gel afer treatment. On my way home from treatment, I stopped at our local Wal Mart at 4:30 to get the prescription filled. The nice lady said it would take an hour and a half, maybe two hours. I told her I would come back later. At 7:55 we got in the very long line to pick it up. Wal Mart does a huge volume business in prescriptions, so the lines are always long. Mark wanted us to use them because he's there weekly to do the grocery shopping anyway, so he thought it would be one less stop to make. I don't have that many prescriptions that I pick up this way because my maintenance drugs are all delivered to the house from an online service, so I didn't care. Now, I CARE!

We waited for fifteen minutes. At 8:05 it was our turn. She asked me when I put the prescription in. I said 4:30 and was told it would be ready in two hours. She told me they didn't have any, but it would be in tomorrow after 12 noon. We walked away disgusted, shaking our heads. If she knew they didn't have it, why did she bother asking when I put in the prescription? What possible use was that information? If they didn't have any, why didn't the other lady tell me that at 4:30. I would have taken it across the street to Publix or Walgreen's. Ha, that's probably exactly WHY she didn't tell me. Or, if she didn't know then, but they discovered it when they were filling it, why not call and tell me? It would have saved me 45 minutes in driving and standing in line, or it would have given me the opportunity to come and take it somewhere else. What if it was some drug that I really needed to start immediately because I was sick? As it is, I missed the opportunity to use it last night and this morning.

I told Evey this, and here was her wise reply. "Stop taking things to that pharmacy then. That's silly." She is so right. I think I will take her advice on this one.

Yesterday was weigh-in day, but I didn't check it. It wasn't great on either doctor's scale, but those include clothing and are later in the day than my usual weigh-in time. Today I have excellent news about my weight. Last week I weighed 255. This morning I weighed 248! That's seven pounds gone. I knew I had eaten pretty well lately, especially Monday and Tuesday. I had 1330 calories on Monday and 1160 yesterday. I'm very excited to be out of the fifties. I feel more in control and motivated to continue. I just heard the washer beep, so once I put the laundry in the dryer, I'm heading out for a nice long walk.