A visit to the foot doctor, with more medical appointments to come.

 

Sometimes, I feel like the old lady pictured above.  I had one main thing on the docket for today, and I made sure to visit the foot doctor on schedule.

But first....

Although I'm feeling better than I have been feeling for the past few weeks, I know I'm operating at 50%. I've only had one opportunity to go out as Marian, and I'll likely be more limited in my outings due to appointments that have to be scheduled.

I started getting ready to visit the foot doctor around 1:00, and accidentally cut my big toe on a disposable razor.  AARGH!.  But if I was going to do some damage to my foot, this was the day to have it happen.  So, after a quick lunch at a local diner, I drove to the doctor's office.  And I couldn't find the office, as it was in a corner of the building that I hadn't been in before.

After checking in, I met with the doctor.  She told me that I might have spinal stenosis (based on other information I've given her) and said that I should see an Orthopedist. And whe prescribed a regimen of physical therapy to strengthen my muscles.  For my feet, she prescribed an antifungal, and scheduled an appointment for two weeks from now.  (I showed her a picture of me as Marian, and told her not to be surprised if she sees me this way next time.)   I'll discuss this and more when I see my GP next week.

This left me with a free afternoon.  I didn't feel like running off to the bank to change my account status.  I can do that tomorrow before I go to RQS's place for the weekend.  If I'm up to it, I'll do some laundry tonight. 

The day started slowly and in a little pain, but....

 

There's a part of me that feels like I should have been in a hospital bed this morning.  The walking I did yesterday, coupled with transiting my staircase several times did me in.  My legs didn't want to support me when I got up, and I made sure that I was going to call for appointments to go to the foot doctor and get the X-Ray done.

- - - - - -

With the above being said, I decided to stay in bed much of the day, not snacking, eating or drinking.  That wasn't because I didn't want to do these things, but because my legs didn't want to do them.  Yet, by the time I decided to get up in the afternoon, things had changed a little.  So, I made my appointments and decided to cook something before taking a shower.  (As I thought about things, I realized that my weekend will be spent presenting as Mario.  But that's another story for another post.)

I exchanged a couple of emails with my doctor about the name of a drug that my pharmacy isn't filling.  All the doctor would do would have me contact the pharmacy to find out why.  I may do this, but I'm concerned that he's passing the buck on tasks he (or his office) doesn't want to tackle.  But I was able to set up a post-trip appointment with the foot doctor, and found out when I could go into the radiology practice to get my spine X-Rayed.

Even though I was feeling better later in the day, did I go out?  No.  Instead, I took it easy, and planned to work on packing my suitcase for the trip.  Did I even do that?  No.  I didn't want to be uncomfortable.

 

A visit to the doctor

 

A cruise ship's doctor - one of the few people I never want to meet professionally.  Both RQS and I have done so on separate cruises, and it's no fun.  In my case, I was lucky - I was prescribed an antibiotic to deal with my issue.  In RQS's case, she hobbled around for weeks after someone on the ship fell and injured her ankle.

Recently, I visited my doctor's office to discuss the problems I've been having with my leg, causing any attempt to walk to be painful.  I arrived before noon, and it took over 45 minutes for him to see me - he was backed up with other elderly patients.  When he finally got to see me, I discussed the problem I was having and told him how painful it was for me to walk this past weekend.  He instructed me to walk around, hit my legs with a medical hammer, tested my sensitivity to light touch in each leg, and examined my feet.  As a result of all of this, he wants me to see a foot doctor and get some x-rays.  (I have flat feet, and he wants to check out an issue I have with my spine.  Too bad that he wouldn't understand the joke which references American slang:With these flat feet, I should have been a policeman walking a beat.)

While in his office, he asked me about the GLP-1 process.  I was a little annoyed at him, as I said that the onus was on him to start the process of qualifying me for the Medicare "Bridge" program, not me.  He has to contact the pharmacy, get the Medicare form, fill it in, and hope that my GLP-1 drugs can be subsidized by the program.  Luckily for me, a couple of his staff were in the room, and they understood what had to be done.  (You can imagine what was running in my mind.  I had told him that HE had to take the next step, and he didn't - for reasons unknown to me.  How dare he hector me about weight loss and GLP-1 drugs, when he doesn't want to do his share of the paperwork needed for affordable drugs.)

Once done with the doctor's office, I went home to rest. Soon, I'll start getting my luggage ready to go to RQS's place, staged for our upcoming trip.

- - - - - - 

Later in the evening, I decided to do a light load of laundry - Mario's underwear.  Given how rarely I present as a male these days, I don't know for how long the earliest items of dirty laundry have been sitting in my hamper.  So it's going to be "fun" folding and storing what's been around for a while.

When I returned to my apartment, I found an email ostensibly sent from the daughter of a friend. It looked authentic until I saw the email address of the sender.  I was lucky NOT to go any further into the process of opening invite.  Instead, I sent an email to my friend's daughter, asking her if she sent anything to me.  (I'm also glad that this woman is a distant enough acquaintance to know that the only communication I can expect from her is when her mom dies.)  Hopefully, she can undo any damage a scammer has done to her computer.