It is late Thursday evening, and I’m happy. Why? Well, tonight’s food – clam chowder and lemon meringue pie – went down easily and has stayed down. We established contact with a personal representative, for us, from one of the big mutual fund companies where a third of my retirement funds have been invested and she helped us complete the forms to begin taking out money instead of making deposits. And, the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends made some music this afternoon.
About the not so fine things: Minor irritations with the insurer regarding approving physical therapy continued. On the phone I alternately got yes and no, then absolutely not, and today a letter came that seems to say yes. Still, the month is about over – so what does it matter? I haven’t heard a peep from the 4-wheeled walker company – another stain on the health care system. Some of the issues are like weeds.
John and I had blood drawn on Thursday. He had to fast for a cholesterol test so we went from the hospital directly to one of EBRG’s finest fast food establishments. We brought burgers home and about 2/3 of the way through mine – it reappeared. Enough, I said and called both the pharmacist and my doctor to ask about the meds I’m on and if something might be causing this rapid regurgitation. We made some adjustments. One of the things I’m on is Amiodarone (used to correct abnormal rhythms of the heart) and is known to have side-effects and interactions with other drugs – with digoxin, for instance, and I’m taking that. (Just for reference I’ll have another blood draw for the digoxin level tomorrow.) Big doses of iron also can cause issues. As reported above, tonight’s meal was not a problem but that was luck or circumstances. For one thing, Amiodarone builds slowly and stays long in a person’s body so just deciding to reduce the dosage, and having not yet done so, shouldn’t have any effect. Do you think?
The oddest thing that happened this week was that my phone at CWU mysteriously quit working. The deal was to be that the number and messaging system would stay for some months as previous students might be calling and asking for references and such. The paper work was very clear about this but someone saw my name and the word “retirement” and the dastardly deed was done. It took several phone calls and some sleuthing by the head-phone-lady to track this down and fix it.
Speaking of sleuthing, John learned that Amiodarone is a drug that emergency medical personnel need to know about. I’m in the process of ordering a medical-alert bracelet and, so, along with heparin that one will have to be listed too.