Pink Eye

Image via WikipediaOn Friday, I was having a little bit of trouble with one of my eyes.  It was a little bit irritated and watering a lot.  I tried using a little Visine eye drops, but it didn't really help much.  Saturday morning, I woke up and my eye was a lot more irritated and the eyelid was swollen and red.

I immediately started to think that I was suffering from conjunctivitis, also know as pink eye.  Thankfully, my doctor's office is open for a couple of hours on Saturday mornings.  I called them to see if there was any way possible for the doctor to see me that morning.

Once I finally got through to my doctor's office, the person who answered the phone asked me how soon I could get to the office.  I told her 15 minutes, and she asked me to come in right away.  To my surprise, nobody was waiting in the waiting room and took me right back in.

Instead of seeing one of the normal doctor's in the practice, they told me that I would be seeing a nurse practitioner.  I didn't really care because I have seen nurse practitioner's in the past.  This particular practitioner recently joined the practice and works one or two Saturday's a month to give the other doctor's a break.

As I had said previously, I have seen nurse practitioners before without any problems.  I was somewhat disconcerted, however,  when after introducing herself she left briefly and came back with her big diagnosis medical book.  She said she had another full time job during the week and only did the practitioner gig one or two days a month so she wanted to make sure she asked me everything for the diagnosis.

She ended up agreeing that I had pink eye and prescribed some drops for me to use for treatment.  I am 50 years old, and I have never had anybody bring a medical book into the exam room while at the doctor's office.  Has anybody else ever experienced this sort of thing?

Related articles

• Conjunctivitis (bupa.com.au)

Back to the Drawing Board

Image via WikipediaCurrently, I am on four different medications for various ailments and/or conditions.  I also take a daily dose of Vitamin D for a low Vitamin D level in my blood.  To save myself time and trouble, I have all four of my prescriptions set up for automatic refill at my pharmacy.

One day last week, I noticed that I was getting low on one of my medications and it had not been filled yet by the pharmacy.  I called to check on it and was told that I was out of refills but that they would send something to my doctor for a refill.  No worries, I had enough to last until yesterday and figured I had plenty of time to get it filled.

As of Monday afternoon, the prescription still had not been filled.  I called the doctor's office to check on the status of getting the refill and was told that the doctor wanted to see me before writing a new prescription.  The timing of this was not very good due to a lot of things going on at work, but I ended up having to take the morning off to visit the doctor.

The visit was rather non-eventful.  He went ahead and wrote three new prescriptions for medications that no longer had refills.  He reran a couple of tests that he ran last summer when I have my little scare that led to me going on the CPAP machine.  He also decided that he wanted to run another series of blood tests to compare them to the ones he ran during the summer.

There are a couple of things from the last blood tests that needed to be reviewed.  First, he wanted to check to see if my Vitamin D level has improved since I started taking the supplements.  Another concern is that my blood sugar level is a little elevated, and he wanted to make sure I wasn't pre-diabetic.  The last concern is my cholesterol level.  My total cholesterol has been in the acceptable range but my bad cholesterol has been a little on the high side.

There was one other thing that we talked about that I really didn't need him to tell me because I already knew.  I need to lose some weight.  I had done so well last year losing about 25 pounds.  Unfortunately, I started to fall back into my old habits and gained all of the weight back.  So now, just in time for all the holiday feasts and goodies, I need to start watching what I eat again.

Not a Happy Camper

I was not a happy camper this morning.  This morning, I was scheduled for the first of the tests that my doctor wants me to have done since my little scare on Friday morning.  I had a 9am appointment at my doctor's office to have the carotid doppler exam.  The exam uses ultrasound to measure the blood flow through the carotid arteries to the brain.  Below is a picture of my appointment card to show that I did in fact have a 9am appointment for today.  I have blocked out any identifying info of the doctor's identity.

I showed up at the doctor's office about 10 minutes early.  The office was completely dark.  The office usually has people in it prior to opening, and the door is usually unlocked a little early as well. You can imagine my dismay when I looked at the office hours sign that was posted outside of office door that showed that the office did not open on Wednesday's until 12:30.

I immediately called the doctor's office and heard the message stating the Wednesday office hours.  I pressed the button to be connected with the answering service.  They reiterated the posted office hours, but took my number and said they would get a message out to the doctor.  I continued to wait outside of the doctor's office for about 15 to 20 minutes waiting for a return phone call.  It never came.

I was totally pissed off thinking I was going to have to reschedule the test.  I was just getting ready to head home when I saw one of the nurses from the practice walking towards the office.  As she was approached the door to unlock it, I saw the technician who was to perform the test approaching with her equipment.

The test ended up taking about 15-20 minutes.  The tech said that they would have to review the images and the results would be sent to the doctor in about a week, providing they did not find anything that needed urgent attention.  Here is hoping that I don't hear back from my doctor until sometime next week.

On a somewhat related note, I was also scheduled to get MRIs performed on my brain and my neck tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately, I just got a call from the radiologists office informing me that the pre-certification for the tests had been denied.  According to my insurance company it was denied because I had not met the medical prerequisites for the test.  The test is normally given to people after they have a stroke, not to see if they are at risk for one.

I am hoping that my doctor will be able to get the necessary approval so that I can get these MRIs done.  My doctor has not yet arrived at the office yet, nor is the person who handles the referral process for him since they do not open until 12:30.  Hopefully, they will be able to talk to the insurance company to get these tests approved.  I freaking hate insurance companies.