It's a Full Time Job

As a novice to medical issues I am shocked at how time consuming this is! 

We started Monday with eye exams at the opthamologist. Mr Merry's prescription had not changed in ten years, but we ordered new glasses for him since his glasses were ten years old.  I got to experience a new student employee so that my preliminary exam took twice as long (or longer). Then the doctor came in and we found out that my cataracts are "ready".  I am having surgery on my left eye on the 24th and he assures me that when I see the difference, I will want to do the right eye two weeks later. 

He uses a special concoction of eye drops that is mixed in a pharmacy out of state and it has taken me two days of missing each others calls to arrangement payment and shipment. 

Today was my visit with my new pulmonologist. He is very nice and knowledgeable and we got along great. I am actually breathing better now (after 3 days of breathing treatments in the hospital and all those Lasix IVs) than I have in years.  I will have a pulmonary function test next week and I think we are repeating the CT of the lungs in two months. 

I had a visit with my new cardiologist last week and he changed the dosage of my three new prescriptions and sent that information to my pharmacy. Friday afternoon I got a message from my pharmacy stating that they had the medications on order and that the price of one of them would be $1032 since my insurance denied it. I knew it would be useless to try to straighten it out over the weekend so I stopped in Monday morning. The clerks had 5 of those new pills for me, the rest still on order and the other two prescriptions were still on order and they had no clue when they would arrive or how much the $1032 prescription would cost me out of pocket until it got there. They acted like I was the troublemaker here and taking up their time with dumb questions. We stopped back on Tuesday and got the rest of the expensive prescription. The cost was $408.28 for 30 days. I checked my policy online and I believe the cost for March and April will be the same, then it will go down to $200 for May and around $100 for the rest of year. Which is much better than $1000 a month. By Wednesday the other two prescriptions were here. One is $1 out of pocket and the other is $10. 

After we visit doctors and pharmacies, we are using our newly purchased passes to the city recreation center. There is a track (actually mats) around the basketball courts on the ground floor that is 1/10 of a mile. We change our shoes and do 10 rounds, which is my limit right now. Almost everyone passes me. It is interesting to watch people at the open gym, mostly young men in their 20's. One day we had a wheelchair player, a young man with no legs. Today there was a lady even older than me who could not bend her knees and walked with two crutches, still faster than me. It makes me realize how lucky I am and how I need to keep at it. 

Saturday we had to use the upstairs track which is walking on the left and running on the right, due to a basketball tournament. My issue is the stairs leave me breathless and we were unable to find the elevator. Tuesday is my new favorite because the gym floor is used for Toddler Time, lots of adorable children aged four and under with mats and toys.  Mr Merry is being a good sport and coming with me everyday. 

All this means is that we leave in the morning as soon as we get the grandkids on the bus and try hard to get home for lunch. So much for the leisure life.

I was pretty excited to finally have lunch with friends on Friday but one of my friends has a repair person coming so we had to cancel. I do have a Trader Joe trip scheduled for the next week. 

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day - it's Galentines Day at my house - and eats lots of chocolate. 

I am trying to keep up with everyone's blogs as best I can until I can get my new routine.

Memory Monday: Til Death Does Us Part

I was trying to move back one generation at a time, but I thought this story was so perfect for Valentine's Week. 

My great great great grandfather Daniel was born in Warren County, NY in 1819 and moved to my county in 1833 at age 14 "and took full share into supporting the family". During warmer months he cut and sold wood and also worked with the masons who were erecting the first brick building in town. In the snow months he attended "winter school". 

In 1844 he married my 3rd great grandmother Almira who was born in Genesee County, NY in 1824 and who came in Ohio when she was 10 years old.  Daniel and Almira started farming on 40 acres and moved to various farms in the county before coming back to the original land.  

Daniel and Almira were affiliated with the Society of Friends although Almira did join the Methodist Church for a time.  The couple were parents of four sons, Nathaniel, Charles, Daniel and my great great grandfather Henry and a daughter Sarah who died at one year old. 

"Both were excellent people as parents and citizens, and possessed broad sympathy for the unfortunate. At their golden wedding, held February 11, 1891, the large number of relatives and friends demonstrated clearly the esteem in which the old couple were held"

And here is the family "love story": 

Almira, listed in the paper as "Mrs. Daniel" was in poor health that winter and passed away on in March, 1891. Daniel told the family and friends that he could not live without her. 

"Here he resided until his death March 16, 1891; the death of his wife the preceding day, affected him so powerfully as to cause his death within 24 hours, and the pioneers were buried side by side in Olena Cemetery."

So, how's it goin?

Tonight it is raining ice at my house. This is the view from our cameras. Since we are trapped inside, I thought I would post a catchup. 

When I went to the hospital, well when I felt better at the hospital (I was not thinking in the ambulance or the first hour in the ER), I really had not planned to mention this little episode to anyone. But we were expecting grandkids at 7am for breakfast  so I had to let the parents know.  My text said "Long story short, I'm in the hospital, but your dad will be home to get the kids at 7. Will anyone be around town in the morning to pick them up so he can come back here?"

Well that started it. Kids calling off work, One driving in from out of town.  I had a board meeting the first afternoon - I sent a message that I was calling off AGAIN and understood I might be fired (from my volunteer job).  They joked that next time I would need a doctor's excuse. Surprise, when I texted a few days later that I would be off for at least a few weeks and that I did have a doctor's excuse. 

Word spread around town and as much as I am not crazy about people in my business, it has brought tears to my eyes the amount of people who have called, texted, sent cards and even flowers.  I was on a few prayer chains.  I have had so many people offering to bring food or go shopping for me.  I do tell them I have a freezer full of those dang healthy meals, please don't bring food. I also have a healthy husband with time on his hands, but it is so nice of people to offer.  I feel like I have a lot more friends than I realize.  

This week everyone wants to know how I am doing. The truth is I feel better than I have for months and it really makes me feel like a fraud. Losing all that fluid in my lungs allows me to breath better than ever and I lost a lot of swelling especially in my legs and ankles (I wasn't fat- I was puffy!). Of course I am basically doing nothing so I am well rested, lol.  We did stop at the Cancer Thrift Shop on the way back from a doctor's appointment and I found this fabulous lamp. It didn't accidentally come home with me, I was actually looking for a lamp. 

My best friend forever (since fifth grade) came to town to take me to lunch. She just wanted to see if I was telling the truth about doing better. A local restaurant has a new owner and the interior and ambiance is wonderful. The food and service so-so. 

We have been going to doctor's appointments and even ran errands. We bought passes at the city recreation center and are using the walking track. Mr Merry is walking along because he is still on edge about letting me out alone. 

Today I visited the cardiologist and he increased the dosages on all my new medicines. So even though I feel fabulous, I have to remind myself that we, or me, are dealing with issues. Unfortunately the drug store texted me that my insurance doesn't want to cover one medicine which is $1032 a month. Since it is Friday night, I am planning on checking with the drug store Monday morning, calling the insurance company next and if I finish those calls and don't have a solution before 5pm, calling the doctor's office to see if there is a substitute. 

He is sending me to cardio rehab and said he doesn't want me to do any heavy activities until we work that out since the insurance company may not cover that either. (My refractory is one point over the qualifying number). Meanwhile I have the okay for walking.  

I kind of feel like I am in a holding pattern. I go to the pulmonologist this week and the cardiologist in 2 weeks to see how I am doing and at this point, I just want to get back to normal. Whatever that is.  

What's Cooking

 My nightly dilemma of coming up with dinner ideas has been temporarily solved with my beef producer having another recipe challenge. 

This time it is a slow cooker challenge and to make things more exciting - I am changing the recipes to low-sodium as directed by my new doctors. 

This would have been easy except that I had to make the meatballs, find a low-sodium recipe for dry onion soup, find a low-sodium recipe for gravy mix and find salt-free beef broth in my small town. 

I did find the broth and it was three times the price of unsalted and tasted like water. My solution in the future will be to use the broth from the unsalted beef roasts I cook myself. Here are my recipes:

And here is our version: 

I'm not going to lie, it needed salt.  My next mission is to find a salt substitute with a salty flavor. 

And today we did week 2! 

My changes were to use round steak since that was in the front of the freezer, I added carrots and celery to the mushrooms and onions since I had some in the fridge to use up and I used the rest of my salt-free beef broth and gravy mix.  Cornstarch has no sodium. 

And here is our version:

This is Mr Merry's plate. I had a smaller piece and salad instead of potatoes (which could have been sodium free except I used instant). 

There is enough leftover for two more meals so I hope Mr Merry meant it when he said he liked it! 

I am hoping next week doesn't involve the beef broth/gravy mix pattern, especially with as many times as we will be eating this week's recipe!