BUD Visit, October Edition

I went for a visit to Ohio State Thursday, and was really nervous because I’m still recovering from this H1N1 and not back up to my baseline.  I didn’t know how he would interpret that, and whether or not he’d be pushing for surgery again or changing meds, or if he’d just let it be since I’m obviously still recovering.  As expected, my pulmonary function test results were lower than previous tests’.  However, they weren’t that much lower, and in fact weren’t really even statistically significant in their difference.  Just a smidgen.  So, BUD thinks that had I not gotten sick we would have seen a pretty good increase instead, and I get to hold the course until my next follow up at the beginning of February.

He said I should consider myself very lucky, as he had a whole ICU full of people with my same disease and H1N1 who would not recover at all, and for those who did recover it would be with significant further damage and fibrosis to their lungs.  Now I just rest and do as much as I can and wait for my lungs to heal and then reevaluate to see how much if any permanent damage was done.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to my previous level of activity, as I was feeling pretty good and able to do a lot with the kidlets and such.  Right now I’m really not and it really sucks.

Two days ago I finally started walking the dog again, first time I’ve been able to do more than throw a ball in the yard with her since getting sick.  Yesterday we went again, despite the crappy weather, and the kids were excited to cross the newly opened bridge on the bike path.

On the Bike Bridge

We’ve been walking down there daily, and the kids have been anxiously awaiting the opening of this bridge.  It has made our neighborhood much busier, as it connects this end of town with a much busier section of town but I suspect that will slow down as the weather worsens and the bridge novelty wears off.  The path is beautiful right now though:

Fall Path

That’s the path leading up to the bridge, and it’s beautiful with the leaves all different colors and falling everywhere.  It’s motivation for me to get these kids and dog out of the house for a little while and at least get a little exercise in myself.  It’s too easy to sit here in front of the computer and be depressed and not do much of anything, which only adds to the depression and general feelings of malaise.  I hate winter, but I’m trying to convince myself that it’s good to go out of the house daily, even in the cold.  We’ll see how long that lasts once the real cold weather hits.

Added bonus to my BUD trip, I got to meet an online friend for the first time in real life, and she’s just as lovely in person as she is online!  We had lunch at my favorite Greek place and it was yummy and she was awesome, and she’s only an hour from me so not bad at all!  I now have something to look forward to next time I have to go to see BUD, and hopefully that will alleviate some of the tension and trepidation I feel when I know I have to head north.  Friends are a good thing indeed.

In other news, and maybe this should be a separate post but I’ll mention it here for later discussion – my ex-husband has been hanging around a lot since moving, mostly helping out here and there and talking about kids and what not… nothing suspicious and nothing I’d raise an eyebrow at.  However, he stopped by without kids the other night and hung out for a while, and then yesterday he asked me out (via text message) to dinner, sans kidlets.  Interesting.  Not sure how I feel about that, so I’ll leave it at that for now.  I do know that I’m not ready to “be” with anyone right now, but beyond that I’m not sure.

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Our Health Care System Sucks

AKA I no longer have a primary care physician.

Today, I drove to my doctor appointment in WV.  It’s a two hour drive for me, but I asked her last time I visited (just before my move) if she’d still be my PCP after I moved to Ohio.  I really, really like her, and that’s hard to come by in a doctor and I really didn’t want to look for someone new.  Not to mention the one day I tried to call for someone in this area it was a total disaster.  I figured I could deal with the drive once every few months.

Well, I got there today and they asked if I now have Ohio medicaid.  I said yes, and the registration woman kindly told me that they couldn’ t see me.  I said I would pay for my visit if they wouldn’t accept my medicaid, because I’d rather pay $75 for an office visit after driving 2 hours than come home without having seen her and without my meds for however long it takes me to find a replacement.  The girl said, “You don’t understand, we can’t see you.  I’m not allowed to take money from you, it’s illegal as a medicaid recipient.  You have to go where your card is accepted, and that’s not here.  Someone should have told you when you made the appointment.”

I of course melted into a panic attack because I will be out of meds in about 10 days and now apparently have no PCP.  However, my doc (or former doc I guess) is frikking awesome, as they left her a message with my predicament and she wrote me 3 months’ worth of scripts so at least I have a little time to doctor shop now.

Still, how much does it suck that I can’t go where I want to go, even if I’m willing to pay for services.  The doctor who is listed on my insurance card as my PCP is not taking new patients, which cracks me up.

Ah well, I go tomorrow to Ohio State for new pulmonary function testing.  I don’t expect it to be good since I don’t feel fully recovered from my brush with H1N1.  I stopped in the lab today and my oxygen levels were 93%.  Not that bad, but not that great either.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings, maybe he can recommend a PCP for me.  If not I guess I’ll hit the yellow pages.  Sucks that I have to switch though, and doesn’t make for great continuity of care.

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