11 May 2022
Getting our afternoons back has been liberating. Suddenly all the things we couldn't do are just waiting for us to check them off the To Do list.
Like getting our second Covid booster shots. I hadn't heard from Kaiser about that (they usually email me when a service becomes available). So I went to the site and saw I'm old enough to make an appointment.
I made one for me on my computer for the next afternoon and then ran upstairs to make one for Joyce on her computer at the same time. But I didn't have to run. They aren't that busy.
Yesterday, we went to our appointment. Early. And walked right in, checked in, got our shots and walked back to the car. Done.
You feel a sense of power checking something off your To Do list.
Back at the ranch, Joyce put some bratwurst in the toaster oven. She uses parchment paper to minimize cleanup. I suggested melting Havarti on them for the last minute and she did that.
But pulling them out, the paper caught fire, she screamed and I, standing there by accident, put the fire out.
The whole thing shook her up quite a bit. But I have now become a volunteer fire fighter.
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THIS MORNING she had a video visit with a new doctor who it was hard to hear through his thick Slavic accent. I interpreted, adding to my resume.
The subject was pain management. He'd been referred to by Dr. Brenman, Joyce's primary, after I had asked Dr. Tong what we could do about Joyce's pain during Wound VAC dressing changes.
In the meantime, of course, Hawkeye had explained to me that there was nothing we could do. Tearing the foam out was mechanical debridement. Tissue and nerves grow into the foam and you are inevitably causing pain when you remove the gauze.
You can't anesthetize the area because it's covered and something like Oxycodone doesn't really get to the area of pain.
Now she's just having wet-to-dry dressing changes, which are significantly less painful. A detail that was missed in the discussion.
Dr. M. nevertheless had a couple of suggestions. Take two pills and take them just half and hour before the dressing change.
Which would help, I thought, if we knew when our nurse was actually coming. She gives herself an hour window because she needs an hour window. So we'll have to experiment.
So that's off the To Do list. A bit further down is making the dental appointment she had to cancel when she was going to St. Francis. If she can't get one before mine comes up, I'll give her mine again. Volunteer Dental Appointment Contributor, you could call it.
It will be a load off my mind anyway.
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BUT THE NEXT THING on the To Do list I thought I might tackle was my own medical care. I usually visit both my primary and my optometrist in January. By last month, my primary was wondering if I was still alive.
I explained the situation to her and she said she'd take me off the list while Joyce was occupying my time. Which was very gracious of her.
But now that I have time, I looked into making two appointments.
I started with Dr. Wong, my optometrist. He's quite amusing (not to mention informative) and he always gives me good news, telling me how fortunate I am with the health of my eyes and that I also enjoy super vision, which sounds like a product name but just means better than 20/20 vision.
I only need glasses, he said, if I buy an 8K TV.
I know how these things go and I'm not springing until 64K TVs hit the shelves. At which time I'll probably hold out for 1-GB TVs.
But he's booked until the middle of June, so I didn't make an appointment with him. But I did make one with Dr. Casadei, my primary, for next week. In the office (not a video visit) so I can get the award for weight loss and also get some non-Covid booster shot I need (according to my emails).
Caretakers (I know who you are) tend to put themselves in the background, postponing routine care. But when you suddenly become not just a caregiver but the person who puts out fires in the house, you realize if you don't take care of yourself no one else will. And then where will you be?