So I am finally going to quit being lazy (for a few minutes at least) and give everyone a little update.
Since I got out of the hospital I have been doing a lot of doctors appointments. I have seen my primacy care and my cardiologist, my physical therapist, a mental therapist and an eye doctor. I will be seeing a dentist on Thursday and my appointment with the Social Security office for my disability paper work is the 20th. I have had to speak with my cardiologist a few times about my medications but have been able to go with out seeing one until yesterday.
On Sunday, I got home from a day out and took off my shoes and my feet were very puffy (I had cankles). It was terrifying because that can be a symptom of Congestive Heart Failure. LUCKILY!!! It was just a reaction to the super dose of verapamil I am on. The FDA has approved/studied verapamil for up to 480mg, but HOCM (my disease) studies show that it can be helpful if you take 600mg. Therefore, I am taking the 600mg, but one of the side effects is swollen feet. I told the doctor that as long as it wasn't CHF then I am okay with it. It may not be the most comfortable thing in the world but it was nothing compared to the pain that my heart is in when I am on no medication. I do think that the verapamil is working but I do not know if it is working enough to stop taking the pain killers. When I finally get all my pain management stuff together I will hopefully be able to stop taking the methadone and try something a little less addicting.
I have also seen a case manager who has been slightly helpful but also a bit of a headache. I am glad that the doctors warned me about it but I think its ridiculous to have people that are supposed to help that just don't get it. I had a referral in for cardiac rehab and somehow when I called the central appointment line to make other appointments they made me an echo when I asked about cardiac rehab, it made absolutely no sense. When I went in for the appointment (i didn't know it was an echo until I showed up) they explained that my referral was in there but didn't looked like it had been sent to the network. The "network" is doctors in the area that accept Tri-care, referrals get sent to the network when the military hospital can't see you themselves. I wasn't exactly sure how to fix this so I figured I would try my case manager. She did not get the problem at all and instead of looking up my referral she just told me to get a new referral. I was so pissed! So instead I decided I would call referral management. The lady I ended up speaking to knew my name from helping my case manager with my pain management referral. She was very helpful and got everything straightened out. However in the end we found out that a referral wasn't needed for cardiac rehab, just a written prescription. Then I called my primary care asking for the prescription he never called me back, so when I went to the cardiologist for my feet yesterday I asked about it and was told that with my disease and my heart the way it is, the rehab was a bad idea. So all in all, it was pointless but I did learn that even with a case manager you really have to do things by yourself.
As for the issues with my pain management, Tri-care referred me to a doctor that is not actually taking patients for anything except injections. I called my case manager and she spoke with referral management and got a list of doctors that I could go to. However, to get an authorization code the doctor has to approve to accept me. Because of this we had to send my records out to multiple places in the area and are still waiting for a response.
On another note, the past few days have been pretty good...until today. On Saturday, Dan, Jeremy and I went to the Home and Garden show. We got tons of information and entered a lot of drawings. The only bad thing is that because I put my real number so that if we won they could call, they are calling me CONSTANTLY!! to make appointments to show us their products. They call two or three times in a row then call again later, it is very annoying especially when I can't answer the phone.
On Sunday, I went to church with my friend Krystyn. Krystyn and I have known each other for a long time as we both grew up going to the same church in California. Her church was very different from what we are used to. First Baptist was(is) a very traditional church. The church she goes to now is much more contemporary. We then went back to Krystyn's for lunch with some friends that she wanted me to meet. I am very shy around groups of people, especially people I do not know so it was very intimidating to be there. They were very nice people and have a very strong relationship with God. It was why Krystyn wanted me to meet them but I had no idea that they were so close with him. It was an amazing experience. They all prayed for healing for my heart which was awesome. It was probably one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. The only thing that could have made it better was if I had a better relationship with God, and if I hadn't been so nervous. I have been invited to spend time with them again and I am really looking forward to the opportunity. On Monday, I actually think God "talked" to me also. I got a Bible from First Baptist for graduating high school and it has a lot of study stuff in the back. While at Krystyn's I was told to look up verses about healing so I looked it up in the back of my bible in the chain verse section. It said that the chain verses section started on page 1659. However instead of looking at the page numbers like I was supposed to be I was looking at the numbers at the top of the page because I thought those were the page numbers and the numbers on top were actually "topic" numbers. The topic that was associated with 1659 (which actually showed at the top of the page even though there were more topics on that page) was Family Troubles. There have been a lot of family issues in my life even now that need to be worked on. It was like he was telling me to start there. It was very exciting.
I was also supposed to meet with one of the owners yesterday because they got rid of the management company last Friday and I couldn't make it to the meeting they had over the weekend because I wanted to go to church. I am not quite sure what they want me to do and how they want it done since everything I was doing before was for the management company. I do hope that this will make work better, but since I was unable to go do to having to get my feet checked I do not know what is going on. I called the owner and asked him if he could reschedule and he said that would be fine. Of course he left out that we was going out of town, so when I called him today he seemed mad at me, even though he was completely okay with it yesterday. So now I am meeting with a different owner tomorrow. Of course he said he doesn't know everything that they want so who knows what is going on. Part of me wishes they would let me go so that I could get unemployment while I work towards my disability.
Today I went to the eye doctor. It has been many many years since I have gone so it was time. It came out that i have astigmatism and a focus problem and need glasses again. The problem with that is Tri-care only pays for the actually doctor appointment but they do not pay for the glasses for dependents. The eye doctors office was going to give me 20% off of the total which with everything I need and the frames I picked out was 499.20. I agreed to pay for half of it today and then the rest when I picked them up. I called Dan to tell him and he was very upset. So i went back in and got my money back and got the prescription and went to the air force base and picked out frames there (that aren't nearly as cute as the other ones) and with everything I needed was 433.00. I asked Dan what he wanted me to do but he said he didn't care. So I didn't get glasses. He obviously cares so I figured I would wait until he is willing to talk about it. I know that they are expensive and expected them to be expensive because our insurance doesn't cover them. However, Dan's glasses are covered by the insurance so I guess he wasn't expecting it. Neither of us were expecting me to need glasses either. So now I have no idea what to do. I would rather get the glasses that I really like if I am going to have to wear them, but because they are the more expensive I don't want to get them because I do not want to fight with Dan. So I am going to go to Sam's Club after work and see what there. I just want to cry, I am so tired of things that are needed in life being so expensive.
Well I think that is enough for tonight. It has taken an hour to write this blog (with some stops because I am watching 90210 :) ).
Have a great night everyone.
