Good morning... Well, here we are with the first Sunday of the new year. Our weather has been really nice for January, but it's starting to cool off now, which is kind of normal for us. It's sunny today, but I don't think it's going to be real warm.
This week has been kind of frustrating and kind of exciting, both... I did go see my cardiologist on Wed about the venous reflux in my legs. It's bad enough that he wants to do ablation on my veins to reroute the blood to improve my circulation. Making a long story short, the doctor said we could do one leg first to see how it goes, then do the other leg, but when I got to the scheduling desk the girl scheduled them to be done intertwined... When I questioned her, she got snippy and since there was someone else waiting behind me I didn't argue, thinking I could call and question it later - my bad!!
Anyway, that evening, I got a call from our son who lives out of state saying that he, his wife and her son, are coming to visit in Feb... WooHoo, we haven't seen them for 3 years - how exciting is that?? To make it even more exciting, our DIL has just finished taking courses to get her Master's Degree in Accounting and the reason for their visit is the commencement exercise to actually receive her degree so that means we get to go to the event with them. My heart sank, though as we talked because it turns out that they are coming right during the time I was to have the procedures done on my legs... No big deal, I'll just change the dates for the last 2 procedure because I'll already have the first 2 done by the time they get here... Easy, right???
Not so fast and not so easy!! On Friday, when I called to change those 2 appointments and specify that I want to get one leg done before we start the second leg, I had to speak with the same person who got irate with me when I originally scheduled the appointments (apparently, she's the only one who can schedule these appointments). Anyway, she immediately went off the deep end, telling me that if I change any of the appointments I have to change all of them, because they have to do scans at each appointment to make sure everything is going right and the procedures (2 on each leg) all have to be done within a week because they can only do so many scans... hmmm I can sort of understand that, but nobody bothered to told me that. Then she went off on me about how the doctor doesn't like to do one leg back to back the way I wanted to do it and I told her that the doctor said we could do that so why did he tell me it was okay if he didn't like to do that? That seemed to make her even more irate. Anyway, she first told me that if I rescheduled, it would have to be put out to the end of Feb, instead of the end of Jan like we originally had it and by the time the conversation was done, the more I stood my ground the more irate she got, the further out she moved it so by the time we were done talking, she had it moved out to the end of March, then she said she'd actually have to call me back with dates. It sounds like they might only do these things at the end of the month, but I'm not sure...
She did not call me back on Friday with dates, so I'm assuming she believes she's "punishing" me... I've done some research and I know there are other facilities in my area that do the same/similar procedures, so I've decided that I will give her Monday to call me and if she doesn't call me on Monday or if she does call with the same attitude she had on Friday, I'll simply tell her that I'm sorry she's so irritated with me; in view of that, I'm aware that there are other facilities that do the same type of procedures so I'll just go elsewhere to get mine done. That way she won't have to waste her time dealing with me and it will save us both a lot of frustration and stress. Both doctors and office staff need to be open and upfront about expectations and what's going to happen when these things take place... It's not like I've been a difficult patient the whole time I've been there (2-3 yrs) and I can't believe I'm the first person to ever have to change one of these appointments.
Anyway, that's that... I'm sorry that turned into such a big deal. I won't be getting procedures done at the end of January as I'd hoped so I'll have to deal with the symptoms (swelling/edema, severe cramps, weakness, etc) longer than I'd want to, but it is what it is. Maybe if I go elsewhere, I'll end up with a better job done - who knows??
So, part of this whole issue with my legs has to do with weight and I know, without a doubt that I have to lose some, so I do have to keep working at it. This particular doctor does know that my thyroid is involved, which is helpful, but hey - I can train someone else, just as easily... lol
So, weight-wise, I am down 0.8 lbs, so that's something and it's going the right direction for the first time since Thanksgiving so I'm happy with that.
Walking/exercise is another big part of this whole thing and thank goodness, my winter walking partner will be back from OR on Tues afternoon, so we'll start walking again. It's going to take me a while to get back in the groove and the problem with my veins does cause a lot of weakness in my legs which the procedures are supposed to alleviate, so I'll have to contend with that but at least I'll be on the move again more than I have been...
Those are my pluses for this week... how have you done? I hope your week hasn't been as frustrating as mine, but let's hear it. I hope it's been a good one!!
~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~