Good Saturday Morning...

I hope everyones doing well!!! Wow theres only 2 more days left in 2007 and to be honest with you all I'm soooo glad to see it go. Not much planned for this weekend, just the same old same old. I tried to get in with my PCP because I've managed to catch one heck of a respiratory/sinus infection that I'm sure is Bronchitis at this point and is flaring my asthma (so far it's been some what manageable with the breathing treatments) and I really think I need a burst of steroids but I was told theres no appointments open with ANY of the 6 or 7 doctors or the physician assistant until next Thursday. My asthma doc also does not have anything open til after Tuesday and to be honest my copay starting Tuesday for any specialists (Hes an allergist who specializes in asthma and stuff) goes up to 50.00 a visit and thats just not anywhere near feasible right now. Not to mention he usually has me come back every 2-3 days, if not daily for a lung check during a flare up and that would be 50.00 each time, and I just cannot do that. Sooooo, I'm going to try and call when my PCP's office opens today and see if they can atleast get me a prescription for the prednisone (since they know I know how to use it) and possibly an antibiotic called in, if not I guess I'll just have to wait til it gets bad enough for me to go to the ER, which I really do not want to do because at that point I'm usually admitted, or til Thursday if it holds out that long. Anyways I hope that everyone has a good weekend!!

Good Morning Misty- Girl, go to a med-check. That whole asthma thing just freaks me out. My son has reactionary asthma(when his allergies act up or he's sick) and it can get serious very quickly. Your docs should fit you in or at least call in that scrip. I don't want you to have to battle pnuemonia on top of it. Get Better, Hugs Angie

Mine is also reactionary some what, in the sense that every little cold or allergy flare or heck I'm even hypersensitive to smells like soaps and stuff that will send me into a spiral. Of course my Asthma will flare for no good reason also. We don't have a walk in clinic or anything like that here, and I don't even know where the nearest one would be. Sooo my only options really would be the ER but I don't want to go until I cannot control it. Right now I'm doing breathing treatments every 90 minutes - 2 hours and it's doing okay. My peak flows are definitely down but they're at the top of my red zone for me.. I was unable to get ahold of a nurse in my PCP's office today because they are just soo swamped sooo hopefully things will hold off til Monday.

Good morning everyone! I got an email from Ellen yesterday. She & Dana are having a terrific time in Arkansas at Snowpeg Mountain. She said that they had a wonderful Christmas with the kids & grandkids before leaving on their winter-vacation and they are having a nice relaxing time with their friends up in the hills (lol..my term, not hers..haha!). They did have the annual 'big' snow there (rain, sleet, then 2" of snow) that pretty much closed down the mountain and had THE grocery store closed up by 3 pm. Ellen's luck is about as good as mine so leave it to her to happen to be on the mountain for their one & only 'big' snowstorm of the year! LOL! Of course, when you only get one snow a year, you don't usually invest in the equipment to take care of it...and I would imagine that at the top of a mountain, isn't a very good place to be at when that snow has frozen ground under it from the sleet. At any rate, they should be mobile as soon as the sun comes out...lol. I was thrilled yesterday that it was Joe who came and took care of me! I did tell him how that Marty did. Needless to say, Marty will NOT be my nurse again! He reiterated that I DO have the right to refuse any part of the treatment that I want to and that NO ONE has the right to act like I don't. It made me feel better too for him to see my wound. I had noticed some differences in how it looked & felt every since last Monday. Monday, I had asked Marty to let Joe know (she didn't!) as well as Vera (she did!) on Wednesday. Vera was a very nice woman..but not too bright about wound-vac care..but didn't mind at all me helping her out so I really wouldn't mind if she came again. Anyway, Joe saw all the changes, plus some, with the wound too and suggested I get in to see Dr. Gupta so she can see it. I have an appointment with her on the 14th so I called to try to get in sooner. Heather (appointment scheduler) forwarded me to the nurse's line...which, I got the answering machine so now I have to wait till next week to talk to her (funny, I think her name was Marty...hahaha!! A different Marty, of course!). What I noticed first though was that there's like a burning sensation on the upper third (in the wound as well as the skin around it). Before, I felt absolutely nothing when they cleaned it with gauzes so to have that burning sensation was a huge HELLO! There's also some coloring differences, some raised areas, a grooved area, and some bloody-looking areas. None are to where you would say 'oh no!'...but when you're use to how it looks, they are each enough to say 'hmmm...I wonder why it looks like that now'. So anyway, hopefully I can get in to see Dr. Gupta Wednesday or so. Oh..Joe stuck me twice and my blood just did not want to come so..no P/I yesterday..at least it wasn't because I refused..lol!  Misty...is there an Immediate Care near you? We have several here in Indy and 2 very close to our house. When I have sinus infections, etc and don't want to have to wait until half of forever to get in to the pcp..or to have to drive all the way to Carmel, I go see one of them instead. They keep a record of my visits just like the doctor's office and they charge the same rates as a pcp's office with the same co-pay as a pcp office. If you have one, see if your insurance will cover it (if you can choose your pcp, it probably will). The first time I went to see them, my pcp was going to make me wait 2 weeks for an appointment when I had bronchitis! Our Immediate Care's have doctor's there until late..I thin****il ~11 pm or so...7 days a week... and they are doctors, not interns. Everytime I've gone to Community East's ER, I've gotten stuck wth an intern. With my allergies & lack of medical luck, I just feel safer in a DOCTOR's educated & experienced hands! Hope you get to feeling better! Have a good day! Sherri

Sherri, thats great bout Ellen!! I'm glad they're enjoying themselves. The snow thing is hilarious too, that sounds like my luck also. About 4 or 5  years ago I took my niece to Maryland with me to visit my sister and nieces up there as a Christmas gift to Alisa and to the nieces up there *****ally wanted to see each other. We flew up and my sister in Kentucky stressed over and over to make sure we're home by Christmas, well we couldn't leave til the week before and our only option to get back was to fly in on Christmas Eve and there was a HUGE snow storm that came pretty unexpectedly and I had nooo way to contact them to tell them our flight was being delayed and all that fun stuff. It was awful, my sister started freaking out. Heck then by time they were ready to get the flight going some people were offering 500 dollars for people to give their seats up and the airline was giving a garuntee that we would have a seat on the next flight but I didn't wanna take a chance of NOT getting home sooo I didn't take it. Had I had a way to contact them and tell them I would have definitely taken it but ooo well. Theres no immediate care centers round here unfortunately. Our only option is the ER. I'm not even sure where the nearest one is. I'm kinda hoping things will settle down and behave atleast til Monday and maybe I can get ahold of someone.