Friday, December 16, 2005

evening

We Have Itty Bitty Kittens…Temporarily

They’re very cute.  Check out Leigh-Ann’s blog for pictures.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

evening

The Daily Factoid - Beer

Malaysians protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer.

Rick Mercer would approve.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

lunch time

Hurray, Hurray, Hurray For Dr. FancyPants’ Office!

Not long after I’d left my message with Dr. FancyPants’ office, I received a call back.  The woman (let’s call her Magic) said, “But you were supposed to be scheduled for a selective nerve root block on December 2.  I told Trudy (that’s what I’ll be calling her now) that you needed to have it done and she said it had been scheduled for 12/2.” I told Magic that I had my appointment with Dr. $250’s office on 11/30 and Trudy told me she’d call me on 12/1, after she’d talked to my insurance company.  But, ah, clearly she was supposed to have talked to them in early November, before I’d even suffered through my 3.5 hour ordeal at that office.  No wonder the doctor was like, “Hey yeah, injection.  Know what that entails?  Yeah, the herniation is big.  Okay, go talk to Trudy.” He probably thought everything was on its way to being taken care of.  But noooooooooooo, it was phone tag hell, where I’m always *it*.  Anyway, after sounding disgusted that my injection wasn’t scheduled for 12/2 like she’d planned, Magic went to work.  She called me back a few minutes later telling me that my injection is scheduled for 12/30, and that it’s been approved by my insurance company.  This makes things a tight squeeze schedule-wise because my surgery is 1/11, with a pre-surgical appointment on 1/3, where I’m supposed to have all of my labs done.  I haven’t had those done because I know they only last a certain period of time (maybe six weeks), so getting them done before I knew I was having surgery would be pointless.  Now, I have to have them done...before the injection, before I know if the injection works.

Trudy is supposed to mail all of the information to me about the procedure, time, and location.  I’m sure she was probably just about to call me with the appointment news.  Magic said that if I don’t receive the information by the 21st, to call her and she’ll get it for me.  She also said if I have any other problems, don’t hesitate to call her.  Right now, I think I’m a little in love.  Or, I suppose it could be gratitude.  Regardless, perhaps I’ll send her a little holiday token of my appreciation.

Man, and today, the pain is the worst it’s been in weeks.  Yuk.  Tomorrow we have to drive across town to take Phoenix to the doggie opthalmologist, but Friday I’ll be going back to the chiropractor.  Hopefully he can halt the new little pain soldiers.  I suppose the silver lining is that if the pains continues, I’ll know for sure if the injection works on the 30th.  Although, right now it hurts when I cough (I’m just at the very end of a stupid longlasting cold), which is so utterly unpleasant.  I guess it’s back to the ice-packs.

late morning

The Maddening Adventure of Unreturned Calls

I called the doctor’s office again today.  The person’s extension just rang and rang and rang and rang.  Finally, I called Dr. FancyPants’ office and left a message for their appointment person, telling her that I was going to have to cancel two of my appointments (pre-surgical and surgery) with Dr. FancyPants because I can’t get Dr. $250’s office to schedule my lumbar injection.  I told her I was getting worse again (yesterday, the return of the, uh, butt pain) and that it was moving into my other leg.  When I called her before and told her Dr. $250’s office hadn’t called me to schedule an appointment like they were supposed to, she called them and they called me that same day to schedule an appointment.  Sure, one that was at least three weeks away, but at least she got them to call.  Still, this is all getting ridiculous.  I just want the stupid injection to see if it works.  Gah!

late morning

The Daily Factoid - Twofer

No factoid yesterday, so today you get two.  Firstly, Sales of Rolaids, Alka-Seltzer, and Tums jump 20% in December.  Shocking, huh? 

The second factoid is, if you give a dog too much of a certain kind of pressed bone and said dog eats its poop, it will throw up constantly for an hour all over the bedroom floor.  It will completely miss every spot that could easily be cleaned, in favor of nooks, crannies and dog beds.  Said vomit will smell disgusting and will only be alleviated by incense made of real wood.  This morning, the bedroom smells like a cabin in the woods - the good kind of smell, not one related to bears in the woods.