Ended up this morning getting a ride by ambulance to the hospital

All is well, well not that serious.
Nasty headache, nausea, dizziness and vomiting.
CAT scan, blood work, cardiogram and IV fluids with proper medications of promethazine and meclizine, now more for home, both are for nausea and vomiting and causing delightful sleeping to the point of near-like coma slumber, just awoke.
Although, I am scheduled for more doses now, I am still rather groggy.

That is why now I shall wish you all a very good night, and ask you to kindly count your blessings and we will too!
And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS This should be  one heck of a  co-pay! No worries, NOT!

Got an email from our vice president Joe Biden today, and so...

I decided that I would let him know what's what, so I wrote back...

To democraticparty@democrats.org

Today at 4:53 PM

Dear Joe,

When I vote, which is only unfortunately during major elections, since being a registered non-partisan does not allow me or my husband to do otherwise. I feel as you do that the Republicans have nearly all their causes wrong, and so I will be voting Democratic as I have before when I believed in the reasoning or the person.

Meanwhile, I have a serious issue I have taken my insurance through Healthcare.gov and I am paying two hundred dollars more a month from my pre-existing insurance previously, that was $342 and now I am paying $561.51, I am receiving a $274 financial assistance from the healthcare.gov program for Florida Blue Options a platinum plan, since I have MS I needed to be well covered. (I will be eligible for Medicare in a little over one year. )

Today, I went to my neurologist and he ordered MRIs (four) for my brain, cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions due to me experiencing what most likely is an exacerbation of my Multiple Sclerosis. The problem is the co-pay price quote of $862.71!!!!! ( I am currently on hold with Florida Blue trying to make sense of this expense and so far the person came back on the phone stating that it was actually over $1000 co-pay, but she is calling the MRI facility to get their price for accuracy, the $862.71 is correct...!!! I do not believe this means our medical coverage is affordable even so!!!!) I do believe that is an exorbitant amount and quite a bit for us, my husband is a disabled deputy and our income is around $XXXXX a year and we do have a mortgage that we have a HARP on! I still meet the criteria for my expensive MS Copaxone co-pay through the Assistance Fund, which pays my monthly $150 co-pay for that! So why would anyone think that we would be able to or want to pay that co-pay that is more than our mortgage which includes our taxes and insurance, $XXX a month! That is a lot of out of pocket money for us. We have a paid for, nearly thirteen year old car with low mileage of only 41K original miles on it, due to us both not being able to venture out of our ten mile radius. But that is fine we do have all we need here.

Except it seems that we lack medical coverage that truly is affordable!

It is hard enough being ill and trying to live and some how managing to set aside monies for any emergencies, which seem to happen too frequently. I have one infection after another while going to an exercise facility trying to waylay more problems, but although we cleaned each piece of equipment others did not and so I was on steroids three times in Oct. and Nov. and Cipro in March.

Each occasion called for a doctor's office visit, so I have now decided I cannot go there anymore! Between that and cataract surgery it very well may be responsible for this flair; it's a vicious cycle.

Thanks for listening; just wish something could be done!

We will be paying for this, since we have no choice.

Cordially,

XXXXX XXXXXXX

So that is why this is late, also due to the two hours I was involved with waiting and talking to Florida Blue, which is Blue Cross and Blue Shield for you other state people. I 'X' d out certain  things to protect some information due to Hubby, but we all know my real name and so that was done just for the heck of it!

On that note of no sense,which it does appear my life has had many a day making not unlike today, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, ya hear!

PS I know that he probably won't ever see it; I am nothing if not a realist, but it was good for me to vent to possibly someone who could change things? Who knows, really????

Saw the eye doc today and guess what...

I have some fog under righty's brand new cataract lens!
Thus the blurriness, now added into swelling of the healing, so I was not seeing/imagining things after all!
Pun meant wholeheartedly, with this exacerbation of my Multiple Sclerosis, oh what fun!

That will be validated tomorrow if this new neuro guy accepts an exam, not a MRI, but he might need both for him to be sure...oh joy, more time a wasting for action! How I hate that!

PS I will need to have the right eye lasered once the swelling goes down in a month if it doesn't rectify itself like lefty did with that fog underneath its lens! What surprised me the most was that this doc said this was a common problem with cataract surgery and has to be done quite often, while the other docs did not tell me that at all and also wanted to charge me an additional $500 to fix the problem after they charged me $2000 for the surgery itself, back in January 2010, without any insurance for my eyes then! I am just saying if it is that common a problem it should have been included, hmm? I do believe that now the cost is all inclusive.
 Meanwhile for me to see distance they have physically removed my right lens from my eyeglasses that I now have been told to wear for seeing the TV and Hubby's back seat driving, my idea/thought processes, ha, etc. i.e. for all distance wise... lefty again is having to take charge for it is my left eye that has the all encompassing view of my world unencumbered! Ta Da!
Frustrating to think that after all my eyes have been through this happens.
But as the doctor says and I concur, I can see out of righty and that is incredible, even though my right eye now is blurry and at times causes me to have double vision!

Hubby and I did tackle the going out to lunch thingy.

I used my scooter, again to go into the eye docs, last time I did the walker, and so when we went over to Chili's I used my walker since the distance was shorter and I thought that I should try...and asked to sit at a table very close to the entrance. The server was accommodating. Although, when we began to leave I could not walk with the walker and Hubby had to go get my scooter out of the car, thankfully it was there. Got home and planted myself in the recliner, Hubby even brought me my Copaxone shot, ironically it and the 300 MG. Gabapentin dose that although it had been taken with us but both were administered later than usual, who knows if that added to the cause of my MS problems... for today, but this all started last Wednesday, more than the 24 hour criteria being met for an exacerbation, just my initial misinterpretation for being my herniation, but it is on both sides and arms and hands too and that is where MS flairs take over from disc issues, I do believe... Between my infections and cold and then surgery I do have significant triggers according to what is stated for that thing...

On the brighter side...
Lunch was delish, but enormous again and so we, Hubby and I took half of each of them all home for dinner tonight, his flat-bread with chicken, and mine my shrimp tacos, both very recommendable.

Speaking of which my dinner is calling and so on that note, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all kindly to count your blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Mellow day

We watched Les Miserables this afternoon, Hubby and I, compliments of our Netflix  account, the musical movie circa 2012, and this was my third form of the classic Victor Hugo story told that I have seen. The first was watched with our eldest son, just him and me, the non-musical movie, circa 1978 version, while Number One Son was home sick on bed rest with a hip swelling, probably  caused by rough housing, it was around 1982. If I recall it properly, due to it being very scary since we had been told that if it did not get better that he might have been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis at only ten years old, but whatever it was that caused it, resolved and never returned, thankfully. The movie had made quite an impression on him about honesty, ha, a bit of overkill on the topic. The second time, for us, Hubby and I, was when our younger son bought us holiday tickets to see the Broadway musical show, but here in Florida, at the Barbara B. Mann theater in Fort Myers back in the late nineteen nineties.

Netflix, yep we had cancelled Blockbuster last summer and went without until Hubby bought me this laptop in December and it came with a free month of the Netflix and it was such a good deal for only $8.99 a month after that, so we just continued, we had been foolishly paying $18.99 for Blockbuster.
Sure we have seen quite a few movies since and I am sorry that I haven't been critiquing them. I will try to rectify that over the next few months.

The idea  of watching movies on a nearly ninety degree day, which many would consider a pool or beach day is a long time resident of Florida's concept of how to  spend it, especially when you are unable to move due to body pain!

Yes, we all have our reasons for staying indoors when we know that so much is going on out in the world on a Sunday afternoon. We are aware of the Home and Garden show that was going on indoors all weekend, even for free at our own Charlotte Harbor Events and Conference Center less than five miles from our home. 
But sadly it is a no go due to me being unable to sit again, straight up, that is; for me now it is either reclining or lying on my side with the pillow there for support.

Standing is very hard to do as well and my legs are in awful shape and have been dragged with me using my walker just to go to the bathroom. I have not even been able to go into the sun-room to use our old faithful desktop computer or go down that ramp to open it or the accordion blinds in there for the last few days; thanks to Hubby they have  been opened though, just the blinds!

It is a good thing that Hubby bought this thingy, it has come in handy for me to publish my daily blogs...

Right now he is taking a break from waiting on me and picking up our dinner at Bob Evans, for me salmon and for him turkey; wow he's back now!  

So on that note allow me to wish all of you a very happy good night and kindly count all your blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS This version of Les Mis was wonderful too!

Partying is not in my body ... yet!

Sadly, my medication has not seemed to have worked as of today.
My pain level has been severe, causing Hubby to have become a total caretaker again for most all of the day.

The possibility of this being a Multiple Sclerosis exacerbation has made that on the list higher on reasoning's of what is going with me.
And this is due to my hands and arms being included in my numbness and pain my finger tips having those bump de-bumpy bump sensations and dropping and breaking my club soda cup this morning all over the floor when trying to take the medication; I ended up using my coffee cup over the counter, cautiously.
With my L3-4 herniation, I don't believe that would be happening or causing the upper body issues?

I awoke early again due to pain and felt at five thirty A.M. that I should start my prescribed medications of the 300 MG. Gabapentin and 20MG. Baclofen along with my normal intake of  Levorthyroxine 75 MCG. All was ingested then, and after breakfast was my second dosage of 300 MG. of Gabapentin that Hubby served to me in the recliner on a tray again after the multi-grain waffles and one turkey sausage patty, and that was at nine-thirty.

You would think after all that I would be feeling better, hmm?
This is my third day of getting back on all of it and so I do believe I will be needing additional intervention, perhaps IV steroids again?
And that is only if  I don't start showing some, at least a little bit, of improvement soon, true?

This is already getting old fast.
Oddly enough the only mail today was my Florida Blue Options (Blue Cross and Blue Shield) memory stick with a welcome letter dated February 2014 and the stick having a 127 page contract without one word of my financial responsibility of any of what it does or does not cover!
I am so happy that at nearly sixty-four years old it covers maternity and premies and all other necessary medical coverage that I would no longer need at my age, like surgical birth control etc., since I had that done a month after my third miss-carriage, and having thankfully two healthy children!

So much of what I am paying dearly for is covered, big time, thankfully, as it should be with minimal co-pays!
Not stated in or on the info sent, but online when I chose this particular policy at the Florida Blue site.

It is great since my co-pay for my cataract surgery was two hundred and that was for the whole shebang!
My in home physical therapy was zero co-pay and that was amazing.

Medications prices fluctuate by whichever pharmacy you use, but I have a ninety days' supply right now, for them all, at a little more than $100, for five prescriptions.

Well, if I felt better some of this would be  a reason to rejoice, but I am waiting impatiently for the 'feel better' to kick in.

On that note of me not too good about anything, allow me to anyway wish all of you a very hapy good night and kindly ask you to count all your blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Thinking that many things we do are right...

I did what I said I was going to do in last night's blog.

Trying hard to feel better by taking the medications I was originally dosage and prescribed amounts for my lumbar herniation of Gabapentin and Baclofen, when I failed Tramadol intake due to it making me physically sick to my stomach, which is not what you want in pain already, true?

So the medications were ingested by me yesterday and also today and so far I had a wonderful night's sleep last night and took a nap that Hubby had to wake me up from to watch my only Soap Opera left that I have watched on and off for over forty years, forty two this month to be exact. You know why I know that?

Well, when I left Lord and Taylor's from my job as their credit manager due to my darling first child being due in June, on the sixteenth and so I thought I would have six weeks to finish preparing for his arrival, but in those days we did not know or have that option to know for sure if we were having a boy or girl until they arrived.

It was fine since we had neutral colors for our baby layettes, yellows or mint green. I opted for yellow from crib sheets to blankets etc. He had a wonderful very happy theme to come home to of the Smiley Face, a lamp and other accoutrements were my choices for whomever our child was, happiness is what I wanted he/she to see right away!

I was hoping that I would make him/her smile from the very beginning and sure enough with yellow and orange, yes, orange in the tweedy carpet in that room and combo yellow/orange print curtains, bringing it all together, way back in 1972!

Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever most Moms would look at the early arrival of a birth of their first son, by a two full weeks, plus a couple of days. He was small, our Number One Son, at 5 lbs. 12 oz. and just 19 inches long but perfectly healthy and perfectly formed, and before leaving the hospital his weight declined to 5 lbs. 7 oz. that I do understand is normal, but he still looked so very tiny, but not a preemie by their standards then or now so I have been told.

So when I left work on April 30, 1972 expecting a nice little adjustment time of waiting and enjoying the wait and of course the preparation I was firming up my friendship with another woman who had just had her second son and had been our friend with her husband, and we had attended their wedding and they had attended ours. It was nice Mommy time learning and talking and watching Soaps together, yep she got me hooked on General Hospital, way back then. And often when I was not working during those next forty-two years I was a fan that was as avid as any!

So Hubby over these last few years that we have been retired together has known this and makes sure that at the very least on Fridays and Mondays I am able somehow able  to watch since the cliffhangers are then and so much hinges on those, it is so great that he gets that!

He woke me for that today right on time and I thanked him, in spite of the fact that I was groggy from my medication, I suspect.
And with me napping is highly unusual, but I could not keep my eyes open, really, and after that long good night's sleep.

A bit unnerving, since the local TV channel was doing an item on why adults napping are dangerous and not healthy for us.

Who knows why all of a sudden this is happening, when it did not affect me this way ever before, that is the Gabapentin and Baclofen in combo or alone.

I do have a doctor's appointment next week with my new neuro, second time seeing him, and that makes me feel that if this side affect doesn't stop I will be able to ask him about what to do.

The worst of the whole thing is that so far I have not noticed a significant relief, yep a little but not too much.

I am hoping it is just because I just started back on it all, hmm?

Sounds logical to me. I only wish I could remember if that is what happened last time, and that was four months ago...


So that is where I painfully sit and only stand for still short periods while going from point A to point B, not far in this tiny home of ours...

On this note of waiting, not so patiently to feel good, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS: Please forgive any typos; I appear to have a bit of an eyelid drooping issue, even with both eyes now focusing, weird, huh? But I did Google it and it can be either the MS or the cataract surgery, which says it too is not unusual and could last six months!

Just when you think it is safe...

To stop all those nasty medications, which, by the way are not that bad after all!

Here's what has been happening... I thought that I was in the catch and release mode of medication, huh?

Yep, the trying to minimize the quantified amount of medication going into my bodily system is not as easy as one might think. And I was nearly there with the Gabapentin from this last prescribed dosing of 1200 MG.  and the 40 MG. of the Baclofen I had managed as of last night to get the Gabapentin down to only a daily dose of 150 MG. and only 5 MG. for the Baclofen!
I was thrilled that I had managed that until later that night I had a rude awakening about why my body was turning on me all over again.
It took a night of only four hours of sleep due to severe pain as if my herniation just happened all over again and as if it was not alone in its mischief of creating havoc with my spinal column including my neck region.
So after turning the TV off on Craig Ferguson in the wee hours of the night and actually taking this horrible painful body of mine out of what should have been a warm cocoon of a bed of relaxation and that was shortly after five A.M. ...I realized as if a slap went across my far head saying, "YOU IDIOT IT WAS THE MEDS/DRUGS THAT MADE YOU FEEL BETTER AND NOT NOTICE THE PAIN!"
So I proceeded to begin the cure, for the pain, all over again with a dosing of 1200 MG. of Gabapentin and 40 MG. of the Baclofen, by taking it as originally prescribed 300 MG. Gabapentin morning, 300 MG. Gabapentin at noon, and 600 MG. Gabapentin at bedtime, and the Baclofen 20 Mg. in the morning and 20 MG. Baclofen at bedtime, wow, sleep, what a concept; looking forward to it tonight!

By late morning I was almost able to walk again, but Hubby still fed me both breakfast and lunch with a tray while I sat in the recliner.

So now I do know that with a bit of research that neuropathic pain is lessened with the two medications and neither are controlled substances or even narcotics thankfully, so why was I so worried?

Because Neurontin the non-generic name of Gabapentin is for also epilepsy and in order to stop taking it, it is definitely necessary to wean yourself off of it like I have done twice now, taking three weeks each time so as not to have bad side affects, which range from all different horrors.  It’s dosing needs to be closely regulated, and there are a couple of very serious but rare side effects including a life-threatening rash and in fact, seizures.

Odd that something so powerful is not a narcotic or considered a control substance. 

And now I will most likely be on these medications indefinitely due to the fact that it is also helpful for the Multiple Sclerosis symptoms and initially that is why it was prescribed and I had been on the higher dose of 1800 MG. daily.

What is going through my head right now, "if its not broke why fix it?" 

Meaning the medications did what they were meant to do, and I did not realize that.

On that note of why not, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!