Frances, thinking of you!

Pete,
I'm not sure what you're referring to. I did see my eye doc last week. She said my eye looked good & at the time I mostly agreed with her, but the infection has returned & now I have a monster headache to boot. I feel like crud & just want to sleep. I had a bad time over the weekend. I was going to return a video on Saturday night & got into a very minor accident -- car vs. fence post (didn't even cause bumper damage, but it still hurt my back a ton & my right hand is really hurting a lot b/c my body had enough sense to throw the car into park to keep the damage to a minimum -- it worked, but now my hand & wrist are swollen and in a lot of pain -- so I may not be typing as much as usual).
To top things off, my evil mortgage company continues to harass me. I told them I have no money & can't pay, but they won't give me a rest. They keep changing their phone number so I can't just block their calls. Plus, I'm waiting on a call from my PCP about what's wrong with my stomach, so I've been answering my phone. I guess I need to change my number & not give the new one to the bank. I know that's evil, but honestly, I need time to sleep & this bank calls all the time & sends letters every day. I missed 2 payments a few months ago, but have been paying since then, but that doesn't matter to them. Ohhhh, I'm so frustrated.
I've been holding off on the Flexeril b/c I've worked so hard to build up my muscle strength, but I'm losing my willpower & think I may just need to take it for a while.

Hope you're enjoying "the good life" and catching plenty of fish. :)

Frances
the pain-ridden ex-wild one ;\

PA-
It's all just so frustrating. I worked things out with my credit card companies. They were very nice to me. All I had to do was put together a budget & go into the branch & talk with a lady. She got my interest rate down from 29% to 9% & wiped out about $1K in fees. She set me up with that deal for life as long as I keep paying. All I had to do was tell them what I could pay, show them regular income & send in my monthly checks. They counted me as being current, even though I wasn't at the time & the calls stopped right away.

My mortgage company is horrible. When I signed up for the loan, they marketed themselves as a friendly branch bank. It turns out that although they have bank accounts at the branches & sell loans out of them, the mortgages are moved out to a central location & no one has access to the account except the phone & internet people once the loan closes. It's just horrible. It's like an internet bank, with the rates of a neighborhood bank. The people won't work with me at all. They keep asking me to send them dozens of documents (including medical records) which I am totally unwilling to do -- plus my attorney has advised against it. I've told them I'm not sending them anything until they can tell me they'll do something to help me. Most of the reps have been straightforward & tell me there isn't any chance that even if I send them all that stuff they will give me any sort of a break. A few of them try to tell me I might have a small chance. All of them tell me I need to send the documents in -- though only a few have been creative enough with their lies to tell me that it is a legal requirement that mortgagees who default on their loans have to send the bank all these docs (honestly, what difference does it make what my diagnosis is & how exactly does it help anything to know what was written about me in my last performance review). I get it that there are some people out there trying to scam the system & usually I am more willing than most to give up some privacy to ensure that the people who most need services are able to access them, but this is just insane.

My ex-pastor used to preach that getting a mortgage loan was the equivalent of selling your soul to the bank -- it sure feels like that with the bank asking for medical records & performance reviews (among a whole host of other docs, only a few of which are reasonable). I am so sick. I don't have any energy to deal with all this craziness on top of trying to hold down a job, deal with raging hormones while my PCP tries to get my synthroid at the right level, multiple infections, a host of problems around my condo & now this horrible heat wave on top of everything else. It's just too much to try to deal with my psycho bank on top of all that. I just hate them.
They want me to sign a release for them to call & talk with my psycho evil boss. That's really the last thing I need. She doesn't keep anything to herself, telling my clients anything I tell her. The last thing I need is my psycho boss riding me about this or my clients finding out & asking me about it. I just feel like I'm trapped in one of those horrible carnival fun houses. I'm scared, tired, angry & I just want out of this nightmare!

Anice,
I can't afford to go to the doc from the pain caused by my minor collision. I can't bill it to my health insurance b/c it is auto-related & I don't want to submit it to my auto provider b/c it was really super minor. I'm sure I will get to feeling better soon. I can't take off any time at all from work unless I want to lose my job, anyways, so I suppose I should just stop whining about the pain. I'm just so frustrated right now. I can hardly keep anything down (including my meds) & my PCP is just aggravating me to no end b/c she's had my test results now for a week & a half and has yet to look at them to see if they tell her what's going on with my stomach. Oh, things are just so frustrating.

frances

(((((((((Frances)))))))))))

I understand. I really do.

PaLady

Skeye, Pa & John,
Thanks so much for your support. The pain from the minor accident has subsided. Unfortunately, the hormones have taken a turn for the worse. I got sick & dizzy and collapsed today at work. It scared my co-worker pretty badly. Honestly, it frightens me a bit as well. I keep trying to get a hold of my PCP, but she still is not returning my calls. Based on past experiences, she probably isn't even getting my messages. I guess I will have to see if I can maybe get an appointment to see her on Saturday. I can't keep this up much longer.
I ate a pile of salt to get my bp up, but that cannot possibly be healthy to keep doing over the long run. It is a crazy practice & I don't know what else I can do to get my doctor's attention. I've called. My parents have called. The people just take messages & tell me that my PCP has not yet looked at the test results. The blood place has cashed the check, and it has cleared, but still my doctor apparently can't be bothered to take 2 minutes to look over the test results in spite of how sick I am. I guess unless I'm giving her money she can't be bothered to do her job -- no, I know that's not true; she just has the laziest staff on the planet. I've actually ended up in the ER in the past & she's always asked me why I didn't call to talk to her. I tell her I've left like a dozen messages with her receptionist & she just says she never got any of them. Maybe that's her office policy not to look at any of the messages? I don't know. It just seems crazy that when someone is vomiting blood & passing out that they can't get their doctor/nurse to give them a quick call back to tell them what the test results were (esp. since she told me she would call me either way as soon as the test results came in, but not longer than a week after my appointment -- it's now been THREE WEEKS!)

Oh, I'm just so frustrated. I need to get well so I can keep my stupid pain meds down. Plus, it's not really good to take the meds on an empty stomach. It is screwing up how much medicine I'm getting & that's not good. Sometimes I'm getting too much & feeling sedated, other times I'm not getting very much pain relief at all & that's miserable. UUUGGGHH! And I've got to get my car's A/C fixed b/c that is no doubt making my pain worse. It is so miserably hot here; I just can't stand it. Heat always makes my pain 100x worse. I don't like the cold, but it does help keep the pain at bay.

My PM wants to try me on new things, but first off I can't get time off work to see him yet & secondly I'm not sure it's worthwhile to try new things for my pain when I have all these other problems working against me. It seems I would need to be able to keep any medication down -- we even tried transdermal applications, but they just get absorbed through your skin into your bloodstream & then I throw up. I don't even understand how that can possibly affect how much is in my system, but apparently it somehow does. Maybe when I feel better I will better understand what my PM was trying to tell me.

Well, I guess I should try to lie down for another restless night of sleep. I may be back later.

blessings,
frances

Yikes! I hate it when doc's don't return your phone calls, & neither does the staff, so you NEVER know if your message has gotten through or not. I think the worst are those automated voicemail box systems, where you have to go through this huge phone tree & then finally reach a machine. Great. What happened to the people?! That would create more jobs & stimulate the economy, too (not to get too political)! When you get docs like this, making an appointment is definitely best. But, geez! You'd think that after 3 wks & your continued illness, the doc would take a look at the darn test results!

Hope you're feeling better tonight, Frances!

hugs,
Skeye

Hi Frances,

Argh! Actually, just showing up might not be a bad idea if you can't get through at all. If nothing else, you could physically leave a message with the staff & then maybe it would get to your doctor.

My pcp has an associated web-practice thing, so he uploads all my bloodwork - complete with his report - onto the site. It's great! What's perhaps even better, is that I now have a copy of it that I can keep for my records, too!

Are you feeling any better, at least?

hugs,
Skeye