trying to ease back in on cmputer time.

Hello everyone, jeesh, its like I have been gone for a very long time and its been two weeks, wow. Talk about withdrawals lol. Cellulitis reared its ugly head and I have to keep these legs elevated due to swelling problems. As I was walking down the hall leaving the room he was behind me saying elevate, elevate, elevate till I got out of earshot. I thought I was going to have to write it in blood to make him understand I would elevate the legs or be put in the hospital and I raised holy h on that one. I spent 8 days in the hospital the last time I had cellulitis and still haven't forgotten that one lol.  New dr is hard headed and his new patient is hard headed so we met in the middle on that deal, with the understanding I would head straight to ER if it got any worse.  Like I told him they keep no one in the hospital this day and time and it was just my luck to have it happen to me lol. New dr also  thinks there is a vascular problem going with the legs and I saw a vascular surgeon last week. I am having ultra sound xrays Thursday on both legs to check out the main vein that runs down the front of the legs. He will be looking for blockage, valves not working properly and some other things I simply cannot remember. He said these things can cause the type of problems I am having with my legs. I think this all started back in 2004 with the swelling issues, discoloration of the legs & feet. My legs look like I have a constant sunburn look to them. Plenty of color to them, bright red. Most of the time there is heat in the legs too and they are painful to say the least. My gastro dr is the first one to say I needed  to see a vascular dr for blood flow problems but getting that through to other drs was not real easy, instead I was sent to my cardiologist and that was not his field lol. New guy asks me if I was ever told I was borderline diabetic and I proudly said no I am not, I had an AC1 done last Oct and my dr said it was normal. He promptly took the report out and showed it to me and said with a family history my dear you were working on having it real hard and probably have diabetes now and you should have been retested months ago and we will do that this week!! I flunked the diabetes, cholesterol & hemaglobin test last week lol. When it rains it pours as Scarred said in her post.

The guy that took care of me last week is a PA to the head dr at my clinic. I had never seen him before, and to my surprise I really like him. I have not ever had much luck with PA's in the past, but this guy had it on the ball and was not an idiot. My dr was on vacation and she is going to become a former dr of mine too. First rattle out of the box from him was omg you are on way, way, way too much medication.  I looked him right in the eye and said you are absolutely right, I am on way too much medication. However, if you will look at the medical history and medical problems you will find every bit of this medication is warranted and if you can come up with a better plan to reduce my medication and keep lme iving and functioning my hat is off to you. But, until you can come up with a different plan we will leave things as they are. And, if I scare you because I am a complex person with lots of medical problems and you are considering bolting out that door and not coming back, I will grab you by the neck with my cane and drag you back in here. I think I like you and you are going to be stuck with me, in fact you look like you need a good challenge with a patient and I am it. For a brief moment I could tell he did not know what to think but then he just cracked up laughing and said you are right, you will be a challenge. I do hope I am right about this guy. I spoke to the nurse when he left us and she said he was the very best PA she has ever worked for and out of all the PA's at the clinic he is the one to work under. So, we will see, I see him in the morning so he can gloat over the AC1 lol.

Sorry for the long post but now you know what I have been up to for the past two weeks. I will have to do my posting in spurts, the minute I start standing or sitting I start swelling a little bit more. Sure have alot of catching up to do. lol.

Sure hope everyone is doing ok. Hugs,

(((((Susie))))). I hope you can get this swelling under control & figure out the source! We've missed you here! I'm glad you found a PA that you like. I've only ever known two PA's: one was my orthopedic surgeon's PA & the other is a PA for an orthopedic surgeon that I work for (It actually took me a couple of weeks to realize that he was a PA. I thought that he was another surgeon! That says a lot.). They are both amazing & I respect them very much. But, on the other hand, I've heard about some very bad ones out there. I suppose that it's like anything else, you get good ones & bad ones. It sounds like you'll be a real challenge for this guy. I hope he's up to it!

Skeye

hi susie,
you wrote a long post & i'm not sure what all it says, but i think your legs are bad so i will say a prayers for you and hope you get better soon & your legs not have any problems.

take care & feel better,
f

straydog/Susie

I do hope you are following orders and keeping those legs elevated! You say your legs are bright red? and they are warm? And painful? Those are not good signs, I will be curious to know what the ultra-sound on your legs will show. You take care of yourself, it sounds like you just might have yourself a winner when it comes to PA's. Actually I often would perfer to see a PA or Nurse Practioner than the Doctor, I can relate to them better ( being a nurse) and I actually think I have gotten better an more thorough care from them! For the most part I find them easier to talk with and they usually spend more time, and are not as hurried as most Doctors are! That is just my opinion though! I do hope they find out what is going on!
I wish you well Susie!

White Beard

 

   Dear Susie,

 

     *warm huggs* I am glad you stopped by. I am so sorry to hear that so much has happened! Holy cow, you have ALOT going on! I do hope this new course of action proves to be stepps in the right direction.  I hope you can find a few moments here and there to rest thou. Sounds like things are gonna be very busy for you for a while !

 

*huggs*

    dani 

Hey gang, yes, I do like this PA. He was very smart and did not come off with an ego as I have seen before. Wanting to play dr but not quite there lol. The last one that saw me in an emergency was a little gal about 18 yrs old thats how young she looked. I could not get my breath and was so short winded. I guess I scared the living h out of her, my lips were bluish and she ran to my dr scared stiff lol. It was like we will call you an ambulance, I am like no, I walked in, I will walk out, I drove myself here, I will drive myself to ER and did. I did the same thing when they thought I was having a heart attack, kept throwing bad EKG's. ER did nothing except want to load me up with steroids which I cannot take the dr insisted on trying to push them on me.  

What a fiasco that was.

PaLady I guess I really broke the ice with this guy with my speech, he just needed to know up front where I stood and that was my best way of telling him. I do realize because of the allergies to medication which includes most of the good ones they tell me-when I get sick it is a challenge to treat me, all of my drs have told me this for years. Steroids cause me to go into congestive heart failure, been there & done that several times, not fun, but steroids used short term only would be terrific for many of my health conditions, so I give them something to think about and I am a challenge for them as a patient for sure lol. Remember once when hospitalized an unknown gastro gave me IV steroids and I went into CHF.  I had made it very clear I could not take them. Three days later the nurses are calling him to get in to see me because of the CHF and the idiot had the gall to ask me "what happened" When I questioned him on what drugs I had been given in the IV he fessed up to steroids and said "but I was only giving you low doses in an effort to get you stablized". This is why I avoid hospitals at all costs. The drs do not listen.

It will be interesting to see how my appt goes with the PA this morning. Wish me luck I need all I can get. The diabetes thing bothers me. Now, I know why the sores on my feet have not healed up for the past year.

Its going to take me quite a while to get caught up but I will make it.

White Beard, yes my legs have been a problem for a long time and they are painful as well.  I get the awful burning in them. Of course there is usually always so much fever in them that I look like a lizard from the skin peeling after the fever in them. I do hope the vascular guy can figure it out.

PaLady how are you doing, are you still muddling along with all of your problems, I think thats about all any of us can do. I have to go back one more time and get my 2nd crown put on. The one that came in was defective and the new one is in, just have not felt well enough to go out there yet. Have you filed for your SSD yet? If not my dear get a move on and get her done lol. Yes, it tuff, but then you are tuff and you can do it. Remember practice what ya preach here woman!! You need the $ no doubt so look at it from that angle, it helped me. We went to a one income family and yes, I had money in an IRA that had been rolled over from my 18 yr job, but it was just not feasible to tap into that source, far too costly in the long run. this helped me get off my duff and get down to business with SSD.

Take care everyone.

Susie,
Nice to see you back and sure hope you can get the swelling down..I will
keep you in my thoughts and prayers...I'm glad you took a shine to this newbie
PA...don't tarnish him much, eh..lol, just joking...
Hope your feeling better soon, keep us posted..
hugz and lots of them..
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Susie)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))