Sunday, June 15, 2014

Meds for the ol' ticker and face falling off.

Hi lambs. Well, they say when it rains, it pours and obviously that isn't limited to regular problems, but will also carry over to body problems as well.

After three weeks of trying to get a regular doctor appointment in regards to my blood pressure, I had to actually lie to the really rude appointment desk person to get one. No, scratch that. I lied to her, got to leave a message for my doctor's nurse, and then someone else called me anonymously and told me how to get a same day appointment.

Which sounds like something from the Game of Thrones but I assure you, it is not. It's our modern day health care system. I haven't gone to the doctor in five years and suddenly, this year I'm in someone's office at least once a month. Apparently, 2014 is the year for everything to fall apart on me.

But I had this magical appointment on Thursday. The issue has been my blood pressure. It's consistently been 145/90 for over a year. At every appointment I've gone to I've heard, "Whoa- that's really high. You need to have this looked at." and yet, nobody looks at it. Not my doctor, not the OB, not the Urgent Care doctors, nobody does anything about it other than look at it on my chart and comment how high it is. Apparently, unless it's part of your visit when you scheduled the appointment, it doesn't count as a real problem.

So when I went in on Thursday, my doctor was like, "Well, it is high. It's way too high for a 32 year old. And you've lost weight, so even though you're obese, it still shouldn't be this high." And that's right, I'm obese. Because on top of feeling like my chest is going to explode, my face hurting, and a miscarriage, I also want to hear I'm obese. I'm 5'3 and 181 pounds. I'm not even a contender for The Biggest Loser at this point.

Anyways.

So after much discussion she asks why I haven't been put on high blood pressure medication. I think I stared at her for a full 10 seconds before I said, "I don't know. You're my primary care physician, I should ask you that since I was here not even 3 months ago for a physical." She then goes into back pedal mode saying how you know, they don't rely on one visit to determine that... etc etc. I finally leave there with my prescription in hand and then, her telling me that I should postpone my oral surgery scheduled for the following Thursday as a precaution.

Normally, I would be ecstatic about this except that my face? It hurts. And when I say it hurts? I mean it feels like it's caving in. Everything on that side of my face hurts. Half of my nose hurts, my ear hurts, my eye ball feels sore, not to mention it is now impossible to chew on that side of my mouth. So now I'm in a situation- do I:

A) Be a good patient, reschedule for next month, allowing my new meds a full month to kick in and do their job and suffer through the pain or,

B) Call the oral surgeon, tell him the meds I'm on and see what he says and hope he says let's do it anyways because obviously I shouldn't have this pain any longer?

Then on top of that, I can tell my hormones have leveled themselves out post miscarriage just fine because the headache situation this week has been pretty brutal. I'm really thankful that I purchase ten ice packs when they went on sale because I've been solidly going through them all week and weekend. Ten is great as far as rotation goes. I keep having random periods of cramping and that's annoying all on its own.

Oh yes. And then this week, I also get to go to the dermatologist. My mom's bout of skin cancer last year has freaked me out since I have since learned that skin cancer isn't necessarily a mole, it can look like weird patches of dry skin and oh yes, have those. She had three different types of skin cancer, one of which is genetic and lord knows if it's bad and genetic, it's bound to hit me at some point. It's only taken me a freaking YEAR to get into a dermatologist because apparently, we have a shortage of those around here. So while it's not a convenient week to go and I really can't handle being in yet another doctor office this week, I'm going because god knows when I'll get in again. Then Thursday is maybe my oral surgery, putting me out of commission for Thursday-Sunday I'm sure. I've been reading message boards about dental bone grafting and everyone is saying how it's not an "easy" recover like the pamphlets say and that you will feel like you've been hit in the face with a sledge hammer.

So that should make for a lovely weekend.

Good thing I stocked up on ice cream and have it hidden under bags of frozen vegetables in the basement.

7 comments:

Shooting Stars Mag said...

I did not realize you had a miscarriage. I'm so sorry about that. And I'm sorry about all these medical things. I'm really lucky to have a great primary doctor, but I know not everyone is as lucky as I am...and even with that, it's super difficult to get certain things done. I think dermatologists are difficult to get into in general...I always hear people have to wait for the longest time. I hope the surgery goes well, if you do get to have it, and that the new medicine helps with the high blood pressure!

-lauren

middle child said...

This certainly isn't your year! On the plus side, the year is about half over.
I think of you often. ♥

thotlady said...

Don't read the internet when it comes to medical stuff...it will just scare you.

Good luck with the surgery. I had oral surgery 18 months ago. Hang in there.

Kattrina said...

2014 is not your year. I have high hopes for 2015.

I would call the oral surgeon and ask him his opinion. Regular docs don't know much about specialties and they always tend to err on the side of caution. I've had them tell me lots of things and then Evan's peds doctor will completely go in the opposite direction and say that it's totally fine to do "x" or to take "y" medication while nursing. Just my opinion.

Also, you have some crappy doctors. I have to say that my doctors aren't amazing but they definitely are more reactionary than yours are. I'm not sure it's really the health system to blame all the time, sometimes it's the doctors themselves. Have you thought about switching? I switched primary care doctors five times before I found one I liked - but now I'm super happy with her.

And people are obsessed with their skin because it takes FOREVER to get a dermatology appointment all across the US. It is crazy.

Brenda said...

Sweet Lord above. WOW. I'm so damn sorry for all you are going through. Yeah, to say 2014 isn't your year is an understatement.
I'm so sorry to hear about the miscarriage.

Julie H said...

You should call the oral surgeon and tell him.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

Are you still have the surgery tomorrow or have they postponed it?