dandy knocked peachy out of the tree (monday pt #2)

hi all... this here is a continuation from the comments section of the below post. because this time rather than not being able to shut up... i may not be able to get goin if i talk too much in the box. so i'll just put it here once. how's that?


first... i want to thank y'all..again for comin by, and wishing us well today. the prayers seem to have helped... a lot. i mentioned to my daughter a while ago that y'all had been praying for her to have a good first day of school today. she got the sweetest little look on her face, and said "awww, your blog people are so caring." it was really sweet. and kinda nice to watch that teen angst get wiped clean off her face !!! :))
so yes, she did have a good day. she looks happier today than i have seen in a while. she looks ALIVE again. PLUS... i found out, hubby didn't wake her up this morning. SHE got herself up !!! for like the third time in her whole life ! WOO HOO!!!

ok... second.... y'all know i took her to school, came home, gathered my crap, and headed out to DALLAS VA Hospital . my MOST favorite place. you know i'm a liah !
well... surprisingly..... aside from the hellish DFW morning rush hour traffic, the drive went fairly well. i experienced quite a bit of anxiety though, but i did not get lost, and this time barely had to refer to my map except for a couple of turns.
sooooo. i arrive at the hospital. already anticipating HELL DAY. no parking, shitty doctors, neglect, i ran the whole day through my mind before i drove into the lot... and it wasn't a pretty sight. (hence the high anxiety).
well... get this: i found a parking spot almost immediately !!! there was a car backing out of it, a car in front of me, then me. i just knew the car in front of me was going to park there. i went as far as to call them an asshole ! then the one car drives off... and they did too ! and i slid right into that parking spot that wasn't two hundred miles from the door. (or 45 minutes in a valet line).
what a start !!!!
ok, so then... i walk in..of course. and i go to EKG. i expect a long wait, and a big hassle. guess what? didn't happen. there were two guys in front of me, and one gettin worked on...... and it was all over with in maybe half an hour.
my next stop... oh, it was about 11:00 by now. i had left the house around 930 ish).
so, i go to X-RAY... for a chest x-ray. and guess what? in and out of there in less than thirty minutes TOO !!!! God was smilin on me !!!
then, i went to get my labs done. OMG. i almost fell over when i saw that place. there was literally , i'm guessing , but it has to be close, 100 people there, waiting for labs. ok... wait, that's really a lot of people. lets say 60. i obviously didn't count them, but there was a daamn LOT of them. some sitting, some standing...and they even had one wall lined with wheelchairs (with people in them) with signs that said "wheelchair parking". the place was freakin packed.
so anyhow. i woulda been happy to leave at that time. but i couldn't . so i get in line...maybe ten people in front of me. another guess. i had time to count them... just didn't want to. but i did have one guy in front of me... a older guy wearing a black leather biker jacket and one of those "scarf" things on his head. and the guy behind me , oh lordy. he looked like somethin that crawled out of a new mexico gutter. (no offense to new mexico peeps... hubby was born and raised there, and i lived there too.... just a reference peeps)... so anyhow... he was wearing a leather hat, he was all snaggly toothed, i could barely understand what he was saying... except the "MAAM! MAAM! part. gawd. he kept trying to talk to me. MAAM! MAAM! geesh. i tried and tried to ignore him , but i just can't be THAT rude. then the dude in front of me starts talkin to me too! i'm literally trapped between two men that i would probably run from on the street , and they're talkin to me like they have known me forever. i all but ignored them...but they wouldn't shut up !!! MAAM! ugh!
but.... again GOD smiled on me...... even though i should have been there for about three hours by the looks of it... i got to the front to turn in my slip etc.. and i told the girl... "i have to pee... if i pee now, i won't be able to pee later"... so she got me all signed in, gave me a cup to pee in, (to take in the bathroom of course :)) .. and said they would call me. so i went in the back to do the cup thing... and know what happened? i open the bathroom door..and there's a dude takin a pee !!! in scrubs ! he worked there. you would think he might KNOW to lock the damn door??? well, needless to say, i slipped out with an apology, and went to the other bathroom .
and NO i didn;t see anything! thank God!
ok... so i then go back out to wait. for what i thought would be an eternity. i sat for maybe five minutes, and then thought... i sure do want a cigarette! so i went and smked one (outside). i came back, sat down.. and maybe five minutes later... they called my name ! the girl said she was gonna send me to the (something inaudible) lab across the hall, that it would be faster. well, holy shit, i'll take it ! i go over there, there's ONE person sittin waiting. ONE. i got my blood drawn , in and out (of that section) in like five minutes! i was sooo happy i went and smoked another cigarette !
THEN... i went to check in for my actual DR. appointment. the check in line seemed to take quite a while, but once i got thru there, i may have waited like 30-40 more minutes to be seen by the doc. (somewhere in there were vitals etc).
so, i get in to see the dr. i had never seen him before. so i didn't know what to expect. y'all know i was expecting a worthless ass hat though don't ya?
well, he wasn't bad. coulda been better. but, he was pretty thorough. except for the fact that this is like the umpteenth dr i have seen in the last six months and he did not touch my back !!!
but oh well. maybe they don't need to touch it. anyhow, he was a very serious man. not very old either. maybe my age..not 40 but 50 . just somewhere in there. but the guy didn't smile once, he didnt get off topic once, he just asked questions, got answers, wrote prescriptions, gave orders, and i left. or maybe i was told to leave. hmmm. he was actually kind of intimidating. not a big guy. just way too serious.
bUT.. the good part??? he actually gave me real pain meds. just T3..(tylenol w/codeine) but hell, it beats tearing my stomach up with bottles of aspirin.
he also refilled my hydrortisone..for the addisons. PHEW! i was almost out, and had already cut the dose from 30 mg a day down to 10 at this point! now i have enough to get back on a therapeutic doasage again, and i just might get some energy back. or "roid rage". hmmm.
and...he set me up with an endocrinologist. FINALLY. i have been trying to get with a endo doc since i got back to texas. i couldnt get in any sooner than... shit now i dont remember...but it was gonna be months, and months i didnt have to go without meds. so now i'm good.

he also gave me migraine meds. would you believe the vA stopped using Imitrex...at all? not just the shots...the whole shebang. that really sucks. i use the shots, cuz they work fast and i don't puke it up...obviously. but now i have a new one. a pill. don't remember the name right now. but at least i got it.

and..he also gave me a brand new TENS unit for my back. the one i have is like ten years old, and almost useless. now i have a new one. (it sucked having to pick it up, i'll get to that part in a few)

ok... that was about it with this guy....except, he needed a cortisone level....which meant i had to go BACK to the lab. ugh man. i just new it would take forever. i went over there...only like one or two people in line in front of me... i get up there...and she sent me right back !!!! woo hoo !!!
they drew one more vial of blood, and that was it...and guess what the lady who took my blood talked to me about? just guess... FOOD ! that's right... FOOD. good ole southern stuff..pork chops, cabbage... some other stuff i dont remember... but i had to laugh, and tell her how much i love to talk about FOOD!

oh ya.. then i had to go to the pharmacy and check in ... to "drop off" a computerized prescription. now tell me that isn't a waste of EVERYONES time. it's in the damn computer.. FILL it ! noooo... this by the way, is where it all went downhill... fast. 15 minutes in line... to show my ID card. that's it. that, and WAIT... FOREVER. but, at least i had somethin else to do while i was waiting.

first, i went to get my "travel pay". the last few times i have gone out there, they gave me 11.00 and some change for gas. so, i go stand in line... and listen to some old guy yack my freakin ear OFF , telling jokes. JOKES? i didn't think people really even did that anymore. but the guy thought he was a real comedian. joke after joke. political, mostly, like hillary , billary, bush, etc. ugh. i tried to ignore him, but it only made him get closer to me....to make sure i was listening. :((
so anyhow... finally i get away from him...and go to the other window, to pick up what i think is gonna be 11 and some change... know what i got? a buck. one dollah ! and some change. i said, i thought it was 11??? he said not for todays. hmmm ok. i said, if i woulda known that, i wouldn't have wasted my time. but hell, i'll take a buck. so i got a coke, and had a cigarette. again.

then... i had to go to prosthetics. or so i thought. but that is where i went. to get the TENS unit. well, of course i found out i was in the wrong place and had to go to physical therapy to get it. so i go over there .

now, you gotta realize.. this is dallas texas va hospital. it is not a small hospital. people come here from oklahoma, and freakin, everywhere. i am exhausted and i wanna go home. but, i gotta get the tens unit, and meds. sooo, i go to PT. i tell the guy the dr ordered a tens i just need to pick it up. i really thought, for the way the rest of the day had gone...i'd go in, get it, go out, get my meds and be done.

did it go that way? nope.
i ended up sittin there for , no shit, two hours! to be "trained" how to use a machine that i have used for the last ten years !! the leads are the same, the conrols are the same. it's the same damn thing. but i had to be "trained on how to operate it". OMG. when i saw it i was pissed. if it woulda beeen some new complicated modern thing, i'd be ok, this is ok. but nooo. 2 hours of my life.. GONE. dumbasses. but, i got it, no training required by the way. once i told THIS one that i had one, she gave it to me and i was out. it was some other dumb ass who thought i had to be qualified to run a TENS. like a pilot or some shit. geesh.

ok... that took a lot of effort to not just leave without it. but i managed.
THEN, i had to go back to pharmacy to pick up my meds. this would be my FINAL stop of the day. i was ready for a hoveround. i could barely walk. i wanted to bE home. i didnt want to face traffic in dallas. or drive. none of it, i wanted to just open my eyes and BE home.
but noo.... i STOOD in line for over ... OVER.. half an hour..... just to hand over my ID card to some ass wipe. who then told me to go WAIT. OMG. my name was on the board, which meant the meds were ready. but i (along with all the other tired, sore, pissed off, sick ass people) had to stand there all that time just to let them know that i was physically there to pick up my rx. so, i complied...and i sat, and i sat, and i sat... for another half hour. they FINALLY called my name. actually they spelled my name. my last name is not a hard name to spell. my maiden name was much more difficult. yet it seems 8 out of ten people cannot spell or pronounce my last name.
but anyhow. i got my shit, and i got the hell out of there.

i NEVER want to go back...but y'all know i will. i have to go back to see the endo doc... i just dont know when yet.

so// i drag my ass out to the car... in 110 degrees...nothing to drink...dying of thirst....but all i wanted was to BE home. and somehow, i managed to make it alllllll the way home, in some bad afternoon dallas traffic...without looking at my directions even one time!!!!

i got home at like almost five pm. hubby cooked dinner. it was good. salmon and curry chicken. rice pilaf, and peas. good stuff.

there. i am sooo done. i may cruise a bit, but my fingers are fat and lazy. i will ltalk to yall tomorrow.

PS... i get to go to yet another doc tomorrow, but at least it is close to home... for the liver cat scan. i'm sure i wont have results for a while. but when i do, i shall let yall know.