Last week I had an abnormal 'weekday' day off so I used it for running various errands. Tux Badkitty had a vet appointment the previous week and I'd been putting off delivering a sample of his poo. It takes a lot of motivation to work up to delivering cat poo. You have to time it right as I assume that the 'sample' needs to be fresh and timing a fresh poo with when I had time to take it over to the vet office was tricky. There's not much more of a humbling experience than driving down the road with a fresh cat poo sample.
But I digress. The main thing I was concerned with that day was getting a lipid profile done. The blood sample I had taken on 'errand day' wasn't so bad. The phlebotomist was amazing and I had barely even a mark, much less a bruise. Usually they have a hard time finding a good vein so this was a welcome change!
So, why all of this testing? Basically my doctor and I are building up evidence as to why insurance should cover my potential surgery for weight loss. They are looking for co-morbidities. Or, combined things that, if left unchecked, would cause my eventual death. Sobering thought, eh? I already have one tick mark on the list but we're looking for one additional (if not two). Morbidity number one was found back when I had an MRI done after a back injury. They found that not only do I have arthritis in my spine (ugh) but also have degenerative joint disease (here's a link to it if you want to read more about it: ). This is something that they usually see develop in someone much older than myself and it can be directly related to/tied with my obesity. So, that's morbidity number one. If my cholesterol turns out to be high-that'd be another morbidity-and those two should be enough but you all know me-when have I ever done anything halfway? =) My doctor also wanted me to get an OSA test. What is this, you may ask? It's Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Testing for this isn't as easy as a pinprick and a vial of blood, unfortunately. I also used 'errand day' to make my appointment to see the sleep doctor which I was able to schedule for a morning when I was going in late to work (score!). I want to definitely write a blog about this experience, but I'll save it for another day.
I had to hound my doctor's office to get my lipid profile results. I called the Thursday after and the person answering the phone said that the results were in and that the nurse would call me with them later. Okayyy...So, Monday rolls around and I haven't heard anything so I call again and this time get a voice mail. I leave a nice voice message asking them to please give me a call back with the results..and by Wednesday I still hadn't heard so I called again. I already have a history of avoiding things like this so I'm trying to change that, can't they see that? Michelle Jenkins was with me when I called and was able to witness my polite annoyance and then more annoyance as it became clear that they have had the results for a while and had neglected to call me (her exact words were-"Oh, No one has called you yet?" No, lady-I just decided to randomly call and get them again!?! This is the point of the story where I should add that my doctor's office recently went through a staff change and the lady that's been there for YEARS, since I was a small child...has retired and everyone that works there now is new). She said that my triglycerides are high and that the doctor noted that it's chylamydia...or something. To which I'm like..eh?!?! What now? (Michelle can attest to my reaction at this point in the conversation). I'm reasonably sure that there's no possible way I could have chlyamydia...unless someone infected me while I was unawares. I then realized she was trying to say CO-MORBIDITY! What in the sam-hill!?!?! lol So, world-I do not have chlyamydia...but I do have high cholesterol-officially. So, that's one more tick mark on the Morbidity list-for whoever is keeping track.
Coming soon...the perilous adventures of a sleep apnea test...or "how I tossed and turned all night with 15,000 wires attached to my body while trying to sleep in a strange place"
Good times!
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