I had the day off today; husband is on a streak of 3-11pm shifts – I thought I’d get to spend the day with him. There is no cure for STUPID. It didn’t work out that way at all. Well, I knew I had that doctor’s appointment for 0930 this morning but he should be just getting up and on the first cup of coffee by the time I get home, right? Duh.
First, the doctor is running late. Not too bad, but still. Hey, the one I go to is worth the wait, and when I’ve needed the extra time, I’ve gotten it. I do not like their scale, though. So eventually, he comes in and diagnoses this “issue†on my neck in record time – at least he didn’t laugh at me like he did the time I came in covered in poison ivy. I have a sebaceous cyst on my neck, a reasonably common occurrence, and not a serious issue YET. They can and do get infected, and it appears that mine is, thus causing the minimal soreness and moderate swelling. So I’m on Amoxicillin, 875mg twice a day for 10 days. The pills are the size of footballs.
And, while it doesn’t show in this picture taken under very bright lighting, the damn things are a hideous shade of pink, too.
Per my doc, if I don’t see dramatic improvement in 1 week, I’m to call in and be seen again. If it continues to enlarge, I’m to get in there sooner! Without definite improvement, the next step would be going over to my old friend, the surgeon, and having the damn thing cut out before, rather than after, it ruptures. Normal people have it done under local anesthetic injected into the site. Being far from normal a bit nervous over these things, I may have to go through Day Surgery, as I prefer being “out of state†when these things are done, or, as I told Dr. Joe today, I need to be sedated down far enough where I can’t leave or kick. Been through this before, with 7 eye surgeries and quite a few oral surgery episodes.
Once, when I was having a particularly nasty and involved eye procedure done, I was told by my surgeon to take a mild sedative at home so that I would remain somewhat calm while Paul drove me an hour to the surgery center, and when they were getting me ready, some wonderful stuff was inserted into my IV line. Shortly after, I was giggling while waiting for the procedure to start. I told the doctor he had his head on upside-down – this is how it appeared to me, on the gurney in the operating room with him bending over me from the head of the table. I remember laughing at that. At the 24-hour post-op check up the next day, my husband asked the surgeon if whatever was ordered was available for take-out, and could he have it in the gallon jug size? Hmmm. (The Army trained my husband well – he can still set an IV in the dark) I guess I would be easier to live with if I was permanently on that stuff.
So I finally left the doctor’s office and went promptly to have the prescription filled. It took me about a half hour to find a place to park near the hospital, and I got enough exercise walking from the car to the pharmacy and then back to the car again to overcome the bowl of ice cream I’m going to eat later tonight. I had already called in for refills of two of my meds, which were probably ready to go, but had to wait until this new RX was made up. I’m so glad I brought my Kindle with me and that I had just started a long book (Catherine the Great by Robert Massie). Thought I was gonna hit retirement age before I got out of there. End result of all this was that my 930am appointment at the doctor this morning kept me out of the house until after noon! Paul was starting to worry, starting to think about surgeon visits and such. He sent a message to my phone, and thought he heard something weird. He called my phone and realized it was on the charger in the kitchen.
The one highlight of the morning was the price I was charged at the pharmacy. Last November, LIPITOR went generic!! I’ve been on medication to lower my cholesterol for over 20 years now, and the brand-name meds are fiercely expensive. As with all RX plans, brand-name drugs are higher in cost, in some cases there is a Tier system rather than a flat rate for all. The cholesterol meds are way up there. Now that they’ve finally gone generic, my co-pay was $5, and that was for a 90-day supply!! This will save me a great deal of money! I may need it to pay the surgeon’s fees.
And I put up 7 quarts of soup today.
