Thursday, April 06, 2006

Did you miss me?

Dear Readers,

I don’t really mean to neglect you. But I now know I have and that at least one person noticed.
Last night the phone rang, and it was someone complaining that I hadn’t posted to my blog in a while! Dang . . . I guess I better get busy . . .

I had been distracted for a while by the conversation in on of the on-line gardening groups I belong to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Casape/
Things are kind of quite at the moment – but we were having a rather heated discussion on sluggo and slugs. Interesting stuff . . . check out the archives and add your two cents if you care . . .

Next I had to get all the final pieces of paper in order for my trip south. When you are disabled and can’t just hop in your car, life starts to get very complicated. I have to get all kinds of pieces of paper together documenting my disability and documenting the medical necessity of each part of my trip. Two the air-port, on the plain, to the clinic, the actual appointment, the hotel, and all the back home again parts too. These papers have to be worded and dated just so – and each one goes a different place. Then you have to check on approvals and then you have to deal with scheduling. Actually getting everyone to schedule so that each piece fits together is a minor miracle. But life goes on.

Next came that three day trip to SF and three medical appointments. I was very pleased with my ophthalmology appointments. This new doc is going to get me fixed up with some glasses, which I didn’t need before the car accident. Since the car accident my eye sight has sucked. But the two previous specialists I saw about that all said that my eyes were fine – it was my brain – and nothing can be done about it.

This new doc was just mad. He wanted to know why no one had prescribed me glasses. So, I should have glasses in the next couple of months – I just have to get another trip arranged down south for that . . . And he has worked with folks with visual problems caused by brain injuries before, and he wants to see me every 6 months . . . So I am pleased. I will be able to see again . . . knock on wood.

The neurologist was another story entirely. It was his position that I have dementia, and not a brain injury. Even though they required me to bring all my medical records, he wouldn’t look at the ones from my doc. Or anyone else for that matter. It is well documented by other professionals that I have a brain injury, but no – really – it is dementia . . . LOL He went on to say that I have no neurological problems – but he tried to prescribe medication for the neurological problems I am not having. He also tried to prescribe medication for the chronic migraines I used to have. He insisted that I was still having migraines – as if he knows what is going in my head. Further this guy would practically yell at me when I didn’t give the answer he wanted. “Eight” he would yell, “No, six at the most,” I replied. We would do that over and over. And I observed that what he wrote in his notes was not consistent with my answers or the results of his testing. All I got to say is, this guy had issues. And I will never see him again.

This week I have been busy running errands on the bus, and trying to get reorganized since the trip. I think things are going to quite down a bit . . . so I hope to catch up in the garden . . .

I have two articles that have been published recently, and I will try to get them posted here, over the next few days . . .

Hope all is well where ever you are . . .

Happy gardening!

Harvest

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