Doctor, Doctor

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This morning, I went to see my doctor. He is concerned and wants me to have some new blood work. The big question is do I go to the charity hospital or dare I take the risk of being a private paying patient? Without insurance the tests could amount to $1000.

With charity, you can't always get an appointment when you need one. Most of the time it takes 6 months to a year. Usually, you have to go through the emergency room and see the doctor on call. That creates a lot of messed up or lost paper work that is in your file. Sometimes they lose your whole file and you have to start over. I know because I have a lot of family members without medical insurance. And when I was going to the charity clinic, I always had to go to the emergency room and see the doctor on call.

I want to be able to see the same doctor so that he or she can get to know me. And I can get to know the doctor. Today, the doctor talked with me about my weight gain. He does not think it is an eating problem. He looked at my file and said the gain was too fast. Plus my legs have been swelling and I am having trouble breathing. He thinks it is fluid build up. He can not adjust my medicine until I have the tests done.

I did get the lecture about taking better care of myself. He told me as soon as I notice a change in my body I should see a doctor. If not him, I need to start going to the charity clinic for regular checkups. He said I should have a checkup every four months because I am taking hypertension medicine. And he said exercise, exercise, exercise!! That is the best thing for my heart. I received a much needed lecture on that because I don't exercise enough. My doctor repeated "the 30 minutes everyday!" instructions that he told me was very important for me to have a happy healthy life.

I am going to try real hard to get up off my butt more than I do. Everything I enjoy doing is accomplished by sitting. I enjoy reading, writing, sewing, crocheting, movies, and my newest-the world of blogging!! I do love to cook; that keeps me on my feet. There is no exercise involved; yet I'm off my butt. I will try harder; I promise.