Nie chwal dnia przed zachodem słońca

Don't praise the day before sunset  (Don't celebrate until you are 100 % there is a reason to do so.)

Well, I finally have the date June 21, 2012 for my cardioversion. Wait not so fast. Is any country in the world health system as dysfunctional as the US ?  I was called about a week ago with the date, then on Monday it was cancelled, and today I get a call from the hospital that it is on again, so I completed the prescreening and called my doctor’s assistant who confirmed it is not on for tomorrow and she had the cancellation from the hospital in my file.

So here I sit in limbo.  Lightheaded and headachy in 90 degree heat wondering when I will feel normal again.  I’m beginning to cough up foam again so I’m concerned.  Last time I began coughing up foam I ended up in the emergency room.  It’s not that I did nothing. I made an appointment with my general practitioner and it was so severe I took my tea towel full of foam as proof and she proudly informed me that my symptoms did not match with her book so I must be psychosomatic.  I nearly threw the towel from my lap at her face! Who would make that up?  She finally did prescribe Mucinex and after no improvement in two days I checked myself into the ER.  

So here I am again, seven months later and the same symptoms are developing. I wonder if I end up in the ER before this coordination of doctors is resolved.

Jasne jak słońce. Clear as the sun. (Clear as day.)

Waiting.  I've never been patience,  any patience I have for the day is gone before I take a second breath.  So my days are characterized by how annoyed I get, multiplied by the number of people I encounter each day.

For the last four years my health has been an issue.  This adds to the anxiety.

Initially I was diagnosed with asthma.  When you can't take more than ten steps without gasping for breath it seemed the answer.  When we got to three inhalers over a period of a couple of years it didn't seem to be much of an answer.  The steroids tripled my weight which only exacerbated the problem. 

For me it goes back further to the gall bladder surgery.  I was bloated, gassy not able to walk upright due to the pain. Seems like a continuing series of unfortunate events since that fateful decision.

So now I have it.  I have a weak heart...to defib or not defib, that is the question.  The medication is beyond poison.  I am more lightheaded on the medication, and its hard to convince myself to take it since nothing they have come up with a dose that has been effective in slowing down my runaway heart.

Take As Needed

When did we abandon our take as needed culture? I’ve been fondly remembering the time when I had control over my own health decisions. Has anyone else noticed they don’t write prescriptions that way anymore? Take as needed…now that’s genius. It makes me the decider. I very much like being the decider.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to tell everyone what to do, I just like it very much when I was in control of my own decisions. I got to hold the prescription in my hand and read it then make the ultimate executive decision. Where am I now, do I need to take this to relieve a symptom or can I get through the next hour or two just as I am? If I wait, how long and what do I wait for? More distress or perhaps (fill in your own thought here). The decision and any consequence is mine and mine alone which I gleefully accept.

Remember when doctors actually called you to follow up after a procedure? I had a couple of minor surgeries for “sports injuries”. Well if you must know I was walking and stepped off a curb and twisted a tendons and other supporting parts, hardly glamorous but I’m sticking to my “sport injury” story in this case. I was in pain before surgery but felt so good after surgery I was just reveling in my new pain free status. I consulted the prescription label for pain medication, usually labeled take as needed, so I get to decide I’m need or not in need. When the doctor called he also advised me to take one immediately because the pain would be returning but I was now giddy with power I never gave the prescription another thought. I’m now qualified to be a televangelist or a dictator but those positions are not readily advertised.

This is all a result of a conversation with my doctor over a current prescription. It is written take daily for a symptom that only occurs occasionally, so I make the executive decision to take as needed. To his credit the doctor listened to my rationalization and agreed to an extent that I am correctly using this medication as it is intended but will not authorize a change in the labeling. So who’s in charge here…not me…not my doctor…maybe the drug company that pushes this pill so it can make more profit? Hmmmm.