Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Documentation and the truth

Yikes. It's been a week since I lasted posted. Not that I haven't been on this blog because I have. It's a history of our lives and since turning fifty I need it to remember. Recently, Darcy injured her shoulder, a recurring theme for her shoulders due to multidirectional instability, a term I have long since forgotten since her diagnosis was four years ago. She hiked to the campus medical center, got referred to a specialist who couldn't get her in right away. I suggested she call her doctor on this side of the bay. He is the surgeon for the Tampa Bay Rays and someone I would much rather have looking at my kid.

He was out of the country but he and his office personally called my daughter on a three-way call, discussed her issue, and got her in to the office for the next day to see his PA. The only odd thing was that four years ago she had been into his office, according to their records for her left arm and this one was her right. Or vice versa. Crap, now I can't remember that. I went into my files of her medical records where I keep pretty detailed notes on my kids and their medical visits and issues. The only thing I had on those visits, however, were the receipts of payment and information on her physical therapy.

Then the light bulb went off over my head. I turned to my blog and there was the entry all written out regarding Darcy and her shoulder issues. Ah, my handy dandy documentation of our past. Only I had neglected to mention which arm since he made the diagnosis in both. Oops. Not exactly a detailed log of our past, but better than relying on my memory.

The visit went well and she is off for more physical therapy and her college career as a lifeguard shouldn't be affected. This is hopefully her last visit to a medical profession since she has spent more time in these buildings since starting college than she has her whole life. A slight exaggeration, I suppose, but it seems like it. I think, with Darcy, she just is finally getting a jump on what she considers issues instead of waiting for her mother who prefers to wait things out awhile to make sure.

After my return from SC I got sick. It lasted an entire week with fever and chills and coughing and sneezing. I diagnosed myself with a sinus infection, but nowadays doctors don't like to give medicine for that as it tends to be viral and works itself out. I don't take over the counter medications because I swear they make me worse. Instead, I rely on sleep, lopping, plenty of water, and ibuprofen. By the weekend I was feeling well enough to blueberry pick and to attend church on Sunday. Monday I spent the day doing the things I missed out on the previous week. Tuesday noon I was back on the sick wagon with a low-grade fever and chills.

This time I was urged by well-meaning family and friends to get to a doctor, but still, I held out. I wanted to make sure I really was sick with bacteria and not a virus. That annoyed others who insisted I needed medical attention and so I made a note to myself: stop telling people to go to a doctor. Then I promptly told my SIL who has been sick right there along with me to "call her doctor". But then I remembered that I own scrubs and probably have more insight into the medical world than others.

I took the rest of the week to recoup and darn it, I'm back in the saddle again. Ready to surge out into the world to have adventures that I can then blog about. Oh, and get to finishing my romance novel. I was just alerted to the fact that I'm a finalist in another contest so I've got to stop procrastinating and get this puppy to the point where The End is typed.

As I re-read this entry, wondering how to end it, another bulb went off over my head as it tends to do. My making sure is not only in the medical world. I've been rewriting and rewriting and rethinking and making sure with this novel for far too long. As Darcy would tell me, sometimes it's good to just make sure that the issue gets solved one way or another.

See, this blog is a lifesaver in so many ways....

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