boxofdelights

I've been stalling this for a couple years now, but I finally decided to go ahead with it. Radical hysterectomy, which means everything must go. With an abdominal incision, though I don't know whether that will be vertical or horizontal.

I'm afraid of brain damage from the general anesthesia, and I'm afraid of catching Covid in the hospital.

I should be fully recovered before gardening begins in earnest. It would have been better to do this in the interval between losing my high-maintenance very old dog and acquiring my high-maintenance, anxious, strong, energetic, mannerless young dog. My husband will be staying with me for a couple weeks, as long as I need, and doing all the chores, but Matilda is A Lot.

I had the MRI this morning, at

Colorado State University's Translational Medicine Institute (TMI) is a high-tech innovation hub, bringing together scholars, creators, and entrepreneurs to work in collaborative spaces where innovation will thrive. The TMI’s goal is to discover and deliver solutions that utilize the body’s healing capacity and improves[sic] the lives of animals and the humans that care for them.

a very large, new, expensive building, in a large cold room that smelled of horse. Fortunately I find the smell of horse very comforting. The MRI was not bad, except that the foam earplug I was wearing in my hearing ear started to itch. I knew it was near the end of the hour, but I didn't know how near. I spent about ten minutes wondering, can I tough this out, or am I going to have to squeeze the thing that acts as a safeword? I toughed it out.

I asked the researcher how many participants she needed to do science. She said her goal was 120, and she hoped to publish something next year. She'll send me a .pdf of my brain in a few months.

We had book group at Amy's, in the foothills, yesterday, and talked about A Sand County Almanac. It is so beautiful there, right next to the river. And so peaceful, every time we visit, that it is easy to forget that she is always at risk of fires, floods, mudslides, blizzards, loss of power and loss of access to the roads, even though we know that she has experienced all of those more than once during the life of our book group.

So, I have high blood pressure. I take a high dose ACE inhibitor and diuretic twice a day. I also take prescription potassium, to counteract the effects of the diuretic. Everything to do with doctors fills me with a surly and powerful Idonwanna, but I got a new doctor in January, who wrote my prescriptions and told me to come back in six months for a physical.

Also in January, the grocery store near me, where I had been getting prescriptions filled, closed, but not before I got a 90-supply of both drugs.

Monday, I realize that I am almost out. I call another pharmacy and ask if they can transfer the prescription from the defunct grocery store pharmacy. He assures me that they can. I tell him the names and dosages of the drugs. He tells me that they got swamped with a whole bunch of orders, so he might not get to mine today, but they will be filled in the order they were received.

Tuesday, nothing.

Wednesday, I call the pharmacy to ask if my prescriptions are in. The potassium is in, she says, but they are waiting for doctor authorization on the other. The thought does cross my mind that it is odd that only one of the prescriptions, written by the same person at the same time, needs to be reauthorized. Apparently my Idonwanna covers not only talking to doctors, pharmacists, and insurance companies, but also thinking about them, because the though crosses my mind and immediately vanishes.

Thursday, I call the pharmacy to ask if my prescriptions are in. The potassium is in, he says, but they are waiting for doctor authorization on the other. I decide to call the doctor and beg. I get my prescription vial. It says I have one more refill. I call the pharmacy back. "Can I just check what doctor you are requesting a prescription authorization from?" I ask. "Because my bottle says I have one more refill." He reads me the name of a doctor who left town more than two years ago. That office is never going to call him back, because the whole office shut down more than two years ago. "That is an old prescription. Can you get the prescription from Dr. [Current-doctor]?" He assures me cheerily that they can.

Friday, I get an automated message from the pharmacy alerting my that my prescription is ready for pickup. I drive there. I ask for my prescriptions. The potassium is in, he says, but they can't get the other until Wednesday. I stare at him for a while. He says they don't have enough to fill the prescription, but offers to check whether they have any at all. "Please do," I say. They don't. I don't have enough pills to take me to Wednesday. He offers to call the other stores in his chain in the area, to see if they can get me enough to tide me over until Wednesday. "Yes, please do that," I say.


I did eventually get a six-day supply of my ACE inhibitor/diuretic from another store without incident, except that when the second pharmacist said that I had to come back to his store on Wednesday to get the rest, I asked him to confirm that, because the first guy was certain that I had to get the rest from the first store. "Let me finish," said the second guy. "We don't have enough pills to fill your prescription. We will get them in Wednesday. This is a loaner. We are loaning you six days' worth of pills. Since we are the ones billing your insurance company, you have to complete the transaction here." I said that made perfect sense. He apologized for the inconvenience. I assured him that I did not mind never ever going back to the first store.


Does this kind of thing happen to everybody? Is it me?

I've had a painful virus for a few days. Fever and chills, muscle aches, even my skin hurts. The most difficult to tolerate is a spot inside my throat that makes swallowing painful. I can only drink in tiny sips, well-spaced, not only because it hurts but also because if a drop of liquid lands on the wrong spot it makes me cough, which a)hurts and b)expels all the liquid I was trying to swallow.

I haven't peed in a day and a half, and that was only a few drops. I've drunk most of a 16-oz bottle of water and six ounces of orange juice, but I must be sweating it all out. Is this bad for my kidneys? Like, how bad? Should I go to Urgent Care and ask them for subcutaneous fluids?

Also, is the active ingredient in Chloraseptic Throat Spray the same drug that dentists use to numb you up for a filling? Because my dentist says that doesn't really work on me, and this throat spray doesn't seem to have any effect either.

ETA: Okay, you have scared me, thank you Rush, Lydy, Misbegotten, and Omnia. I am going to push fluids until my skin snaps back, and if it doesn't I will go to Urgent Care.

ETA2: Am peeing again.