Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Saturday, February 05, 2022

So I missed January completely in terms of writing

I've been very busy at both work and at home.  My backup at work is leaving next week, so I'll have to do her work plus mine until they get someone else hired.  The good news is they got headquarters to help do the outpatient visit authorizations so I'll just have to worry about the surgeries and clinic treatment room procedures, as well a scheduling offsite imaging and authorising those.

The unfortunate thing about that is headquarters is taking on more and more things within our system from our local hospitals, so if they decide they can do it more efficiently, I could lose half my job when there's a replacement in her position and I go back to just mine.  That's a fear of mine. I've been laid off three times in my life (never fired), and twice have been here at work. I've always made it back because I'm flexible, but I am a little afraid of this.

We had a fairly mild ice/wintry mix event on Thursday and Friday. I was off work on Friday because I had an appointment with my liver specialist in person and a longish teleheath (getting everyone on the call plus the actual appointment was about an hour) with my weight loss doctor.  I changed the in-person appointment to next week as a teleheath, and we moved up my other appointment from the late afternoon to late morning because the doctor was stuck in Louisville and was going to try to get back to Lexington that afternoon, I think.

Anyway, as a result, I didn't get to talk to the liver specialist about my MRI, but I have gotten the report through the patient portal.  While I do have fatty liver, stage 2-3 (which is moderate, I think), there is no sign of cirrhosis.  That means diet can really help (and being a little more active).  Also, since November 1st I have lost 25-30 lbs (my weight fluctuates...the other day I was 8 lbs less than yesterday, but might be down tomorrow, who knows). I usually weigh weekly, but because I was seeing my physician, I went ahead and weighed.

We had a good appointment.  Since portion control is a problem for me, and I don't have much time to really do meal prepping, she suggested frozen meals, which aren't ideal, but may help, and that way when my roommate isn't able to cook, I still have something.  He hasn't been able to lately because we have a new puppy (11 weeks old now)  he's house training and he's just been exhausted with watching her so closely and getting up with her at night.  But she is so adorable.  I'm helping when I'm home so he can get some rest, but I've never been in a house with that small of a dog before.  She is just about the size of both cats now, but was smaller when she came to us, and only about 9 lbs at her first vet visit.  She's grown some already.  We're not sure what she is.  I'm thinking Labrador/Boxer.  The shelter had her as part pit bull, but the vet said her bone structure is far too delicate for that.  She has sort a of a little jowl thing going, so maybe she is part Boxer.  But she loves to be held.

So I went out yesterday and got some vegetarian Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice meals, pluse some Boost to try, as she thought meal replacement might be good for breakfast or snacks.  I'm willing to try.  She said to keep it to Boost, Ensure, or Glucerna because she can prescribe them so they're much cheaper, like $10 for 24 instead of 6. I bought some chocolate and strawberry Boost packs to try that are the blood sugar control ones.

Okay, my friend wanted to sleep a bit more, but it's time to wake up. I have to go get medicine, puppy food, and pay a bill. I couldn't do them yesterday, even being off, because I 'lost' the method of payment, and actually backtracked to the bill place to see if I'd dropped it on the ground.  Turns out it was in the closet with the dog food on a shelf.  I'd taken a picture o the puppy's food so I'd know which one to get and left it there.  I'd been so stressed out with all that because it was a full book of cheques, and I was looking at almost $500 to stop payment on them, and I couldn't find them anywhere. I hadn't had my ADHD medicine in days as I'd misplaced that.  I have some today, but it's not the full dose but an earlier prescription.   Sigh. I make life so much harder than I should due to messed up brain chemistry.

Anyway, I should go now.  I'll try to write more.

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