I ran out of refills on my prescription for Levothroid because I was stupid: I forgot to call in before the expiration date of the prescription in January (I didn't need the pills at that time and forgot to request the refill online). So this morning I had to go to the doctor. I haven't been in a while and was totally unsurprised when they asked me to have a new thyroid blood test taken.

I didn't see my regular doctor, though, and had another woman, who I really liked and am considering changing to as my primary care physician. The doctor I have now is fine, but I seem to have difficulty talking to her. This other doctor I felt at ease with—perhaps it was because she reminded me of my cousin Debbie and her family; her face had a similar structure. It was very surprising. She also asked a lot of questions, including why the heck it said on my chart that I had hypertension. I noticed that, too, when I looked at my online record. My blood pressure is 100 over 70 and she said that the dose of atenolol I was taking, although it is a hypertension drug, would not make my blood pressure that low if I actually had hypertension. All I can think of is that someone saw I was taking atenolol and assumed I had hypertension because I was taking it.

The freaky thing is that my health record also said I'd had a heart attack. Er, no, or I'd have been seeing a cardiologist. They did initially think when I had the palpitations back in September 2002 that I might have had a blockage, but they did a whole battery of tests which turned up negative. The cardiologist and the attending differed on what might have caused it: one said it was possibly stress or incipient menopause (I was already getting pre-menopausal symptoms back then) and the other said it may have been the acid reflux (as at that point I was taking about one Tums an hour). That's how I was prescribed the atenolol and also Protonix, which Kaiser later took out of their drug formulary and replaced with Prilosec—which even at two a day don't work very well. :-(

She asked if there was anything else wrong, so I told her about the Protonix/Prilosec thing and asked if I could try Zantac and she said yes. A friend of ours has GERD as well and says the Zantac works perfectly for her; it may not work for me but I would at least like to try it. It's getting so that the only things that don't come up on me are plain bread, milk, and oatmeal. Even fruit makes me burp and feel uncomfortable. I remember having the grilled salmon at Ikea a few weeks ago and tasting fish for the next twelve hours. Ugh.

When I got done with the doctor I had to go to the pharmacy (where I got my prescriptions so fast my jaw nearly dropped) and then drop by the lab (where I was taken immediately). Very surprising for a Monday as they are usually very crowded with people who have felt ill all weekend and are coming in just now to see the doctor. I expected to be a lot longer with a 9:40 appointment, but was at work just a little past eleven.

(Will ya tell me why the dickens I get a headache after I have blood taken? It's not like they took a lot. Or why the elbow in the arm I have the blood taken from hurts afterward?)

Labels: health

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:03:00 PM

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