Today was busy with a Doctor’s appointment for me – lost a little weight (good), seem to have grown about 1/2 and inch (weird at 52) and my BP was very low (unexpected, to say the least), but alas, the gout is still rearing its ugly toe, and have started another round of Prednisone, which makes me anxious and irritable.  BaBa came to help this morning from the Selfhelp agency, and got David up and ready and also exercised with him.  Yesterday we went to see Dr. Blum, David’s neurologist, which was a good visit.  I told her that from my perspective, I thought David was a little more confused than usual in the past couple of days, and had some trouble either comprehending what was being said, or trouble in communicating what he thought was going on.  She thought that it would be a good idea to have another round of MRI/MRA’s done to make sure that there were no changes or problems.  She put the order in, and we were off to the races with the insurance company.

I was told by reception at NYU that Oxford would need to approve the procedures before they could be scheduled, and then this morning I got a call from NYU that they were approved, but that I would need to contact Oxford to make the appointments – this had to be done through their scheduling department.  They gave me the rather long reference numbers – one for each procedure, and I called Oxford.  After putting ID #, DOB, etc into their electronic phone system, I got through to an operator who asked for all that information again, and then of course, “I will need to speak to Mr. Shapiro to get his authorization for you to speak on his behalf”.  Then, the expected, “I will now need to transfer you to the scheduling folks”, and it started all over again – same info and same questions and then the reference numbers.  Then it took what seemed like 5 minutes each to get another 15 digit reference code for the three procedures.  Then to my wonder and amazement, I was asked if I needed a list of facilities where I could have the MRI/MRA’s done.  Well, no, of course I didn’t, I know where I would like to have them done, I already spoke to them, and they were told that I had to contact Oxford to schedule.  Oh, I see, I just had to call to wait and get some crazy code to give back to the radiology department to make sure that David wasn’t playing the system to have the extreme joy of rolling through a giant plastic doughnut with a hammer banging over his head for 30 minutes.  Why does it cost so much for healthcare in this country?

By now, it was almost time for David’s first Physical Therapy appointment at the outpatient facility.  We walked over – it is not a bad walk as long as the weather holds out.  We registered at the front and then payed out $40 co-payment, and grabbed a bite in the lobby, which was perfect.  It is a very nice new facility, and all under one roof – PT, OT, VT, ST and both his Physiatrist and Neurologist are there.  His new PT, Caroline Frey, was terrific, and did a lot of tests.  David particularly liked the ones where she timed him walking.  Nothing like competition and a time to beat for our David!  He also had pooh poohed the accomplishment of the stairs in San Francisco, but she had him walk up and down a small flight of stairs and he did it all by himself and may actually believe that Alex and I didn’t carry him up and down the stairs – three times – in San Francisco.

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Then, on top of the obsessing and the calendar and the gout and Oxford, I get a call from Freshdirect that due to a power outage, my delivery would not be made tonight, so the groceries I ordered to make dinner tonight would be arriving tomorrow evening just at the time I scheduled the MRI/MRA.  I was quite proud of myself when I was able to fashion a nice pasta dinner from half a box of farfalle, some feta cheese, walnuts, parsley and onion.  It was good, and I will have to write that down.

If you have read this far, I give you a lot of credit.  I am not sure I could have made it through my ravings.  Did I say that the Prednisone makes me anxious and irritable?  Neither Oxford nor United Airlines are off the hook, by the way – they were just as culpable in my anxiety and irritation as the drugs.  David, however, gets a pass.