The Old Folks Home

[microchick]

My doc wasn't in network until over the summer when they sold their practice to Hannibal health care systems. Now he is. Didn't matter to me that he wasn't. I wasn't going to change doctors. He is rated as being one of the best osteopaths in the area and his adjustments on my back have kept me going. I have always been a doubting Thomas about such things until like the old saying goes, seeing or in this case feeling was believing.

Plus I'm an old believer in continuity of care. Seeing the same health care providers get them knowing you as a patient and as a person and helps you be more comfortable with them. Can't happen if you have to change every year.

As for phones, we live so far out in the boonies that we are basically on the edge of just about every carrier's range of service. Right now we have Verizon. On a good day if you sit near a window you can get a short call completed....maybe which is more than we could do with US Cellular. When our contract is up next June we are switching phones. They have a new one out that will work through your wi-fi and boost your indoor signal.

That would be peachy. I get tired of having to sit on the back porch in the winter wearing my heavy coat and wrapped in a sofa throw just to make a call that lasts longer than 5 minutes.

I hate talking on the phone anyway so for me having a phone is more for emergencies than any thing else.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I had one of the first cell phones hard wired in my truck but sure I had made it
We have a house phone set it up as emergency only didn't stop 8 million political calls coming in none being answered I had to tell my best egg clients that my birds where not laying second one showed up this morning got any eggs ? and I was able to supply him

 

[chickadoodles]

This Moto x I got free from my DIL. She and my daughter upgraded to the new Moto for 650.00. So she gave me her old one that she paid 350.00 for. I don't have a contract.
I do prepaid from Verizon. They give less data on their contract! Ha not me!
My husband has the old radio Nextel phone he has to have it for work. He has 600 minutes a month for phone. So he does not use the phone much. lol
We mostly text each other. His job does not pay his bill either but he has to have it for work.

 

[chickadoodles]

I had to find a new Dr. as mine had moved out of the area.
We also live very far from every where! So I found the only other Dr. in the area.
He's pretty good. So I have a GP for now. lol

Good luck finding a good Dr. It's not an easy task I know.

 

[microchick]

For what it's worth...... I use turmeric as anti inflammatory . To reduce the amt of other meds. ANd a friend with RA is pain free on a weighwatchers diet....but only if she stays on it. We think it is because of two aspects: low carbs, and fewer calories. When her goals weight of 10 pounds lost, and back to her usual eating, the RA pain was back too.

Sorry I haven't replied to this sooner @Arielle. Spent the morning cutting up a turkey for the freezer and boiling off scraps for the dogs and just set down.

I used tumeric while I was fighting Lyme disease. I probably should try it again and see what happens.

Yep, it has been proven that a low sugar diet will counter inflammation. It's also the hardest thing to give up. I try to cut back. At 64 it's hard after a lifetime of eating what you want when you want it. My goal is to go with more natural sweeteners this next year. And I do feel better with a lower carb diet.

I did weight watchers once mainly to help a friend out who had about 50 pounds to loose while I had only ten or so. The big thing I learned besides lower carbs is smaller servings. I did a low carb diet once just for inflammation control and lost something like 15 pounds in two weeks. It's effective for weight lose but not too good when you are physically active.

 

[microchick]

Also wanted to add @Arielle is that the difference is between acute and chronic. Acute pain will respond to a short course of RX pain killers with the patient being able to switch over to OTC pain killer. Sufferers of chronic pain won't be able to transition. It's up to your doctor to know which bracket you belong in and that goes back to what I said in my previous post about continuity of care.

Frankly, if a 23 year old goes to a doctor and the doctor has never seen her before and she tells him she has horrible pain from cramps and just can't get by with Ibuprofen and can she please have an RX for Percocet and he gives it to her.....he isn't much of a doctor.

It's terrible to lie awake at night because you've turned over and the pain in your back has you lying in bed with tears rolling down your cheeks trying to will the pain to stop and it won't. You cannot take OTCs without gastric upset and pain and you can't take Tylenol because you are having to take more than recommended and only get a percentage of the pain relief that a prescription RX will give you.

Plus you have to remember that there are hazards with OTCs the same as there are with RX pain killers. Ibuprofens and naproxen can be hard on your heart muscle along with your GI tract. The same with aspirin, plus if you cut yourself bad you bleed like a stuck hog and have to have epinephrine along with your Novocaine when you get stitched up (Yeap, been there done that).Tylenol is not safe either. We had a set RX that we had to write...that the state made us write for Tylenol so the patient did not take more than 4 grams in 24 hours. More than that and sometimes even less than that are hard on your kidneys and liver. Now when you are young, not such a big deal. But as you age, it takes your liver and kidneys longer to filter toxins out of your system and just about anything chemical you put in your body is a potential toxin.

Yep, I am a chronic pain sufferer. Nothing I'd like better than to not have to take the medicines that I have to take for my RA and back pain in order to function. Unfortunately, new, younger, joints and spine are not in the works so I deal.

The abusers are really making it hard on us non abusers who depend on our pain medicine in order to not have pain. But that is pretty much par for the course.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Also wanted to add @Arielle is that the difference is between acute and chronic. Acute pain will respond to a short course of RX pain killers with the patient being able to switch over to OTC pain killer. Sufferers of chronic pain won't be able to transition. It's up to your doctor to know which bracket you belong in and that goes back to what I said in my previous post about continuity of care.

Frankly, if a 23 year old goes to a doctor and the doctor has never seen her before and she tells him she has horrible pain from cramps and just can't get by with Ibuprofen and can she please have an RX for Percocet and he gives it to her.....he isn't much of a doctor.

It's terrible to lie awake at night because you've turned over and the pain in your back has you lying in bed with tears rolling down your cheeks trying to will the pain to stop and it won't. You cannot take OTCs without gastric upset and pain and you can't take Tylenol because you are having to take more than recommended and only get a percentage of the pain relief that a prescription RX will give you.

Plus you have to remember that there are hazards with OTCs the same as there are with RX pain killers. Ibuprofens and naproxen can be hard on your heart muscle along with your GI tract. The same with aspirin, plus if you cut yourself bad you bleed like a stuck hog and have to have epinephrine along with your Novocaine when you get stitched up (Yeap, been there done that).Tylenol is not safe either. We had a set RX that we had to write...that the state made us write for Tylenol so the patient did not take more than 4 grams in 24 hours. More than that and sometimes even less than that are hard on your kidneys and liver. Now when you are young, not such a big deal. But as you age, it takes your liver and kidneys longer to filter toxins out of your system and just about anything chemical you put in your body is a potential toxin.

Yep, I am a chronic pain sufferer. Nothing I'd like better than to not have to take the medicines that I have to take for my RA and back pain in order to function. Unfortunately, new, younger, joints and spine are not in the works so I deal.

The abusers are really making it hard on us non abusers who depend on our pain medicine in order to not have pain. But that is pretty much par for the course.

Micro... so sorry you are forced to suffer!

 

[Cynthia12]

Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone! Got good news on my birthday. First off, I've just had shoulder surgery about a week and a half ago. Did pretty good. I can't handle the painkillers they want to give, because I get too sick on them. So I did the less strong pain pills, and that ice works like a miracle. But I had other problems, my ankles are swollen, my right leg hurts, and my white blood cell count was up. But today... I got good news that my white blood cell count is down. Tomorrow I go see my surgeon that did the surgery on me, and I guess I'll find out if I go on an antibiotic or not.

 

[microchick]

Thanks Cap.

It's really hard for people who don't suffer from chronic joint pain to really understand what it is like to deal with pain on a daily basis, especially when your body doesn't want to go along with what will help it. I fought it for years before caving to prescriptions to control it. With it, I'm pretty normal, in fact my husband tells people to look at me you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with me but he knows the truth.

I hate it that people are making it hard on us who seriously need the medicines.

Now I have to see a Rheumatologist. It will probably mean more medicines that some idiot somewhere will abuse....

 

[pennyJo1960]

This Moto x I got free from my DIL. She and my daughter upgraded to the new Moto for 650.00. So she gave me her old one that she paid 350.00 for. I don't have a contract.
I do prepaid from Verizon. They give less data on their contract! Ha not me!
My husband has the old radio Nextel phone he has to have it for work. He has 600 minutes a month for phone. So he does not use the phone much. lol
We mostly text each other. His job does not pay his bill either but he has to have it for work.

There is allot of the old nextel phones still in use by companies I worked as a supervisor in call center before sprint bought nextel when sprint bought them we fought tooth and nail we were handling their calls also but would not allow my tier 3 reps troubleshoot with their phones for almost a year.......

Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone! Got good news on my birthday. First off, I've just had shoulder surgery about a week and a half ago. Did pretty good. I can't handle the painkillers they want to give, because I get too sick on them. So I did the less strong pain pills, and that ice works like a miracle. But I had other problems, my ankles are swollen, my right leg hurts, and my white blood cell count was up. But today... I got good news that my white blood cell count is down. Tomorrow I go see my surgeon that did the surgery on me, and I guess I'll find out if I go on an antibiotic or not.

so happy you are on the mend try lidocain icy hot has it and aspercream does I use it allot try to cut back on my tramadol a bit