While providing Virginia with pearls of wisdom (or whatever kinds of pearls they are--maybe not of wisdom exactly) on how to get along with MS without air conditioning, I was reminded of an upcoming problem I'm dealing with, also involving heat avoidance.
In the middle of the next week I have an appointment with my PCP. It was set up months ago and I've already gone for the lab work. The appointment is just a routine follow-up on the lab work but it needs to happen about a week after that lab work so the doctor gets the results in a timely way.
The problem is that the weather forecast is for a day in the upper 90s. First it was 99'. Now it's down to 98'. I can hope it will change by going down even more. That is actually a realistic hope at this point. Forecasts can change wildly.
I try not to schedule any appointments involving outings in the summer just because it's too likely to be hot. Yes, vans and places are usually air conditioned, but I've known that to fail--and then I'm stuck, riding around on a very hot van, maybe for an hour or two.
If I do end up with an appointment in July or August, I might reschedule it if the weather is getting in the way. But this time I can't. It's not just because of the lab work that has already been done. It's also that I need to have an annual diabetic foot exam. The diabetic shoe people are all set up to use that exam so I can be provided with diabetic shoes that have "custom orthotics."
There's no way that exam could be done virtually.
Also, I need to have some contact with the doctor about an updated list of my over-the-counter recurring medical expenses. The deadline on that is now or at least early August because the housing recertification is coming up, and the doctor's updated list is probably going to be needed. I could request that over the phone but it would be harder. It's easier if I take in the old list and show it to the doctor so she'll know what I'm talking about.
I'm going to hope I get decent transportation connections this time and hope that everyone's air conditioning works.
I'm such a fanatic about heat avoidance that when I was at the lab the other day--it's in the same building as the PCP's office--I asked the lab technician about their air conditioning.
The building's heating system hasn't been working for many years but I had noticed that the air conditioning seemed to be on when I was there. She said that they'd fixed the system, or at least she sounded as if it had been fixed at least for now.
I know this lab technician. She's been the person doing my blood draws routinely for about 12 years or more. Recently she was all set to quit on account of the failed heating system because she has a health condition that makes it difficult for her to work without adequate heat. I was glad to see she hadn't quit.
I've always liked lab technicians as a class. I used to work in a hospital lab and liked all of my coworkers.
There was one woman who was impossible but she wasn't exactly a lab technician. She was a Lutheran nun who was also in charge of the student nurses in some way. She was bossy but I had to deal with her often because we shared several rooms where patients would come for EKGs and for BMRs. She did BMRs, I did EKGs. We sometimes had problems about whose room was being used for what purpose.
I don't expect anyone to read through all of this post. But if I can ramble on here about whatever pops into my head like this, I wonder why others can't do the same. Maybe people are scared of putting words out there.
Help yourself, people--the space is here for you!
In the middle of the next week I have an appointment with my PCP. It was set up months ago and I've already gone for the lab work. The appointment is just a routine follow-up on the lab work but it needs to happen about a week after that lab work so the doctor gets the results in a timely way.
The problem is that the weather forecast is for a day in the upper 90s. First it was 99'. Now it's down to 98'. I can hope it will change by going down even more. That is actually a realistic hope at this point. Forecasts can change wildly.
I try not to schedule any appointments involving outings in the summer just because it's too likely to be hot. Yes, vans and places are usually air conditioned, but I've known that to fail--and then I'm stuck, riding around on a very hot van, maybe for an hour or two.
If I do end up with an appointment in July or August, I might reschedule it if the weather is getting in the way. But this time I can't. It's not just because of the lab work that has already been done. It's also that I need to have an annual diabetic foot exam. The diabetic shoe people are all set up to use that exam so I can be provided with diabetic shoes that have "custom orthotics."
There's no way that exam could be done virtually.
Also, I need to have some contact with the doctor about an updated list of my over-the-counter recurring medical expenses. The deadline on that is now or at least early August because the housing recertification is coming up, and the doctor's updated list is probably going to be needed. I could request that over the phone but it would be harder. It's easier if I take in the old list and show it to the doctor so she'll know what I'm talking about.
I'm going to hope I get decent transportation connections this time and hope that everyone's air conditioning works.
I'm such a fanatic about heat avoidance that when I was at the lab the other day--it's in the same building as the PCP's office--I asked the lab technician about their air conditioning.
The building's heating system hasn't been working for many years but I had noticed that the air conditioning seemed to be on when I was there. She said that they'd fixed the system, or at least she sounded as if it had been fixed at least for now.
I know this lab technician. She's been the person doing my blood draws routinely for about 12 years or more. Recently she was all set to quit on account of the failed heating system because she has a health condition that makes it difficult for her to work without adequate heat. I was glad to see she hadn't quit.
I've always liked lab technicians as a class. I used to work in a hospital lab and liked all of my coworkers.
There was one woman who was impossible but she wasn't exactly a lab technician. She was a Lutheran nun who was also in charge of the student nurses in some way. She was bossy but I had to deal with her often because we shared several rooms where patients would come for EKGs and for BMRs. She did BMRs, I did EKGs. We sometimes had problems about whose room was being used for what purpose.
I don't expect anyone to read through all of this post. But if I can ramble on here about whatever pops into my head like this, I wonder why others can't do the same. Maybe people are scared of putting words out there.
Help yourself, people--the space is here for you!
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