A Day In The Life

Disclaimer:  I am writing this for ALL people with chronic illness, or multiple illnesses, who live like this all thie time, not just myself.  I do not want your pity.  EMPATHY yes, sympathy, no.

SO.  Here is what my day looks like (and this is just phone calls, which are not always easy for me with the trach...I have to cover the trach when I talk, and hold the phone in the other hand):

I have to call my pulmonologist to let him know I got my chest x-ray done at his hospital so he can look at it before my appointment Wednesday.

I have to call the dentist to make an appointment for Jacob for his first dentist appointment (yes, I know, I'm a crappy mom, he should have gone long ago).

I have to call WalMart and get some precriptions refilled;  the bottle says they need 72 hours to fill them.  (Lord knows it feels like that when you're standing in line to pick them up! : )

I have to call a DIFFERENT pharmacy to see if a medication I have been taking for years got "prior authorization" so I can get it filled. (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate insurance companies?  I feel an "Ode To Insurance Companies" coming on.....)

If it has not been authorized, I have to call my endocrinologist and find out what's up.  (I think I'm going to write a new version of old McDonald Had a Farm...."And on that farm here had an endocrinologist....with an ologist here, and an ologist there, here an ologist, there an ologist, everywhere an ologist..."  Song of my life!)

I have to call my shrink to reschedule my med-check appointment because Doug has a work thing that came up.  At least this is a "scheduled" re-schedule, as opposed to the "oh-crap-I-can't-see-to-drive" reschedule, or the "on-crap-I-can't-breathe" reschedule, or the "oh-crap-I-can't-get-out-of-bed" reschedule.

I have to call a new ENT to make an appointment to be brutalized have the rest of the granulomas from my trach removed. There's just something SO WRONG about having to call a doctor to make an appointment that you KNOW will cause you unutterable pain....I mean, really, it's bad enough I have to go do it, but to have to make the call?  That's just wrong on so many levels!

I have to call the pain clinic my dear MG friend told me about so I can get some relief from this never ending hip and all over fibro pain (yeah, these people actually recognize fibromyalgia exists!! Go figure!) and start the lengthy application process (their "paperwork" for new patients is 27 pages....I downloaded and printed it so I can get started now!)

I have to remember to get referrals to the above ENT and pain clinic when I go to my PCP this afternoon and make THEM give me something for pain until I can get established in this other program.

Then I have to make the budget for February, balance the checkbook, I don't think my floor has been vacuumed for 2 weeks...ewwww I know. Haven't been able to but can't stand it anymore.

My house is filthy, my office is a wreck, and then there's the tiny subject of raising and educating a 5 1/2 year old and taking care of 3 dogs, all whilst needing to be ready to leave the house at 3 for my 3:15 appointment.

This, my friends, is not unusual for people with chronic illness. This is not JUST MY life.

The phone calls, insurance nightmares, medication screw up, refills, (trying to keep track of all that is a nightmare in and of itself!)  And then there's regular Life stuff...not to mention trying to have a little fun, keep up my spiritual walk, keep up relationships with the few friends I have left....

So next time you feel busy because you have to take Johnny to soccer practice before you go to the grocery store and pick up the dry cleaning?  Be thankful you CAN take Johnny to soccer practice, and go to the grocery store by yourself whenever you want to, and pick up the dry cleaning....

Just sayin'.