Recap: Mr VOW and I have our home out in the middle of nowhere in AZ. Our kids and their kids (COTU#1, COTU#2, COTU#3) live in SCal. We travel back and forth between the two places several times throughout the year, for holidays and birthdays.
After much research and deliberation, we chose to keep our healthcare providers in SCal. Continuity of care is important to us, especially since we are so decrepit. Some providers we’ve had for twenty years!
Among my many failings, I have a pinched nerve in my neck. I complained about neck pain over the eons, and it was only fairly recently I was referred for a neck MRI and a spinal specialist. After all this time, it was such an emotional relief to have my pain validated, dammit!
My specialist has been prescribing some nice pain pills, and offered a procedure called a nerve ablation. The ablation worked pretty good the first time. The second time was okay, too.
Ablation doesn’t eliminate all the pain. But it makes the pain more bearable, and combined with the pain pills I could actually DO some things I hadn’t been able to do in years.
At this time, I’ve had about five ablations. And I don’t get the relief any more. My doctor explained that my neck problem is a degenerative condition, and this happens. So he sent me for a new MRI, and gave me a referral to a spinal surgeon.
Mr. VOW just called the spinal surgeon for my first appointment. Then he comes stomping and snorting in to where I was sitting, “You have an appointment on July 17th. When are we gonna go home to AZ?”
Why is it MY fault?
After some snarling back and forth, I told him to change the appointment to August. We have to be here for birthdays in August. That way we can at least go back to AZ for the month of July.
Well, the doctor’s office is closed for lunch (those fiends!). We’re still snarling back and forth.
I bet he brings up the salt on the roads in Illinois…
~VOW
FYI: COTU is a family shorthand for “Center of the Universe,” and means a grandchild. We have three, hence, COTU#1, COTU#2, COTU#3