Moday and Tuesday 2/15 and 16

Happy Birthday Lisa!
February 15th and 16th
MD appts
I got up early and called Kaiser to get an appt with my primary doctor to follow up on the coughing which is only slightly better and wearing both of us out. Got an early one fortunately, and when the doctor came I the room, I covered my eyes and said: “Oh no! She’s back again!” He remarked that I was far from being a frequent flyer. We finished with the exams and such and he put me on a course of oral steroids for three days. Told Ed I’d be happy, hungry and the doctor added I’d have insomnia. We then spent some time talking about health care reform and KPs position since it is one of the models being used for discussion. It turns out that since KP is a federally recognized HMO it MUST offer a so called “cadillac” plan of services and this also means that it—and the subscribers—will be charged an extra fee if the Senate version of health care reform passes. Although I know KP has a n excellent array of services and benefits, I never thought of it as a “Cadillac plan”. Then we discussed adverse selection. As an example, KP was the first to cover HIV drugs so of course, lots of folks who were HIV+ flocked to KP. There are other examples. Because of some problems with drug issues, KP, like most other health coverages, may soon reduce our medication supplies to 30 days. We have enough trouble getting the meds for these long cruises!
In the afternoon, I had the 3rd shot in my left eye. I am still stunned that it has improved what vision I have left in that eye. We set the appt for tomorrow for the last I my right eye.
In between
We were frantically trying to get other things done in between all these anchoring appointments. We did manage to go to the Bistro at Nordstrom’s for lunch, something we both enjoy as they have great salads. And I dropped off ink cartridges at Staples so we can get a coupon for credit toward more. Those sorts of things.
And we picked up the check for Ed’s car. So that chapter is over for the time being.
Ol d cronies
Since Ed went to lay poker with his HS buddies (he told them he came off the ship especially to do this. Ha), I rewarded myself for my medical ordeals with a Big Mac. It was good but I would have liked it better with lots more secret sauce. Maybe I should have just opted for a Whopper from Burger King.
FEBRUARY 16TH
Amy was good enough to switch patrons around so we could get everything in today. So she started with me, cut Ed’s hair and then finished me. We took subway sandwiches to gulp down.
I had the final shot for the time being, in my right eye which does not seem to be making any difference. Since there’s not much out there to offer me, I may just need to learn to adapt to that loss over time. I was left with a big blood clot on my eye this time and I have a good story to tell folks: Ed finally whopped me when I said the wrong thing. Ha.
We then went to Fidelity to deposit the check for the car and to get info about Roth IRA conversions and get the nitty gritty about the new rules for conversions. That took longer than we expected.
We picked up a world map and atlas since, in my organizing zeal, I put the old ones somewhere logical and of course now cannot find them and am not willing to obsess any more about it. Besides, the geopolitical boundaries have changed a lot in the intervening time since we bought the last one.
I could only get a few of the mail hold cards so we went to more than one PO and I still need a few more. We got cash for the trip, picked up Ed’s favorite shirt from the tailor, dropped off stuff at the thrift store…well you get the picture.
We had an anniversary card from Daily Grill, which despite my food poisoning incident at the LAX branch in December, I still enjoy, so we went there for an early supper. Afterwards we hit Costco to restock Ed’s supplement supply while they were on sale. Boy was that a pleasure! Almost no one there and we breezed right through the checkout.
Withdrawals
Ed had to watch some of his taped programs so it was back to the Feldman routine of zoning out in front of the enormous TV in the LR while I catch up on things. This meant no lights out until midnight. I wanna go back to the ship where he keeps decent hours. And I’m the one that started Prednisone today so I should be the one who is the night owl!