Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Return to Rehab

What a night. The final game of the National League Championship Series ended with a big win for our beloved Giants. And to add to the drama, a huge storm blew in for the final two innings. They will join the Detroit Tigers in the World Series on Wednesday.

Today is the first day I have been to the rehab class in months due to the bronchitis. I am a bit nervous. The RN who took over for Alyson is the issue, I think. She uses information given to her to get back at the patients. It is hard to explain. Somehow when I talk about anything - from food to exercise - I either don't know what I am talking about or doing something the wrong way and am corrected loudly in front of everyone. It makes one not willing to share anything. So, I need to remember to give her as little information as possible, which is not the type of relationship one wants when going through rehab. It will be great to see everyone else and get back into the groove.

I thought I had dry eyes before I saw Dr. W. last week. He explained that I actually have an allergy to the preservative in my glaucoma eye drops. He forgot to give me some samples so I ran by his office yesterday. If the insurance doesn't cover the new drops, they will cost $800.00 for three months. That is a lot of money. After trying the new drops for a month, he will write a letter to the insurance to prove that there was a problem with the old drops and that I am improved with the new ones. Hopefully, that will prove to them that I need the new drug.

Glaucoma. He believes that I have it due to the prednisone. Great. Add that to the list of organs damaged  by seven years of continuous prednisone use: liver, kidneys, pancreas, skin. But, it saved my life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm interesting in knowing what the first signs of the disease was for you. Thank you for blogging about the disease and living life with it.

Anonymous said...

Hi there Madray! The first symptom was being short of breath going up stairs. I was doing a 14-minute mile 3x a week at the time and had no other problems until later. After a bit, I also developed a dry hacking cough on exertion. The full story is in the first 6 blogs. You can read them by going to the 2009 on the right side of the blog and open October. Love to hear from you. Hope you are well!