All is still well
I saw the ob/gyn today. Even though I have lots of contractions, everything is still sealed as tight as a vault (the cervix hasn't dilated or effaced yet, for anyone wondering). This is good. At 34 weeks (a week from this coming Friday) I was supposed to begin wearing breast shields to better assure a latch-on-able nipple at the time of birth. That's been delayed until I've completed 36 weeks because breast shields apparently can cause some contractions, and I already have plenty.
I have a yeast infection I didn't know about. The doctor wrote me a prescription. The medicine must be fancy, new, or otherwise expensive because it had a $35 co-pay. I hate that. I always hope for the cheaper, generic stuff with a $10 co-pay. My pre-natal vitamins have the $35 co-pay, so I'm already spending a lot each month on prescriptions.
On March 24, when I have completed 37 weeks, I will be free to do whatever I want and ignore all the contractions (unless/until they become real). I can move boxes of baby clothing around, sit at the paper shredder and shred paper, pick up the junk the kids leave all over the floor, clean behind the toilet, garden, etc. I can do all the things I have to avoid because they cause contractions. I still do some stuff (like laundry and other necessary cleaning) that set off the contractions, but I'm careful to stop and rest to get the contractions to stop as soon as I can. I'll be able to just keep going, ignoring the contractions, and get things done! It's very odd, but leaning forward to run the paper shredder over and over sets off the contractions. Right now I only shred a couple things at a time, and I have tons of paperwork that I'd like shredded. Shoot, even driving now sometimes sets them off.
I seem to have developed heel spurs right after I got pregnant, and they've been getting worse and worse as my weight has increased. Last week I finally saw my family doctor about them. She sort of wanted to prescribe anti-inflamatory medicine, but didn't because of my pregnancy. I'd be happy for some ibuprofen. She told me to ask the ob/gyn. I did, and the concession I got is that if the pain is bad enough, I can take up to two ibuprofen (at the same time). Then that's it. I cannot have any more for the rest of pregnancy. So, I'll probably not end up taking any because even if the pain gets very bad again, I'll probably hold off just in case it worsens and I don't want to waste my one chance for relief. My family doctor gave me some excercises, had me get inserts for my shoes, and has me ice my heels once a day. I've been doing it for a week. I will say it is helping. She said I should be a lot better in two weeks, and it's been one week, so hopefully I will continue to improve and won't be tempted to waste my one chance to take ibuprofen.
I need to buy a new microwave. I was using it yesterday, and it started to spark. I guess the insides had rusted so much that the exposed metal is causing problems. I'm sick of buying appliances, even relatively inexpensive ones like a microwave. Every time I turn around something breaks and I have to go buy a new one.
Our new fancy space heater for my son's room just came by UPS today. I haven't opened it yet. I guess we can try to move him upstairs this weekend.
Our tenant in our rental unit has fled and returned to the state from which he just moved earlier this year. He left his keys with his sister, who it appears did a lot to help him out. She got him a job at her husband's office, lent him the security deposit and first two month's rent, and lent him some furniture. I got all but one of the keys from her today. Her husband still has one since they were unable to get all their furniture back. Hopefully they'll get the furniture this weekend, and we'll get the last key back. Then my husband has to clean up the place again, and we have to start looking for another tenant and hope we get someone next time who actually stays for the term of the lease, pays the rent on time, and doesn't trash the place. As far as I know, the place is in relatively good order right now except for the remaining furniture, but I haven't been by yet to check.
I don't know if my husband has to work for his business Saturday (probably, with his luck), but now he'll have to look into the state of our rental unit, clean it up enough to show it, work on getting my son's stuff together in his new room, and we have to go to a winter carnival at my son's school this Saturday. I'm sure he has lots of projects I don't even know about. He's also probably coming down with the bad cold the rest of us share. This will probably be a pretty unpleasant weekend.
5 Comments:
Thanks, Moon-Spinner.
I'll tell you, I'm not as impatient as I I was when the baby was on my sciatic nerve. She hasn't bothered it in at least a week, and I hope it stays that way.
I had to laugh when you said that your cervix was sealed as tight as a vault :-) Keep it that way! lol
Can you explain co-pay for medicines? We have a brand name drug and usually a generic equivalent. We also have Govt subsidised drugs for all, like my son's Singulair. I pay $29 and the Govt pays the rest no matter how much money my husband earns. We have no coverage for prescriptions so while it's cheap to see a doctor, it's often expensive to see the chemist :-) Especially if you have anything chronic.
Sorry to read about your tenant and your heel spurs and your microwave !! You are having a rough trot at the moment.
I hope your weekend goes OK. I hope everyone falls asleep on Sunday arvo and gives you a bit of time to either nap or read (don't do the washing or ironing!)
Keep well and take care.
Brilly,
My goverment doesn't subside my medicine. We have private insurance that we get through my husband's job. Since he owns the company, we pay our and our employees' premiums (very expensive).
My insurance has three tiers. Generally they work like this. The cheapest stuff (usually it's generic) costs me $10 (such as my birth control pills when they came out in generic form, and common generic antibiotics). Other stuff (sometimes generic; sometimes not such as my birth control pills in the name brand form or my generic phenergan for nausea) cost me $20. Finally the most expensive stuff (or perhaps stuff the insurance company doesn't think is as necessary) cost me $35. This includes many things such as my prenatal vitamins (which aren't generic and include a second pill each day filled with fish-oil stuff so my baby will have better brain delvelopment--I think they are relatively new on the market). I'm guessing the insurance doesn't think they are very necessary since one can buy other prenatal vitamins over the counter or in generic prescription form. This prenatal vitamin happens to be what my doctor is recommending right now (perhaps from influence from the drug companies), but since it has the extra pill to help my baby's brain develop, of course I think I have to have it. In reality, I was much sicker with my first two pregnancies and couldn't keep down prenatal vitamins at all so I took over-the-counter Fred Flinstone vitamins (for children), which I could keep down. I really don't think this baby will be smarter than the first two, but you never know. Yes, I'm a sucker.
Last night's yeast infection medicine was generic but it was a $35 prescription. I'm guessing that's because the insurance company figures I should have used over-the-counter medicine, which is readily available here.
Anyway, every time I have to fill a prescription, I keep my fingers crossed that it will be a $10 one. Sometimes I'm lucky and it is. It seems more and more often my medicines are falling into the $20 or $35 tier.
Also, to save money next fall when we re-enroll in the insurance, we'll likely chose a product with higher prescription co-pays. I think there is a similar insurance product with a $50 co-pay for the third-tier drugs instead of a $35. We will get a better price on the premiums.
Mooney our system has it's flaws too. My SIL has very, very bad varicose veins and she's on a waiting list to have them fixed. It's not life threatening so she might wait 4 or 5 years.
On the other hand my friends husband who has Thymic Carcinoma (cancer of the thymus) was operated on the day he was diagnosed, he started chemo that week and radiation. All at no cost BUT (and it's a big but) his cancer can't be cured and they've told him that if the chemo doesn't help they will withdraw treatment immediatly. The idea being 'why waste money on someone we can't cure'. They will make him comfortable but they won't try expensive new treatments unless he pays for them. If he were a child they'd spend more.
When my Nan was ill the hospital told us that they could do a test on her but it was too expensive. If she'd been a child they would have felt justified in spending the money.
Sorry to hijack your comments Angela.
take care
brilly
Brilly,
Feel free to hijack. I found it interesting. I just saw a short article in today's paper about how private medical care in Canada is growing rapidly. I guess a lot (or enough to make it profitable to run private clinics) people in Canada have enough money and are willing to spend it to receive care in a timely fashion for non-lifethreatening treatments.
A few weeks ago I saw an article (okay, I admit it was at a right-wing nutso web site) that among other things mentioned that the U.S. actually subsidized a lot of the socialist stuff in Europe in this manner: because the U.S. sunk a lot of cash into its military and is willing to use its military for the defense of its allied countries, the allied countries didn't need to sink as much into their militaries, freeing it up for socialist projects like the free health care. I'm not sure how true that is or how one would even measure it, but it does make me think.
I just don't know. Pretty much whatever the government gets involved in gets mucked up. I'd hate to turn our health care over to them.
Even around here, we have a special medical (private) program because doctors accepting insurance have to process so many patients to run a profitable office. I think it allows you to use your insurance, but there are extra fees you pay privately (including annual memebership)and you get quick response from a doctor, long appointments (not just rushed out the door), access to a doctor day and night by phone, and lots of other care you wouldn't get in a regular insurance program. Because they charge the extra annual fee, they don't have to maintain as many patients as the regular doctor, so they have more time to spend with each patient. Anyway, I certainly can't afford that extra care, so I just stick with my insurance. But I have no objection to people willing and able to pay out-of-pocket for extra care being able to receive it at their own expense. Heck, I drive a 5 1/2-year-old Ford Taurus (nothing wrong with that), but I don't mind that a lot of cars on the road are brand-new Lexuses or Cadillacs or BMWs or whatever. That's how it is. Those people with more money are able to spend it on whatever they'd like.
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