My Personal Healthcare Crisis

(Note: this post has been edited because portions of it were inadvertently deleted before uploading.)

I know you're all tired of hearing about mice. On that we are agreed. I just hope you're not too tired of hearing about the health care crisis, although if you stick around you'll find that this post has nothing to do with Obamacare.

I had my annual doctor's appointment today which is always a much anticipated day. Not!

The last couple of years my primary care physician and my ob/gyn have been keeping close tabs on my blood pressure (which kept going up) and my weight (which was doing likewise). Both docs are nice people who never actually told me "change this or die." Both admit that their lifestyles are worse than mine and they both struggle constantly with their weight. They'd let me cheat for them at their own physicals in a heartbeat. But we all stand on the scale alone, even if it feels like someone else is standing with us, so we each must give an account for our own numbers.

Today's appointment went as well as could be expected. Being female, I've resigned myself to submitting to cancer screenings for areas of the body that we don't talk about in polite society. It helps that my doc is a woman and that she has hysterical cartoons plastered on the ceiling, except that it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "it only hurts when I laugh."

At the end of our meeting - or what I thought was the end - the doc went over the highlights :

• Blood pressure in the normal range
• Dropped 14 pounds in the last 2 years
• Visual and manipulative exams show no abnormalities
• Keep up the good work!

At that point I was ready to hop off that table, get dressed, and exit the building as fast as my pudgy little legs would carry me. It was not to be.

"We need to take several vials of your blood before you leave," she nonchalantly said while peering at her computer.

"What!!!!!" I yelled. Good thing she and her stethoscope weren't standing too close or she would now be visiting the auditory specialist down the hall.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I don't "do" blood. Change diapers? Okay. Clean up vomit? Not my favorite activity, but I can do it. I. Don't. Do. Blood. Or needles either. Blood and needles combined rate a nuclear reaction.

I think I looked ready to faint on the spot because the doc and her nurse hurriedly moved me to a reclining position. They teased me as they looked over my file. "Didn't you have all 4 of your children natural childbirth?" As though that had anything to do with the procedure in question!

Of course I had all of my children natural childbirth! I just didn't look while they were being born because I didn't want to see blood. But both were really guffawing when I told them that one time I remember coping as best I could through very difficult labor when the doctor decided I was dehydrated and needed an i.v. Yes, I really did faint that time. Fortunately nothing like that happened today, although if I'd known they were going to draw blood I would've had someone drive me to the appointment.

Changes in one's health care can be quite a shock to the system!