Life By Lindsey Rae

I've been quite sick since Monday night. Maybe just a cold or a bit of the flu. I usually have the daily headaches and allergies all that, but now having a bad cough and sore throat and chill and those kind of flu aches and pains made me remember that I haven't been quite so sick like this in quite awhile.
When I was in school, was taking 18-21 hours of classes per semester and had 2 hours of driving back and forth to do daily, I would always get sick like this; at least once or twice every semester for a few weeks...I must have been worn down and probably made me more susceptible to these things.
Since I haven't been doing the school thing for awhile, I seem to have been able to avoid it more than in the past.
Anyway, my concern now is that we have our Primary presentation on Sunday. As I previously said, keeping my class nice and quiet takes about all the energy I normally have. And on top of that, I am supposed to sing two solos! Solos without a mic....which I usually have a big enough voice to do, but at this rate, I can't hardly even talk. How will I say, "Be quiet...stop talking....stop poking each other..." over and over, and then sing two songs?

No sleep test results yet. They said I should have them by Monday....and being it's Tuesday, I do not. I called and they said at least by Thursday.

I find it really frustrating. I mean, that's fine if it's going to take a week (or over a week as seems to be the case) but just say that! Don't keep tell me 3 days, if you can't deliver. Then I just worry about getting them and feel like I have to keep calling about it, which I really don't like to do, because it makes me feel like I am being obnoxious. This is the 2nd time they've done this to me, so I'm getting pretty irritated. I expressed this concern and was told that the first time it was just some "miscommunication" in the office that caused it. Well....what is it this time?

So, I'm still waiting to get my sleep study tests back. I think it will probably (hopefully) be Monday. It takes them a few days to go over them. I read somewhere that a single sleep study generates 800 pages of data.

I'm very anxious about it, because, I didn't feel like I slept the same at the study as I normally do. I didn't think I dreamed as much and I definitely didn't get to sleep as long. I didn't fall asleep until 1:00am and they made me get up before 6:30am. Normally I sleep at least 10 hours. So, I just really hope the results will be the same as they would be on a "normal" night....or at least that they got all the information they need to make an accurate diagnosis.

I had a migraine the next day and just felt so frustrated about it the next day because they won't tell you any results at the time. I guess because the technicians aren't doctors, they can't. But, I know they know more than they let on. And they try to ask you all these tricky questions to see what your perception and interpretation of your sleep is, so see if you are accurate or not. I was just irritated that I couldn't find out right away what I need to do next.
I do think that I am going to have to go back for another test where I will stay one night and then one day and have a daytime test.

I just am really anxious about all of this because I would really like to find a way that I can feel better...and I've tried so many things already, it would be nice if this was finally the answer to what is affecting me.

I actually had a couple of semi-interesting thoughts today I was going to write about, but I have a super bad migraine tonight and so now I can't focus enough to write anything...so I may have to try another time...
Ahh! My head hurts sooo much!!!
Well, at least it's better than it hurting everyday like it used to...every few days is somewhat bearable.

Ok, one funny thing that I learned today:
So, this receptionist from one of my Dr.'s offices called me and left a message on my voice mail, saying, " This is the doctors office Just calling to remind you about your follow-up appointment on Monday. You can call us back if you have any other questions."
Uh, yes, I do have a question: Who are you? I have at least 5-10 doctors that could be calling me for a follow-up appointment, so I'm pretty sure that's a question I need to find out.
I called the number back and say, "Uh, I hear I have an appointment, but who are you?!" haha. They told me that according to HIPAA law they can't say the name of the Doctor or clinic. It's just the "Doctor's office". Kind of weird. I never knew about that before...at least none of my other doctor's offices do that...

So, unfortunately, our co-pay for prescriptions went up at the beginning of this year. We used to pay $10 for generic, $20 for preferred brands, and $30 for non-preferred brands. We thought the prices were going to be increasing $10 each, but as it turns out, each has doubled. I didn't realize this until I ordered a refill for my migraine medicine the other day and saw it came to $60, instead of the usual $30.
This is for a 3 month supply, however, so at least you get a decent amount. The crazy part is, although I pay $60 for my migraine medicine, on top of that my insurance still pays $446.00! So, thats over $500 for 90 little pills. Which means, they cost approximately $5.62 each. Now that is crazy. This is the cost of preventing daily headaches. I am very upset that my co-pay has doubled, but thank goodness we have decent insurance. How would someone possibly afford it other wise? The average person couldn't. You just live with your migraines or whatever else is wrong with you I guess...If you can live with them, without your $500 medicine.

The last couple of months my allergies have been surprisingly not so bad. Still there, but not so bad. The headaches have become less severe too. I have them maybe only 3-4 times a week as opposed to all 7. I think maybe it was a combination of getting my allergy shots 1-2 times weekly for the last 10 months and also the migraine medication.
However, the seasons are changing now and as it gets more fall like out there, I feel them coming back more. Not so intense as before, but bothering me more than they did a month ago. I'm allergic to a lot of molds, so I wonder if maybe it's not because with more vegetation dying, that brings more mold around. We don't get much wind, so I think that most of the time things doing get moved around and away. They just sit there and mold.
Anyway, although I find that my allergies are not really seasonal at all, I think I do remember last year when the weather was colder, I did have more pain in my sinuses.
I hate winter.
Not just for that reason. I just hate winter all together. It's cold. It makes me depressed. I hate fall because it means winter is coming.
At least the cold season is short here. Except for last year....last year was cold for so much longer than usual! (And so now I can't believe in global warming!)

Monday I got up early because I had a very early appointment for June 5th to get re-tested for allergies. Well, it turned out Monday wasn't June 5th...that was Tuesday...so after I went down to the Doctor only to find that out,(haha) I went back early on Tuesday morning.
I was quite excited to get my tests done. I had my first allergy tests back in Janurary of 2006 and at that time I was surprised to find that I had developed allergies to quite a few things that had never bothered me as a kid. I have been getting allergy shots for a few months now, but I haven't responded at all. It does take awhile, but my Doctor said that I should have some improvement. I am still getting all the really bad symptoms, the worst being chronic daily headaches. It is all quite debilitating. I hate to complain...but it's hard not to.
Anyway, I had to wait over a month to get in! And I'm not even a new patient! (Once again this Canadian will maintain asking the question, "Now what is the benefit of privitized health care that truly makes it better?")

Initially when they test you they test for things that most people in the area are bothered by, but this time they were testing me for more specific things that they might need to add to my allergy shot. I got tested for about 80 things this time! It was crazy! Anyone who has ever been tested knows it's not so fun...long and very uncomfortable. They do a topical test where they put the liquid drops directly onto your skin and so you have to just sit there and can't move your arms at all for 20 minutes straight so the drops will stay in place. Well, for a person with ADD, this is pure torture. Really, the first thought is, "Uh, how about you just shoot me instead? Might be less painful."
Then, (this is the crazy part) I got under the skin tests, and I got 37 shots in one arm at one time! I couldn't believe it. Actually, the girl who gave them to me is pretty good at giving shots, which I was glad to have her, because one of the girls there is new and she hurts me a lot. But anyway, the girl I got is from the Bahamas so she talked to me about being both being immigrants and green cards the whole time she was sticking all those needles in my arm and so it distracted me. But when she was finshed poking me I looked down and realized what she had done to me and I was shocked! Now I look like I have chicken pox because I have red spots all over my arms.
Well, after all that I got tested for all those things, only a few came back positive enough to be something to be treated for. Last time I tested positive for both types of dust mites, cats, dogs, cockroaches, Pigweed, Bermuda grass, a bunch of trees and a bunch of kinds of molds. This time came back showing more specific molds. So, maybe that's why Tennessee has been harder on me because of the humidity and the extra moisture that we never had in Canada, causes more mold. But the worst of it is that I'm really allergic to food molds! Like bread, cheese, sour cream, ketchup, relish, mayo, vinegar...that sort of thing. I'm so sad about it! I'm so picky and don't hardly like to eat anything as it is! And bread is my favorite food, but now I'm not supposed to eat it! I can still eat the foods sometimes, just not supposed to eat them as often and not combinations of them. But like with bread, I liked to eat it with every meal. Now, I should probably not even eat it everyday.
Oh well, I guess I can just hope that maybe once they get my new allergy shot mix done and I get that in my system it will help some of these terrible symptoms I've had for so long. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired all the time!