Phew!  The Health Benefits of Coffee – Good news for me, because I just can’t seem to give the stuff up!
What?  The Cheese isn’t magic after all?
Alternative Funereal Songs

Burglar in the wrong line of work – some people just really can’t catch a break.  He probably should have just left after regaining consciousness the first time.

Bookmarked for the designers among us:
80 Best of Adobe Illustrator tutorials, brushes, .eps
Beautiful and Creative Examples of Color and Design
Mashable’s Blogger Toolbox
Common Photoshop Mistakes and Abuses

The Photographs:
Very cute and clever photos of two adorable little girls!
Some of the best Inauguration Day Photos that I’ve seen
The title says it all: Stunning!
Cool light graffiti!
Terrific HowTo on Selective Color Photography from Blissfully Domestic
Terrific Macro Photography

And the video: So cool.

It is OK to use my photos or content provided a link back and proper crediting is given

On Tuesday, I had a long overdue doctor’s appointment. My foot issues are still with me and even though it is improving, my foot still hurts a lot. I think that 6 months is a little bit too long to be in pain, especially if there’s something that can be done about it, so I called and made an appointment for 2:30 on Tuesday. Of course, I’m always early for everything, so I got there are 2:05, signed in and sat down. At 2:40, a woman who had been there longer than I had, stood up and made the announcement that her appointment had been for 1:30, and she still hadn’t been seen and had somehow slipped through the cracks. The receptionist assured her that she had not slipped through the cracks, but that she would be seen shortly. At that point, I seriously considered rescheduling, but it had taken me so long to get myself there I decided to just wait it out. Thank goodness for Facebook and Ms. Pacman Apps. They finally called me in at about 2:50 and a student P.A. took my history. I told her about my foot and also mentioned that I wanted to talk to the doctor about hormone replacement, just to open up a dialogue. I’d had blood work done in April, which showed that I’m very healthy, but I have some things going on that are obviously hormonal and I’d like to talk about them.

The student left and I could hear her discussing me with another woman, but I didn’t know who. The P.A. that I had seen in April was no longer with the practice and my appointment was supposed to be with a Dr. who was new to the practice. A male doctor. So who was this woman who was making decisions about my care? After about 30 minutes, a woman stepped into the room and started rapid fire, giving me instruction and opinion. I interrupted her and said, “Excuse me, who are you?” She seemed startled, but quickly recovered and introduced herself as the P.A. on staff who handles feminine issues. Ok, fine – but I have a real problem with the lack of respect that medical professionals all too often show to patients. I am in charge of my care and I demand the same respect that I show others. I also demand to be treated as though I might be intelligent enough to decide on my care and I don’t appreciate being tossed around without being told what’s changing, who’s involved and where they think we might be going. As far as I’m concerned, my health care professionals work for me and as with any service provider, the customer is more than entitled to respect and compassion and please, leave your ego outside; I’m just not that impressed.

Anyway.

After our awkward start, she settled down as did I and she informed me that the blood work that I’d had in April was not as stellar as the previous guy said. Honestly, the only thing they would confess to is that my triglycerides were 2 points higher than normal. Ok, fine, I’ll go for bloodwork again. I’m annoyed that we’re starting from square one, but if they want to check my thyroid again, fine. Every year I go through this. Every doctor thinks that my symptoms stem from my thyroid and every year the test comes out normal. I always let it go, because they keep telling me that I’m just too young for hormone issues and I’ve thought that this was just something that I’d have to live with. After the past year though, and all the focus that’s been put on hormone replacement and peri-menopause, I have hope that there are other things to check. I agreed to the blood test, figuring we’ll just start there and hey, maybe something will show up this time with the thyroid and if not, that will give me the leverage I need to start the hormone testing.

Then, she says… “I think you’re just depressed. ” Really. That just pissed me off. I’m a lot of things, but depressed isn’t one of them. Stressed? Overworked? Overwhelmed? Check, check, check, but I’m not depressed and at that point I lost a little bit of the hope I’d held just a few moments before. Why is it that when a woman doesn’t feel “right”, when there’s just something off, there’s this automatic jump to “she’s depressed”? Haven’t we come farther than that? Especially from a woman? I might expect that from the old boys club, but I certainly didn’t expect it from a woman. I assured her that I am certainly not depressed and let’s just move on to the blood work. I don’t think that she liked me very much but I don’t give a crap. It’s my body and I need to be my own advocate.

As for the foot, she prescribed 800MG of Motrin 3 times a day for the anti-inflammatory properties. I filled the prescription, but who knew that Motrin could knock me on my ass like that? Did you? Anyway – my foot does feel better, but I’m going to have to call and see if just taking at night is an option as I couldn’t possibly drive or take care of any of my other myriad responsibilities taking that three times a day.

You know what I hate? I hate that I feel like I must prepare myself to be combative when I make a doctor’s appointment. And whatever happened to the doctor that I was supposed to see? Does he even know that someone else took over my care? And how difficult do I seem as a patient if I even bring that up? I guess I’ll just have to choose my battles a little bit carefully here.

It is OK to use my photos or content provided a link back and proper crediting is given