Hi All:

Yesterday, Alan had his appointment with Dr. Fred and when he saw Alan's foot, he proclaimed "Alan, what happened to you". When we told him about the piece of metal that was dislodged in the ulcer on the botton of his foot, he gently unwrapped the bandage, examined his foot and proclaimed"wow, you are healing really nicely".

Alan asked about taking both cymbalta and the zoloft and I explained my concerns and he agreed. He also explained: "Melody, believe it or not, there are some patients who have clinical depression so bad that they need two antidepressants." I said "but that is not Alan, he's depressed because of our son and that's why you put him on zoloft, but now that he is on cymbalta and his neurologist wants to double the dose to 120 a day, don't you think he should be taken off the zoloft". He agreed.

He said "Alan, we're going to titrate you down" Since I had explained to Alan right before Dr. Fred came in wht titrate you down meant, Alan understood what Dr. Fred was saying.

So starting today, Alan is on 50 of the zoloft for one week, 25 the next week and 25 every other day the third week and then NO MORE!!!!

So he'll have the cymbalta doing double duty for depression and the nerve pain. God, I hope this works for him.

Now here is where I got to be Dr. Fred's patient.

I have recently put Dr. Fred as my primary care guy on my Medicare Advantage plan. But I haven't gone to see him professionally yet because I go to Cornell (which he knows all about). I see Dr. Fred all the time because of Alan.

So yesterday I casually say to Dr. Fred. "I will be coming in to see you because I can't move my left arm. I have degenerative joint disease since i'm 40 and maybe this is a rotator cuff thing or you might want to refer me to a specialist, but anyway, I'll be in soon".

He walks over to me, examines my shoulder, moves my arm around and goes: "I'm sending you for an x-ray right across the street, and you'll come in Monday and I'll give you a shot, I think it's bursitis". Then a lightbulb went off in my headl. Many many years ago, I had bursitis in that shoulder and I believe I got a cortisone shot.

So in the space of 5 minutes, I filled out all medical forms, and became his official patient. I'm going for the x-ray tomorrow morning (they couldn't take me yesterday) and I see Dr Fred first thing on Monday. He'll review he x-ray, (hopefully it's bursitis and not anything more), He'll either give me a shot or tell me what to do.

I try to do the spider walking up the wall thing but I have to hold up my left arm to reach up. Alan has to help me on with my coat and bra and stuff. It's really bad so I'm glad I'm comfortable enough and I know Dr. Fred. So it's not like I'm seeing a brand new guy as my primary care.

I also told him "Dr. Fred, I know you have to weigh me but I can't see the numbers, it will screw with my head. I told him I used to weigh almost 300lbs and he goes "wow, you certainly look good now, you and Alan both".

I said "well, I may look normal but I don't 'WEIGH" normal. He laughed and said "no problem". Just tell the girl YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WEIGH" and she'll just mark it in your charts".

So now I have a brand new primary care, hopefully he'll get my arm going.

I thank god for this man every day. Do you have any idea what it is like to be in a doctor's office with other people waiting in different areas and this guy comes over to Alan and goes "HEY ALAN, HOW'S MY BUDDY??" then he tells the other patients "this guy goes to my gym, I see him all the time".

It's so nice to be comfortable with a doctor especially when you see him on a regular basis.

And he's a great doctor, which makes it even better!!!!

Oh, and while I'm talking to the doctor about my appointment, Alan shouts out "MAKE HER GO FOR A COLONOSCOPY"!!!!

Everybody burst out laughing and I wanted to kill him. I know I have to go for one of those, but give me a break, let's fix my arm and shoulder first.

I just had a mammo and I'm okay. One thing at a time.

Hope most of you are having pain free days.

Love, Melody

very LUCKY you are????? Some folks only have limited choice where they live, or, are limited by their choices because of insuarance plans.

I for one, truly hope it works out beyond SUPER! - j

Mel,
I've said it before and I'll continue to say it over, and over:
Communication on a comfortable level with your doc(s) is the first,
most important major step to getting good health care.The second-most, is having your docs communicate with one another on a frequent and useful level. These two things will guarantee that the least amount of foul-ups and mis-treatments will occur in your health care.
There, I've said it again!

Hi, Dr. Goldfarb just returned our call.

She wasn't sure if we gave her the go-ahead for the IVIG.(I distinctly remember leaving her office and she said "I'll go ahead and do this through your insurance, I'll handle everything".

Did I say this to her? Of course not. I simply said "Whatever you think is best, do you think IVIG is indicated and she said "Oh for Alan, absolutely, and I said "are there very many serious side effects?" and she goes.

"every single treatment plan has some side effects, from the serious to the very mild. In IVIG, the most serious side effect can be a stroke but in all my professional experience I have never had that happen. That is why we put Alan in the hospital so we can monitor the iffusion rate, and if all goes well, from that time on, he an do home infusion."

So here I am going "oh my god, he could have stroke"???

I politely thanked her and she said she would be contacting my insurance. I made it perfectly clear that we can't pay any kind of co-pay for this expensive thing and she completely understood and said "don't worry, it's all covered by your insurance".

So I told Alan THE WHOLE CONVERSATION. I said it was up to him to decide to proceed, that she was setting the whole thing up and exactly what she said about the side effects. Alan simply said "Let's go for it, I'm in God' hands".

So there you have it.

When this happens, I'll update everybody!!!

I was so nervous after hearing all of this, I took my self around the corner to my beauty parlor and got my hair done. They only charge $10 for senior citizens and I walked in saying: "I'm not officially a senior citizen but I'll be 60 years old in 6 months and I need a break today. They just laughed and said "No problem". and I got a nice haircut for $10.00.

Now honestly, where in New York can you get a nice haircut, blow-out and stuff for $10.00? NO WHERE!!! except around the corner from me!!!!!

lol