Having settled down in a permanent position, I now have new health insurance. It's through the same organization. I'm not too worried about coworkers looking up my info, as the EMR software is very good about tracking such things with employee accounts. If anything, they'll find out that I'm really not lying about my age.
So earlier this year, I got a physical physical, a psychiatric physical, and decided to address a few chronic problems.
Overall, I'm in good working order. Labs are beautiful: total cholesterol is 111 despite my cheese addiction. Fasting blood glucose is in the 80s. Blood pressure is well-controlled with my one medication. I'm exercising about 5 days a week so that's probably helping all those along as well. I could stand to lose some weight, but that's nothing new.
Psychiatrically, I'm doing well. Been feeling pretty good. The medications received a slight dosage tweak, but no major med additions or changes. The psych NP offered me the option of a seeing a therapist...I declined for right now. I've done it in the past and have had hit-or-miss results. Plus I don't have anything going on that I really need therapy for. I'm coping with my father's death pretty well, though December is going to be hell on wheels. But I'll worry about that in December.
Most of my chronic physical problems are already as controlled as they can be, so there wasn't really anything they could address. But there's always one...
Long story short: sinus problem unresponsive to most treatments and is now playing havoc with my ear. It's to the point that I've incurred some low-level hearing loss in that ear. Hopefully it's a temporary loss. It's an annoyance, because I feel impaired on that one side. Allergy and sinus meds are not working. And I've been purchasing so much decongestant from the pharmacy that I'm sure they're wondering if I'm running a meth lab.
Anyhow...
The nice thing about going through the same organization as my job is that referrals are easy, fast and have minimal preauthorization hassles. Plus they can all access my account, so no need to deal with releases of information. I left my PCP's office in the morning and by the afternoon, ENT was calling me to schedule.
So since then, I've had several visits, several tests including a CT, and trials on several medications. Nada. I'm now at the point where I've been referred to the ENT surgeon. Great, the possibility of surgery. Right when I've taken the full-time job and become the primary breadwinner. At least they could do most sinus surgery on a same-day outpatient basis, with downtime of only a week or so.
Fortunately, he's not ready to operate just yet. I'm on the latest trial of two medications, and at the end of the month I go for another hearing test and re-eval. Unfortunately...these two meds don't seem to be helping much. Though my hearing seems to have improved a little.
