No Longer Sleep Deprived & Correspondence

No Longer Sleep Deprived

I woke up at 9 a.m. this morning. So, except for waking at 6:30 a.m. to let the dog out, I slept 9 hours!!

Glorious sleep. I never ever sleep that late. But because everyone is home, and no one in the family has to leave early for camp, school or work, I had no need to get up either. WOW! This is wonderful.

So that's a significant change since the 5 1/2 hour sleep time I was logging in during the 60 mg prednisone days.

Correspondence

I have been corresponding with A Friend of a Friend, comparing our experiences with BOOP, which she had about 10 years ago. She and I compared the quality of care, insured vs. uninsured. At her suggestion, I am sharing this part of our correspondence:

...At the end of my hospital stay, there were several doctors involved in deciding the final diagnosis. The degree of cautiousness, offhandedness, seriousness really went from one extreme to the other. The British-accented doctor was obsequious as he deflected to the head of the department, who I believe was from East Asia. This department head was so refined and serious and the only one who asked any original questions.

One doctor, who I believe was from India, ultimately seemed less concerned than my own American-born pulmonologist, Dr. A., who was very cautious and was the one who originally asked for the confab to ensure it was the right diagnosis.

Is it cultural, personality, internal hospital politics? Who knows?

So, I'm beginning to learn that while payment is surely an issue, doctors are just people too. Some better, some worse. Some more interested than others. My own pulmonologist is very effective, but getting him to return phone calls is an issue. Is it because of the health care system or just his personality? Have I become too much of a "nudnik?" Who knows?

A Day at the Beach...

It's summer, we're free and so we went to the beach. Manhattan Beach Park. It was great. Of course, folks continue to turn away from me so they won't see my face. I'm still strange looking. But, now everything is relative.

L'Hitra'ot