Health care, “Firebird”

[eve_prime]

Finally! I have a primary care provider again. The doctor I’d had for 20+ years had to retire prematurely after a family health care tragedy, back in 2014. Eventually I found a convenient and nice nurse practitioner, but when I tried to make an appointment to see her a second time it turned out she’d gone to work for the school district, and her practice no longer did primary care. Then the next time I tried to find a PCP it was the pandemic, and none could be found. So finally I found this one.

Unfortunately, his appointment times for new patients are earlier in the day than I’m quite comfortable with. If I’d slept properly I could have driven myself, but my sleep was quite messed up last night (as happens lately whenever the time I wake up actually matters – otherwise I fall asleep within five minutes and sleep great). J’s dentist appointment got moved to earlier in the day, and he was able to drive me to my appointment.

I get to have bloodwork! I’ve always wanted to have bloodwork.

Afterwards I napped for three hours but still wasn’t sufficiently caught up on sleep for the symphony, which I’d quite been looking forward to. Well, yes and no – I wanted to hear the Stravinsky “Firebird” suite in the first half but was indifferent to the Dvorak New World symphony as I’ve heard it so much. J offered to drop me off at the concert hall on his way to sword class, but I didn’t know whether I had the stamina for the whole concert, so I stayed home and listened to “The Firebird” on YouTube instead. After dinner I decided to go buy some bread at Market of Choice… and it was playing on the radio, too! Not even inspired by our local symphony programming, as it was the L.A. Phil looking for something to put with “The Rite of Spring,” which I’m listening to now.

Comments

[kaishin108]

I happy that you have a doctor now! That's good you're getting blood work. I get it done at least once a year, it's interesting!

I haven't listened to Firebird in awhile, I think I will take a listen.

[eve_prime]

I don't understand, in retrospect, why my previous doctor didn't ever suggest doing this standard bloodwork and preventive screenings. Strange! The only time I ever had bloodwork was when I saw a doctor about a back ache when I was in my early 20s, and he told me my cholesterol levels were the lowest he'd ever seen. Surely it's not that way now.

I liked how The Firebird feels sort of Halloween-y. The reason they were playing it in Los Angeles, they said, was because the "rebirth after a fire" theme was locally very important to them now. I'll probably listen again very soon.

[kaishin108]

I thought blood work every year was the norm? Maybe that is after a certain age though.

[eve_prime]

I was thinking about it and realized that the old doctor was still my doctor when I turned 50, and for another couple of years after that. Surely if it was after a certain age they would want to start by 50, at least? I would think it would make the most sense to start in the 30s or at least by 40 to get a person's baseline levels.

[kaishin108]

One would think. Maybe it was only if a person showed an issue back then. And also I remembered maybe I got all that blood work over the last several years was because I was low in sodium.

[eve_prime]

Oh right, you had an actual issue they wanted to track.