A Bit Better

Well, the adventure continued today, but at least we were able to get the mistake at the doctor's fixed up.

Unfortunately, Dh isn't doing any better.  For him, it started very painfully.  It took him a full 11 minutes just to get out of bed and to the washroom, which is just on the other side of the bedroom wall.  It was an excrutiating morning for him.

After yesterday's mix up, we headed straight for the clinic to wait for the doors to open.  We left a bit too early, getting there 15 minutes before the doors opened.  There was already someone else waiting, though that turned out to be for the pharmacy that shares the same main entrance as our dr's clinic.  That mean 15 minutes of slowly pacing back and forth along one side of the building, which did help loosen up Dh's back a bit.  He did take at T3 before we left, but 45 minutes later, it still didn't feel like it had kicked in.

By the time the doors opened, there were quite a few people waiting.  Dh went straight to the counter, gave back the print outs we got yesterday and basically told them, "this isn't me."  The receptionist immediately knew who Dh was.  It turns out our Dr. saw the guy who's file he'd actually had instead of Dh right after we left, and the mix up was caught then.  We were told that the request for an MRI got sent out properly, she was all ready to get a new chit for medical leave written up, and handed over a print out for prescription refills, which was something that got brought up during our visit yesterday.  Along with his refills, there was a new prescription for T3s for when what we have at home runs out.  Plus there was...

... hold on.  What are those doing there??

There were two new meds on the prescription list, and we didn't know why they were there.  One I recognized the name of.  It was an anti-depressant Dh had been prescribed before - 8 years ago and in another province! One of a number of possible side effects of this particular brand of anti-depressants was suicidal ideation, and sure enough, that was one of several side effects that he got out of them.  Not something he would be taking again!  I recognised the name of the other one, but couldn't remember what it was for.  After talking to the receptionist about it, she asked if we were able to wait around a bit so that we could talk directly to our doctor, who wasn't in yet but expected soon.  We decided to wait, though there was no way Dh could sit on those waiting room chairs for any length of time, so whe headed back outside, where he had more room to pace.  With his handy-dandy Blackberry, he looked up the other prescription that was on the list, and it turned out to be a painkiller that is often used topically.  I'm not sure why I recognize the name.

When the dr. arrived and he saw Dh he was very quick to apologize for the mix up.  It seems that the mistake was completely his, having called up the next patient's file instead of Dh's.  He saw us first, even though there were quite a lot of people waiting.  We even ended up in the same examination room as before. *L*  As we were waiting a couple of minutes for the Dr. to join us, Dh was sitting in one of those waiting room chairs, rocking gently from side to side, adjusting for the pain.  At one point, he just kept leeeeaaaannnniiinngggg over to one side until he head was almost on the counter beside him.  Thankfully, it didn't take long for the dr. to join us.

Again, he apologised and we found out more about what happened.  We asked about the new prescriptions on the list, and it turns out that they should have been on the other guy's file, not Dh's.  That got fixed right quick!  This had the potential to be a lot worse than it was!!  It's a good thing it got caught as quickly as it did. 

We chatted some more about Dh's situation.  A new medical leave chit was printed out, along with the proper test results from Dh's Xrays for the physiotherapist.  We got a chuckle over the coincidence that he'd have another patient with such similar problems as Dh - those his back damage is far less than what Dh's is.

So that was all fixed up and settled, much to everyone's relief.  Dh got his new print outs, and this time they both double checked that they were the right ones. *L*

After that, we sung through a fast food place for food, since neither of us had had breakfast.  It was a nice surprise for the kids, too.  When we got back, Youngest was up and very happy to see us. Somehow, she missed out on all our conversations yesterday and had no idea why we were gone or where!

Dh ended up spending most of his day tilted back in the computer chair.  The walking from earlier helped quite a bit.  Though every movement was painful, he had more range of motion than before, and the pain wasn't quite as acute.

Sleeping is getting to be a problem.  As long as he doesn't have to move or roll over, he's fine, but he can't stay in one position all the time, or that just brings in a new set of pain.  We're thinking of finding some way to elevate the top of his mattress to see if that would help, but we can't figure out how.  Sleeping in an incline might make things a lot more comfortable for him, though.  It's looking like we need to get one of those beds that are like a hospital bed, where you can adjuste the angle to whatever you want.  Not that we could afford something like.  :-P

Tonight, Dh is trying a double dose of the T3's (the maximum he's supposed to do) to see if that will make things easier for him in the morning.

I sure hope so, even if it just takes a bit of the edge off.

We shall see.