Here's the card I carried in my little black handbag; on one side, my social security number, my Blue Shield Group number; on the other side, and continued on the first side, the "hospital admissions" kind of information with the year. Patently, this card is what I was ready to pull out if I had another broken leg; or to put on my chest, and fold my arms, if I got in line at an ER.
Having Bill retired and pretty much keeping track of me while I'm in Seattle has made me bold enough to store the little black handbag out of sight, with its cards. (The other card had all of your addresses and phone numbers.) I guess I have some feeling that such information ought to be available online, before I do get in line at an ER, rather than in a handbag. Maybe it just seems like a good day to recollect the little things I've lived through since 1994.
In 1994, I wrote to Father Bill Stenzel and offered to do secretarial work for him while he was working for the Cardinal and needed an extra hand. Lord, I enjoyed being part of the staff at the rectory then. This was before the big remodel, we were few. Tom Carroll was around a lot, Joan P. was always present, the books were kept in the big front room.
I asked my then-doctor to refer me to a specialist because an xray technician had commented on the large lump in my throat a few years before. While I was visiting my folks, working on the LG house, and working for Father Bill, I made weekly visits to the eye/ear/throat guy in Hinsdale who has since moved to Minnesota. And met Janda in Hinsdale too. I think it was 1994 I had the first colonoscopy and 1995 the laryngoscopy, although I don't have dates. I know when I first moved to Seattle in 1996 I had promised the EET guy to have the throat looked at, and the Seattle people remarked on what a good job he had done.
Janda had found a polyp that he remarked on, because it was of the type that are malignant. The throat had no such nasties, just a remarkably large smooth growth due entirely to lifelong reflux and postnasal drip apparently. I had some weeks of no voice at all, and then practiced with therapy in Seattle; the microphone is still in the bottom of the TV. Used to have to try to make sounds and tape them. Too bad I didn't think to practice singing. Got a speaking voice.
The election in Illinois was during the time I couldn't talk. I was an election judge; I got out the old machine we used for Jim, with the programmable robot phrases; the other judges just loved it. We had to say, all day long, "well, what street do you live on?" for people trying to decide which precinct they were in; and I had programmed the machine so all we had to do was hit it.
Suppose that was November or April of 95 or 96?
I apparently had another colonocopy in 1995, and then the next one in 2000. Intervals get longer and longer as doctor finds no polyps after that first time.
Bought the condo in July 1996. (It was five years old..) August, 1996, rib ligaments, October 31, 1996 chipped heel. Did a whole bunch of therapy in Illinois during this time. Don't actually recall what I was going when these things happened.
Broke left leg December 1996; that has to be when I moved here with the dog, and promptly got a cast on my left leg. So the car I bought had a standard transmission I could manage with no clutch. Will never go to Dr. Coleman again!
On reflection, Coleman was apparently treating me for ligament damage in August and October, when it might have been the same thing as the leg (when he told me I had "torn all the ligaments" by phone, the day before I went to Seattle.) I had stepped backwards on the LaGrange back stairs, while accompanying the workman who was installing aluminum storms.
Before I moved to Seattle, I had completed the redo of the Maywood house, and of the LG house, and I was really ready to call the condo home.
Shifted to Dr. Baumgarten at the Polyclinic. 1997 had a broken toe. 1997 had a broken left wrist. I was careless, went to Illinois with the cast on, enjoyed the visit, didn't go to a doctor when it really itched, got back and found I had let it set badly. Could have gone another six weeks in a cast to have it broken and reset -- decided to leave well enough alone, did a lot of therapy here in Seattle. I've seen some others like it, since then, and sometimes they don't heal so splendidly the second time.
July 4, 1998 seem to have broken my elbows; i think this was when I fell in the Ivesdale parking lot? Went to Loyola? Also "elbows" marked for 2000. One of these has to be when I toppled in Seattle from my footstool onto the hearth.
Dr. Baumgarten startled me by telling me that I had Graves' disease. This is transmitted through women, so I've tried to tell you guys about it. The treatment seemed endless, partly because I was trying not to smoke all through it, and partly because minute adjustments to one's metabolism are given constantly and monitored to find out just how to treat the damn thing. Hormones jumping for months! On April 15, 1999, I got the radioactive iodine (you drink it) to kill my thyroid forever before it killed me. I think the doctor's name was Dr. Nordstrom or Dr. Denny!
I moved back to be a resident of Illinois and supervise the payment of taxes and the heating of the house. On the grounds that if I pay that much for it, I should enjoy it. I began seeing Dr. Laura at the Loyola Family Center in LaGrange Park.
She sent me to Loyola for Gi probe and EGO, Endoscopy, 10/15/02. I went again to Janda in 2007. Another Endoscopy in 08. Then Dr. Laura suggested firmly that Janda "do both ends" and he's been keeping track of when I need which things, and going them. And he sends the results to her. I have a hiatal hernia, and have had Barrett's, but no recurrence of polyps.
I'm on Medicare now, and carry the Blue Shield supplemental Medicare D or whatever it is that covers medicine and over-runs.
The Blue Shield payment is from the Chase account, every month. My Blue Shield Group number is 069948, i am allergic to sulfa and penicillin
I take Levothyroxine every day (the missing thyroid). 75 mcg daily from Mon thru Friday, 88 Mcg Sat & Sun. (Doctors adjust the amount you're getting this way...)
I take Advair 100/50 one puff a day. I take Prilosec 1 a day, A-Z Vitamins and Citrical + D.
Asthma hasn't troubled me for some years (thank the advair).
This pretty much covers what I've been carrying in the handbag; but I feel gloomy having put it all in print. Never mind. If we ever need this stuff, we can just print it out.
The whole of my life before 1994 is pretty much covered when I say I had you children, my thumb was surgically repaired when the tendon was torn, and a navel hernia repaired in 1966. Dr. Christiansen was putting me in good shape for whatever the future would hold. I think he's dead now but he was a wonderful doctor.
