Mary managed to get me an appointment with a neurologist for this coming Thursday. This was no mean feat. She couldn’t find me an appointment with one that accepts my insurance at all. When I told her we would pay out of pocket, she found only one who could see me so quickly. She said that she has never seen such a dearth of provider appointments. Everyone else was scheduling into October and beyond.
It was a similar story with the psychiatrist. There we had less time pressure, but no one takes my insurance. So once again, we are paying out of pocket. For context, we get our health insurance through the ACA, off of the New York State Health Exchange. We have the best insurance plan that the exchange offers.
The tremors are slightly improved. But my jaw is sore and my tongue and mouth rubbed raw. They are also agitating in general. A few days ago, I was so agitated that I snapped at David about them. Xena Malka immediately looked at David accusingly. To be clear, David did absolutely nothing wrong, nor did he warrant me snapping at him. But apparently I left Xena Malka with the impression that he had done something horrible to me.
After we calmed her down and made it clear that everything was reasonably alright, David and I walked down to the convenience store to get me some gum. The gum was David’s brilliant suggestion. It keeps my mouth busy and therefore keeps the tremors away. Turns out for tremor management, Dentyne sugar free cinnamon gum is the way to go. I was not paid for that endorsement.
I already had an appointment with a new GI scheduled for this coming Tuesday. One of the appointments Mary made way back in June. It actually comes at a good time as I am now no longer on my primary motility drug and I don’t know where we go from here. My uncommunicative GI was characteristically silent on the subject.
Some of you may have also noticed that Rosh Hoshana starts Friday night. So we are just packing the week absolutely full. It took a long while, but I finally decided which service we would Zoom in to. It is nice to have so much choice, but it is truly getting wearing to not have been to High Holidays in person for so many years. I am missing the prospect of people watching folks in all of their high holiday finery. Honestly, I am mostly just missing the people.
But this is not the year. I already know that I will not be able to make it through the whole service. That will just be way too exhausting for me. For those not in the know, Rosh Hashanah Services can go as long as 5 hours, although the ones I go to generally run closer to 3. Regardless, that is a lot of attention span for my poor, nutrition-starved brain. So I will just be doing the highlights. But I am a huge fan of the rabbi and I am looking forward to getting the parts that I can.
I know folks are going to be anxious for updates after my two doctors appointments. We will have to see how quickly I can get them up given how packed the week is. I will do my best, but it may just have to wait until after Rosh Hashanah.