I have to say that since switching to Kaiser last year I have been nothing but pleased with their care (if not their administrative communications.) Here's the story of one more doctor's appointment gone right!
Yesterday was a banner day all the way around.
I started the day by having two old fillings replaced. I haven't had a filling in so long I had no idea they have all this new-fangled stuff they do. They don't really shove a filling in the cavity and seal it up. It's more like they're plastering your mouth...putting gunk in there, then curing it with some ultraviolet light device, then adding more gunk. Weird.
I couldn't eat before, nor after for a while because of the numbness.
Then i had a very stressful work day, complete with potential blow-ups being averted. And the not eating thing played in, since I tend to get a little cranky when my blood sugar drops.
Last but not least I had my annual exam. Something to look forward too while getting my teeth drilled and dealing with stressful work stuff.
Most of my life I have had very healthy blood pressure. But the last two times I've been to the doctor (last year's Annual and in March when I had my sinus infection) the blood pressure numbers have been high when the nurse takes them pre-appointment, and then back to normal levels when the doctor takes them 20 mintues later.
So, my biggest concern when trundling off to the doctor's office was that my very stressful day was going to result in a repeat performance of the spiking blood pressure. Self-fulfilling prophecy?
Find out...
Sure enough, the nurse took my blood pressure once, and the numbers were high. She then took it again immediately using the other arm and a different cuff, and the numbers dropped, but were still on the high side of normal.
So now I was given this little card, and I'm supposed to subject myself to random blood pressure testing...just show up 3 times in the next month at their little clinic and get my pressure tested. Like that won't be nervewracking, right?
The rest of the exam was completely uneventful. Other than the fact that my doctor walked in about 8.5 months pregnant, which was a different look for her!
Dare I say that we almost had "fun"? I ended up helping her with a computer issue she mentioned (she's on a Mac at home too.) And she told me how she used a "reward box" to motivate herself to exercise during pregnancy. She filled out all these slips of paper with various rewards on it and put them in a box. She set up a calendar with gold stars. Every time she exercised up went the gold star, and when she had exercised a set number of times she got to pull out (blindly) one of the strips of paper.
I thought that was clever and asked her where she got the idea. Apparently she got it from a friend trying to get her toddler daughter to poop in the toilet.
Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Given the fact that new standards mean you only get a pap smear once every three years the exam itself was quick and painless. I am sure if the doctor had tested my blood pressure one more time before I left it would have been down even lower still.
But instead I'll have to pick my calmest moments and head off to get tested. I feel like an Olympic athlete! (Well, not really, or I wouldn't exactly be interested in the rewards-in-a-shoebox method of exercise motivation.)
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