Health Care Visits

Surreal.

At least it would be in any normal times.

Now, the whole world is surreal, so donning a mask for health care facility visits is just part of today’s normal as is the required COVID screening for gaining access.

Shortly after officials announced that clinical service in Arkansas were going to be allowed to resume with restriction last May, my dentist’s office called and asked me if I wanted to schedule an an appointment for cleaning on what turned out to be the first day they were going to reopen for routine patient services.

“Ummm…, no, I don’t think so.  I think I’d rather wait.”

That was a good call.  My dental hygienist later told me that things didn’t go well.  Apparently, after that first day, they decided to retreat on the resumption of services and do some more planning.

Since then, I have visited health care “facilities” 13 times.  That’s more than I’ve been in all retail establishments combined in the same time period.  The visits were for:

1. dentist’s office for cleaning
2. local clinic for blood test
3. cardiologist for routine visit
4. optometrist for eye exam
5. primary care physician for routine visit
6. ophthalmologist for cataract surgery evaluation
7. cataract surgery right eye
8. right eye post-operation exam
9. cataract surgery left eye
10. left eye post-operation exam
11. flu shot
12. cataract surgery final post-operation exam
13. local clinic for pain resulting from a fall

The cataract surgeries made a tremendous improvement in my vision.  Everything is clearer and brighter.  I can see at distances without needing glasses, though I now need glasses for reading, a reversal of my previous optical needs.

The fall was around 10 days or so ago.  I was carrying several short lengths of 4 by 4 lumber across the backyard when I stepped in to a depression.  Starting to fall, I instinctively thrust the lumber away from me to the left so that I wouldn’t land on any of the pieces, but that hindered my ability to arrest my fall with my arms.  I landed pretty hard on my front right side.

Even though my rib cage hurt, I continued to working in the yard over the next several days.  With the pain continuing, I finally decided to see a doctor on the 6th.  X-rays showed that there were no cracked or broken ribs, so what I have is bruised ribs on my right side front. It’s going to take a while to fully heal and I need to watch it so that I don’t exacerbate it.  It does make really difficult to get the exercise I want in order to maintain or even improve my fitness level.

Oh, and I did go one other place during the last few moths.

I got a haircut.