Another Thrilling Day of fever, shakes and finally a doctor's appointment

So this morning started well, goodly amount of sleep. 7:30 pit stop, then not up till 9 or 9:30. Got dressed - changed pants. The 48" waist fits fine, the 50" s too big now. After-shower weight was down another pound. This does not thrill me because in addition to the heart meds, it could also have been caused by way high blood sugars and not having eaten a real meal in almost 2 days.

BP was also high, for no apparent reason.

Everything was going along fine, checked email & FB, was in front of the TV watching something mindless, sipping on iced ginger ale when the fever struck, and the shakes hit. Phone log says 11:07 am, fought through the shakes to call Kaiser advice, speakerphone is my friend. Got through to a call center person after 15 minutes, after hearing my symptoms she told me the wait for a nurse was 30 minutes but she would fast-track my call. It took 30 minutes anyway, and by the time we connected, the shakes were gone. After hearing my tales of woe, she put me on hold to talk to a doctor, and in about 3 minutes came back with a late afternoon appointment with my regular doctor.

I spent the rest of the day between TV and bed.

3:30, was feeling 1000% better, so I drove to the appointment. Managed not to hit anything, but there was a close call at the Shoreline exit when someone in newly bought car realized too late he was in the wrong lane. It's a 4-lane exit, two left, two right, no turns on red. And it's a long wait. The good news is he did the right thing, made the left turn anyway and came back around at the next light.

Was early enough to go to customer service and complain that once again, I was sent a bill with no indication I had auto-pay. The last time I was also complaining about a paper bill when I'd opted out, but the nice man said paper is a Medicare requirement. But he'll file a complaint about there not being a note "don't pay this bill".

Checked in way early, made a pit stop, then waited. Nurse was 10 minutes late. BP was actually a bit low. Weight was bogus because fully dressed. Temp was normal. O₂ was a tad low. Doc was puzzled by the symptoms, so gave me a full body checkup. She was happy to see my ankles. She said she did not find anything majorly wrong with me, thinks it is a virus, not the flu. Sent me down for a chest x-ray (but they were closed) and a blood draw (one little vial) and some pee (but I didn't have any to give).

Home, took mostly surface streets then Central and more surface streets. Was tempted to stop off and buy potatoes, but really wanted to be home, take Tylenol, have food, and maybe feel normal.

Started recording the UCLA-KState game, then watched some Intervention which was a classic case of how not to do an intervention. The after-text said the intervenee eventually was arrested a couple of times, got pregnant, and checked herself into rehab.

Played back the first half of the football game. There was a small cup in the fridge with PNB&J, and I warmed it up, but too much and good thing I had a plate under it because it had a jamgasm. It was not a pleasant snack, so I put it away for another day.

Paused the game because it was almost at real time, played the 6 o'clock news, reheated last night's dinner, and ate about 2/3 because those steamer bowls are no good dried out.

3FFed through the rest of the ball game and it was the sloppiest trouncing of UCLA ever. KState had basically two plays - quarterback run (that was about 90% of them), hand-off to a running back, and a very short, mostly not caught, pass. UCLA had some great long passes, but not enough, and they turned over the ball a lot, mostly fumbles.

Mango fudgesicle for a snack.

Got a bill from Kaiser, saying I owed them $10 for a pair of meds that I picked up at the hospital. Checked Quicken, and sure enough I owed them. No online payment for this, had to fill in a credit card number and mail it in.

Printed the rent check. Will drop it off Saturday, probably.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Kaiser - X-ray and pee test (not together)
Maybe buy potatoes - baby sister thought they would draw out the pain, but further research shows they don't, but may heal my sunburn

Medical Mystery Tour

Really good long sleep, woke up 3 minutes before the alarm, switched to Irish Pub Radio on the wi-fi speakers, did my usual morning stuff, got dressed, packed a banana and oranges for breakfast and quinoa for lunch. Traffic was speed limit and above all the way, got to the break room and over the 4 days it was cleaned out, most likely by tour groups brought in by "vacationing" employees. There were still some soft drinks, but no snacks. No HB eggs.

All day there were more tourists led by employees than I've seen all year.

40-hour test on prototype TV was still running, but stalled, 100+ hours in. Pulled a log file and added it to the bug from last time. Then set up the same machine for a smoke test. There were issues. One of them probably caused by my new server not having a path to my music. Will try to fix that tomorrow.

Doctor called, she had not seen my email - I told her I was going to finish the lab test & x-ray noon-ish.

Which I did. Maybe because I had been there last night, but X-ray took me ahead of one person waiting. $55 co-pay for that. No charge to complete the labs. My 48" pants kept falling down during X-ray. Had a robe on, so no biggie.

Back to work, grabbed my lunch box, went to the break room where a talkative bunch of Chinese tourists were around the counter. I heated up the quinoa, and it was okay as lunch but could have used something more. Had a couple of tiny oranges too. Diet Coke because there was no Vitamin Water.

Back to the hole. It was very cold outside - low 40's. Inside 68, which was adequate.

Took it easy, played a lot of videos as part of testing.

3:30 as scheduled, Contract agency guy called, it turns out that after New Year it looks like he will be my new rep. He knows my old rep, had dinner with her last night. I gave him my boss' info, and some clues about what I want in March when the contract gets renewed. And what Boss wants.

Done at work at 5:30, drove down to Shoreline as usual en route to 6 pm nail appointment, but police had the street blocked all the way to the freeway, so have to drive straight, make a U-turn, and take Rengsdorff to a couple of side roads to get back to Shoreline from the other side of 101. Got to the nails place right on time, but my person's station was being hogged by one of the older women, it was about a 10 minute wait. Gave her a calendar and a bigger tip.

Phone rang, my doctor, but my hands were occupied. But I knew what she was going to tell me.
( Medical TMI )

I had shopping to do at Safeway next door, and there was no way I was going to drive all the way to SC at night. I'll pick up the drugs tomorrow morning in MV. It's practically on my way to work, and traffic will be easy.

Safeway, my favorite vitamin water was on sale, buy 3 6-packs, get one free. They also had nice big limes, 50 cents each, and I replenished my stock of pasta shells & bowties, got some clementines, and guilty pleasure -  aka dinner - a slice of chocolate layer cake. And a couple of boxes of coconut popsicles.

Home via 101, got stuck behind someone who had no idea about this complicated freeway entrance, and got passed by a way too fast veteran jerk. Took the IFH exit, did not have to wait too long to turn.

Home, took stuff inside. Delivered was a pack of AAA batteries, some for work, most for home. In the mail and now in the trash is the telltale begging letter from the American Red Cross, which sends me several a month. I don't have to open them anymore, they always arrive with no return address and a bulk non-profit mail frank. I probably should complain to USPS, because all mail is supposed to have a return address.

Hgl was 90, so dinner was chocolate cake & vitamin water. Coconut popsicle snack.

Plans for tomorrow:
Kaiser pharmacy
Work - play lots of videos. I probably need to install Netflix on the prototype TV. :-)
Home
No work Friday. Probably will bring Zoe in for her shot.