Eye doctor visit

I just got home about 45 minutes ago and my vision is still more blurry than normal. I have been for years using an eye doctor at a place we will call company A. A small eye firm with two shops, great people, good doctor, and a wide selection of frames. Plus the glasses were a great price, far less expensive than the big companies. After your exam if you needed glasses you picked out two frames, they only charged you for one of the frames. Then you selected your lenses. One with all the features would be put in the frames you selected, the other frames would have just plain prescription lenses so you had an emergency back up pair. The two pairs of glasses often were half the price of one pair of the big local chains.

In November, Ron went to the big local chain eye doctors he has seen before because they treat his eye disease, which our small eye doctor did not, and they pushed him hard to get cataract surgery. Both of us have cataracts so we thought his had gotten worse than mine, even though his developed much later than mine. When he checked out, his visit was no charge because he had medicare. So we made an appointment for me, thinking it also would be no charge. But he needed a follow-up visit for a different test, scheduled a few weeks ago and they hammered him with charges. Cost us $188 dollars with his medicare paying also.

But being hopeful that my eye appointment would be covered under Medicare, we kept my appointment, which was this morning. I wish I had not. *** edit They charged me nearly $100 for my eye exam *** So they did some test on me they didn’t do for Ron, but every test they did for me was tests my other eye doctor did, but they did tests for Ron they did not do for me. But even before they gave me an eye exam they asked if I had watched the video they sent to me as a text. I said I did not. Turns out it was a video on cataract surgery choices. In the check in stuff, they gave us extra forms to fill out again before even examining me about if I were to have cataract surgery what choices I would want. At this point, they had not examined me to see if I had cataracts. Remember they had pushed Ron hard to have the surgery.

So when the tech finished, and unlike the other eye doctor I had the tech did all the tests for my eyesight portion where my first eye doctor did the tests themselves, she gave me a video to watch on different choices for cataract surgery. When the doctor came in, the first thing she asked was about the video, then launched into talking about the cataract surgery and how she wanted me to plan it for next year. She had not even looked into my eyes yet. She felt the left was bad and growing bad much faster than the right, so I should plan for next year and what options did I think I might want. I told her I would need more time to think on it. Later Ron told me the first option Medicare paid for but the other options ran thousands of dollars.

Then she quickly did her check in my eye quickly spewing numbers to her assistant operating the computer, saying scaring such and such at such and such in the left eye … but when she was done she went back to talking about the cataract. But she never talked to me about the scaring in my left eye! So then they had me sit in the waiting room for a person to go over glasses with me. I had brought a set of frames with me I liked and wanted any new lenses put in with the frames refitted to me.

What do you think they quoted me for just the lenses to be put in my own frames? Hold on to something … $920 for the basic / standard lens and $1160 for the preferred / premium lens. WTF. Remember at the other eye doctor I got two pairs, two new frames with one set of lenses being fully progressive with the photo gray sunglass thing with computer anti-glare for $650.

I did not buy the new lenses. I told them I needed to think on it, and I did not schedule a new appointment next year as they pushed me to do. I talk to Ron on the way home how I felt very pressured to have the cataract surgery and reminded him how they were pushing him to schedule his right way. They had sent me a video on it before they even examined me, and I felt the exam I got was less than our other doctor did.

So I am going to see if our other eye doctor is still seeing patients and if so we will both get exams, and as I already know I will need glasses I will get them there. But also I wanted everyone to know why I have not been doing much online, I am struggling more than normal to see everything. Best wishes, hugs, Scottie

Just so you know

Just so you know posting and replying to comments will be slow this morning. I have a doctor’s appointment, seeing my new pulmonologist this morning. Trying to figure out why I struggle with shortness of breath a lot of the time. It may take a while. Hugs.

It did not work, but was kind of relaxing

Hello all. So Sunday I decided to dump my video computer, clean out some old stuff, clean it up, reorganize it, and tweak the setting. The reason was I had a Microsoft security update that kept faulting out on installation. I did a quick search on it, did not see anything about it online, and Ron kept pushing me to do stuff to distract me. I had suffered from the resurfacing of some abuse memories, I was feeling sick because on Thursday I had steroid injections into my spine, Friday I got allergy shots, and then this weekend I was to take my testosterone injection and that really hurts. Then to top it off, the new roof has leaked and water leaked down into the ceiling and now we had mold growing in the bedroom.

I decided to do a full deep clean. I could have just reset windows and left the drive alone. But I wanted a good clean up. So I had the computer wipe the drives, remove everything on them, which means I had to rebuild the directories, switching things from the C drive to the D drive that has twice the room for data, photos, videos, movies, TV, and any other storage needs than the C drive which I save for program files. That took most of one day. Then Monday I was really feeling badly, and noticed I still had the same issue. This time I did a deep dive search in the error codes and self repair. It involved the size of the rescue environment section on the hard drive. I was seeing how large I would have to make it to fix the issue when I saw that a lot of people who tried this self repair did not get the issue fixed and had to end up reinstalling windows and or repartitioning their hard drives again. While I have good software for this and have done it many times, I was not wanting to spend the time because I was not feeling well. Still am not. So I did what I should have done in the very first place. I started reading the Microsoft Windows support community posts, and more important, the replies from Microsoft staff. Turns out on Jan 10th they released a statement acknowledging the problem, the failure of the update to install on a lot of computers and they were working on a fix for the next batch of Windows updates. Everything I had done until then and the next day and half of putting all my programs back on and their settings correct, was not needed. Grrr. All because I did not want to spend a half a day wading through all the community support stuff I ended up doing anyway. Well I was distracted from the other issues. Hugs. Scottie

The doctor said I am a bunny personality, or was

I forget what year it was, maybe 2012 or 2013 I was being treated by a doctor for my abuse. I forget what he was titled, but he was the mind / personality doctors. After testing and sessions of talking, he said I had a bunny personality unable to protect myself, with the bunny personality that kicked in that made the bunny protect those who were smaller or more vulnerable than me being attacked, even to the point of sacrificing my self. In other words, I think he was saying I was unable to protect my self but will try to find ways to protect those who I feel are in danger. I wonder if he said the second part just to shore up myself esteem as I never really felt I had a protector role. In fact, I sort of got used to the idea I was to suffer to take the pain issued to me.

Please remember, this was before Ron knew of most of my abuse, he only knew I was hurt as a kid, and it was by the family I grew up in. I was scared to tell him what was happening, his job and mine were our income. If I told him Ron would have reacted, would have been angry, would have stopped it but I was worried we would lose our jobs and our income.

There was a reason I was back in treatment, but the short story is I was being sexual assaulted at work. One of the male nurses, a larger guy, thought it was cute and funny to grab the gay guy by the dick, touch his ass, and push him in to a wall or counter and press themselves into me while fondling my penis. My supervisors found out it was happening by accident because another male nurse who today would be the typical maga republican threaten to kill me in front of everyone for being gay and when I had to be interviewed by HR and legal it slipped out what the other guy was doing. So the company insisted on sending me to a psychologist for examination / treatment. Side note I should some day describe the meeting it was surreal with them makings sure nothing blocked the door or my path to it, repeatedly telling me I could leave, and if I felt unsafe or upset to tell them, kept asking me if I need a break or wanted someone with me … I mean I like the feeling behind what they were doing, but it was over the top in my opinion. But maybe they were trying to prevent a sexual assault claim against the hospital.

But the real point of the post and what I was so happy and excited over is, when I told Randy what was happening and what the doctor said my personality was, Randy sprang into action. My wonderful friend, the brother I never had growing up, sent me a tee shirt I wore until I wore it out. I wore it everywhere. It was something I took great joy in.

It was a Psycho Bunny tee shirt with this logo

And I don’t know if you can understand the power this tee shirt gave me. I may be a bunny, but I was now a bunny with teeth. Randy kept telling me that maybe as a child I couldn’t stop the abuse, but now I had power, skill, and support such that I could protect my self. The shirt and the feeling behind it was every empowering. It was what I needed then to help me. And Randy was always there to help me, uplift me, and keep me from despair as best he could. I love Randy, I loved the tee shirt, I love the idea behind it. Yesterday and today I keep reminding myself … I AM A PSYCHO BUNNY, AND I HAVE TEETH, HEAR ME ROAR! Even if right now it is coming out as a squeak. Hugs, Scottie

Memories, Ron, tears.

Short update. When Ron got home from shopping, he sensed something was wrong. He asked me about it. I told him briefly I had some more intrusive memories. He was quiet and then said when we put the groceries away we will talk. After we got done I went and sat down, I was not sure that I wanted to tell him, I had hid so much for so long. He asked if I wanted to talk and could he know what was upsetting me. We sat and talked, I told him the new memories, the details that were flooding my brain, the feelings I was experiencing with them. Every time I got to points where I would be too upset to talk, starting to cry he would tell me to slow down, breathe, take your time. Then when I got it all out, I couldn’t look at him. He softly said I needed to distract myself, and I explained how that was what I was trying to do but that wouldn’t help me heal or get over anything, we both knew from experience. I told him I needed a few minutes alone and he gave me that. When I came out he walked slowly to me and held his arms out, and I grabbed him, I clutched him. He held me back and kept telling me they were gone, they couldn’t hurt me anymore. Finally, I stepped back and said to him, but that is where you’re wrong, the memories don’t stop. The feelings don’t stop. And when I remember the abuse, I also feel the abuse. He pulled me to him and held me tight. He had no words, and I don’t have any either. I know eventually I will share this with all of you who want me too or are able to deal with it. I have learned that talking about it does help in a weird way. Yes it hurts at first, deeply intently, but ignoring it makes the pain build and become much worse.

For some reason at first when I was telling him I thought Ron was going to reject me as he started looking away. Then after I now realize he was struggling not to cry and with his anger, both which would have hurt me had he shown them. He has gone to lay down for a nap, talking to me about it first. I feel weird again. I know he will be watching me, he will be worried. Did I do wrong to tell him? Should I have hidden it, gone back to the days before he really knew much? Now my doubts are creeping in and trying to take root.

I am not going to proofread this for errors. Sorry, I do need to step back. Please overlook them or if they are important call me out in comments. I have spine shots tomorrow at 10. I have to get my mind in a better place, I have to find peace. Hugs. Scottie

An update on Scotties life.

Like everyone, I always have the best of intentions. I planned this weekend for getting to comments and putting away old saved tabs. But fate and my memories get in the way. And right now I hurt badly. Not asking for sympathy, I just want to explain if I end up late on doing what I said I would.

This last week I have fluctuating between active memories of my abuse including the feelings as it was happening, to being very depressed and not wanting to even get out of bed. So I went from if I sleep having nightmares to not being willing / able to sleep to when sleeping not being willing to get out of bed to function. Plus Friday I had my allergy shots, had a bad reaction had to take Benadryl, and while tearing my skin off went to bed early.

This morning is an example. I went to bed at 4 pm yesterday (remember having a bad allergy reaction and taking Benadryl) telling Ron I wanted to get up at 6 pm. But when he came to me then, I said I was not ready to get up. He understood. Since I opened up to him more about my abuse he understands some of the moods I have and me trying to hide in being distracted. I woke at midnight but couldn’t bring my self to get up. I laid there watching the clock, the thoughts in my head fighting with each other. Some telling me to get up and do computer stuff, the other voices told me to stay in bed, ignore everything, maybe sleep. A couple of times I did sleep for a few minutes until the dreams turned bad, and I woke up agitated. Once Ron woke me asking if I was OK because I was having a bad dream about my abuse and verbalizing it. At 2 am, I reminded my self of my promise to get up and work on comments. At 4 am, I told my self the outside cats needed to be fed and cared for. Finally at about 5 something I forced my self out of bed but mostly because my stomach was hurting due to lack of food (something I knew all too well and was triggering on its own which caused its own bad feedback loop in my head. As an adult in a restaurant I would order far more than I could eat, and it took Ron a long time to teach me how not to do that. At home I would cook for far more people than the two of us could eat. When Ron would cook I would fill my plate with far more than I could eat. Only after I told him how I had been denied food, hospitalized and went clinically dead from being starved and was suffering malnutrition for long periods of my childhood did he understand. If my grandfather had not grabbed me and taken me to the ER I would not be here.) and plus my bowels needing relief.

I got up and was doing well, I feed and took care of cats, I did other chores and went to town on the computer stuff I needed to get done. But yesterday the water was off for most of the day, so we didn’t wash the dishes from yesterday. So about 10 am I started washing dishes, cleaning up the kitchen, and washing the more dishes. Also pre-making the coffee for morning. For some reason that whole thing took me until 2 pm! During that I had to take extra medication, and now I am having a vodka cola drink.

All this to say, I am going to concentrate on current comments while saving posts so that by morning they won’t disappear. I will work as long as I can (Ron has already been asking me what I want for supper as he knows how tired I am and wants to make sure I eat before going to bed) doing the comments and will save those I don’t get to for tomorrow, which should be a slower day. I saved all the comments from the last few days so if you left comments know I will answer them, I really love that you commented. Thank you. It just has been a struggle for a few months with my memories, emotions, and my body. Hugs, loves, best wishes to all. Scottie

It is exciting, I am opening up to the world again.

So I am excited, let me explain. Even before Covid, I had started not wanting to be “out in the world”. But after Covid hit, we stopped going out at all. But Randy came to visit from far away and we all went out to eat. I had a good time, but it was outside on the water and I got cold. So Randy and his folks are coming up and we are going back again. I love it. Ron went into his closet and found a heavy coat / jacket for me. It is only 67 outside. To me, that is call out the national guard weather. So I am excited to see Randy and his folks again. Last time we ate there, I got just the quesadillas and I could only eat two of them. I gave the other two to Randy. I really want to try the chili, so I am not sure what I will order. So at some time I will stop responding / blogging and you will know we went out to eat. Hugs. Scottie

Crap, it is 4:45 pm and I did not get to comments again.

So I woke up at 2 am and I got up at 3 am this morning just to get through a lot of stuff I have been putting off. But all day other things came up, I did read and post news articles, and I have a 3:12 hour video from a trans YouTube creator I like who was unfairly attacked and mistreated, and now that everything has come out in her favor she is taking a victory lap by going over every aspect of the case. Yes she is a bit of a drama queen but her attacker spearheading the abuse directed against her is a total lying massive drama queen who seeks attention by stoking the idea she is being harmed or attacked.

So on and off I had to take rest breaks, and I did the dishes which took up most of my morning because I can not just stand at the counter to do them, but have to do some, go sit or lay down, get back up and do some more. When I talk about how hard I work, it is within my own limitations. I think normally able folk could run circles around what I do every day. Anyway.

I am very tired. I was going to have one half of the leftover thick pork chops with stuffing on top that Ron made last night. I had the first half last night and it was great, so I planned to have the second half with a salad instead of the potatoes he served with them last night. But Ron forgot the plan and made me a very large salad and I struggled to eat it all, stopping twice to take the rest to him. But salad with dressing is not good after being in a refrigerator, and I know Ron gets upset if I don’t eat a certain amount at night. All week I have gone without any insulin as my blood sugars are so low. Not the fast acting at meal times nor the long acting at night at 10 pm. Remember recently my blood sugar levels were in the dangerously low territory due to me taking the insulin. I still take a metformin pill twice daily that is to regulate my blood sugar. The only reason they put me on insulin is because of my monthly steroids, which the pills won’t help with. So Ron is very insistent I eat before bed, no matter what time I go to bed. He also has me now take my blood sugar around 10 pm when he comes to bed because he wants to make sure I don’t take the insulin if my BS is already low. My hubby should have been a doctor or at least a PA.

Because it is early, but I am so tired, and I don’t want to lose comments of other bloggers posts I am going to start a 6th tab with the last few days of stuff, so I don’t lose them. I hope to get through them soon. But tomorrow I plan to go grocery shopping with Ron, we find it so much easier if we do it together, so I might not get to many of the saved ones. Hugs. Scottie.

It happened again

Over the end of the week emergency doctors visits and helping Ron, then feeling totally worn out, I again lost track of the comments. The farthest that the WordPress bell will let me go back today is December 14, 2023 at 1:12 pm. So if you left a comment before that I don’t respond to in a few days from a saved page, please send it again! I mean that. I enjoy the comments. I like the interaction, even if we are disagreeing … as long as the disagreement doesn’t also deny facts and reality. I am going to spend the rest of the day trying hard to answer comments and read the blogs I follow. Hugs. Scottie

OK I am listening. I need suggestions.

I have 374 open tabs in 5 windows. Some from about a month ago. But more important than responding or reading them I need your suggestions, your ideas. I make great spaghetti red sauces. Ron and I love them. I make my base with three 28 oz (1 pound 12 oz) 794g cans of normally Dei Fratelli cans of tomato sauce but sometimes use Hunts if I can not find those. I find Hunts far sweeter, and we often don’t like our red sauce sweet. I never measure the seasonings I put in which includes the onion / pepper / celery that Ron chops to the size he likes for me to put into the sauce. Plus I use a lot of minced garlic. Often I start with three teaspoons of it to then after add another three as it cooks. Yes, we love garlic. We once used chopped garlic cloves that Ron chopped for me, but we found it was easier and more favorable to just get minced garlic from the store. That also includes the amount of hamburg he gives me to use, which might be between one pound and two plus pounds. Also I used to use ground sausage, which was a change from me peeling Italian Sausage links and slicing them. I would rather just put sage into the sauce than the sausage, as sausage makes a red sauce greasy. My red sauces often come out different each time due to all that not measuring but going on feel / smell / taste, which we both like to cook that way. We make a large amount every couple weeks, normally about four days or so from when we finish the last of it. Plus while we say each time this batch we will freeze some for later, we use it for other things and eat it too soon to do that. As I said we enjoy it and it is something in our budget we can afford. We use it to make many different things. This batch along with the pasta I cooked (because when I cook I make far too much as you might notice. Ron doesn’t complain because my former therapists say it is because of how often I went hungry, begged for something to eat, and once ended up in the hospital in critical care and then went into clinical death due to malnutrition. Sorry but while my heart stopped and nothing worked I did not see any gods, but I did feel a great sense of relief and lack of pain as it was happening. Which came back as I was being shocked and handled to return to life) Anyway this batch is already slated to be used with a large baking container of baked Ziti. Trust me, we will find something to do with the rest. Oh did I mention the 40 to 60 homemade meat balls Ron makes. He uses the small cookie scoop and they are about just larger than bite size and so grand. He makes so many because often he will go into the fridge when I am not looking and eat a bunch as a quick snack, and we both love them in hoagie rolls as meatball subs with my sauce. So all total it takes about 3 to 4 pounds of hamburger for each sauce I make.

Now with all that over information and long intro (I keep getting reminded / chastised recently that I am too long “winded”, that I use too many words to say what others could do shorter. Sorry that is me and I am not going to change, but if it bothers people they either shouldn’t read what I write or I shouldn’t comment to their blogs)

Anyway the reason for this post is I need your suggestions … for making a good chili. Every time I make mine I start it like a red sauce but instead of the those seasonings I use for that, I use more beef ones, like fajita such seasonings. I also add a lot of kidney beans, often three cans of them. I have tried making them thick and liquid juicy. And while they always taste good and we eat them, they lack what we get when we get a good chili when dining out.

Please don’t send me to cooking videos. I just can not get anything out of them. One of my favorite podcasters has a second cooking channel, yet when I try to watch his videos even though he was school trained and is a great / was a professional chef I just lose interest. I can not follow or remember and find my self more interested in his surroundings or cookware. When I try to tell Ron about it later, I can not explain how to cook the dish itself.

But I really want to make a good thick chili that is mild but able to be seasoned up with the individual hot sauce Ron and I use. I like Crystals myself. It is labeled as from Louisiana, but who knows? I am willing to make small amounts to try them. Ron and I have even resorted to eating a couple brands of canned chili, they are thick and brown rather than made with the tomato sauce base I use. But while good enough if I could recreate them and add my seasonings to them it would be better, yet I can not seem to recreate them.

So if you have a favorite chili recipe you like to make, please put it in the comments. I will give it a try. We love chili, and often went out to restaurants that we knew had great chili we enjoy, but since 2020 we have not been out to eat yet. Yes we should but …

Anyway this is my very long winded / typed request for all of you to send me your favorite homemade chili recipes. I will let you know if we try them. I am hungry just thinking of them. Hugs. Scottie