Sadly, I don't get the luxury of reading the forms myself b/c I can't see them due to a retinal eye disease along with an optic nerve defect in both eyes that is only explained as "it's likely a birth defect," as I was a severe premature birth in a time when most babies born as early as I was back in the day rarely survived. In fact, the OB had already asked my birth father to choose between saving his "wife" or saving his "child". Mother pitched such a fit demanding they save us both that the doctor had to order her sedated. She was put under before I was born as I was born severely breach - I literally came out backside first and would have been entirely too painful for Mother to handle if she had not been sedated despite the fact I only weighed 4lbs 5oz. My youngest brother, as there was a brother born between the two of us who actually made it to term but died shortly after birth b/c his heart and lungs were not completely developed and again, there was little chance of survival considering that medicine was not as advanced in the OB field, but again, my young brother was also breach but they were able to flip him somewhat in the birth canal to bring him out feet first even though he was breach. He weighed only 5lbs 6oz. I don't know how large my middle brother was or even my older sister as I have never met her nor can I find her as she would be considered Amerasian. My birth father had a daughter from a Filipino woman while he was stationed in the Philippines while in combat in the Vietnam Conflict. I've tried to find her but with no success as my birth father refused to ever give me her name or her mother's name even before we were estranged. All I have are a series of slides that I need to have converted to pictures in case I am ever able to find a registry that will allow photos to be posted in hopes that someone or even my sister will recognize her mother or my birth father and we can find each other.
As for the medical forms (please forgive me for getting off topic) I don't read them b/c I can't read regular or large print anymore. So, when I see a new doctor or have to go into the hospital and they update my records, it's done orally. I've been telling them these last couple years that I am a non-smoker because in my mind, I'm not a smoker. Even the doctor I have to see each month for Lupus (SLE) and Sjogren's in order to get the medications that they cannot fill unless I go to the doctor and have an examination, which is nothing more than :How are you doing today, have you had any problems this month, anything changed or different, is the pain worse, etc.... I cannot get the medications. So we go through these somewhat innocuous questions and then he checks my lungs, heart sounds, ears, throat, sinuses, and joint rotation in my right hand, left knee and hip, and as of the last several months, he's been checking my lower lumbar region b/c I have been experiencing pain that is increasing with each passing month and the only relief is coming from hot soaks (I mean hot-hot water soaks) or using my hands as best as I can given the loss of grip strength in the right hand to press down on the bathroom vanity to alleviate the pressure on my lower back to give some semblance of relief in addition to using a new ointment medicine called Voltaren. At my last appointment, the test in that area must have changed because I am back on Neurotin only this time it is 3x a day vs 1x a day a few hours before bedtime. It's not treating just RLS anymore. It's treating my lumbar region and I don't know exactly how or why but it helps somewhat though only as long as I am not walking for too long, pulling on anything of any weight, or sitting for too long of a time. If I do any of these things in more aggressive manners than I do now, the pain becomes excruciating. The new script for the Neurontin is actually a higher dose than I was taken before and somehow, it's not making me nauseous anymore either, which is why I stopped taking it once the RLS eased off. I'd take it for a few weeks if it came back but then wean off when it stopped again. My arms jerk much like RLS (restless leg syndrome) does to my legs. It's gotten better too since I'm on the higher dose and taking it more frequently.
The latest update on my lungs and chest/breath sounds is great. My doc says that if you didn't know I had been a long-time smoker, you wouldn't know it. I have even had a slight cough over the last 6mos or so but he has said it is NOT SMOKER'S COUGH! I don't have any congestion in my chest. The cough is the result of post-nasal drip that initially began with a sinus infection joined with an inner ear and outer ear infection that took antibiotics #7 and #8 to knock it out finally. (1 was high-dose antibiotics used for resistant infections and the other antibiotic was otic drops with lidocaine in the mix as well as a steroidal drug to help with the inflammation). So, I'm okay without any problems resulting from the vaping. The productive cough mucus is not dark or yellow or even blood-tinged so it is not infection, which would have been the case without a doubt, if I were still smoking tobacco analog cigarettes. I'd been down that road enough times to know the conclusion but it's nothing like that.
I'm just grateful I can still get my nicotine fix without having to worry about my health with regards to infections that are notorious when your immune system is compromised. It hasn't been the case since I began vaping on July 7, 2009! I'm rather proud of myself! I'm also thankful. Here it is, we are in the middle of cold and flu season yet I have not had the flu or flu-like symptoms but I have had a bit of a cold though it hasn't gone viral - viral as in bed-ridden unable to do anything but cough, blow my nose, and take cough & cold syrup type of viral. Sure, I'm using a vaporizer as our house is dry from gas heat (it's dry when we use the fireplace or even space heaters) but the vaporizer helps even though I need a new one b/c this one is on it's last legs. I'm also taking Sudafed with Singular and Flonase when needed but these are primarily for allergies I have all year. I'm allergic to dust, pollen, 5 types of trees, certain grasses, and dust mites. Each mattress in the house as well as all the pillows have covers to prevent dust mites, I wash all the linens about once every 2 weeks to once a week when I can pull it off as I need help re-making the two beds as I can't pull on the fitted sheets to get them over the deep pocket mattresses so I have to wait until someone is here to help me, esp with the last side to pull down. We don't use mulch that contains any of the tree scrapes that I'm allergic too, which is sad too because cedar is a natural flea repellent not to mention it smells nice but I can't stay around it without sneezing my head off. It goes for maple, pine, oak, cedar, etc...though, if they're sealed as in framing for pictures, that doesn't bother me. It's the raw cut that keeps me sneezing.
Thanks for the updates. It sure makes me feel better to have the opinions of others who see doctors and/or need hospital care. Again, I don't feel like a smoker anymore. I haven't felt like one for a long time now. This coming July will mark my 3rd year anniversary off analogs and I hope to celebrate even if it's reduced to popping by Cold Stone's (if I can afford it...) to get one of their petite cakes as a celebratory cake to mark the occasion.
DH isn't one for thinking it's worth celebrating; hwr, he's more ticked that I haven't quite the e-cigarettes! I told him that it IS something to celebrate b/c now he doesn't have to come home and start .....ing from the moment he hits the door asking the same asinine question he asked for years prior, "Is something on fire?" and "What's burning?" Oh I wanted to beat the crap out of him every time he said it! I made it clear that I wasn't giving up nicotine for him b/c I didn't WANT TO GIVE IT UP! I have lost so much and had to give up so much because of my blindness, Lupus, Sjogren's, Fibromyalgia, the loss of use of the latter three fingers of my right hand, the loss of grip strength in my right hand, etc... I can't drive anymore so it feels as if I can't go anywhere without a GD babysitter to take me. I can't go in a store I don't know without a sighted person so there again, a babysitter! I can't just jump in my truck and take a drive to clear my head b/c Oh - my truck I received for a birthday present a year before I ended up at that eye specialist center and learned of the eye disease along with the optic nerve defect put a stop to that and he sold my truck about 2 years later! There is a pick up in the yard but I can't drive it. I can't see the steering wheel let alone over the hood! I can't go back to the career I worked so hard to get into because it's "sight work". I can't go back to the other career because I can't maintain at least 55wpm with 99% accuracy although I was at 120+wpm w/99.9% accuracy but I can't maintain that speed b/c I don't have feelings in that right hand's fingers and the longer I type at anything remotely within that ballpark, which is impossible these days, causes major pain that doesn't stop even with the pain patch and breakthrough pain meds in addition to Naproxen so that career is toast. I can't walk to the store b/c the joints in my left knee & left hip hurt too bad and in the winter, the cold literally goes to the center of my bones and it causes pain all over, which is tough to stop without soaking in extremely hot water while waiting on pain meds to kick in. I can't breath well in hot weather not to mention that all my medications related to the autoimmune diseases plainly state for me to stay out of direct or indirect sunlight or to avoid direct sun exposure. I can't go climbing, free-diving, dirt biking (I don't even have a motorcycle to go dirt-biking on anymore), hiking, swimming at a local outdoor pool, or any of the things I loved to do. My dream of having my own pottery studio went out the window when I had to spend every dime I had saved to build my studio and buy a kiln that could fire to a cone 10 is gone b/c it was needed to survive after DH had his heart attack all because he refused to stop eating that grease-laden food his mother cooks and knows better b/c she's a GD retired LPN of 35 years! She knew better! She got better about it for a while but over the last year she is right back cooking foods that will clog his arteries, what arteries he has left anyhow, and she will end up being the death of him and he is allowing it! My dream of having my own pottery studio is gone and I won't ever get it back. There are no studios in this area for me to go to either. I actually had job prospects while we were making the arrangements and getting the permits to build the studio and lay the foundation! Those can't come to fruition because there's no money to build the studio, no money to buy the kiln, no money to buy the pugger, and no money to buy or build shelves for various stages of drying and firing pots and wares not to mention buying clay or glazes. It was my also my hope to teach kids at the elementary school during art class how to make various pottery pieces then take their pottery and fire it in my kiln at home and return it to them but that went out along with my dream of having my own studio.
If that wasn't enough, the pottery instructor who placed me in the advanced class to help fill in some blanks I had from when my great-grandfather and grams taught me to throw on a manual wheel passed away a couple years ago too. He was going to help me by teaching me how to set the kiln b/c the one I had chosen was an electric and my experience with using kilns were limited to wood-burning brick-built kilns or pit-fires (using wood but also straw and other chips and such to burn to fire the pieces) and I can't use those b/c I can't see well enough and because we live in the city limits, which makes it easier for me to get my medications delivered as well as groceries when needed if I can't get a ride to the grocery store here in town. The pharmacy I use is the last of the pharmacies that actually deliver and they deliver throughout a specific circumference of the store but the owner made an exception for me as I am the farthest out from the pharmacy but because I am essentially a shut-in, they do it for me.
So, I don't think celebrating my 3rd year without an analog cigarette to be too damned much to ask for all things considered and I don't think continuing to use e-cigarettes is not too much to ask for either considering everything I had to give up!
Forgive me for ranting. We had a bit of an argument over this yesterday and I blew a major gasket. I can't tell if I am more angry or more hurt or both. I do know I'm ...... off at the fact that he restored 2 cars, a Corvette and a Corvair yet there was plenty of money for those yet I didn't get my studio when we had the money to build it and get the kiln and all the money I saved toward it had to be used b/c he couldn't put down a damn fork at his mother's house and tell her to cook more healthy meals before they both die of heart disease b/c she can't manage to cook without freaking grease in everything! I have never forced him to become a vegetarian like the girls and I are but the least he could do is to have meals that don't blow his heart up all over again to the point where he will likely die b/c he won't survive another quadruple heart bypass...
Again, my apologies for getting off topic and ranting here. I lost my shoulder and ear when Mom died and ever since I had to give up my unlimited long distance, I can't call my best friend who lives a state away. She sort of took over being my shoulder and ear when I needed one after Mom died but I can't call her b/c I can't call long distance anymore b/c I can't afford it.
Thanks again for listening and thanks for the information on the smoker/non-smoker questions regarding health providers.
Paise
many forms sometimes make it easy (believe it or not) in this case. Many times the question is "Are you a tobacco user?"
The forms I've come across at least.
