Balancing all the things

[Jenett]

My actual question/topic here is: with chronic stuff, how do you balance all the pieces of taking care of that? What's working for you right now? What could maybe improve?

The good part is that over the past three years (since I moved to Boston), my really great primary care doctor and I have worked through getting the more urgent chronic stuff under better management. Which means we're now working on the second tier stuff - since a lot of my things are autoimmune and/or chronic inflammation pattern related, there's a lot of "Well, these might be connected, or they might not" in my life, and a chance that improving a piece of them will improve the systemic stuff.

This means a bunch of different appointments. I started allergy shots in May, just finished the weekly build up dose (or as I say, poking my immune system with a sharp stick four times a week), and am now on the maintenance dose (and after next week, get to start shifting to an every 3-4 week appointment).

The downside is that I found myself this week with three different medical appointments in three days (allergy shot, dentist, and picking up equipment for a home sleep study tonight, which I have to return Monday morning.) All of which are both out of my usual routine time and location-wise, so there's a bunch of extra driving in places where I have to think about it a lot more than usual.

(And this doesn't count the referral for a dermatologist that I need to poke at sometime - I've been waiting until the allergy shots were less frequent.)

[Noctua]

My actual question/topic here is: with chronic stuff, how do you balance all the pieces of taking care of that? What's working for you right now? What could maybe improve?

The good part is that over the past three years (since I moved to Boston), my really great primary care doctor and I have worked through getting the more urgent chronic stuff under better management. Which means we're now working on the second tier stuff - since a lot of my things are autoimmune and/or chronic inflammation pattern related, there's a lot of "Well, these might be connected, or they might not" in my life, and a chance that improving a piece of them will improve the systemic stuff.

This means a bunch of different appointments. I started allergy shots in May, just finished the weekly build up dose (or as I say, poking my immune system with a sharp stick four times a week), and am now on the maintenance dose (and after next week, get to start shifting to an every 3-4 week appointment).

The downside is that I found myself this week with three different medical appointments in three days (allergy shot, dentist, and picking up equipment for a home sleep study tonight, which I have to return Monday morning.) All of which are both out of my usual routine time and location-wise, so there's a bunch of extra driving in places where I have to think about it a lot more than usual.

(And this doesn't count the referral for a dermatologist that I need to poke at sometime - I've been waiting until the allergy shots were less frequent.)

I live by my calendar- I use the Google calendar app and have everything color coded so I know exactly how urgent it is I keep that date (school is red, appointments are orange, kids stuff is yellow, Girl Scouts green, etc.). Ideally I'd like to have just one day of the week where I can say "this is my day for appointments" but it never works that way; for example my Endocrinologist only has appointments at the office by my house on Fridays, but my dentist is closed Fridays.

When I can I try to get as much stuff scheduled for a time when I know I'll have breathing room and won't be stressed out trying to get everything done- for example having my IUD replaced last month, when I was on summer break for school, instead of waiting until it was due in January and I knew it would be a nightmare trying to fit that in around my pending work schedule. I've also scheduled things for days close to holidays because I knew I'd have more availability/recovery time; my kids' next dentist appointment is the day before Thanksgiving, because I know everyone will be off that day (except apparently their dentist, and bless them for it).

[Jenett]

Ideally I'd like to have just one day of the week where I can say "this is my day for appointments" but it never works that way; for example my Endocrinologist only has appointments at the office by my house on Fridays, but my dentist is closed Fridays.

That thing, yeah. (And getting in with specialists is so much a pot shot in my experience, that you end up doing "When can I see you that isn't six months from now.").

I love my primary care for many reasons, but also because she works to about 6pm two nights a week, and so it's pretty easy for me to get my preferred 'end of the work day' time slot. I'd much rather go to an appointment on the way home rather than go back and forth.

When I can I try to get as much stuff scheduled for a time when I know I'll have breathing room and won't be stressed out trying to get everything done

That was actually the thing that got me this week! August is our really quiet time (it's the one month there are no students on campus, so all the teaching staff are gone, and a lot of non-teaching staff take vacation, too.) So I tend to go "Sure, August is a lot better for this than September!" and end up with three appointments in three days.

(I am currently telling myself that this week is the worst, and I'm about to stop having allergy shots every week, which will help a lot. But I still have a mammogram at the end of the month, something in September, and possibly two more to look at scheduling, and in October/November, I have another round of the bloodwork/primary care/nutritionist cycle and the ophthamologist.)