What a difference a week makes…
Feb. 20th, 2018 02:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaMonday last, I drove down to Santa Rosa to run a member of errands. Number one on that list was clearing up the issues I had with my health insurance, which after a number of hours dealing with social services and several more with my insurance agent were successfully concluded. As of 1 March I will be back on Covered California (California’s version of Obama care). The day including a run to Costco, a partially successful attempt to get my medications refilled, picking up the dry cleaning, a stop at Grocery Outlet, & finally, a trip to 24 hour fitness in Santa Rosa for a run & a soak in the spa thereafter. I left for Santa Rosa feeling perfectly fine. Post run & in the hot tub, I found myself wondering why the water was so tepid. I had been so looking forward to the reward of a nice hot soak after my workout. This felt like a warm bath instead. At least the jets had adequate pressure. After 15 minutes, somewhat disappointed, I made my way to the shower, and from there, towel over my shoulder, onto my locker. By the time I made it my locker I had shaking chills.
My drive home was less than pleasant. By the time I walked into the house, I was running a fever of 100.5. Around midnight it was up to almost 102. I’m pretty certain, I wound up suffering an attenuated case of the flu. Most folks have heard by now that this has been an bad flu season and that this years vaccine has not been as effective as in recent years. Still I’m damned grateful I took my jab last fall, as the folks who’ve gotten ill
anyway, have generally had milder cases of the infection than those who haven’t. I’ll take a fever of 101.5 over one of 103.5 any day of the week. Moreover, I was only down for 3 days, not 7-10.
My fever broke for good midday Thursday and I finally rejoined the land of the living midday Saturday. I’m amazed at just how much everything ached while I was under the weather. My back hurt. My hips hurt. My neck hurt. My ankles wanted to strangle me. To add insult to injury, one of the medications I had to do without was my Celebrex.
Back in the early 90s, when I was first diagnosed with the inflammatory arthritis, I went through every anti-inflammatory then on the market. They either worked like a charm, but weren’t tolerated, or they were tolerated but didn’t work at all. My magic bullet turned out to be Celebrex, which was both effective and well-tolerated. These days, while my inflammation is in remission, I still have to deal with the damage that it did, so often I still need the stuff. (To quote Rocky Horror, “I’ll remove the clause, but not the symptom.”) While I was insured on covered California, Blue Shield have preapproved me through 2049 for refills without prior approval for the Celebrex. That unfortunately did not follow me on to the new plan the state of California had put me on. A week later I’m still awaiting approval. With my luck, the approval will probably arrive on the day that I’m back on Blue Shield. Fortunately, now that the fever is gone, my pain level is markedly reduced, enough so that I was actually able to go for a run today. My first day back at the gym in a week and I was able to do a 30 minute run without any real difficulty covering a bit more than 2 1/2 miles in that time. If I ever succeed in falling asleep tonight, I’d like to do that again in the morning before b’fast.
My drive home was less than pleasant. By the time I walked into the house, I was running a fever of 100.5. Around midnight it was up to almost 102. I’m pretty certain, I wound up suffering an attenuated case of the flu. Most folks have heard by now that this has been an bad flu season and that this years vaccine has not been as effective as in recent years. Still I’m damned grateful I took my jab last fall, as the folks who’ve gotten ill
anyway, have generally had milder cases of the infection than those who haven’t. I’ll take a fever of 101.5 over one of 103.5 any day of the week. Moreover, I was only down for 3 days, not 7-10.
My fever broke for good midday Thursday and I finally rejoined the land of the living midday Saturday. I’m amazed at just how much everything ached while I was under the weather. My back hurt. My hips hurt. My neck hurt. My ankles wanted to strangle me. To add insult to injury, one of the medications I had to do without was my Celebrex.
Back in the early 90s, when I was first diagnosed with the inflammatory arthritis, I went through every anti-inflammatory then on the market. They either worked like a charm, but weren’t tolerated, or they were tolerated but didn’t work at all. My magic bullet turned out to be Celebrex, which was both effective and well-tolerated. These days, while my inflammation is in remission, I still have to deal with the damage that it did, so often I still need the stuff. (To quote Rocky Horror, “I’ll remove the clause, but not the symptom.”) While I was insured on covered California, Blue Shield have preapproved me through 2049 for refills without prior approval for the Celebrex. That unfortunately did not follow me on to the new plan the state of California had put me on. A week later I’m still awaiting approval. With my luck, the approval will probably arrive on the day that I’m back on Blue Shield. Fortunately, now that the fever is gone, my pain level is markedly reduced, enough so that I was actually able to go for a run today. My first day back at the gym in a week and I was able to do a 30 minute run without any real difficulty covering a bit more than 2 1/2 miles in that time. If I ever succeed in falling asleep tonight, I’d like to do that again in the morning before b’fast.
