Doctors' Appointments

I saw my ortho doc today to get steroid shots in my knees. I was diagnosed with patella-femoral disorder a few years back, which means that I get stiffness and pain in my knees when I go from sitting to standing. I also have pain going up or down stairs. The steroid injections work pretty well for me. The doctor recommended some specific exercises and told me to avoid stairs whenever possible. But walking, biking, and swimming were good. I can live with that!

His face lit up when I described our travel. I could see the envy in his eyes. Then came the questions: how do we get mail, pay our bills, do we stay only in resorts? (Answers: we have a mail service that sends our mail whenever and wherever we tell them to, we pay our bills online, and we like resorts and like them for longer stays but also use more humble campgrounds.) Perhaps we will meet him on the road one day.

The way we handled our annual doctor visits worked well this year. Back around March Bob and I made a list of all our doctors and decided what weeks we wanted to set aside for appointments. We each called our own doctors and made appointments, writing them down on a master calendar page so there would be no conflicts. We only have one vehicle, so that was important. I kept a list on the computer and wrote down results of each appointment with recommendations so we could follow up. It was actually easier having all checkups in a short period of time, so none would get missed.

The clock is ticking down for our visit here in NJ. It went so quickly! We are saying goodbye to some of our family tomorrow, others on Wednesday. We head out Thursday for a week in western Massachusetts, then another week in eastern MA, possibly RI and CT next month. And Bob said we could stop at Webs in Northampton on the way! Luckily they have a large parking lot for the MH. That's the plan anyway!