I have to be honest here – “doctoring” is one of the more challenging parts of our mobile life. We do have a primary care physician/family practice in PA, and we do our best to get there once a year for annual check-ups, mammograms, and blood work. Thankfully, those visits are delightfully routine. “Everything looks good, see you in a year!” So we keep up to date on screening tests, shots, and those wonderful Medicare questions – “Are you happy?” “Do your stairs have railings?” etc. We have that end of our healthcare covered. (Plus we get to combine those doctor visits with a visit with my nephew (one of the doctors in the practice 🙂 )and his sweet family. It’s all good.

If we’re just plain sick and feel like we need to see a doctor, then it’s off to the Urgent Care we go. The down side of that is that we’re always a New Patient, so we’re starting from scratch with all our medical and family history. Generally speaking, we have to be REALLY sick to chose to go that route. Like kidney stone sick.

The biggest problem comes when a routine medical visit requires some type of specialist follow-up. This past November Gary and I went to the Optometrist at Costco (near Atlanta, GA) for our regular eye exams. Not unexpectedly, our prescription had changed and new glasses were in order.

But then she threw me a loop when she said she wanted me to see an ophthalmologist because she felt that I had “narrow angles” which could lead to glaucoma and even blindness. Yikes!! I called the recommended eye care practice, and they said they could fit me in in February. Nope. That wasn’t going to work.
When we got to our January location I ran into the same problem. The light bulb finally went off and I called in early February to get an appointment at an eye center near our March project. With that lined up, the only glitch was going to be if something needed to happen (like a laser treatment of some kind) AFTER that initial exam.

I had my exam on Monday and thankfully, the good doctor thought my angles (whatever they are!) looked just fine! Phew! He gave me a thorough exam, said no follow-up treatment was needed and that he would see me next year. I let him know that he probably wouldn’t see me in a year (who knows where we’ll be next March), but thanked him heartily for the good report. It feels good to have that little optical concern behind us.

Gary and I have been blessed with relatively good health for two almost 70 year old folks. We don’t take that for granted.  But we know all of that could change in a flash. Thankfully, even though we generally move every 3-4 weeks, if some type of specialty care is required we can rearrange our lives to accommodate that.  We also are often in contact with local folks who can make recommendations.  But still…..dealing with medical issues while traveling around the country isn’t our favorite thing!

Just trying to keep it real, friends!

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