Getting ready for Yule and Christmas

The ham is here, the cognac has been purchased, the outbound gifts are packed to ship, and I will FINALLY get the decorating done today.

The house will only be decorated for ten days, but I will enjoy it.

This coming Friday is Yule, and I was granted the day off (you never know, where I work).  I will cook the same feast I made last year, which was so wonderful.  Hopefully, we can get a fire going in the chiminea.

Dave's stress test is tomorrow, so I got the afternoon off to go with him (since it wasn't related to the holidays, they granted me the time off on short notice.  I was stunned).

He's very uncomfortable about having to to it.  His last one was induced, and he said that was perfectly awful. 

I try to reassure him that the treadmill kind is easier to deal with, but he's still freaked out.

I totally understand being freaked out about medical procedures and tests!  I am very glad that I can be there.

I got a Christmas bonus from the dance studio, and used it to buy dance shoes that I think my podiatrist would approve of.  Now I can go back to class!

I've missed going, but have also gotten fond of not having to leave the house at night, HAHA!

My BIG NEWS this week is that I had my monthly trip to the cancer clinic.  This was the "every other" month, so I had labs drawn, port flushed, and saw my doc before my shot.

The staff in the treatment room was, once again, clueless about why I was there, even though it was scheduled in October.  I had to wait a half hour to get my labs drawn, because they didn't have the orders.  This happened the last time too.  The new management is so effed up.

Anyway, when I went back to my doc appointment, my nurse came in to do the usual stuff, and she said "You've heard through the grape vine, right?  Dr Hollen is leaving."

I panicked for a moment.... she saw this on my face, and then she said "but you can come with us!"

My doctor has gotten fed up with the new Overlords.  With their unethical billing practices, with his patients being saddled with four times the expense they had when he was in private practice, with all of the stupid rules,  and with the negative changes and remarkable incompetence that keep the treatment room staff in constant turn- over status.

SO....he is leaving the group he helped found, and moving to a new private practice group way across town.

I will never get another bill for $11K for one tiny injection.  I will never get another threatening phone call.  I will never have to seek assistance, or beg for money through a fund raiser, to pay my bills.

The only draw backs are that the new office is kind of far away, and they may not be able to draw my labs through my port, and kill two birds with one stone.

(What I mean by that is, the port has to be flushed every 8 weeks-- so it works out perfectly to get the labs drawn through it on the "every other" visits... oh well...we'll figure it out.)

I was ECSTATIC to get this news on Thursday! 

I will miss the one treatment room nurse who has stayed.  She was the ONLY ONE there who was able to access my port, consistently, on the first try. She would grumble to me about the new overlords, too, but she refuses to leave.  Probably because of patients like me who request her every time, because we know she knows what she's doing.

I will miss my doctor's head nurse, who is getting married and moving to Georgia anyway.

I will miss the lovely, friendly receptionist who has been so kind for all these years.

This was all a big surprise, so I had no time to prepare.  I went around and said good bye.

My entire process has taken place in that office.  It was a bizarre rush of overwhelming relief, and a strange kind of closure.  I cried as we drove away for the last time.

I find that I am still taking big breaths of relief whenever it pops into my mind.  I was REALLY worried about the beginning-of-year bills process starting over, since it was so horrible this past January and February.

ANYWAY......

We have to clean and refill the hot tub today (opened it up yesterday, and discovered that the time had come, so we drained it last night).  That, along with the decorating, will take all day.

Lots to do....