This afternoon, I find myself back at the doctor’s office. This time, I’m scheduled to see my primary care physician. Because of this pre-existing appointment, I needed to cancel an opportunity to see my ENT surgeon this afternoon, for emerging symptoms. Because I was unable to keep my ENT appointment, it’ll need to be rescheduled as soon as possible.
I really don’t think that healthy people have any idea of just how time-consuming it is to manage multiple chronic illnesses. Actually, it’s a full-time job, in and of itself. I spend time, every single day, in the management of my multiple chronic conditions.
I phone the pharmacy, specialist’s offices, mail-order prescription companies, and patient assistance programs, all on a regular basis. I’m almost always placed on hold, for extended periods of time.
I spend time at my doctor’s appointments; I also commute an hour, one way, to see each of my specialists. I spent time setting up my prescription medications, via a medi-set, for the full week ahead.
Given the complexity of my medical diagnoses, I also spend time researching how new prescription medications will impact my diagnoses.
All of these tasks are very time-consuming, of course. They are even more challenging to complete when you have chronic symptoms, on a regular basis.