Comp Socked

Yesterday was the follow up appointment at the  medical center for the time I spent in the hospital over this last August and since I have the “sitting” consult a couple of weeks ago—no big deal right? I cannot say the event was horrible but I can say I came away more displeased then I thought I would be.  I was fortunate in that Dianne was able to attend as my “Medical Advocate” (MA). Dianne is a great MA in that Dianne reads, loves to research and actually do the work to “help” the medical professional provide the best medical service possible.

I love my medical provider—Katia is a European P.A. for an MD who sort of specialized in spinal cord injuries. I rarely see the Doc and mainly just the PA and that is just as well. I can tell she really likes me too but she just won’t let things go. For months if not years she has been trying to get me in a pair of compression socks—my feet tend to retain  water, lots of water, huge puffy blocks at the end of my legs.  Medical professionals  who she my fee for the first time always tend to freak out a little. My feet don’t not hurt or cause discomfort—the feet just look weird and I can live with odd looking feet. Katia always want me to wear the damn compression sock.

Compression socks are socks which are super tight and go all the way up to the knees and pushes the water  and blood back up out of the legs and back into the circulatory system. Everyone except me thinks that is important. Each appointment when the subject of compression socks  would come up, I would look at her pathetically and shake my head that I would not be interested and usually be on my way but not yesterday. One of the main issues I have with comp socks is that are so elastic and tight I do not have the hand function to get the socks on or off independently. So once the socks are on they will stay on until I can find someone to take them off  and since I love to go naked, any chance I chance  the comps will totally limit my ability to be free. Usually I can passive aggress my  way out of these tight situations; I would just not buy the items and be done with it till my next appointment.  Not yesterday, before I could protest she had a package of brand new socks ripped open and had her nurse and Dianne wrestling the tight fitting garments on to my feet. I don’t think there is one thing which makes one feel older then compression socks!!

I have flesh colored compression socks on, I really don’t feel that different yet but I slept in the socks all night long and actually my legs have felt a bit better this morning and I am wondering just wondering : is this another example of me fighting the system, like the catheters, that after I started using them I felt so much better.

I feel I am just loosing so much control over my life and then my PA dropped the bomb, she mentioned she had not noticed a paragraph on my chart which indicated that I have a pericardial cyst –I visibly saw Katia turn white which gave me pause and that is another story.