I know – it’s been a VERY long time since I’ve posted here on my blog….. like 2.5 years long! Well, I’m back and all is well. Lots and lots have happened in these two years, but I will try to get caught up with a few things and stay current on 2023’s events.

So, I want to get right into my blog titled “An Unspoken Epidemic”. In my employment duties still in medical records, I noticed this, but it did not really hit me until a YouTube influencer I follow, ‘YourFavNurseB‘, spoke about this. She is a 32-year-old RN and her YouTube channel focuses on growing/coaching those who go from a CNA to an LPN to an RN, concentrated upon working in nursing homes. She got right to the point on this topic saying there are too many 50-60 year-olds in nursing homes!!! That particular shift she had worked, she mentioned that she had about 51 patients to see after and approximately 75% of her patients were in their 50s and 60s, some even younger. Ya’ll this is a true epidemic. This is not only happening in her city, but in every city/state in the U.S. These illnesses that has brought the majority of these patients to a nursing home are preventable.

As I mentioned earlier, I too have noticed this horrible statistic when I am working and analyzing patients medical records. When patients are admitted to a hospital and their stay could be 30 days, 10 days or even 5 days, my job is to analyze each report – each History and Physical, each Emergency Room visit, each Progress Note, etc. Some of these progress notes can be 220+ pages long. Once a patient is discharged from the hospital, the patient is either too sick to go home so the hospital has no choice but to refer them either to LTAC (long-term acute care facility) or to a nursing home facility. Some of these illnesses these patients are being admitted to the hospital for are very preventable by the patient, but when they are at this stage (of getting admitted to a nursing home) that means they have not cared for themselves, not taken their medications and just practically let themselves go. Look – being in your 60s is NOT old! Nursing homes were geared to be for the very, very elderly population when family members can no longer care for their loved ones for various reasons – not 40, 50 and 60 year-olds.

I do understand the last several years have been extremely challenging mentally for the entire world. There have been many events taken place over the recent years that make anybody want to give up or throw in the towel. Lots of traumatic events, losing of many loved ones, still not getting over a situation that you thought was hurtful many, many years ago.

We ALL have been through a lot – some our whole lives. Focusing on past traumas, past hurts, things we lost, etc. must change. All of these events have a profound affect on our physical well-being. We must start with changing our mindset. At the end of the day, when things are out of your control, there’s nothing you can do about it. You cannot bring a loved one back, you cannot go back to your childhood and ‘fix’ whatever problem you suffered, but you CAN confront the issue to try and get some closure, but to let it continue to fester or continue to marinate on how bad it hurt you is not helping. It only continues to hinder you emotionally, physically and spiritually.

The majority of these illnesses and problems are things like diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, alcoholism, cigarette smoking and drug use. Not being knowledgeable about the use and the side effects of different medications (or over-medicating), can also cause a lot of different medical problems . Also, lacking certain nutrients and vitamins in your body can also cause an array of illnesses.

I’m hoping that by bringing up this topic and shedding some light on this subject will help someone. For me, this is actually an embarrassing epidemic because I too am in my 60’s – 64 to be exact – and I KNOW that my generation were taught on how to live off the land. But, I too have to remember that my generation were pretty much the creators of eating processed foods, fast-food meals, trying to make life ‘quicker’ and ‘simpler’… Either way, we must mature mentally, have a different mindset and learn skills for yourself to remain healthy. There is too much out here these days to educate yourself and continue to learn about everything you can learn! Watching the carb intake, the meat intake, cutting out sugar, cutting out fried foods, not eating meals after 6 p.m. and exercising whether walking, jogging, hitting the gym, whatever works for you, are all ways to prevent the above-mentioned diseases which can then prevent the young from residing in a nursing home!

Let 2023 be the year you love on yourself more. Take steps daily – whether 10 minutes per day and increasing at your tolerance (some sort of exercise), changing your eating habits one meal at a time and train your mind to think differently. Take it from me, a person who has had multiple health issues, starting from the time I was born until now – it is NOT easy to make these changes, but it can be done. I get up daily and start my day listening to something inspirational/motivating and I end my day by taking time for ME and all the tools that make me comfortable and peaceful when I lie down to sleep. I will NOT be a 60 something year-old residing in a nursing home!

While we reflect on life in 2017, we also want to strive for new ideas, new adventures for 2018.   I know for me, 2017 brought many, many new things – some that were unexpected or unplanned – many new adjustments and challenges.  I uprooted my life of 28 years in Atlanta, Georgia and made the decision to move back to Jackson, Mississippi to assist in the care of my aging mother.  In order to deal with many of Mississippi’s hardships and challenges (coming from a ‘big progressive city’, it was a real adjustment to moving to a smaller town whose people and its culture lack the progressiveness, motivation, education and seems almost stuck in time of the late 1980s), God did bless me with a decent job!  That too was another huge adjustment in my life I had to get back used to as I had been working at home/remotely since 1994!  Working at home had many, many great benefits to it.  The only drawback I encountered from working at home was social isolation.  If you’re a people person, working at home is NOT for you!  Plus, I must admit, I need some type of structure in my life.  For the first 3-4 years of working at home, I was pretty disciplined, but after that, the self-discipline went down the drain. So, coming to Mississippi did help me to get some structure back in working a ‘real job’, being around thousands of people 5 days a week, dealing with all types of personalities; it is quite interesting to say the least!  Now, I can appreciate having worked at home as punching that time clock and some other things seem so robotic now – working at home or for yourself gives one so much freedom – something I’ll never take for granted again!

Caring for an aging relative or person period brings on all new challenges as well.  It’s one that I embrace though, it is not a burden or a chore because that is my passion – always have been – since a little child.  I look forward to finally fulfilling my passion at some point in 2018.

December 2017 brought some sudden, very unexpected tragedies to some special loved ones I’ve known.  I know that we all must die of something – our day is inevitable for sure, but it’s extremely hard when it’s unexpected.

Though as a woman, a natural nurterer, and one who focuses on caring for others, I must continue to keep my own health intact.  Though I do not know the history of the two precious angels that recently suddenly and unexpectedly passed (no health issues that I’m aware of) this certainly was a wake-up call for me to get back on track to living a healthier life – especially with my many health issues.

Thank you 2017, it overall has been good, but I’m expecting and looking forward to some exciting things for 2018.  My #1 focus will be to remain healthy, hoping to actually completely get rid of some of my health challenges as well has looking forward to a prosperous 2018!

A lot has happened since my last blog….which was December 2016.  Lots of ‘new’ things have taken place so far in 2017 – a new President of the United States, a new health insurance as well as a new primary care physician for me, a new Superbowl champion (well, they’re not new to champions for Superbowl, but because it’s a new year, yes a new champion for 2017).  And nevermind my opinions regarding a couple of the above-stated ‘new’ things….some things are just better left unsaid.

I am still covered by the AHA (a/k/a/ Affordable Healthcare Act and/or Obamacare) with an insurance called Ambetter. At first I was a bit skeptical about having this insurance, thinking I would not get the same quality health care as previous insurances or whether I’d keep the same physicians, but so far, so good!  My monthly premium went down which is a plus for me – going from $251/month to now $94/month plus $20/month for dental!!!  Whoo hooo!! But the best part about this so far is the prescription medications.  Folks, you won’t believe how excited I am about this. 

So in years’ past, I have been taking Crestor (rosuvastatin) for my high cholesterol. I have been tried on all of the other ‘statin’ medications used for high cholesterol and they have either not did the job of bringing the cholesterol levels down or there were awful side effects that I could not deal with, so Crestor has been the only one that has cut my cholesterol levels in half and with no side effects.  Problem was that Crestor/rosuvastatin was the most expensive medication I’ve ever had to purchase.  I have paid up to $185-200 for a 30-day supply of Crestor – and that was with using GoodRx (the free prescription-saving coupons available to use when purchasing prescription medications) as well as my insurance. Last week, though I had to go through some finagling through my new primary care – or what is called in the healthcare world as medical necessity – and through my new health insurance I am only paying $1 for the rosuvastatin!  Yep, I said $1, and that goes for all of my generic-named prescriptions I’ve been using.

A portion of medical necessity in short means this: Whether it’s a prescription medication, an x-ray/MRI or cancer treatment and beyond, one must get authorization from your physician, whether primary care or specialty physician to state that it is medically necessary for the use of that medication and/or procedure.  In my case, a prescription needed to be filled and the insurance would not pay for it (many medications are not being paid through the insurance company for 2017), so then you have to go through either your primary care physician or specialty physician and have them to authorize the use of that medication. Therefore, the battle begins between the insurance company, pharmaceutical companies and the physician making the order. The insurance company wanted to know WHY I could not use the other statin medications (in which they would pay for) and my primary care reviewed my medical history and clinical documentations and explained to them that ‘she was tried on all other previous statin medications and to no avail were they effective; therefore it is medically necessary for my patient to take the rosuvastatin.’ That’s all it took – a little bickering, an authorization by my physician and a signature – and so for now – for 2017’s health insurance – I can now pay only $1 for my generic medications!

This is why I blog folks, so that I can inform you about the challenges we have in healthcare/health insurance these days and be to become proactive – empower yourself in saving yourself money and time as well as remaining healthy. I cannot speak for all health insurances, but I believe this is true for a majority of the health insurance companies. Whenever your insurance company will NOT pay for a particular prescription medication or pay for medically necessary procedure, it doesn’t hurt to ask your primary care or your specialty physician to get them to authorize what may be medically necessary, whether a particular medication or a procedure by digging deeper into your medical history.

The repealing of Obamacare for 2017? I’m not worried about it this year. It’s in place for now and since there is no new replacement healthcare plan in place as we speak, it would take months to  repeal it.  Plus there are too many people – 20,000,000 to be exact – that would be affected by it, and I’m pretty confident 20,000,000 will go kicking and screaming to the White House to keep this from happening……We shall see!

Boy, has 2016 been some kind of year! It’s been the year of political changes, more than the country’s share of celebrity death’s, personal health issues for me as well as within my family – so ready for a MUCH better 2017!

2016 for me started out the 1st day of January with the news that my mom suffered a ‘mini-stroke’, so of course my natural instincts led me to literally stop what I was doing here and drive 6-1/2 hours to where she resides to care for her and get her well. I eventually ended up staying there through March, 2016. Thankfully she quickly recovered from that and is doing just fine. Because I cared for her 10 hours per day as well as me trying to continue to work my job as a transcriptionist, that in turn caused stress to my body which created a new diagnosis (along with my other health issues) called PVCs (premature ventricular contractions) or heart flutters.  That is a very unnerving feeling when you literally feel your heart beating so fast, as though it is wanting to ‘leap’ out of your chest! Thanks to my wonderful cardiologists here at Emory that they were able to pinpoint which type of heart flutters (not severe) I was experiencing and how to alleviate it. Along with the heart flutters/palpitations and further inquiry into my condition, it was discovered (according to the docs) that I suffered from anxiety…… another diagnosis to be added to my many issues.  I do have to admit that because I’m older, have experienced menopause and other life stressors, I do believe I was a bit anxious.  That diagnosis in turn subjected me to take an antianxiety medication called sertraline. In the past, I was very adamant about taking any type of anxiety/depression medications because of their side effects, but after some convincing by my primary care physician, I reluctantly decided to take it. Surprisingly, it worked very well for me!  Things that got me very uptight, didn’t even seem to matter. I actually was more alert, especially with paying attention to detail (my job as a transcriptionist) and other domestic things.  Only thing though, through my research, I discovered on my own that taking any SSRI/antianxiety medication was extremely detrimental to my glaucoma. Needless to say, I had no choice but to stop taking sertraline. (sigh)

Now by this time, it’s 6 months into 2016 and here we go with several celebrities just literally suddenly dying, either by way of heart issues, drug overdoses or something, as well as all the political hype/news of electing a new POTUS. The post-election outcome? Well, let’s just say it was startling to most in this country. It too led to people literally becoming sick, having to seek care at a hospital and/or doctor’s office!

Because I love the body’s anatomy so much, how things work in the body, the heart as well as other organs, I had taken part in a cardiac research study (which is still ongoing). One of the things I truly learned from that study was a technique in learning different types of relaxation – breathing techniques and heart relaxation.  This has been key for me in relieving the anxiety, no need for any antianxiety medication!  It is a technique I can utilize every day, 5-6 times per day. Who would’ve thought that a cardiac research study – a study of how your heart reacts to situations post a heart attack – would relieve a problem with anxiety?  That’s one of the reasons I love medicine!

It’s the eve of New Year’s Eve at the writing of this blog – praying that these last 48 hours of 2016 will just be quiet, calm and go away without any more shocking news headlines.

2017 here I come!!! I’m so looking forward to you! I’ve already made just a few small changes going into 2017 – new place of worship, change of mindset, taking measures to becoming educated and working in a new career change (still in healthcare) despite my many diagnoses – it’s all in that change of mindset and believing for better health as well as looking forward to new things as I feel I still have so much more to contribute in this world in making a difference! I’m looking forward to more peace, less drama, believing in better health and more happiness and laughter in 2017!