Today’s Critters, and getting things done

We only had one thing scheduled for today.  Doctor’s appointments for my husband and myself, booked one right after the other.

Ah, the best laid plans.

First up, though… the morning critters!

The deer came out before I had a chance to go out with fresh feed.  Hungry Girl came first, by herself, and seemed to be finding things to eat.

Then Mama and the twins showed up.  And Barbecue.  Then there was a whole bunch of dashing around and chasing and flashing of hooves at each other.

I finally went out to feed the cats and the deer which, of course, scared them off.  My daughter did manage to get a few photos first, though.

Among the things that scared them off was…

This little one.

But not before she had me very, very confused.

There were no cats around when I first came out with a pitcher of warm water and started knocking the ice out of their bowls.

But I did hear the tiniest of mews.

Looking around, I saw nothing, and thought maybe it was just a noise caused by the wind.

Mew… mew…

The teeniest, tiniest of noises!

Did the cats somehow manage to have kittens around here?  That would certainly be a miracle, since my brother had them fixed.

Mew… mew…

That’s when I saw Beep Beep.

On the roof of the entryway!

She was wanting to come down to the food, but would have to go to the tree in front of the kitchen window to do it.  It took her a while of going down the roof on my side, and disappearing over the peak, then back again, before she finally went for the tree.

The outside cats were in a friendly mood this morning.  Not only did Beep Beep let me touch her, but several others did, too.

Nice to see Hungry Girl getting her share.

It was a while before things would be quiet enough for the deer to come back, though, as I went out to get the van and drove to the door, so it would be closer for my husband and his walker.  Then it was off to town for our appointments.  There wasn’t a lot of either of us.  We’re still waiting for a call from the pain clinic, which may take months, depending on their wait list.  We did get a prescription for a physiotherapist this time, which his insurance covers.  There are two in town, and one of them is someone we knew for years before leaving the province, so we’ll likely go to her.  I remembered to ask about an exercise specialist, but it turns out they don’t have anything like that in this province.  On the plus side, my husband doesn’t need to come back for another two months.

My own appointment was to follow up on a few things and get the results of my blood tests.  He even got my transferred medical records, which is nice – it means my old doctor’s office sent them out, before getting paid for it (I got a bill for it the same day I mailed the check! *L*). All is good, even without my prescriptions.  I explained the issue with our insurance and we talked about what changes we can make, once that’s fixed.  Unfortunately, he wants to put me on another prescription; statins.  The reason?

Because I’m over 40 years old.

I’ve never had high cholesterol (which has driven some doctors I’ve had in the past to distraction, because I’m fat, and all fat people are supposed to have high cholesterol, right?).  I have no family history of heart disease or any other of the various things associated with being fat.  In fact, in my family history, the thin ones are the ones that died young.  The fat ones were the only ones that lived long enough for me to know them.  Especially the women, who all gained weight after having children, and all gained weight in the same areas, and all outlived their husbands to ripe old ages, unless something killed them.  Like an accident, or being beaten to death for being the wrong ethnicity.

There are other issues with statins and over-medication that I brought up, but he responded with how it has been found that people on statins have a greatly reduced risk of blah blah blah.

The problem for him is, I do research for fun, and will read the actual studies – not just the abstracts and conclusions (well; at least those that aren’t hidden behind subscriber paywalls).  I understand the language of them, methodology and what the numbers and data mean.  I know the difference between a meta-analysis and a data dredge.  I can recognize a good study over a bad one, etc.  It always amazed me when I’d read a paper through, then get to the conclusion, where the researchers that did the study would flat out say, “our data shows us A does not actually cause B, C or D, but we think A is bad anyways, so … our conclusion is that A is bad.”  Or others where they didn’t even do that, but their conclusion would say the opposite of what the actual data demonstrated.  In this case, we have decades of people saying “statins are the best, everyone should be on statins”, even though the actual data shows that statins don’t really provide the benefits attributed to them, but do cause all sorts of health issues.  Even those that admit that these health issues are caused by statins will go on to say that people should take them anyways… because… risk!  As if people won’t understand that reducing the risk of something by 50%, but increasing the risk of something else that’s just as bad by 90%, is not a good trade off.

I’ve seen this doctor only a couple of times.  He seems nice, if a bit naive.  If he turns out to be a pill pusher, I have no problems looking for someone else.

I left without needing to make another appointment, though, and won’t need to for some months.

I figured out day was done, though, and we could focus on our birthday girl.

My husband, at least, was able to call the carrier for our medical insurance about my not being able to get my prescriptions.  It turns out that yes, I’m all set and covered, but they haven’t finished processing me yet, and that might take a week.

…

So… why didn’t anyone tell him that when he talked to him before?

*sigh*

Then I got that phone call about my driver’s license.

Which meant more phone calls and the trip to the bank that turned out to be closed.

By the time we got back, there wasn’t time to do what I had planned, so we left again, this time to pick up a birthday cake and some ice cream for my older daughter.

Since we were in town anyhow, my younger daughter and I went to our usual park to play Pokemon Go.  While there, we saw three people walking around with their phones (it’s getting warm enough to do that a bit more), and we just knew they were playing, too.  As they started to leave, they noticed us and came over, asking if we were playing the game.  We ended up chatting for a while, and they told us about how they sometimes organize raid parties with people from several towns.  I ended up giving them my email address.

Something I noticed since I started playing the game with my daughter.  Pokemon Go players are the friendliest people!

So what should have been a one trip day became a three trip day.  Tomorrow, I only had some prescription refills to pick up, but now I’m going to have to go to another town to get a letter from the bank to help prove I live here, to get the ID I need to prove I am who I am, and that I live here…

When we moved here, I thought my days of running around in the van 2 or 3 times a day would be over!

The Re-Farmer