Presumed Competent

I turned 65 in December.
Today was the first time I've seen my doctor after getting signed up for Medicare and all the shit that goes along with it. 

Just adding here that the process to sign up for Medicare and get straight answers in plain English is a colossal pain in the ass and for about a month I was in a state of just-below-boiling pissoff. I hate talking on the phone, the things I read just made it more confusing, and I wanted to slap someone. Several someones. On multiple occasions.
This epic sign up coincided with my Spring break trip to see my mom, so my mental state was chaotic anyway. Plane trip, car rental, staying in an unfamiliar place while trying to continue figuring out all things medical and endeavor to be polite to my mom and all her caregivers while wiped out and grumpy. 

Seeing my mom just brings up all kinds of shit from my own personal wayback machine. Good times. 

I had been carrying medical insurance through my job, but it was Kaiser. 
So I had it just in case something horrible happened, not because I wanted a Kaiser doctor. 

Nope, I was still seeing my regular doctor who is NOT part of that network and paying out of pocket for the privilege of doing so. Did you know that a simple medication check visit is over $300? Not a typo.

Interesting that now I'm on Medicare, they cut the cost of a visit in half before ever turning it over to my insurance. Our health "care" system in the US is so fucked up.

So I take medication that requires me to see my doctor on occasion for blood work or to pee in a cup to check all my function-y stuff with kidneys etc.
I've been taking it a long time, so the doctor visit thing isn't new, but this is the first post-65 thing.  

So we checked my eyesight etc.
And they gave me a tablet with page after page of questions about falling, about who else lives in my home, do I use a cane or other mobility device blah blah blah.

The medical assistant told me at the beginning to remember three words. "I will ask you the words again later." 
(None of them were person, woman, man, camera, TV.)

I was supposed to remember them until the end of my appointment. 
Haha, then she forgot to ask me. 
Chair, car, banana.
Who comes up with this stuff?

They asked me to draw the face of a clock and set the time at 10:45.

So I get it. 
I know it's a baseline and that screening for dementia isn't actually a bad thing.

(Beats the hell out of me how an asshole with what appears to be dementia can be president, but that's really not part of this story, now is it? Bet that sorry shitbag can't draw a clock, either.)

It was a kick in the pants all the same.

Up until that visit, I was considered a fully functional human. 
The moment I walked into the clinic, I wasn't anymore.

Interesting experience.
I hated it.

Physically it's definitely not as easy for me to get around and do stuff as it once was, but so far at least, my brain still works. I do logic problems and online puzzles and I read constantly. 

And although it's been a few weeks since I wrote here, I write all the time, too. Currently working on some activity plans for my job, writing a how-to for someone who has never done this project or that. Trying to make it clear without being complicated, but with enough detail that it won't make someone crazy to try to do it.

I'm not doing those things as some kind of talisman to ward off dementia, I do all of them because I like it. But my understanding is that it might help my brain all the same.
One of the questions on the endless tablet list was something like, 'has anyone told you that it's time to stop driving or have you received traffic violations or been in a recent auto accident?'

No. Hopefully telling me to stop driving is not a possibility for at least, oh, 10 years? 
I hope I'm smart enough to realize when it's time to stop. I know a lot of 'take the keys away from Grandma' situations happen. 

I'd just as soon never have traffic violations or an accident, that's not new, though. 

I have been in a few close calls, usually someone who decides to change lanes without looking in their blind spot and nearly takes me out or someone who doesn't understand a safe following distance and tries to turn my car into a speed bump.

The last week of school, I was in the center lane on I-5, passing a semi that was in the right lane, when a semi in the left lane decided the absolute best spot to be RIGHT NOW was the center lane and nearly turned me and my little car into a Toyota sandwich. 

I hit the brakes, came within a gnat's ass of being rear ended by some nimrod who was following me too closely and managed to swerve into the left lane behind the lane changer. Pretty sure he never even saw me. I work hard to stay visible (lights on, is the driver visible in their side mirrors... if you can see the driver then the driver can see you) It was just one of those things.

It's really amazing how many stupid things I see on the freeways, though. The big surprise is that I don't see more of it.

So that's the news. I mean, there's more, and I have (checking) 5 posts in various stages of undress in the drafts. They may even get finished sometime this week.

I've been appreciating the time off, trying to get a little cleaning done around the house, keeping up with dishes and laundry, sleeping in, and most days not even getting dressed after my shower.

I put on a clean giant tie dyed t shirt (that's what I sleep in) and that's my uniform for the day.

Every other Wednesday I am going to the office to help with that curriculum planning, but I've been working on it at home, too. Even though we're not supposed to be. They took our laptops away from us at the end of the school year and will re-issue them when we go back to work in the fall. 

That's okay, this computer works just fine.
Hoping my brain keeps functioning, too.