Yes, I certainly want to avoid strokes! And you'd think my doctor would be urging me to do something about the plaque. And yet no other suggestions have been offered to me. Last year, when I said I was exercising, he wasn't really encouraging.

My "former" doctor is a teaching doctor at UT. I'd go in once a year, answer a few questions...and...goodbye. A couple of yrs ago, I had "heart attack" symptoms..twice in a month. Last time scared DH into panic. I went to doctor, he said probably just indigestion. I said...no, I'm pretty healthy and it's not that. He prescribed some anti- acids and reluctantly sends me to have cat scan (only because DH drove me there and insisted it was not indigestion).
And knowing me, you can understand that while I was getting the screening, I jokingly asked the tech if I was a wimp. The tech said, "Well, I can see why you thought you were having a heart attack!" He couldn't tell me anything, but turned the screen to show me a big ole white space where my gall bladder was. A few days later I was in surgery to have gall bladder out. I went back to reg. doctor a year later. He asked if I ever had gall bladder surgery......??? Aggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.... At that visit, I had to ask abou thaving lab tests that I'd never had in a few yrs.

When I had the poison ivy episode, I called reg. doc for appt. Couldn't be seen until later in week. Went to "doc in a box" out near us. Had great care, accepted my insurance, close to house, bye, bye driving into downtown Austin to have someone check me out that no more wants to be there than I do!!!! I'm staying out here.....

Talk about working for reimbursement. I bet you wanted to jump out of your chair and really get his attention!

Sounds like you have made a really good decision. Now, I'm not going to give up on my primary doctor, because he's pretty good on so many things. He DID take it seriously when I had those vague symptoms the summer before last. Sent me to a cardiologist even though he suspected it probably wasn't my heart. They thoroughly tested me. And he does a thorough annual physical with whatever tests are needed every year...and there are appointments between the annual ones also. My daughter is an MD and I don't tolerate an obviously incompetent doctor. In the past, I've quit going to doctors that didn't seem to be very good. It's SO important that a woman have good doctors, because there's a long history of doctors blowing off symptoms in women patients.

Having limited choices due to insurance also kind of dictates where you go unfortunately.

Remember the good ol' days...........when your employer paid for your insurance (part of your benefits package)......when the relationship between yourself & employer was more trusting,.....when loyalty was a virtue appreciated by yourself & employer? When Doctors, Nurses and hospitals' personnel, in general,....at least,...seemed to genuinely care? When MOST people seemed to genuinely care about each other..........guess that's why I like Dave W.'s "communities" so much....being able to be in contact with genuine folks.........is good therapy

Yeah, there were good old days...sort of...for some people. On the other hand, I remember kids that were really mean...and many had mean parents. And quite a few crimes were committed against children back then. And women. And others who couldn't do anything about it. I know so many people that didn't have a very happy life back in those days. Sorry to be a such a downer. Just that the history of mankind has always been a balancing act between good and evil. But you're right. In many ways, people and society seem to be going downhill. I wonder...could the pollution and chemicals that are accumulating so much in our world be affecting the brains of homo sapiens now?

Linda....I wasn't sure how to respond to your post. I grew up in a very small town where everyone knew everyone else's business, and watched out for each others kids. If we were too loud, too mischievous, etc., and in later years....drove too fast, our parents soon heard about it and we felt the consequences. We thought nothing of walking or riding our bikes, as a group, in the dark to the neighbors. On our street, a block away, my mother's uncle lived with his wife and four kids. And my best childhood friend lived two doors down from us. We were a pack every summer. I can't recall any kid who was ever mistreated. And I didn't live a sheltered life. We weren't poor, but we sure weren't rich. I hate to think of you remembering mean kids and parents. I didn't experience mean kids until 9th grade...and that was enough.

I'm sure you're younger than I am, but it does seem that the world is getting scarier by the minute. I was an admitted over protective parent.....and I can't imagine what it'll be like for my grandson when he's old enough to walk to the neighbor's by himself. Our daughter will probably be "shadowing" him. I have said more than once, I wouldn't want to raise a teenager now.

I was thinkin' 'bout how our insurance (back in the 50's thru 70's) was a "given" if you had a decent job.......no concerns about which Doctor you HAD to see,....no exemptions due to previous history/record of illness or injury,....relatively reasonable rates for insurance, health care costs from hospitals (before $5 -10 bandaids or tissues) & doctors. Before greed overwhelmed the system

I guess my childhood experiences fall somewhere in between .....'cause I witnessed some of both behavior - good & bad....as a child.
Overall.......I'd say our "sense of well being" was more prevalent back then.......born & raised in Houston......it was a large "small town" of Texas........which was more of a separate "country" that associated with the rest of the US.....back then

I echo your sentiment, Sandi........I wouldn't want to raise a teen now.......for a number of reasons

Well, some things are actually better now. At least the laws are there to protect children against being sexually abused or purposely injured now...whether it actually does it or not. Back when my generation was growing up, the law didn't protect children in almost all of those cases. And we're so much open-minded about it now. I know for a fact that it was extremely rare for even good Christian people to report child abuse or do anything about it when my generation was growing up. It was swept under the rug by just about everybody and the law ignored the rare reports they did receive if they could. Much better now. Rapes against grown women were also a "sweep-under-the-rug" thing in the old days. I know many women (and a couple of men) that are still dealing with the after-effects of what happened long ago.
BTW, younger? I have a grandson who has been out of high school for more than a year! So yes, the pic I used on here is old!

When I was a kid.....our doctor made HOUSE CALLS!!!! Every childhood illness, he'd drop by to check on me. When I got into high school, our doctor retired and we went to one who no longer made house calls. His ofc was over his drugstore where he called down each prescription from his ofc for you to pick up at his pharmacy. Nowadays, that wouldn't be tolerated, but oh well...no one questioned doctors back then!

Well, Linda...it's a good photo.....and I like it!

It must reflect how you feel ,so I give it

The window guys showed up yesterday to install the 3 windows that would be covered by the greenhouse on the patio. Would have been a pain to try to move plants around for them to reach those windows once the gh went up. They hadn't been here 10 minutes before it started raining...hard. Didn't last long, but made it really cold in the house for a while! Today, we'll start putting up the patio gh and stuff it. Window guys are going to try to finish up the rest of the house this weekend. They had more work than they could handle due to the rebate ending soon, and then the owner decided to run an ad on a local radio station. They've been overwhelmed since. Glad we got the order in earlier....
I have nearly all my plumerias in the garage. DH is less than thrilled, I'm sure. I've chopped back the brugs instead of letting them grow under plastic. If you want cuttings, let me know. I also cut the Confederate roses too. Have a bucket of cuttings to root.

Freezin' weather comin' the end of the week according to the weatherguy.........it's scramblin' time!

Our forcast is for 35 saturday, that's a little to close for comfort. Guess I better get serious about getting the plants in.

The forecast says 30° for both Thursday and Friday night. One good thing came out of last winter's extreme cold. I know more about how cold-hardy my plants are, and won't do as much to protect plants this year. And for the most part, if it can't take mild freezes, I don't want it anyway. Tough love! And the weather last winter/early spring somehow brought up quite a few of the plants I've recently decided is called Sweet Everlasting. I've still got American Lady caterpillars on these plants...in late November! I brought in two more of the caterpillars, however...don't know if they'd freeze out there, but I'll protect them anyway.

We've spent the last two days moving plants into the greenhouses. I'm seriously rethinking all these tropicals. I just don't want to be tied down anymore to plants I have to cover...
Forecast is for 34 Thanksgiving night. Two days ago it was supposed to be 28 Thanksgiving. They mostly just guess.
Disappointed to see only a few Monarchs this year heading home.

The fore cast just keeps getting worse! Now it's supposed to get down to 25° on Friday night here! I'm just not going to allow that!

Happy Thanksgiving! We're still putting plants away. The front is moving thru the hill country now and should be here by noon. I have to get back outside or someone will kill meeeee.....

Mind over matter is working, I think. Newest forecast for here only says 32° tonight and 29° Friday night. If I really concentrate maybe I can bring that 29 up! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! We also need to concentrate on all that the Lord has blessed us with and be truly thankful!