Frustrations

General Discussion
1

It has been one of those days. Started well a day or so earlier, with a letter from Ameli announcing my ALD (I believe just in connection with affairs of the heart…no, that can’t be right but you know what I mean :roll_eyes:), and another one saying that, as I was over 82 I was entitled to a free covid jab.

The nurses were booked up 'till the end of the month so I made an appointment with the pharmacie in the larger town, for this morning. The letter said quite specifically that no documentation needed to be taken, but, as my Carte Vitale is always in the small purse I carry I thought that should be ok, just in case.

Got there 15 minutes early, a common habit of mine, hate people who are always late, and was quickly at the appropriate desk. With some difficulty I heard from the lady behind the thick plastic screen that they needed my CV. Ably concealing my, I told you so, smile, I produced the required item. By this time another lady had joined her in studying their screen closely and ‘piece d’identite’ was mentioned (2nd doc apparently not needed :roll_eyes:) but then as I struggled to produce the only thing I had which I know is not accepted by all, my driving licence, that was cancelled. (3rd doc, albeit cancelled). Then to the 4th doc not needed, ‘mutuelle’? I have one but it is in my larger wallet which I do not carry with me. More screen study, searching for me under Axa. Unsuccessful. Then I was asked which arm I wanted it into which I replied, as always, not being a gaucher, the left one please, but then nearly made a fatal mistake. I made a joke. :astonished: ‘As you can see’, pointing to all the bruises and puncture wounds, ‘there isn’t much room but it is for the best’. Shock horror, explanation demanded. I continued to hurtle towards my impending doom, cheerfully, ‘I had a heart attack 3 weeks ago’ :joy:. More shock horror, ‘are you allowed to recieve a covid injection?’ Then, ‘are you taking anticoagulants?’ ‘No idea, but I am taking 6 pills a day where one sufficed before so I reckon the anti-coag will be in there somewhere.’ Doubtfully they concurred with that but then said, as a final shot that I would have to pay for it. At this point I was ready to turn on my heel and trust my covid immunity to luck but instead I agreed to pay the enormous sum of €2.36 and was immediately ushured into the adjacent room where the seat was indicated to me while the dreaded needle was sorted from a little green bucket. I was required to take my shirt off because she couldn’t find enough spare flesh for the deed. I apologised for my slow take up and remarked that I normally wore a hearing aid (me too, she butted in brightly and we were now copins), but I fell into the river and lost them. Loads of sympathy now, with oohs and aahs, and she just touched the needle to my skin. I never felt it go in, either she was a super expert or secretly had decided the risk was too great. Then she asked me a question which was really puzzling. It sounded very much like, in French of course, ‘are you female?’ but, quick as a flash I realised was ‘does it feel bad?’ (fait mal?) She noted my hesitation so I explained what I had thought she said. Peals of laughter as she indicated that I should sit in the seat provided in the store for 15 minutes before leaving.

But she wasn’t quite finished with me yet, engrossed as I was in my Kindle she came again and gently touched my shoulder ‘just checking you hadn’t fallen asleep.’ Friends for life, I shall look forward to my next visit.

Then to Super U. All I wanted was a box of Shredded Wheat which disappeared from our own Auchan’s shelves a year or more ago. Non was forthcoming so I headed for the nearest exit the last line in a long row of cashouts and my usual exit in times of empty handidness. Unfortunately Eva Braun was at the till as I breezed forwards with a cheery arms outstretched ‘rien du tout’. ‘NO, Interdit, you must go to the no purchase exit’, 100 metres away, or so it seemed, ‘but I am only going for a coffee’ which is right next door. ‘NO’.

So I walked up the line and found a larger than usual checkout, presumably for the elderly, infirmed and confused, which was attended to by a young lady cashing a customer through. So I went through. feeling well qualified, and headed for the coffee shop but I reckoned without Eva who appeared to be reaching for a phone to call Adolf. I did try to explain that everyone else lets me through but she treated me to a very stern warning before I could continue for my coffee, but as I waited to be served I was braced for the hand of a stormtrooper landing on my shoulder.

Non came so I hurried outside to sit with some friends who had hailed me but I had at first ignored, so traumatised as I was. :grimacing:

I have come to the conclusion that I am not so weak, confused, and infirm that I thought I was. Maybe if I brushed up on that a bit, I might have an easier passage through what’s left of my life. :thinking:

7 Likes
2

Glad you got there in the end. Couple of suggestions (not being patronising)

  • sort out new hearing aids - any insurance to cover new ones?
  • always carry your mutuelle with your CV - you never know when you will need it
  • learn what your tablets are called and what they are for, especially if you are taking anti-coagulants. In fact you should always be carrying paperwork for them. If you are in an accident and unable to let the first attenders know they will look for the info - excess bleeding is an issue. Also, any future blood tests they will want to know if you are taking them.
7 Likes
3

Oh Sue, I know you mean well and speak common sense, but there is more to life in high summer carrying even more than absolutely necessary, ie keys, phone (thankfully a little one :wink:) a little loose change and a debit card.

The hearing aids lost in the river I thought were insured but found out they were not, easy to be fooled by the bill of €4,000, and they weren’t that good so decided, after trying a couple of cheapos, to do without.

The mutuelle paper is now folded even smaller and crammed into my purse, but I can’t be expected to carry a foolscap list of pills everywhere I go, surely. Life just isn’t worth all this equipment. I have always got the CV, and as everyone is hooked up to the internet these days, cannot first responders make a swift check via that? The pompiers who came to my house in the emergency didn’t ask for it. It was requested at Urgences, but a swift call to my contact, Marie-Paule, and from her to Axa, produced an email from them before I was tucked up in bed.

But I will google and translate the pill list and be fully prepared for next time. And I do thank you for your concern, as always. :joy:

4 Likes
4

If you let them know you are on anticoagulants they will have a plaster ready to stick over the puncture.

5

Did you sign up to Mon Espace Santé?

https://www.monespacesante.fr/

It is a very handy place where all your meds, medical appointments and test results can be entered by yourself and other medical persons.

3 Likes
6

I don’t remember signing up but I thought I was well covered there anyway as I have accessed it from time to time when encouraged to do so. The latest was just the other day when I got the ALD letter along with the covid one.

I must go now and risk life and limb in the pond, if Jules comes on here later plaintively saying he hasn’t had his dinner yet, you’ll know I’ve succombed. BTW, I don’t take anything into that pond with me, nothing at all except for me. :grinning:

2 Likes
7

You do take pictures on your phone I think? Take a picture of each of the documents and your prescription. It can be a useful back up.

3 Likes
8

Hi David. It’s always so refreshing to read your descriptions of life’s events, and I must say that your particular writing style always brings a smile to my face somewhere along the line.
Anyway, welcome to the ALD club where you’ll get lots of freebie offers to keep you safe now that you are officially a ‘fragile’ person. Flu jabs, Covid boosters, and also an anti-Shingles jab if you haven’t already received one, and all for the grand cost of absolutely nothing.
I do think you should reconsider the hearing aid issue even if it is just the basic ones under the 100% Santé scheme. If nothing else it will enable you to genuinely use the very handy phrase of ‘Je porte deux appareils auditif’ which gains a fair bit of sympathy from official types, and usually results in them speaking a bit slower and more plainly which is always a good aid to understanding what they are saying.
Being more senior in years has its downsides, but then there are also opportunities to use it to one’s advantage. :wink:

4 Likes
9

Err, yes, but my phone is a phone, not a mini computer, anything bigger and I wouldn’t even take that with me. But you are right, it does take photos, but not what you would recognise as anything useful to read documents. I’ll have another look later but pretty sure it would be useless in that regard.

@Robert_Hodge I understand what you say about the hearing aids, I might charge up and try again the best of the 2 cheapos that I bought after the river incident, but for all the bother of charging and remembering them they (and the very expensive ones lost) didn’t contribute much to my hearing except while watching the tv. In fact it was only that that confirmed me in the realisation that they were actually working at all.

But as with @JaneJone’s suggestion, I will try again. :wink: :grinning:

1 Like
10

If you have an iPhone, you can save the photos you take of any medication or documents using the Files app.

Make sure you save them to your device rather than the cloud so you can access them anywhere.

Depending on what settings you have for Apple Photo syncing, you might find they can’t be accessed without an internet connection.

11

I haven’t, but to show willing I did take a snap with my portable telephone just now but all you can see in the result is blurringly unreadable. Even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t have a clue how to send it somewhere. :roll_eyes:

12

I have a pacemaker and 4 medicaments to support my heart. Do I gather you have 6 ? Give yourself time and you’ll get used to telling people what you’re taking - one of mine is completely unpronounceable but I get there (sort of).
Rather than photos on a phone I find the most useful thing is a scanner because I then just scan the repeat prescription from the MT and take the copy with me when I have an appointment with my cardiologist, or when I’m having a scan.
I hate to say this David, but you’re going to find your world has changed. You need a folder (large) in which you keep all your documentation - compte-rendus (the reports from your specialists) blood test results, scans, prescriptions. There will be times when the easiest thing you can do is just pick up the folder and take it with you to an appointment. As you know from Fran, you are the keeper of your medical history.

3 Likes
13

You don’t necessarily have to send it anywhere. I find it useful to just have copies of documents at hand for my use. Also, saves me from taking notes. For example, checking the fuel economy on my car yesterday I could take pictures of the odometer and the number of litres on the pump and do the math later.

14

I have 6, but one is the only one I have taken for a long time to prevent reflux from stomach acid and another is taken both morning and evening.

The picture on my phone is totally unreadable, think dipping a typewritten sheet in a bowl of water for a few minutes and then trying to read the result. I am not complaining, this is a phone, for making and receiving calls and texts, it is not in the least smart and I don’t want it to be. I have seen people with great big slabs and I don’t want to join them.

So, a brief list which I haven’t had time to research yet:
Acide acetylsalicylique 100 mg - 1 per morning
Ticagrelor 90 mg - 1 per morning and evening
Atorvastatine 80 mg - 1 per evening
Ramipril 2,5 mg - 1 per morning
Then the Rabeprazole, or Pariet, which I have been taking for a long time, each morning (although one pharmacist insisted should be taken in the evening despite both my doctor and the hospital one saying morning)

As regards sending a photo @Nunthewiser I have no need. Each time I fill up I note the odo on the receipt and enter all the results on my computer when I get home, the only place I want a computer to be. :grinning:

15

Acide acetylsalicylique
Also known as aspirin. Low dose often used as a mild anticoagulant. Quite often used to ward off strokes

Ticagrelor is used to reduce risk of heart attack or stroke in certain high-risk patients. It is also used to reduce risk of blood clots in certain high-risk patients. Ticagrelor is in a class of medications called antiplatelet medications. (used in combination with aspirin). (My comment: Although not an anticoagulant as such, it does have some of the same effect, so good to mention you are taking it and aspirin in a situation such as a blood test. Also, if you are having an op. You may well come off this after a certain time - it’s used post stent insertion.)

Atorvastatin is used to lower lipids known as cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood when a low fat diet and life style changes on their own have failed. If you are at an increased risk of heart disease, Atorvastatin can also be used to reduce such risk even if your cholesterol levels are normal.

Ramipril is a medicine widely used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart failure. It’s also prescribed after a heart attack. Ramipril helps prevent future strokes, heart attacks and kidney problems.

Rabeprazole, sold under the brand name Aciphex, among others, is a medication that decreases stomach acid. It is used to treat peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and excess stomach acid production.

Hope this helps. Personally, I always prefer to know what I am taking and why.

3 Likes
16

I’m so glad that I’m not the only one with a phone that actually has buttons on it. Like you, for me making phone calls and sending / receiving text messages is quite sufficient.

To quickly explain medical history and current medications we each have a relatively small (A5 size), bilingual paper form onto which one can enter all the relevant details. Fold it in half and slip in into your back pocket and you really won’t know that it is there.
Once completed we make several copies, one of which is held to the fridge door by a magnet so that it is easy to grab and hand to the medics / pompiers in the event of an emergency at home.
I can send you a copy of the form for you to complete at your leisure if you wish ?
As @SuePJ has said, there are now going to be some ‘New Normals’ in your life, and so one has to learn to adapt a little.

I’m surprised that you don’t find much benefit from hearing aids. Makes me wonder if they have ever been properly tuned to augment the specific frequencies you need. My wife finds hers invaluable and has a couple of additional bits of kit that allow the sound from the phone and the TV to be rerouted directly into her hearings aids.
I know that it can be a bit pricey sometimes, but a lot of the audiologists have payment plans to spread the cost over time these days.
I realise that you don’t have a lot of conversation to hear at home these days, but my wife really enjoys being able to identify the birds in the garden by their song.

1 Like
17

Who needs Google when we have @SuePJ ?
Thank you, a wonderful rundown and all perfectly understandable in my case.

The only one I knew about was Rabeprazole, known to me as Pariet and prescribed by my then doctor here way back in the early 2000s after I found myself having to get upright in the middle of the night because of terrible upper stomach pains. First recognised while I was still working and not a good plan to be driving 44 tonnes within a few hours of such interrupted sleep.

I guessed aspirin would be in the mix and, without going to look, think it is probably the big white one. Horrible taste if it doesn’t go down in one go and starts fizzing on the tongue.

2 Likes
18

Obviously I am not the only one with frustrations though. Here is one little lady starting early:

1 Like
19

Just looking at that little face has me in fits of laughter. :rofl:

20

I type my wife’s prescription medication keeping it to the size of a credit card then laminate it. Whenever she’s asked for her medication people comment on her ability to produce it conveniently.