meeting the new doc

My health care provider (Kaiser) has changed its policies about specialists acting as primary care doctors. Thus, my internal medicine doc told me at our last meeting that she had to transfer me to a different doctor for what are termed "primary" needs. I'll still see her for the diabetes business but no longer for aches and pains. I've been her patient for about 15 years and was definitely NOT happy with the news. She did say, however, that she would try to get me in as a patient of the man who is her family's physician. Today I went to meet the new medic. He's about 17 years old but, remarkably, seems to know what he's doing. One good thing came out of today's meet 'n greet; I may finally get some relief from lower back pain I've had almost steadily for 10 years. Despite everything I can think of to do the discomfort persists. Swimming gives some temporary easing but the pain is back the next day. I left our meeting and walked over to the X-ray department. He is hoping pictures might show something; pinched nerve? Arthritis? Disk problem? Depending on what shows up, the next step will be an MRI for closer examination. I just may get some relief.

Earlier in the day I had a little procedure at my dentist's office, something called a "deep cleaning." First he numbed both sides of my lower jaw, then used some sort of screaming machine to chisel away tiny fragments of tartar between my teeth. He then gave me a special brush to use once a day to help prevent a recurrence.  I'll do anything to avoid going through this again. Even though I have a terrific dentist who is not only a fine doctor but a very interesting man, I really don't want to see him more than twice a year for a little cleaning and conversation.

But enough of the organ recital. Hot here. Time to go out for a dip in the pool and more reading of the biography of Joseph Smith. What an odd duck he was.