2:44 PM - Sat 6.13.20
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(Really don't want to be an old man going on about his aches-and-pains, because that's some boring-ass shit....but what can I do? At present, this is the thing that's happening. But anyway...)

I don't know if I've written about it here, but some ways into the pandemic and "Safer At Home" order, I started having pain in my lower right leg.

As I've moved into "man of a certain age" territory (Am I on the far side of "middle-aged" or the early side of "elderly"? Who knows?) I've sort of gotten used to mysterious aches-and-pains and chronically feeling like, "I seem to have hurt myself somehow, but I'll be damned if I know how...!".

But I haven't had pain quite like this before, so it was something of a mystery.

And I'm not a big fan of mysteries.

And more to the point, the pain just wasn't going away. So I decided to see my doctor (My new doctor - My previous PCP left the practice, for whatever reason, some months back..which seems like another sign you're getting older, when you outlast your doctor. But anyway..).

Dr. Yun also found my leg pain somewhat mysterious (He had a few ideas, but wasn't sure) so he sent me off to a radiology place in the Valley.

And turns out I have a blood clot in my leg (Which the radiologist basically told me during the examination - I'd been told specialists don't generally do that...but this one totally did).

When the exam was done, she told me not to leave but to hang out in the waiting room while they tried to get in touch with my Doctor.

That scared me, as it impressed on me the relative seriousness of the situation - I thought it was possible the next thing I'd be told is that I was going into surgery or something.

While I waited, I called Jane R. and Cary B., partly because I thought I might need help (Particularly with Cary, since he lives here) but mostly just because.

But when the radiologist came out, she said that the Doctor was going to prescribe a blood thinner and I could just go home and wait for his call.

...which actually came as I was pulling out of the parking lot - He said we needed to do a couple more labs, to be sure that my blood could deal with the blood thinner (Spoiler alert: It can).

So I drove back to the Dr's office - Catching them on their lunch, so I walked around the area for 45 minutes, buying some art supplies I don't really need - before getting my blood drawn for the second time that day.

Then I went to my pharmacy (Where the Dr had called in my prescription for Xarelto) and was told my insurance doesn't cover Xarelto (Spoiler alert: It actually does. You just need a "pre-authorization").

Won't bore you with all the ins-and-outs of that dance - But for the weekend, I am taking two drugs to temporarily do the blood-thinning work till I can get the good stuff on Monday.

As blood clots go, I guess it could be worse - The Dr said it had been caught early (relieving some of my guilt for waiting as long as I did before getting it checked out) and that it was in a "surface vein" rather than a "deep vein", meaning that, while it could still end up migrating to my lungs and causing some pretty serious trouble (ex death), it's less likely.

So that's the medical news - I have various-and-sundry feelings about it, but at the moment, I'm just glad I'm addressing it (Seriously, I know me - It's very possible I could have let this situation go unaddressed until it killed me. Which is weird to consider - I'm dealing with something that probably won't kill me...but certainly could. Yikes!).

In other news, I called Unemployment today, and actually talked to an honest-to-God live human being.

(I was giddy with excitement.)

I told them what my deal was (Basically, that I don't know how to deal with multiple residuals or what to do with Cameo, and didn't want to make a hobby out of unsuccessfully filling out the "continuing benefits" form).

They kicked my case up to an "expert", who will be calling me sometime next week (Was told it's typically within 48 hours...but under current circumstances could be longer).

There's some pretty stringent terms to this coming call - It will come in as a "blocked number", so if I miss it, I can't call them back and they won't call me back - which means I'm already thinking of what adjustments I need to make to my lifestyle so I don't miss that call.

I've already talked to other actor friends about this form and have gotten some "shortcut-ish" advice that apparently works.

But for whatever reason, I really want to talk to someone from Unemployment and be told how to do it right - I'm not a stickler for detail, ever...but in this instance, I don't want this form sent back to me again for whatever reason (And in terms of taking any "shortcut", if it doesn't work for me, I don't think, "But this other actor I know does it..." will be an effective argument).

But get back to me if I miss "the big call" this coming week, because I may have a change-of-heart at that point.

And at this point, I could write more, but there's other shit I want to do, so till next time...

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