Another beautiful crisp spring day here in Charlottesville. I slept on the recliner last night and did not wake until 9 or so. Tom said he was downstairs at least once and he did not want to wake me. I asked him to wake me for now on when he gets up because if I let it go too long like this morning, I will eventually awaken with a lot of pain. This morning it is the muscle spasms across much of my middle and lower back and side that make it hard to breathe. So I had breakfast (yummy leftover pancakes Tom made yesterday morning) and took my meds, and now I am concentrating on my breathing so it won't hurt.

I have an appointment today at 3:30 with my primary care physician. I have seen Dr. Davidson a few times in the year and a half since we moved here. He treated my tennis elbow, posion ivy, acne, and minor lower back strain from last month (do I sound like a wreck or what? but really, overall, I am very healthy). I think he is a good doctor, and he listens to me. Sometimes Dr. D has a student who spends a lot of time with me beforehand, and that is just fine with me. He also called me back at home last week when I left a message about my nausea problems. As for this visit, I want to update him and hopefully get an Rx for physical therapy. Maybe even get something different for muscle spasms, because the flexaril does not seem to work that well for me.

Another complication has arose recently. Our insurance company. They denied my hospital stay at Roanoke Memorial. They claimed that it was not necessary because of several different reasons, but it seems that they did not get the records or bills yet from Pocahontas. We are going to wait it out for now and hope they change their minds on their own after they get the whole story. Otherwise we have 180 days to dispute in writing. And if all else fails, Tom's employer, Texas Instruments, has a good advocate program. I was really upset when I first learned about it (I think the pain pills make me emotional), but now I am pretty calm. We can deal with it later.

On a lighter note, I spotted a large bird of prey in our back yard. It was either a cooper's hawk or a sharp-shinned hawk. He was probably looking for prey among our bird feeder guests. Luckily he did not stay long.