A Change of Plans

I’ll cut to the chase: We’ve canceled our summer trip to Newfoundland, which is a really big deal for us.

Weeks of planning, a lot of money in reservations, where we’re going to live for three months—all have been scrapped in one afternoon. It wasn’t an easy decision, and we took more than a week to make it. But I know it’s the right one, and once we made it we acted on it quickly.

What happened is, a couple of weeks ago I got a call from that endocrinologist from South Texas that surprised me. Bottom line is she wants more tests, but I am not driving all the way across the country to see her again because half of what she wants are labs that staff there screwed up in the first place. I’m done with healthcare in South Texas.

Here’s a rub. I can’t get in to see another specialist as a new patient (and I’ve called several across the country) until 2025.

Here’s another rub. We need to live somewhere while I figure this out. And summer is approaching, which means campgrounds are already full on weekends.

So, we’ve been sitting on this problem, stewing really, trying to wrap our heads around how you secure specialized healthcare when you’re basically homeless. How you decide on a home location when you’re waiting to get healthcare, which could be anywhere.

It’s been maddening, and I can’t overstate that. Especially with no cell service at our campsite this week. I’ve been sitting in the truck in a whirlwind of paperwork, making calls and sending emails and taking notes, while Tracy does additional research. I’ll spare you the litany of our frustrations, but they are plenty.

For the short term, we’ve worked out a tentative plan. We already have reservations in New York for Memorial Day Weekend, which we’re not giving up. There’s nowhere else for us to park the camper and live that weekend if we did. I can also do some testing while I’m there.

After that, though, we’re headed back to Richmond, Virginia (third time on this trip!) to try to get in to see a doctor there whom I have a lead on.

If Richmond falls through, we pick up and head to Houston, where my pcp is, with contacts of his own.

So, a change of plans for this summer. I’ll keep blogging in one form or another as our plans solidify, for sure.