Day 319: on a plot twist

The Queen Mother does not want to leave the house unless she absolutely has to. When she came up to me and asked to visit Urgent Care, I knew it was something significant for her. Yes, I was a bit cranky about it at first, but between breakfast and showering, I got over myself, and we got her over to urgent care.

You see, she had developed these red spots on her hands, after developing one her upper arm, and before developing one on the side of her neck. She was examined and pronounced Shingle Free, at least. The official diagnosis was "contact dermatitis," which means her skin didn't like something she had touched. We are thinking perhaps a combination of too much Icy Hot cream (which she spreads liberally upon her one knee that complains all of the time) and a flea bite or two, which means it's time to re-up the flea treatment for the cats.

We got a prescription called in to the pharmacy to be picked up, where the darkly amusing part comes in: if I had picked up the combination anti-itch cream as originally prescribed, her insurance would not have covered it; when I agreed to pick up the two uncombined, separate anti-itch creams, her insurance covered them both. This is Government Logic in action! Go figure...

The Queen Mother is not completely cured this evening, but she is at least well on her way to being itch-free, and the redness has all but disappeared. Looks like we'll be keeping the follow up appointment with her doctor after all, even after I had dropped off the letter she had written explaining why she wasn't going to take her Fosamax. All's Well That Ends Well, as the Bard says.

Busy tomorrow, but I'm not unhappy at all. More to Be Revealed - !