Gosh, middle of May and the year is scooting by so fast. I told a
public health nurse that I saw on my first visit to a senior center
that I was newly dx'd Aspie and felt I was not representing myself
well when I have occasional contact with my HMO. She said she
thinks I present myself well, so I explained the cost of meeting
new people, entering a new place, having to ask two men to help
me extricate myself from a too-comfy chair in the lounge, all of
the things that happened to me Wednesday, when I did get up
and out of the house to see what was available at the senior
center that I've been meaning to investigate for a few years now.

Took me a long time to decide to take that first step. I think I am
going to persist in asking this nurse to help me manage my own
health care so that I get the quality of eye exam and other care
that I ought to get. It does not seem to happen when I ask for it.
My younger sister has the same HMO in a different city and she
says she is satisfied with the care she gets, the exams she gets.
Somehow it seems that I ask for service and get sloughed off as
if I do not know the difference between a proper eye exam with
glaucoma test. I know what good exams are. I ask for them.

The nurse says part of the problem with using an HMO is that the
clinic is staffed with kids fresh out of medical school. They are
not quite ready to hear that they don't know how to do an exam.

Anyone else grappling with asking for help in managing life as
an Aspie? I think naming a problem is one way for me to keep
from being immobilized by it. With this nurse's help, I think I will
be able to find adequate medical service from the HMO. I hope.

Meanwhile, how is everyone here doing? Are we all forging out
into the world -- at least some of the days that rush past us? -Zer
(who gets out of the house about twice a month -- maybe -- and
I'm awfully proud of myself when I get up, dressed and outside!)