Mini-rant

Just a mini-rant because I want to have this written down somewhere. Just back from the doctor, where I went to get the results of my recent blood tests as part of a general check-up. Everything is fine. Annoying that he doesn't give the actual numbers but whatever, that always seems to be the way unless there's something wrong. I specifically asked about Vitamin D, having specifically asked for the test for that to be done. When I had it done a couple of years ago I measured at, if I'm remembering correctly, just 7. Between 30 and 100 is good, less than 20 is a fairly severe deficiency. The doctor prescribed me a very strong Vitamin D supplement, which I take every two weeks. When I remember, I have to admit. I find it difficult to remember every two weeks so do sometimes end up skipping. After coming back from Australia at the beginning of last year, I actually completely forgot about it for months.

At any rate, my level now is up at 22, which is a huge improvement, I think. Since my bottle of capsules is almost empty, I asked for another prescription only to hear that he's only allowed to prescribe a course of Vitamin D once and that if he were to prescribe it a second time, he'd get hassle from the health insurance company. How ridiculous is that? Particularly since, although there has been a big improvement, I'm still technically in the deficient range. I asked him if I should even just buy them myself but I can't get them without a prescription (there are obviously other, less strong supplements that you can buy in any supermarket) and he waffled a bit about how he could maybe give me a "green" prescription (you get a pink prescription for stuff the health insurance pays for and a green one for stuff you have to pay fully for yourself) but even that, it seems, would have been difficult and he has essentially said that I have to wait for my levels to drop again. Totally fucking ridiculous. Did I say that already? Particularly since the thing Vitamin D is particularly important for is assisting in the uptake of calcium in the bones, kind of particularly important for a women who is slowly but surely approaching menopause age you'd think!