I forgot to mention yesterday that it was Mom's birthday. She would have been 74.
As of July 1, so just under a month from now, she will have been dead six years. I don't live my day to day life dwelling on this, but there are still some things that can give me a very weird jolt of grief-tinged memory. I still use a mix of photos of Mom and photos of Sherri as my work computer desktop slide show in May, because that's the month with Mother's Day, and every time I notice the pictures of Mom, most of which are pictures of her with me, I get a minor jolt of sadness. I don't want to remove the photos, though.
— छह हज़ार सैंतीस —
I had a bit of an excursion from my work day this morning. I got a call from Dr. Means's office to ask if I'd be available for an appointment at 10 a.m., so I said yes. Harborview had made a follow-up appointment with Dr. Cunningham on the 11th, and then later I got a message saying Dr. Means was available on the 8th and would I like to schedule for that day—which I also did—but then I got that call this morning. I also already had an annual checkup scheudled for the 16th, and once I was there this morning he agreed to combine that with this appointment. So now I have two appointments, one next week and one the week after, to cancel.
Anyway, this was combined with a bit of chaos in the condo: the Building Repair Project people are here to do final touch-ups on the pain around the new windows. This meant pulling everything away from the windows at least four feet, which means I can't use my home desk. As I type this, I'm stting on the end of my bed, the keyboard in front of me on the bed, having to use the tiny laptop screen because I don't have a way to set up the desk with the larger TV monitor I usually use here as my external monitor. The painters are on their lunch break and as soon as I post this I think I'm going to take my laptop and work the rest of the afternoon downstairs in the Braeburn common area.
We left just in time for them to set up their tarps and shit while we were out. Shobhit drove me to Virginia Mason and went to the doctor appointment with me. We left early to give me extra time to walk slow, although I'm not walking
that much slower than normal right now, and it was kind of just as well because it was super busy there this morning. I got in line for check-in on the ground floor in the middle of the two sets of sliding glass doors! The line moved pretty steadily, though, and we wound up doing most of our waiting in the waiting room on the 8th floor, and even more in the exam room I was taken to.
— छह हज़ार सैंतीस —
— छह हज़ार सैंतीस —
Dr. Means was very apologetic and in the end, I didn't mind the wait. Even Shobhit, who was inclined to complain at the start while we were waiting, commented on how knowledgeable Dr. Means is after we left. And he never rushes out of any of his appointments, including ours, which I really appreciate and makes me more tolerant of waiting for him, since I presume he's doing the same for his other patients.
There's nothing major to report after that appointment. He doesn't seem to think there will be any need for another CT scan, though sometime in the next couple of months I'll get an ecocardiogram to monitor the "incidental dilated thoracic aorta" noted on the CT scan already done at Harborview. It seems pretty clear that's nothing to particularly worry about though.
I still have to get in and out of the car carefully, but it's still a bit easier; I think my recover is slow but steady. I also mentioned to Dr. Means that having to sleep on my back has me waking up with lower back pain, so he suggested putting a pillow under my knees, and I'll try that and see if it helps.
When we left, since we were out and I had two different deals to take advantage of (a Member-Only Offer of a free pound of organic strawberries and a paper coupon for $5 off $25 in the Deli), we decided to swing by the Central District PCC on the way home, and use that coupon to get some lunch. We bought an "Olynpic" pizza with pesto and extra gorgonzola added, and it was delicious; I had two slices for lunch and will have another two slices for dinner. This was also the first time I saw the newly designed recepts, which break down different types of discounts far more clearly. It was very cool.
But now I guess I'll post this, take all my shit downstairs, and get back to work.
— छह हज़ार सैंतीस —
[posted 1:00pm]
