GOPHER HOLE

Just when you think it is safe to stick your head out of the gopher hole, here comes a dang lawnmower………………(think about it, you will get it).

 

I was fortunate enough to get an appointment with the free clinic I go to for today, Thursday.  I made the appointment a couple of weeks ago and was able to get off work early enough today to make the appointment.  Of course, I have needed to go anyway, since I am diabetic and hypertensive, but I have also been having a few problems with my health of late.  I won’t go into my problems, but once I got to the clinic, I realized that I wasn’t as bad off as I thought I was.

 

I was early for my appointment, as usual, since I don’t like being late for anything.  There were only a handful of people in the waiting area, and it was nice and cool and quiet.  As soon as the volunteer doctors arrived, they started calling people back.  One lady had gone back as soon as the head nurse came in and hadn’t come back yet.  When she did come out of the room, she sat down in the waiting area, opened her cell phone, made a call and said “Honey, I am still at the doctor’s office.  I am going to have to start taking the ________ (some medication I didn’t know) again.  I am no longer in remission.  Ok, I love you too.”  I don’t know if she meant cancer, but whatever it is that she had has returned, and it appeared to devastate her.  She started tearing up and a woman across from her said “I’m so sorry.  My heart goes out to you.”  Then she got up and gave the crying woman a hug.  (I have a story to tell about the woman who hugged her that I will tell a little later in this entry.)

 

The woman sat and cried a little then went outside and walked around by herself.  I said a prayer for her and her family.  I felt it was the best thing I could do at that moment.

 

I cannot imagine what that moment must have been like for her.  I am sure she has already been through hell and back, and just gets the news she has to take another trip to hell.  If anyone out there in j-land would like to say a prayer for an anonymous woman in the state of Georgia who may or may not be a Christian, please do so.  I believe in the power of prayer, and in miracles.  Thank you.

 

Now, about the woman who hugged this woman who was crying.  She came into the clinic after I did and was a little loud when she spoke to the nurse at the reception desk.  She came over and sat down and I spoke to her, making a short comment about something she had said, and we laughed together.  She got up again and went to the desk and asked the nurse something else and kept bothering her with something the nurse had already said she couldn’t help her with, that she should talk to the doctor about it when she went back.

 

The woman came back and sat down and was talking about how wonderful these people were and how they had saved her life.  Well, this is true.  The concept is great.  And yes, it costs mostly nothing to be seen by a doctor and/or get treatment.  But sometimes the best-laid plans go awry.  I have had numerous problems with the “non-medical” staff that has sometimes caused me medical problems.  Remember when they didn’t order my meds and I was out for several weeks and having panic attacks?  That was an error made by the staff that could have had some serious medical repercussions.  When I mentioned how they often didn’t call you back when they say they will, or call you when you have meds waiting to be picked up, the woman went ballistic on me.  I was trying to explain how, though it IS mostly a volunteer staff and there are different volunteers tending to your case on different days, and errors are made, any organization needs some strict guidelines that guarantee a modicum of responsibility and attention to detail.  Especially when someone’s life or health depends on it.  Even volunteers should be responsible and do things correctly, or they shouldn’t volunteer. 

 

Anywho………..she said that these people were wonderful, and they couldn’t help errors being made and they were doing the best they could.  I mentioned that in Canada they had organized medicine and it seemed to work (even though some Canadians may disagree) and this woman said “well then maybe you should move to Canada, if you don’t mind me saying that”.  Then she said that she didn’t appreciate the way I was talking and was very uncomfortable having that conversation.  I just got up and walked out of the room to the porch and sat down and prayed for my anger and for that woman’s attitude.  When I came back in, another lady said she thought they called me when I went outside.  I asked, and they said they hadn’t.

 

When I came back from seeing the nurse (you have to be triaged before seeing the doctor) the weird woman was talking loudly and kidding around with another woman who sat down beside her, and was hanging all over her and joking with her, asking her her name and shaking her hand.  I more or less took it as a “floor show” just for me.  I could see her in my peripheral vision sneaking peeks at me from time to time to see how I was reacting.  I just ignored her and eventually a husband and wife sitting near me struck up a conversation about good ole southern home cooking and eventually the weirdo went back to be seen by the nurse.  I was then called to see the doctor and didn’t have to face her again.

 

I went in with my concerns and this very attractive young African-American doctor sat down and patiently explained what I possibly had and what he was going to do to try to fix it.  He wrote me orders for several blood tests and I have to go to the Health Dept. for a, um, well, um, pap smear.  I hate doing that, lol.  But it has been many many years since I have done so, and my best friend is the head nurse at the Health Dept., so maybe she can help me cope with it.  The clinic doesn’t refer you and pay for Health Dept. visits anymore, so I have to come up with the money to get the pap done.  The other lab work for my diabetes, cholesterol and other blood tests will be paid for by the clinic.  If the pap smear comes back abnormal, then the clinic will refer me to a GYN for free. 

 

Sooooooooooooooo, my friends, it appears the lawnmower has cut off my head………

 

As for the little white kitten, it hasn’t made an appearance with its sibling and mother, so I can only assume the worst.  I feel badly still, but, as Sybil said, I didn’t have much of a choice. 

 

I cannot believe I have had wifi service for the last 2 days.  Of course, now that I have said that, it will die on me and I will not be able to put this entry into my journal….. I know, I am a pessimist, lol.

 

I would also like to let each of you know that I have been visiting journals and even commenting in some of them in older entries.  Not sure if all alerts went out, but I have been lurking out there, reading your innermost secrets, lol.  With all this mess with the landlord and working, I haven’t had much energy to comment after I read the entry. 

 

I have also joined my local Freecycle.com and it fills my inbox with emails that I have to peruse and respond to or delete.  When I went to bed last night I had 18 emails left.  When I came home tonight and got online, I had 191.  So that is a lot of reading in itself.

 

I will close this entry now, as I am not seeing the screen too well.  Not sure if it is my sugar levels messing with my eyes, or I am just tired. Either way, GOOD NIGHT MY FRIENDS.