Seeing Doctors Day!

Yesterday, I did nothing but go to visit doctors. In the morning, I had the appointment with a technician who did numerous breathing tests on me. This depressed me because I can see now how much my breathing has deteriorated. One test in particular had me almost in tears because I found it difficult to hold my breath for eight seconds. But there is no point in looking back to what was. What I have to deal with is what is. I was told that a pulmonary doctor will look at the results which will be sent to my current doctor who will, one hopes, let me know what can be done.

The second appointment in the afternoon was with one of Fred’s doctors and after some aggravating time when we weren’t sure if the appointment was at one place at the Huge Hospital or at another place where our usual doctors hang out,  it was an interesting and worthwhile visit.  The appointment was at 2:30 and it was 4:30 when we got out. First, the young lady to checks stuff before the doctor comes in was very efficient. Then the doctor came in. He is young, and originally from Thailand. What I noticed first was that he listened,  really listened to Fred. He wasn’t just superficially listening with "yes, I am interested" noises but he was asked pointed questions if he didn’t understand. That is, I can tell you, VERY rare among all the doctors we have been seeing. But the best part, the part which made both of us look at each other in amazement, was when he showed us a graph of Fred’s kidney function over {I think} about half a year and said something along the lines of "This is where  {so-and-so} was being done" and we saw the line that marked the function going down and down, "and this is where {something else} happened" and the line started back up again. Now I am not going into details about this: first because it is Fred’s body we are talking about and not mine, and secondly, the details are definitely TMI and not interesting to anyone but us,  but I can say it was a "wow!" moment for me and Fred is definitely rethinking his views on prostate surgery. This doesn’t mean he will choose to have it done, but he isn’t instantly and automatically dismissing it the way he was before…

I was exhausted when we got back to the rehab place and a bit apprehensive about driving home at rush hour time and in the dark. But I made it successfully. I can drive in the dark if I need to but I prefer not to if it can be avoided… The biggest problem I had for the rest of the evening was trying to force myself to stay up until 10 pm! With aid from my Kindle Fire and a free movie from Amazon because I am a Prime member, I downloaded "Elizabeth" from them and watched it until 10:30 pm. I then went to sleep and woke up feeling good at 6:30! One interesting thing I am noticing about the Fire is that I am not automatically and immediately enamored of it as I was with the Kindle. To me, the Kindle was completely intuitive and I took to it immediately. There is a steeper learning curve with the Fire because it will do so much more than the Kindle. One amusing thing is that the Fire is my first gadget with touch technology. I have occasionally found myself trying to tap on the Kindle!

OK, time to get dressed, have breakfast and maybe go get my hair cut…

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.

– Native American prayer

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

– Anaïs Nin