Medical Monday

I went in to see Dr. S today after reading a post by the StorytellERdoc. He didn't tell me not to waste his time, he's really nicer than that. He did tell me that he'd rather have a drama queen come in all the time than to have to tell a stoic that they waited too long. He also said that my blood work was good and he didn't think it was anything but we should check anyway. So he handed me a bottle of yummy banana drink and said to go across the hall in three hours to drink a second bottle of yummy banana drink and have a CT scan. I hung around pill hill instead of going the three miles back to work. I don't think I could have concentrated on anything there. After the CT scan, I went to work, not expecting to hear anything until later in the week. I was wrong. Dr. S. called to tell me that my gallblatter and liver are just fine but my right kidney looks a bit squishy. He suggested that I might be getting a kidney infection and I should call Dr. C. Just peachy! Two specialist and a CT scan to diagnose a kidney infection. I am why health care needs to be reformed.

Are outdoor tables just for smokers now?

It's kind of a nice day out and I thought that it would be good to have lunch away from the building. I've been having trouble with food lately so I decided that a healthy Subway sandwich would be good. I took it out to the patio to eat and was surrounded by smokers. So much for being healthy! Not wanting to spend the entire hour inhaling second hand smoke, I moved over to Yogli Mogli for a small dish of frozen non-fat yogurt and a better place to spend the balance of my lunch hour afterI finished my sandwich. Yogli Mogli has moved all of it's tables to the patio, so I had no choice but to dine outside. I wanted to be outside anyway. There was a whole table of what looked like 12 year olds smoking. Is that even legal? And why do they think it's a good idea to start an addiction that makes them smelly and ostricized while it shortens their lives? I guess that I can't eat outside on lovely spring days anymore.

When I got back, I made an appointment with Dr. S. about the abdominal pain that food seems to be causing lately. Actually it was a post by another med blogger that rang the bell that maybe I should get it checked out for me. Dr. S. wants to see me on Monday. Monday! Like next week needs anymore drama than what will be caused by graduation. Anyway, I will go in and he can tell me that I'm a drama queen and to quit wasting his time...hopefully.

Grand Rounds is up!

A nice clean lined Grand Rounds is up at The Examining Room. Dr. Charles did a great job. Check it out.

Total Emotional Weekend

Mother's day weekend for the past four years has been a haze of activity and emotions. This year was no exception. Usually it is headed of by the Relay for Life on Friday night. This year I decided not to participate, mainly because it starts the weekend by exhausting me, and my daughter was working and wouldn't be participating with me. So this year the weekend started with the Atlanta Race for the Cure bright and early on Saturday morning. My daughter decided that she didn't want to participate in this event either this year, so I was there alone, except for about 420 of my co-workers and 25,000 other people. It was a large event. As a sign of the times, there weren't as many vendors as in previous years and the one's that were there weren't giving away as many pink ribbons and pens as usual, just a lot of coupons and informational papers. But the snacks and drinks were plentiful and it was still a good event. After the race, I went shopping for panty hose and then home for a few hours before I had to get dressed for the last ever Dining Out. While I was home, a FedEx truck came to my house and dropped off a dozen red roses with a note that said "Happy Mother's Day" from Tim and Joanne. I work for UPS. In the entire 22 years that I was married to Tim, he never once gave me a dozen roses, much less had them delivered. Not even after I had our children. Now, ten years after I divorced him, he thinks it's o.k. to send them from him and the bimbette that he cheated on me with. This pushes the edge of my mental stability, and on a day that I didn't need my stability tampered with. The cancer races send me back into the world of surviving the disease. It really is a good thing to keep there, but it is always emotional hearing about survivors, seeing so many of us, identifying with the challenges that they didn't even warn us we would deal with. And then again, there was the last Dining Out to deal with. Dining out is a military tradition, and serves as the awards banquet for my daughter's AFJROTC unit. Fifteen years ago, my ex husband and I attended the first of many of these banquets that our children would participate in. This was the last one, and I was going alone, but surrounded by friends that I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet if I was still with my ex. Somehow, the friends were a better choice. Still, for my daughter and I as well as many of our friends, this was the last dining out. It was a time to say goodbye. After the banquet, a group of us tried to go to karioke, but it had ended early due to the lack of participation. Instead we went to IHOP to eat even more food. It was so weird to see my daughter sitting at the table, surrounded by friends that she'd started kindergarten with so long ago, saying their last goodbyes, seeing how much they'd changed over the years, yet in many ways they are so much the same.

Today Lizzie had to work, so for Mother's day I have been alone. I recieved a Mother's day message from Matt, but Tim has deleted his facebook page and not been heard from. Tomorrow is Honors Scholarship Night at School. More awards will be bestowed on my already decked out daughter. She is ending her high school career in the top five percent of her class and having earned nine school letters.

Next week is the quiet before the storm of Graduation the following week.

Late Start

I'm off to a bit of a late start this year with my tomatoes and peppers. We have had a cold spring, only last week we were down in the low fourties in the mornings. But today with weather finally hot enough to sweat in, I planted the seeds. Hopefully by the fourth of July I will be putting home grown tomatoes on my hamburger and dipping my chips in homemade salsa. This year just out of curiosity we decided to use hanging baskets to grow the plants in. I'll let you know how that works. I also replanted a hopelsessly overgrown house plant and will keep it outside for the summer. The thing that I'm happiest about is that the hydrangea that I cut back to the root last summer after the drought almost killed it is doing well. I hope that it will make a complete comeback and we will have some lovely blooms from it soon. I have a feeling that I will be spending a bit more time in the yard this year.