Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2009. I know exactly what was happening here! I can remember it well. I rushed Mattie to the hospital from home because he was running a fever and feeling depleted! Sitting with us was Kristen! Kristen was Mattie's oncologist. I absolutely loved Kristen and do you know to this day we are still in touch. In fact, when Mattie died, Kristen wrote to me every Tuesday (the day Mattie died) for over a year! This to me was very usual support, and we also met occasionally for dinner after Mattie died. Not too many doctors go this extra mile, which is why she will never be forgotten.
Quote of the day: If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it. ~ Michael Jordan
This morning, I got up at 5:30am in order to get my dad out the door at 9am for his 9:45am doctor appointment. The urology office is in Alexandria, VA, which is 40 minutes from my home. Despite all my best efforts, my dad had a bad irritable bowel syndrome morning. I was doing clean up from the bed to the shower. Any case, by the time I got him to the office, I was ten minutes late. Do you know that the first thing the office person said to me was.... "you are late and I don't think the doctor can see you now!" Want to guess how I responded to that???
I literally said to her that she had to be kidding. I am balancing a 91 year old, who is recovering from a procedure and has severe back pain. I am lucky I got him to the office at all by myself! I then told her that I drove a long way to get to the appointment and there was no way I was leaving the office until his ureter stent was removed. Plain and simple!
She had me waiting an hour! At which point, I went right back at her and asked her what the plan was, and ironically she said.... she didn't know. Again, I looked at her. I told her that I needed to know that my dad was going to be seen today. To which she said... "let me go back and talk to the staff." Goodness, shouldn't she have done that 60 minutes ago?
When we were eventually called back, the doctor's assistant apologized to me for keeping us waiting for an hour. The hold up was with them, not with me. Rather funny, as the medical staff told me one thing and the front desk staff another thing. The front desk staff who made my appointment for today also told me that I had to come in this morning, because the doctor was going on vacation the rest of the week. You will love this! When I wished the doctor a good vacation, his response was.... "what vacation!?" We both had a big laugh over this, because he isn't going anywhere, but his front desk thinks he is! Serious dysfunction here!
To get the ureter stent removed, my dad had to get up on an exam table. All I can say is DEAR GOD! I am not sure how I managed this, but I assure you there was a lot of screaming. My dad was in intense pain with his back, and I did not know if I could get him in the right position. The medical assistant wanted my dad to lie down flat on the table and I told her that wasn't going to happen. She looked at me and said that was what the doctor wanted. I told her, it isn't going to happen and I will deal with the doctor.
My dad's doctor is the vision of beautiful physical health. I swear he could be in the military. He is that fit. He has a typical surgeon's personality. He is not warm and fuzzy, but I love his competency and skills. Which is exactly what you want in a surgeon. This is the third surgery he has performed on my dad in two years. But do you want to know what happened at the end of the appointment? This stoic and commanding doctor said, "I am sorry this happened again and I truly hope we do not have to see each other again (meaning that my dad doesn't have another emergency)." Then he gave me a big hug. What this told me is that this doctor has some insight and compassion for what I am facing and juggling. It was an unexpected emotional reaction, which is why it caught my attention.
Tomorrow, my dad goes back on in-home nursing and physical therapy service. His pressure sores have gotten bigger and it will take great work to get him stabilized again.
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