Nurse Ratched turned back into Nurse Empathy today I was relieved because I was having a little bit of leftover gluten issues requiring afternoon GasX and was also having pin removal anxiety. I assured her I had a high pain tolerance but the idea was so disconcerting. She agreed it was disconcerting to many and reassured me. Burkes had told me earlier 99 out of 100 patients are pain free but occasionally one required a block. That involves a needle so I vowed to be part of the majority. So I reclined on my elbow and she grabbed the hemostat and I looked away and sweated and it didn't hurt but it was a really weird feeling. I gasped near the end and she slowed down and asked if I was ok before the finish. I said yes. You know that feeling you get right before the champagne is uncorked or right before the biscuit cylinder pops after applying pressure with the spoon handle? Imagine that but with a pin being pulled out of your bone. I was imagining marrow and all the anatomy. Then pop it was done. Whew. Now I can get it wet and pedis are allowed in a week. My biggest regret is that I didn't get to show off all my laminated card stock.
I'm hosting doc mom book club this Saturday so excited. We are reading I'm Still Here etc. etc. by Austin Channing Brown it's really good I'm halfway through it's kind of like a serious version of Gabrielle Union's We Are Going to Need More Wine but with new lessons. I invited three new docs Kricia and Becky Steward and Natalya so hoping we get a decent turnout. It's weird - hosting during a pandemic although I'm sure we are all vaccinated - the weather is a little chilly so will have to have food indoors but do we wear masks or not? I guess I'll leave it up to my guests.
Today was slow thank God that portends well for tomorrow but I won't count my chickens before they hatch. I was up at the ridiculous hour of 4am and left the house at 6 and got donuts for PLA and the Clin Lab. Tumor board went well. As I was headed to lunch - have I told you about all the amazing new soups down there in the Dr. Lounge? Chicken enchilada and chicken tortilla and roasted red pepper with Gouda and cheesy broccoli it goes on and on. Anyway I brought some leftover PLA doughnuts to clin lab break room and bumped into Linda and another tech. I was lamenting my glutenless status.
Linda, from hematology, told me her pandemic angst was manifesting as high blood pressure. Her grandmother passed December 26, and she was charged with getting rid of all her things, which were plenty! She had to rent a dumpster and put it all in. The other tech, I don't know her name, said her great grandmother died on Christmas Eve and they still have two packed storage units to go through so daunting. She said I kid you not I opened an ice cream tub the other day and it was full of rocks. Probably some rocks some grandkid collected in a creek and gave to her as a present but Lord this is so stressful.
I laughed and reminisced about my Aunt Genevieve's passing a few years ago. Uncle Chuck had to get rid of so much stuff she was a pack rat. That generation was, I said, because of the war. It made me wonder later as I was waiting on the elevator what strange things are our grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to have to sift through as a result of this pandemic. Masks, certainly. Lots of toilet paper hoarding.
Linda said one of the things she threw away was a tub of buttons! So many buttons. I laughed and said that reminds me of a game my Grandma Loretta used to play on Christmas Eve when we were kids and we all gathered at her house, then condo. She had five kids, I told them, my dad was in the middle there were so many grandkids. We always played hide the thimble, she was the hider lol. What a way to occupy a bunch of grandkids so you can enjoy your evening. We were serious as shit about finding that thimble alliances and enemies were made over the course of the holiday evening waiting for Midnight Mass. Linda said I'll bet she had a whole tub of thimbles. I smiled. Guaranteed. Happy Friday Eve much love, Elizabeth
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