October 23, 2007
Tuesday
El Milagro: I weigh in, walk in, and wander to the corner chair in front by the window. I have been listening intently to Terry Gross interview Valarie Plame* and am not really completely focusing on being at the dialysis center yet.
Carol the Tech comes over to stick me and Phyllis the Nurse comes by to listen to my heart and converse with the chair side Charlie (the computer). Then Rosie the Tech comes by to slip me a bag of money she has collected under the suspicious eyes of Ron the Boss Nurse. She reminds me that she isn’t supposed to be collecting money from patients and just told him she was doing it for Pete the PAC Secretary because she forgot to bring the donation jar again. I take the money and count it. Rosie reports on Pete’s donut operation last Monday and now the staff wants to make kidney friendly cookies for Saturday. I offer to make some too. The donuts were gobbled up by everyone and volunteers were available to distribute them throughout the day.
Two new people are beside me… they’re about my age I suspect. He wears a ‘gimmie’ hat, blue jeans, and tennies. His wife is a little more conservatively dressed and she looks proper with close cut hair and sitting very straight. She sits beside her man and today they are talking to Sherry Social Worker for their initial interview. He has some questions about his insurance and she and Sherry talk a little about diet and cooking kidney-friendly meals. They are scoping out the whole dialysis center scene and occasionally she leans over and whispers something in his ear. They are friendly enough and Rosie the Gregarious gabs to them as she documents his vitals and he digs in his pocket and brings out some change and hands it to her. She gabs on and then brings me the money for the PAC Donations at the end. I chuckle at the whole thing.
At some point a woman who is always here sitting stoically with her father as he dialyzes comes over to me and says she really likes all the things the PAC is doing and she can’t help or come to meetings because she lives so far away… but she wants to help so she gives me a $10 bill for the kitty. I implore her to not donate so much money unless she really can afford it and she shakes her head a universal “No”. She is adamant that she wants to give this money so I reluctantly add it to the bag and thank her profusely. She says that she loves the sense of community that we have at the center and she wants to be part of the love. And her generosity doubles our collected funds!
I listen to All Things Considered, watch the ABC News, and then drift off for a nap… waking in time to catch NOVA.
Notes: In at 76.1 and out at 73.6 kgs.
*”Fair Game tells Plame saga from her viewpoint” Retrieved October 2007 online from Fresh Air’s website, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15553270
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