12/3/08

302) Of Pontiacs & Parallel Universes

December 1, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro:
I am about 15 minutes late and Aisha the Tech, from Waterloo Dialysis, checks my BP and gets my weight (79.1)... and does some of the setup... asking if I can "take off 4.6". HA! I share with her that I can't take off more than 3 without cramping. Meanwhile I am talking to Sherry the Social Worker who is inquiring about my completing my Medicare application and I am asking her about arranging for dialysis in Dallas for 12/27 and rescheduling my 12/16 session for 12/17 because of a Houston training I'm scheduled for. She says she'll take care of all of it and I promise to bring the application on Thursday.

Rosie the Tech somehow takes over from Aisha as I am yakking with Sherry and she and Jo the Nurse are asking me about Turkey-Day and share about theirs too. I am hooked up and evaluated (by Celeste the Nurse) and Mary the DaVita Pill Lady comes by and asks about my switching to their meds system and I am wishy washy cause I don't really know anything about our settup with Liz's flex acct. etc... and when she hears me say the secret word (MedCo) she drops the whole thing "cause MedCo prefers to work directly with patients" Its like Grand Central Station around here today!

Next: Jordy the Dietician pops up in her spritely way and happily reports that my phosphorous is good! What? I ask. "I don't know what you did, but your phosphorous from last labs is down to 5.2! Do you know what you did? Hell, I can't remember what I did
this morning, much less back before the turkey business. These labs were from November 25... and Jordy is delighted and so am I. I assure her I'll keep doing whatever I am doing.

Finally things slow down and I am able to listen to NPR ATC and jot these notes out. Radio news and then on to ABC News and then on to Jim Lehrer's News Hour. All of these news sources are centering on the automakers coming back to Washington and trying to show by their
use of public transportation that they deserve a bailout. I don't know about the whole thing. Seems the bailout government is so different than what we're used to... I guess bailouts of big business is more what we're like than the bailout of individual people who have been slipshod with their affairs. But, of course I hate to see Pontiac bite the dust. Oldsmobile is gone and Pontiac is probably next. I have this image of the classic '52 Chieftan driving into my mind as I listen to the bad news for GM. And that memory leads to memories of the pride I, myself felt, after buying Dick's old '52 Olds convertable and driving it from Ft. Worth down to Austin... breaking down in Alvarado... and finding an old mechanic who fixed it for free just to "look her over" on a Friday after 6. What an adventure having that car was. I drift off for a nap of lead sled memories.

And then I wake up and begin to watch the History channel's Universe show on string theory and the idea that there are many more varieties of ME throughout the universe. WOW. From the review:

Some of the world's leading physicists believe they have found startling new evidence showing the existence of universes other than our own. One possibility is that the universe is so vast that an exact replica of our Solar System, our planet and ourselves exists many times over. These Doppelganger Universes exist within our own Universe; in what scientist now call "The Multiverse." Today, trailblazing experiments by state of the art particle colliders are looking for evidence of higher dimensions and Parallel Universes. If proof is found, it will change our lives, our minds, our planet, our science and our universe.

Now that is worth thinking about as the day draws to a close and the dialysis machine hums along removing my toxins.

Notes: In at 79.1 and out at 76.4 kgs.

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