281) The Note

September 16, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: In at 4:30 today… traffic from my class to here was terrible. Rosie the Tech is working with a new guy from somewhere near Houston/Galveston, saying he’ll be going home Saturday, hopefully. Rosie kids me about being early… my machine won’t be ready for 11 more minutes. I’m in the corner today, playing Little Jack Horner… Kim the nurse comes up and sets my BP monitor, takes my BP and does a nursing eval. She mentions that the bell pepper recipe “looks easy” and I ask if she tried it and she shakes her head “no”.

Rosie comes over to stick my quickly and I am on my way to another blood cleansing. Dr. Venkatesh comes by for the doctor’s “drive by” and I’ll have to rename this activity because Venkatesh takes long enough to have an actual conversation with people… even me who always says, “Just fine” to almost every question. I want to find a name that respects her paying more attention, and yet continues the notion that it is less than an appropriate “doctor’s visit” that they charge our insurance for. Any ideas from readers?

Jordy the Dietician is with the doc, as is Jo the Nurse. I ask Jordy, “Where does the name Gordy come from?” and she quickly replies, “Its JORDY!" “Short for Jordan?”, I pursue. “Yes. Did Rosie have something to do with this… she calls me Gordy”, and I quickly retort, “Yep. Rosie told me your name was Gordy… thanks for clarifying.” She glares at Rosie and goes off down the row with the doc. I say loudly behind her… “Rosie! Gordy? That means little fatso… how dare you call her fatso…” and then Rosie blows her top at me. Its all worthy of a good laugh and it seems all are in a good mood today.

Then Sherry the Social Worker comes up to ask about sharing web links with a new patient who wants good info on the web about dialysis… specifically around her response to it… water retention, etc. I give her my blog address, DaVitas, and AAKP to share. She asks how close I am to having to get on Medicare and I shrug… according to her my insurance will only cover my dialysis for 33 months and then it’ll be Medicare and I’ll have to pay a small premium ($90) every month to keep the coverage. “Great!” I think… another darned bureaucracy to deal with.

I listen to NPR while reminding myself of my ratings of class member’s participation today. I jot down my rankings of their participation and move on to watch the ABC News… and then go back again to Public Radio. I doze and wake up and channel surf and find a TV movie called “The Note” on the Hallmark channel. Of course I get 2/3 of the way thru this engrossing movie and then am unhooked and kicked out of the center. And even the website doesn’t tell the ending. Asi es la vida… we never seem to know the ending… only the present. Maybe that’s why they call it the present.

Notes: In at 77 and out at 74.3 kgs.
The Note, retrieved online from http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/publish/consumer/home/shows/the_note0.html