Adventure Has Just Begun and It's Not Too Bad

Like many of you knew better than me, I survived the trip to and from the medical center yesterday. For assurance, I used my GPS on my phone. It was sort of amusing to use it since the only other time I put it to use was several Fridays ago when I-10 was flooded. Again I used it more for back up as Dena took us through a heavy industrial area and for me, scary back roads of Houston. Of course Sharona Sprint, that's what I called the voice giving me directions to the medical center, was having to do a lot of re-routing and new route announcements because I was not taking her advice of using freeways to arrive at my destination. In all the medical center traffic, I was so thankful that Roy and I had made the dry run several weeks ago because I saw two times where I would have messed up. This would have been going into the wrong parking garages. The sidewalks are full of pedestrians and most of them, old. My out loud mantra, along with discussing my route options with Sharona was, if old people can do this, I can do this! Now to many of you, I am old. No, I'm talking about people who shuffle their feet while wearing sensible shoes and have on their winter clothes because they are cold. On a side note, I know so many of you all are surprised about the detour, something that is really interesting is the role changes that come along with age. When men are young, they seem to have much more say and control over family health issues and decisions. The family is leaning on them for help and wisdom to get through the illness or deciding on the options for successful results health wise. Seems like the very old, who are also very early for their appointments, are now guided along by the woman. In the Dr offices I've been in recently, this phenomenon has become more apparent, at least to me. Those old women are bossing their men about. They tell them where to sit, then tell them to go up to the receptionist window and pick up business cards, and just as the man slowly begins to sit down again, the woman tells him to go back up to the window and correct their sign in time to several minutes earlier. If there is any paperwork to be filled out, God help that man because his wife is telling him what to write, giving him all the dates of his surgeries and illnesses and in a fit of aggravation, takes over the form filling out but directs the man to go back up, again to the receptionist, and ask for a better pen. Older women rock in the waiting room.


OK, now where was I in the original thought, oh yes, found valet parking and was into the building in a breeze. The wait in the waiting room was expedited because all the million and two forms had been filled out at home. In a flicker of time I was escorted back to the small patient room and I was leaving behind an older couple. The woman leaped into action by making the short trek to the receptionist area in record time, declaring that they had been waiting longer than me. I barely heard the reply of, "Mrs._______, your appointment isn't until 3:00." I was tested, listened to, and talked with for just about two hours. Almost all the nurse practitioners and medical techs in the office are male. So every time the door opened I thought it was the Dr. After all the tests and talks, both to me and to the referring Dr, the cardiologist came in and visited with me about my heart and the path we're taking to remedy some of the long going issues. Now this post has gone on for a bit of time, so I'll share the first step in the journey. First thing to be addressed is my irregular heart beat. I'm at a very high risk for stroke and he was surprised I hadn't had one in the past two years with all the irregular that's been a lifestyle of late. The silver lining in driving to the medical center and the stress that it caused gave the medical staff a great opportunity to hear and test that old familiar out of sync beat. Awesome, because my heart seems to get shy or it straightens up for a lot of my appointments. You could see it beating, lurching and vibrating all over the place. The process will take several months and if all is successful, we'll move on to the next issue to be addressed.


This is the building that the Dr's office is in. While attending Rice baseball games, I've taken many pictures of that building and the surrounding skyline. Of course, I can't find any of the pictures.


This is the view I had from my small waiting room. It is the stadium where Rice plays baseball. In between things I took this picture and sent it to Roy. During baseball season Roy would like me to coordinate my appointments with Rice's baseball schedule and he would be oh so happy to accompany me to those appointments. He seems genuine only in his love of college baseball by his request. Roy is very caring and proactive in my health care and well being. Ha, just wait until we start wearing sweaters every where and show up for appointments way too early, he will happily find his role has changed if my observations prove correct.