Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Mom does not have an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
She is still this side of anemic but improving at a steady, acceptable rate. Her numbers have skewed themselves toward her typical anemia profile, a skewing they hadn't shown previously, so there are a few more highs and lows than in the last two blood tests but all are borderline toward normal and some of her previous highs have driven themselves entirely back to normal. Her Mesa PCP is "very happy"...and so am I. I'll cover the detail later. Very shortly I intend to cover myself with down and sleep.
Today's trip to Mesa was both invigorating and tiring. It was a long day: So long that we decided to do something we rarely do when we take day trips to Mesa...leave in the middle of rush hour. We simply couldn't wait to return home. I haven't driven rush hour traffic in a couple of years at least. Throughout my life I've worked hard to avoid rush hour traffic and have been mostly successful expect for in Seattle where rush hour, while capable of producing the penultimate in gridlock, is one of the most courteous cities in which to drive. Seattle rush hour never bothered me. Sometimes it was a pleasure to drive it after a day of rude business. In the Phoenix metroplex though, I am stymied over how it is that people "do" a typical Sonoran rush hour twice a day five days a week without inflicting serious psychological harm upon themselves, let alone the high risk of physical harm. Perhaps people do suffer psychologically from exposure to Valley Rush Hour but since they live in a city full of people branded by this peculiar rush hour experience they all seem normal to one another. Mom shared my astonishment. We were both mellow throughout but both of us exclaimed during the hour and a half it took us to traverse the area we normally handle in 45 minutes (this doubling of time was accomplished without passing any accidents and only two speeders who'd been pulled over, neither of which had any rubbernecking effect on traffic flow), "Do you believe people do this without thinking about it every day as though it was normal?!?"
The interesting aspect of all this is that our rush hour experience happened immediately after a day of Mom talking about how much she missed Mesa, our home there, etc. Every 15 minutes before we hit the freeway she would say, "I'm really looking forward to living here, again," or "I feel like I'm finally home," or, "I've always liked this house." On our way out of the city though, several times in several ways she said, "I'm glad we haven't had to put up with this in awhile."
The ping-pong nature of her desires continues.
Lab results, including the results of the ultrasound, will appear within the next few days with notes about her PCP's comments and MCS's elaboration.
All in all, although tiring for both of us, we had a successful day and Mom retired in excellent spirits. I am, too.
Later.
Today's trip to Mesa was both invigorating and tiring. It was a long day: So long that we decided to do something we rarely do when we take day trips to Mesa...leave in the middle of rush hour. We simply couldn't wait to return home. I haven't driven rush hour traffic in a couple of years at least. Throughout my life I've worked hard to avoid rush hour traffic and have been mostly successful expect for in Seattle where rush hour, while capable of producing the penultimate in gridlock, is one of the most courteous cities in which to drive. Seattle rush hour never bothered me. Sometimes it was a pleasure to drive it after a day of rude business. In the Phoenix metroplex though, I am stymied over how it is that people "do" a typical Sonoran rush hour twice a day five days a week without inflicting serious psychological harm upon themselves, let alone the high risk of physical harm. Perhaps people do suffer psychologically from exposure to Valley Rush Hour but since they live in a city full of people branded by this peculiar rush hour experience they all seem normal to one another. Mom shared my astonishment. We were both mellow throughout but both of us exclaimed during the hour and a half it took us to traverse the area we normally handle in 45 minutes (this doubling of time was accomplished without passing any accidents and only two speeders who'd been pulled over, neither of which had any rubbernecking effect on traffic flow), "Do you believe people do this without thinking about it every day as though it was normal?!?"
The interesting aspect of all this is that our rush hour experience happened immediately after a day of Mom talking about how much she missed Mesa, our home there, etc. Every 15 minutes before we hit the freeway she would say, "I'm really looking forward to living here, again," or "I feel like I'm finally home," or, "I've always liked this house." On our way out of the city though, several times in several ways she said, "I'm glad we haven't had to put up with this in awhile."
The ping-pong nature of her desires continues.
Lab results, including the results of the ultrasound, will appear within the next few days with notes about her PCP's comments and MCS's elaboration.
All in all, although tiring for both of us, we had a successful day and Mom retired in excellent spirits. I am, too.
Later.
