Can You Hear Me Now?

Blahhhhhhhhhhh.

My day started with a building maintenance guy entering my apartment while I was in the shower. I had given them permission yesterday to enter if I wasn’t home, because they wanted to set more mouse traps and look for holes to seal with poisonous steel wool or something like that… I guess my not hearing the knocks led them to believe I wasn’t here, but you can imagine my shock when I stepped out of my bathroom. All I can say is, THANK GOD I put on that robe.

My left ankle (that I broke several years ago) is in so much pain today I can barely walk. I have been baby-stepping it and wincing in pain, and had to take my walker when I went to the doctor instead of just my cane because I can’t take more than two steps without something sturdy to hold me up.

So yes, this afternoon I saw my wonderful doctor of 17 years for the last time. If I wasn’t on anti-depressants, I probably would have bawled. I had him sign a form I need to bring in to Access Calgary (my service expires June 30, so I need this form filled out and signed by my doctor before I attend an interview to prove I still need the service). Luckily, my doctor is totally cool with that kind of stuff, writes whatever I want to make sure I get what I need, and never charges me. The only thing I was charged for today, was to pick up the copies from my file. Sandy handed me an envelope that was a lot thinner than I expected. “I’ve been coming here for 17 years and my file is so thick! Why is this so thin?” She said, “your urine tests from 1996 are a little irrelevant now”. Heh.

Anyway, I received a few prescription refills, found out my Doc just turned 70 (wow! He looks so much younger! I guess he is allowed to retire…), had him look at my ankle (he figures it’s the hardware from the surgery I had a few years ago – the steel plate/screws in there, that are still causing so much discomfort – I may need another surgery to have them removed. Ick), and a referral to another doctor, one that is very close to me and appears to be someone my doctor knows. He can see me May 2; I will see how that goes, and I still have an appointment May 15 with a female doctor as back up if I don’t like this guy.

I gave big hugs to my doctor and thanked him for being the best doctor ever, and to Sandy, who says her cancer is growing but she is refusing more chemo and although she feels fine now, “things don’t look good”. What do you say… except good luck, take care, squeeze hands… sniff.

So I guess my emotional afternoon would account for my being in a bit of a daze when I took my scooter over to the mall. Because it is so nice and sunny out, I wanted to ride outside instead of through the mall like I usually do. There are wide sidewalks all along the front of the mall clear to Walmart, so I never have to ride through the parking lot or anything. However, as I was passing this one entrance, there was a huge delivery truck blocking the way. I thought, oh, I need to go off the sidewalk now, onto the parking lot… and simply turned to the right. I didn’t even look at the sidewalk, my focus was on the truck, and I didn’t realize that part of the sidewalk wasn’t “accessible” and dropped down like a regular curb. So… can you guess what happened next?? My scooter toppled over with me on it, I fell off, it fell on me… I heard screams of “OH MY GOD!” as tons of people ran over to help me… a couple guys lifted my scooter off me as my leg was trapped under it. I’m all scraped and bruised (as is my scooter), but I’ll live. They helped me stand up and that is when I finally started to cry. Partly from pain, mostly from embarrassment, partly from shock. A nice woman was there comforting me, and another man gave me a tissue and asked if I was going to be okay, or required medical attention. I said I would be fine, I was just shook up. Once I got myself settled I rode back on to the sidewalk and took a rest until I stopped crying and figured my eyes weren’t too red. Then I went into Walmart to get Polysporin for my scrapes before coming home.

Where I am staying for the rest of the week!!