Just one Thursday

There are some out there on these drugs that have no side effects, or the side effects are minimal.

I totally envy those that can just toddle along and go to work and stuff. I don't begrudge them one tiny second, I am just jealous. I had a blood draw yesterday that was supposed to be for 11 am, then a meeting with the nurse to discuss the results at noon. Simple right?

Nope.

Husband tells me the contractor is coming between 8 and 9 am to pick up his money. Ok. I wake up at 8:30 and hope I haven't missed him, but the dog hasn't moved off my legs, so he hasn't shown up yet. Get dressed, make coffee. Forget coffee in machine, go to list of things to do, go back for coffee, notice morning meds haven't been taken. Take them. Look at the dog. Tell him he has to wait for his walk until after the contractor comes. We will go at 9:01! I promise. Take coffee to home office, do stuff. See list of what I need to do today.

I have to drop off the taxes at the accountants, get blood draw and then bring all the food I have been cooking for the past two weeks to my friends house (she is having surgery and I am leaving for California for 10 days so can't help out right away).

Contractor arrives at 9:30. Sigh. Look at the clock. Just enough time for a dog walk, I need to leave at 10 to make it to Seattle by 11. Wait! I forgot to check the cooler to see if it needs to be cleaned. Yuck. Needs to be cleaned. Drag its huge self to the kitchen, knocking over the dog water. Realize it won't fit in the sink. But the bathtub will be perfect. Of course I just cleaned the tub in anticipation of Next Door Neighbor's wonderful son coming to house sit for 10 days. Sigh. Clean the cooler. Wipe the cooler. Wipe the tub. Wipe the dog water off the floor.

Pack the cooler.

Look at the dog, it is 9:50.

Ok, once around the block buddy. And so we go. Wait, don't wanna be done with the walkie mama, dog stops at Next Door Neighbor's house, where his best friend Gunner lives. When the 97 pound dog stops, I stop. Gunner is a chihuahua/doxie mix, maybe 5 pounds. They MUST have their morning confab. So I go in her gate, she comes out and we chat for a few minutes.

At 10:10 I start to load the car. Finally, I am off. Wait, the garage door won't close. Sigh. Get out of car, stiffen, do I have the taxes???? Check. Yes I do. Press the button and run out the garage as the door tries to murder me.

Get on the highway.

Large sign flashes. Big accident ahead.

Sigh.

From the left lane, I get over 4 lanes and exit to a "long" cut but a non-blocked one. All of I-5 North is closed.

Realize that the new route is going to take me past the accountants first, and I should take advantage of that and stop there. I was originally going to have the blood draw then go the accountant's, then back to the center for my nurse consult. This new route will make me late for my blood draw. I assure myself this will be ok. I don't have a dr. visit, just a blood draw.

Drive through Downtown Seattle, park in the building, run up to the 38th floor, drop off taxes, forget to tell her 6 things. Run to Cancer center. Get behind ninety year old couple trying to find a parking spot for their tiny toyota at -5 mph. I feel badly for them, they are so old and clearly scared about coming to the cancer center. BUT they are not even crawling. They inch past an open space. I wedge my husband's enormous car into the spot. And run upstairs. I have to pee, but have no time. I register and sit down to wait. They call my name and the nice man starts to talk to me. I begin to tell him all about my veins. He gives me a funny look and says he knows all about them.

He does?? How is this possible. Turns out he is the same guy as last time, two weeks ago. I don't remember any new faces since starting this silly drug. I am astonished. I don't remember him at all. This freaks me out just as it has been doing for a year and a half.

I can barely keep my eyes open at this point. Soooooo tired.

Get lunch in the cafe at the center. Tip of the day: don't get the stuffed cabbage rolls in a hospital. They went down ok, but let me know about it later.........again and again.

Go upstairs and wait for the results. In a couple of minutes a nurse starts walking towards me smiling and saying my name. Mind you I am on the hemotology floor of the center and there are about 40 other people waiting and 15 staff all around. Usually someone just stands at the door and calls out a name and waits for the person to stand up and walk over. I don't recognize this nice young woman who is smiling at me.

She recognizes me! Apparently this is the same nurse I have been seeing for the last three blood draws. Sigh.

My numbers are almost fine, but the Creatinine is off. (I am also having kidney issues). Not by much, just a little high. Have I had enough to drink? I say yes (later that night I will remember that I have been wicked thirsty for days and have been chugging water like crazy). Oh well.

I leave the center and head for friends house. I haven't gone there from here. I get on a road I think will work (I went to school here, and should know all the roads by heart), but can't work out in my head where it will end and where I will need to get over but hope that I will recognize it when I see it. Friend calls at the exact same time and says, just stay on that road and it actually goes almost all the way to her house. As I drive I remember. Sigh.

Get to friend's house. Cannot believe I haven't fallen over yet. So tired.

Visit with friend.

Realize I have to go. One more stop before home. On craigslist the day before I had seen an ad for free foam scraps at a foam store right by her house. Get my piece of paper with the ad, look at address. Off I go.

Take all the foam. Fills the entire back seat of the car, a double body bag sized bag stuffed with foam pieces. I am going to cut them into tiny bits and make a mattress for my vintage trailer for camping. I feel a little bad about taking ALL the foam, as I was leaving the owner smiles at me and asks if I am the puppet maker...........Yikes, someone else might be looking for free foam. I hesitate. Nope, all mine. I got here first, and I have already wrestled it into a bag they gave me. It is mine.

Get on the overpass to the highway home. Strangely there are no cars on the highway. A closer look reveals that there are flashing lights at the base of the on ramp and that they are moving a 4 car accident from the left side of the highway to the right side. The back up, the radio says, is 10 miles long. OMG. A second closure of I-5??? in one day??? Luckily I am right at the beginning as the cars start to move, and I am on in about 15 minutes. Cruise control on.

Home. Home Home. Must collapse...........Walk in with foam and Husband goes bananas. What do I need with all that foam. Small meltdown ensued. He runs over and hugs me, tells me he was only kidding, he was just shocked at the amount.

I sniffle, "But it was FREE!" sniff sniff.

OK, pull self together. NOW I can collapse.

Wait, I haven't done any work today (I am a virtual assistant for a retired judge who now runs mediations) and there are voicemails to return and emails to do .....................an hour later...................

collapse.

Now formerly all of that would have taken only a couple of hours, and I would have been fine to continue and also do all the work on my own clients that have been sitting for 3 weeks now.

Sadly they will have to come with me on the vacation so I can work a bit as we toodle around the bay area.

And THAT was my Thursday.

I am exhausted just retelling it.

Caroline