Good Afternoon;
So...it's been a busy couple of days and library hours, time constraints, medical/dental appointments, and the MTA have prevented me from getting online.
Wednesday after I left the library I did get over to Mt. Washington and the coffee shop, long enough to eat and sit for a bit. I watched the construction crew on the Newbury St. bridge in front of the Mt. Washington tavern for a while and caught the bus(es) back to Pikesville. I had a hunch and played my grand daughter's and daughter's birthday on the Keno and walked out $20.00 ahead after an hour of Keno and Scratchoffs, and hit the shed. I fell asleep about Midnight with the lantern (battery) on and woke up at 10:30 am. when the alarm went off. Tired..I'd say so, after the night I had before that! I headed over to Jenn's and took a shower and dropped my bags and went to Baltimore City Community College for my appointment with Michelle at the Dental Hygiene Clinic. Of course it only drizzled and spit until I got off the bus in front of the school and had to walk across the campus to the Life Sciences building, then the downpour began....lol. After the first hour of forms and releases and permissions were over and the Exam was about to begin, Michelle called over the supervising dentist, Dr. Jones to check the paperwork and give her 'permission to treat'. Because of one simple phrase that we thought would streamline things, (and there go.... thinking again!....LOL), I had to get a notice from my physician that no special precautions or medications were necessary to begin treatment. I left there about 2:10 pm. and decided that since I needed to have a TB test site looked at and written off as normal anyway, I'd stop by Jai and kill two birds with one stone. I was out of there by 2:40 pm. and a bus was headed back towards Mondawmin and the Metro subway terminal where I had a number of transit options so I jumped on it. I figured that since I had the paperwork and I could be back there before 3:00 pm., and Michelle had to stay around there anyway, and there no other patients waiting...I'd see if she wanted to continue. When I got there the doctor and the 2 instructors and Michelle were all freaked out that I came back so quickly, and that I came back at all....lol. I don't get it? It seemed reasonable and normal to me....and besides I don't get to see Michelle as often as I'd like to. Once the doc signed off the fun began, (you gotta remember this is a school setting and she is a student..even though she has worked for dentists for years as an assistant or whatever the next lowest level beneath a Hygienist is called.) The first 45 minutes consisted of the visual overview and her checking my salivary glands by touch with a gloved finger..(even though I'm in love with her...do you know how irresistible the temptation to bite down on some one's finger in your mouth is....LOL!), and gentle 'palpating' of the lymph glands in my neck, and stroking and manipulating my jaw, (checking for TMJ......and I dow have some clicking going on),..... well it's been a really, really, ...reallllllly long time for me, but damn if I don't seem to remember this sort of thing being called....'foreplay!'.........LOL!!!
The next 45 minutes was spent between fighting the gremlins in the digital x-ray computer system, trying to place the damn sensors correctly in my mouth..(they are poorly designed from an 'ergonomic factor'), gagging!!...lol!, and taking and retaking x-rays.
I left there a little after 5:00 pm. as the students were frantically going about the daily clean-up and sterilization procedures and headed back to Jenn's to grab my bags and a bite to eat, then jumped on the 9:00 bus up to the shed and crashed.
I got up about 8:30 am. on Friday and headed down to Jenn's to do a load of laundry and shower and then went out to American Radiology in Owings Mills for my CT scan and MRI. I got there at 2:30 pm. and had to drink about 40 oz. of the 'contrast medium', basically a flavored, dilute radioactive dye solution. It tasted like.....well remember when you were a kid and you mixed things together....imagine a half and half ratio of orange and grape TruAde non-carbonated soda. Luckily this time I was allowed to go to the bathroom 'if needed'....yeah right.."if"......lol! I once had another test done and there was a problem with the magnet, and for an hour I was told.."it'll only be another minute or two"....Hah!! it's a good thing those machine are 'water'proof!....right in the middle of the test the dam broke! In that case I was 'butterball' and in a hospital gown so I didn't care, and the test had passed the point of no return so there was no problem there....LOL!...But I digress.....LOL! The CT was at 4:00 pm. and I sat in the waiting room people watching. An attractive woman and a little girl came in and the girl called her 'gramma', and I said to myself..(or so I THOUGHT!), 'Wow! 'Gramma' I thought that was her daughter!' As they were leaving, I was sitting by the door and the woman stopped, leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, whispering,' Thanks...you made my day!'.From the expression of shock/confusion/embarrassment of my face she realized that I did nor realize that I had spoken aloud, `sotto `voce though it was, and her face lit up in a big grin and she said 'That makes it even better!' and laughed, as I too began to grin and chuckle. The nurse/tech was coming to get me for my CT and overheard the exchange and proceeded to gently tease me as we walked back down the hallway. As I went into the bathroom to be sure there would be no 'leakage' during the test, I looked in the mirror and my face was glowing red enough to light the room by itself...lol. The CT scan required an IV of contrast medium also and the young woman who put it in my arm was going on about 'Now this is going to hurt a bit, and are you ready.....yadda...yadda...yadda', and when I continued the conversation with the other tech who was asking me the ID questions to be sure I was the right person for the right test without a flinch or any notice at all, was all amazed and shocked about it. I laughed and told her, 'When you've used a safety pin and piece of fiber-optic tubing to reach a vein.......a brand new, sterile, sharp, and tiny IV needle is less intrusive than a mosquito!' She must have been a bit sheltered from the look on her face, the other tech burst out laughing with me....lol.
An hour later I was called back to the other side of the office for the MRI. Where I was given ANOTHER cup of 'TruAde' to drink! Then into the exam room. When they tried to use the 'faster' machine, which seemed to be an older model of the enclosed tunnel type, my arms kept rubbing on the insides of the tunnel, and when they tried to wrap them in sheets to keep them sliding smoothly, the sheets kept bunching up and off. (The issue had something to do with the heat of the machine) I was taken across the hall to another slower but larger and more modern 'open' design. There is a cage like arrangement that fits over the chest area that I was told to hook my fingers in or on. I was given a squeeze ball, like one found on a blood pressure cuff, to squeeze in an emergency, or if I needed anything. By the time the test was halfway over I was having problems with numbness and lack of feeling and strength in my hands, (which is one of the reasons for the test), and although I could hold on to the ball...there was no way I could have squeezed it if I had needed to. I zoned out and dozed off for most of the exam, slipping in and out of consciousness. If you never had one, they are LOUD!. You are given ear plugs to combat the clicking, buzzing and beeping sounds you'll hear, mostly a loud roaring/buzzing noise. It was 6:00 pm. when I finished there, spending the last 10 minutes before I left imitating the statue of the little boy in the park in Copenhagen....lol. I caught the 6:30 pm. bus to Jenn's getting there about 7:15 pm. I packed my bag with my clean laundry, grabbed a couple of 'sliders' from the fridge and hit the road. I waited for the #59 bus but the lovely MTA eliminated that run with no notice that day, a normal occurrence for them, and walked up and caught the 8:45 pm #53 to the Giant where I bought my Powerade and then stopped at the gas station to say hello to Daniel. I was in the shed by 9:00 pm. and read for a while before falling asleep. I woke up at 2:30 am. thinking it was near dawn, and again at 5:55 am. to get rid of the last of the 'TruAde'...lol. I woke up for good about 8:00 am. and realized it was Saturday and I had absolutely nowhere to be and nothing to do today so I just read and dozed again until the back said 'get up!' about 10:00 am. After a visit to the Giant to wash up and, well you know what...LOL!, and for hot water for my coffee, (they turned the temperature back up decently hot again), I sat outside the library and had my last 'slider', (they were awfully big, just barely meeting the size limits of the 'mini rolls'...lol.), and here I've been. I'm just about ready to roll out of here, having got a new batch of books, and head over to the coffee shop. Tom's working tonight, the grandkids are at Jenn's mom's and she is staying home alone, (to clean she says...but...the first time she has had to herself in a while..it's a 50-50 bet either way....lol.), so I'm not calling her until tomorrow.
That's it...I quit for today.....
Later..........Dave
P.S. Check out the book by Ben Thompson titled:
"BADASS"- A Relentless Onslaught Of The Toughest Warlords, Vikings, Samurai, Pirates, Gunfighters, And Military Commanders To Ever Live"
And it's not just a 'guy thing', some of them are female!
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