December 23 - “My way is normal”

Surprisingly early doctor’s appointment concerning my back. 7:45 a.m. Really. Of course, someone stuck their head in in the middle of the appointment and told her the “huddle” was about to begin. Hmm.  Why schedule a staff meeting and appointments at the same time?  I wished them a happy staff Christmas party. They were confused.

 

A different doc was standing in for my regular guy. Guess he won the Christmas vacation sweepstakes. She checked me out, then ordered X-rays, an MRI, physical therapy, a muscle relaxer, and use of over-the-counter salan pas patches wherever there is pain. But my favorite was a recommendation off the record. Kind of a Witch doctor suggestion: Rub on my back Bengay mixed with ibuprofen gel cap contents. Apparently, the Bengay confuses your brain into thinking your body doesn’t hurt. Yup. Witch doctor. But I liked her.

 

We went right over to get the X-rays done. The folks there were really nice, but that tech sure found the spot that hurts. Since we were in the clinic anyway, we walked over to physical therapy to set up that appointment. I have the same therapist who helped with my hip. The scheduler was a lot of fun. She asked for the spelling of my last name. I told her, and she replied, “Isn’t the normal way without the last a?”  I told her, “Nope. My way is normal. Everybody else is wrong.” She did the same thing with “Kelley.”  So did I. At that point she laughed and said to Chris, “Mrs. Vaughan, I’m not gonna talk to him anymore. I’ll just talk to you.”  Ouch.

 

From there, we stopped by Walmart, where we picked up some prescriptions for Sam. And speaking of Sam, yesterday was her chemo appointment. We took her back up to Clear Lake. She had to be there four hours before her appointment to have bloodwork drawn, so after that we went to the nearby Luby’s for a leisurely lunch. We were back at the infusion clinic around 12:30, and she started the treatment at a little after one. Not bad for an appointment at 1:45. She finally finished about 2:30 or so.

 

We stopped by Kel’s house on the way home. We had to drop off a birthday gift for a certain six-year-old. Ezra was pretty excited with the big ol’ spider we managed to wrangle and present him with. It was also good, as usual, to see the other end of the spectrum. Jachin is home from college, so Chris took advantage of the chance to grab some hugs from him.

 

One last word about the weather. We had wind gusts of almost 40 miles per hour that ushered in the coldest temperatures of the year. About 9 pm we heard a crash from the backyard. Of course we immediately grabbed a flashlight and ran outside to check. What to our wondering eyes should appear? The top of our Franklin stove chimney blew off and onto the deck stairs. Could it be that a certain red-coated, large-of-girth elfling was doing some early reconnaissance?

 

John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

 

Father, please use this latest treatment to show some improvement in Sam. Amen.