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I'd wanted to plant the seed
Wednesday, March 29 2017
This morning Gretchen had arranged for me to have a medical checkup, the first such checkup since the one required before I headed off to Oberlin College (in 1986). This took place at Maverick Family Health near the corner of Zena and Sawkill Roads (aka the "Not A Store" crossroads). The waiting room was about half full, mostly of old people, though there had been a mother with two kids, a woman about my age, and a woman who looked to be in her 20s. My main task was to fill out about 12 pages of forms, writing out my address and phone number about seven or eight times. The actual exam didn't even get under my clothes. It started with an assistant nurse who took my basic vitals and asked me a few questions about what diseases my parents had had. She took my temperature, measured my heart rate, and took my blood pressure (122/78). After a pause, a higher-level nurse came in and asked me the same questions about my parents and listened to my breathing. She said all my numbers were normal, including my blood pressure, although she'd written down somewhere that blood pressure had been a particular concern of mine. This was probably a garbled note from Gretchen, who, when arranging my appointment, had been particularly interested in my getting bloodwork to determine if my liver is still healthy after all the drinking I supposedly do. But that work couldn't be done here or today; I'd need to set up another appointment at a lab in Kingston for that. And then I'd have to come back to Maverick for the rest of my examine (which, presumably, will then require that I take some of my clothes off). During all of this, I'd wanted to plant the seed for perhaps getting prescriptions for Adderall and Ambien and also maybe talk about the weird cramps in my lower left abdomen (which are still bothering me), but there never seemed like a good place in the conversation to introduce those topics. Maybe in the second half of this stupid ritual?
On the way home, I celebrated my normal blood pressure by buying a stimulant (rich-roast coffee) and salt (Fritos-style corn chips and a bag of salted peanuts). Since it was almost on the way, I also stopped at the Tibetan Center thrift store, but there was nothing for me to buy there today.
The weather was sunny, with temperatures about normal for this time of year. Given recent conditions, this felt like something of a warm spell. I didn't even bother starting a fire in the woodstove today.
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