Long Day

Today was a long and eventful day.

My day started out with a trip to my oncolgist.  I had to take the bus and subway today as I did not have a ride. My hip hurt a little, and my knee hurt a little bit more, but it wasn’t bad.  My first stop was to the blood lab to get some blood work done prior to seeing the doctor. I waited for about 30 minutes for my number to be called.  When my number was called, I got up and collected my purse and a bag I was holding.  When I turned around, I saw another woman, who I had seen come in way after me, going towards the blood tech who had called the number out.  She was clearly trying to pull a “fast one” and take my spot as she did not see me picking up my stuff to walk over to the blood tech.  When he saw the woman walking towards him, he looked at my hospital card and said my name.  That’s when the woman knew “the jig was up”.  Nice try!

Whenever I have to go to the hospital for an appointment, I usually treat myself to Second Cup or Starbucks, and that was no different today.  I went to get my Starbucks and a quick bite to eat.  I knew I wouldn’t have to rush that much.  I finally got my blood taken at around 10:00am, and my appointment time was 10:15.  This clinic usually runs slow…not to mention the time it might take for my blood work to come back.

So after I got my Starbucks and snack from Tim Hortons, I went to the hospital’s pharmacy to order my aranesp so that it would be ready for pick up by the time my appointment was done.

I went to my appointment at the hospital across the street.  I sat down, drank my soy vanilla latte, ate my donut, and read the paper.  I knew I’d be waiting long so I might as well make myself comfortable. Much to my surprise, they called me in at around 10:45am.  Not a long wait at all.

When I saw the doctor, everything was fine. My hemoglobin was up to 111 (or 11.1) which is great, since it was 95 (or 9.5) two weeks ago.

After my appointment, I emailed my transplant coordinator Julie from my blackberry so we could meet up and chat. We chatted for about an hour.  It’s always great chatting with her.

After this, I decided to get on the shuttle bus and head to twh, as it’s closer to home.  When I got there and headed for the bus stop, I got outside just in time to see two women, and one of them looked like she just hit the ground! The first one was on the phone.  I was quite far away and I cannot run, so I walked towards them.  I asked the lady on the phone if everything was ok.  She smiled and said thank you.  I started to walk away…but I (obviously) didn’t believe her when she said everything was ok.  So I came back and asked her if she needed somebody called.  She said yes. So I headed inside as did a security officer.  There were some doctors and other medical staffers in the food court, so we called them.  They dropped/abandoned their meals and ran outside.  One of them grabbed an oxygen tank and mask from who know’s where and ran outside also.  In total, there were about 15 medical professionals who came outside.  As they began attending to the young lady on the ground (who I now assume is the other lady’s daughter) I felt much better.  As the conversation continued, it became apparent that the young lady on the ground had some medical problems as well as perhaps developmental problems, and this was not an isolated incident-she had had a seizure.

Just then, the streetcar came.  I headed for the streetcar, especially since the medical staff was now with the young lady. I did not want the streetcar to leave without me, so I asked another gentleman who was in front of me to hold the streetcar for me, which he did.  Very nice!  He also offered me his seat. Double nice! I got to the subway, took my train to my nearest station, then headed to ground level to take another bus home.

So that was my day…aside from being pushed around by a man at ground level.  The bus was coming so he thought it would be a good idea to try and shove me out of the way so that he and his wife could get on the bus before me.  What the what??  I shoved him back with my elbow and did not allow him to get in front of me. He kind of squeezed his way to the front door of the bus, which meant he was going to get on the bus before me if the bus stopped in it’s usual spot.  Luckily for me, the bus driver opened the back door as there was a ttc employee at the back of the bus waiting to see our passes in order to let us in.  So I ended up getting a seat anyways. Some people!

Well, that was my day.  Crazy, huh?

Up for tomorrow-Work telephone conference call and a dialysis tech will visit my house for a special disinfection of my machine.