Bad day ending with a cricket
Anyhow my day continued on it's spiral into a descending hell once we arrived....the lab nurse who always does my injections every other week was gone. I was surprised as I always show up around 11am every other friday. So I told another woman/nurse/office worker (not sure what she does there) "surely I can come back monday, two days off won't really make a difference." It's not like I am skipping for a week or two. (BTW these are the injections I receive to help boost my platelet count) So she says very breezily, "I will get your charts. Have a seat." I wait a bit, she returns, files in hand, open, looks at me and in a very accusatory voice demands "Says here you have not had an injection since August. Can you tell me why....do you have a good reason as to why you have not been in??" I was taken aback, trying to peer into her hand to see if she indeed, had the correct folder. Of course how many Anneliese's are actually out there, let alone a patient there. It would be different if I was named, oh, I don't know, Susan Smith or something along that line, but I don't have a very common name. (forgive me any Susan Smith's that might be reading this entry!)
I replied in a quite icy way, "That is NOT true. I come here every two weeks and was just here on the 11th of October!" She peered at the files again and said "hmmm", then proceeded to rummage through the boxes filled with bottles of serum. This irritated me to no end, her tone, her saying "hmmmm" in that way, accusing me of not being there since August.....what have I been in, some parallel universe where the real Anneliese was devilishly ignoring her bi-weekly injections and the other me was actually going? It was too much. I moved over to the "blood taking chair" and was looking at the folder which was opened to the very page and scanned to see where it was written "has not shown up since august for much needed injection." Of course all I saw were rows of columns filled at the top with the date, all blood counts/lab work results, and a box checked all the way across next to "procrit". So what was this woman on about??
She disappeared, on her way out saying, "you'll have to wait for the serum to warm up." Yeah ok, well in the meantime where is my usual nurse?? I happened then to notice a note on the door which read "the oncology office will be closing at noon on friday, 25th October for employee's retreat." So it is possible that since they were only working half day (which no one mentioned to me at my last visit) maybe, quite probable, my nurse forgot about me since she only had a few early morning patients and went on home. Well that's fine, I'm not upset by that, what I am upset about was the other lady saying I had not been there. Perhaps this is trivial, yes, but I don't like conversations left open....she just acted like I was crazy, or fibbing, or both. I waited patiently for her return, in which I actually pointed to my open chart and said "there's the last time I was here, 11th October, all my counts are marked there." Her response? "Well it is just labwork, doesn't say you got an injection." In my mind I thought "Yes it does, the box next to "procrit" is checked AND has the normal nurse's initials next to it." But for some reason I decided not to pursue it. Her comment was, "She didn't have this marked like they are normally marked."Kind of vague-ish. And she could have at least followed with, "Oh sorry I was looking at the wrong page-item-column..."
So after the injection she said, "I will put you in for 11am as an appointment, in the computer, 2 weeks from today." I have never had to have an "appointment" in the computer for the lab side, they always know I show up around 11am. Every other Friday.
Worse even, she acted like I broke an appointment.
Oh well.
The rest of the day was done in robot-like fashion...go to commissary, go to PetsMart for dogfood, laundry, cook dinner. I was just not motivated, or should I say I was out of energy for the rest of Friday. Not a nice feeling.
Then it got even worse. Around 6pm, Reilly, the 2 yr old Jack Russell, was furiously scratching at the glass patio door while standing on his hind legs, going completely mad. I ignored it for a bit, then decided there must be a herd of deer outside...he always goes mad for the deer. My curiosity got the better of me, and I had to take a peek. Looked outside and noticed he was not even staring off into the yard, he was eyeing something on the porch. I took a closer look, opening the sliding screen door a tad. It was my lifelong nemesis, or a tasty treat for Reilly, both actually...a cricket. I think I actually hate them more than clowns. I know I could probably stay in a room with a clown longer than a cricket, well, I'm not entirely sure, have never tried it actually. And this is after, just a week ago, saying to my mother, "Oh I have not seen one cricket in Colorado!" And there he was. Big, light brown in colour, and staring at ME. He knows I hate him and have killed many many of his relatives by inflicting my "hairspray treatment" on them, then stabbing the shiny insect in the sharp strands of a broom before throwing the half dead carcass out the door. You know, I was just too tired to mess with him tho, I kicked him off my porch. I had nothing handy to squash him with, my foot was not an option as I was wearing slippers. I have checked repeatedly since last evening to make sure he hasn't hopped back onto my porch hoping for the first chance to make his way into my house and scare the life out of me. I was very very thankful Reilly had spotted him. What if I hadn't looked? He would have crawled in through the screen door since it doesn't really shut all the way. The mere thought makes me have chills. I know, a cricket. Well I am sure there are things that bother you. I have been taking the dogs out via the front door since the "incident". I guess I will have to remain on "cricket patrol", as my mother has called it for years, at least until all the big snow comes and kills them off. But you know, I think nothing really stops them, they are always around no matter what the weather. So long as they are, I will keep some sort of can of chemicals handy to inflict "the treatment" on them and add them to my long list of dead crickets. If only I could inflict "the treatment" on neighbours, doctor's office workers, rude people in public..
