Medical appointments. Working at a VA hospital, I see the same patients every few days, sometimes every day. The older they get, the more appointments they have, right up until they move into the hospice wing, where they have just one big appointment.
Now I’m starting down the same path. Two months ago I broke a tooth: one emergency trip to the dentist for a temporary filling, followed by two separate appointments for a crown. My dermatologist discovered a basal cell carcinoma on my cheek (query: how did I, shaving every day, miss that?): two more appointments, one for the surgery and one to have the stitches removed.
Then I decided to do something about the perforated veins in my right calf. This will involve two outpatient surgeries, one for a vein in my thigh and another for the veins in the calf. But first, a visit to Tucson Medical Center to have my veins mapped by ultrasound. Followed by a visit to a heart specialist to determine my suitability for surgery, which expands into multiple appointments: one for an EKG, another for a treadmill stress test accompanied by an MRI of my heart, another for a cardio ultrasound, and two more for consultations with the heart specialist to confirm what I already suspected, that there’s nothing wrong with my heart. Now for the surgeries on my leg, barring, that is, additional pre-surgical requirements.
If I were retired this wouldn’t be so burdensome, but I’m not, and it is. I don’t know about your job, but where I work we’re always one short and no more that one of us can be gone at a time. My co-workers and I are middle-aged men and women. Each of us has one or two minor medical problems; each of us must take time off for medical or dental appointments. Almost every time we schedule appointments there are conflicts, so we reschedule, again and again, until we find a clear block of time, agreeable to co-workers, bosses, and our medical practitioners.
Wouldn’t it be something if you could schedule medical or dental work during the evenings or on weekends? What a concept! Or has Andy Rooney already asked that question?
The good thing is there’s nothing else wrong with me. The bad thing is there inevitably will be, sooner or later. Here’s hoping it’s later, when I’ll have more time for medical appointments.
So, yeah, getting old sucks. But you knew that.