Thursday, March 19, 2009

At least I've never made anybody drive into a lake

Tomorrow I have an appointment with Zack (my not-primary care doctor), and it's been a while so, while I have no earthly idea what we had planned on talking about at this appointment, I am quite looking forward to it. Things I now think should be on the agenda? Give me pain meds that work or explain to me why crack is not a reasonable alternative. (Mostly kidding.) But that's not what I'm supposed to be writing about right now... Today's post is all about how I have no idea how to get there.

I have been seeing Zack now for at least 6 years, mostly at his current office, so you'd think it would be a no-brainer. However, tomorrow's appointment is going to be a little bit different because Mum is off her feet - she had toe surgery yesterday and is suffering: I feel so bad! - and my uncle is going to drive me to the appointment instead. He stopped by today for an unrelated reason, and wondered if I would be needing him for tomorrow (originally, because Mum thinks she is invincible and would be fine two days after foot surgery on both feet, he was just our backup plan), and I said that I thought so. So then he asked me if I knew how to get there and I rolled my eyes and said "Of course." After which he asked me to give him some idea of how we get there.

He wanted oral directions, and I could not give them to him.

Because I do not pay attention to the names of streets or numbers of routes. It's not what I focus on while we're driving, because I don't have to focus on that. I'm not doing the driving.

When we're in the car? I can, for sure, tell you where to turn, or how many Dunkin Donuts we have to pass before we get to the right street. I can tell you to go past the Cambridge Public Library (the branch that's hiding on an off street), till you get to the crossroads with the electric buses, across from the cemetery, and then drive by the Shaws that still has its Star Market sign up. I know you take a left at this fork in the road, and a right at the next one. I can explain how we drive past a certain hospital, only you can't see the hospital from the road anymore because they just built a subdivision in front of it. I can show you a good place to stop if you need to buy a mini Christmas tree, and tell you that the name of the local high school baseball team is the Devil Dogs.

But if you are asking me for street names? Then we are both out of luck.

He looked kind of alarmed when I hesitated to give him even the vaguest of directions, but I assured him that I do know how to get there, and once we're in the car, it's not a problem.

I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me, since my appointment's at 2:30, the office is about 40 minutes away, and he asked me if I wanted him to get here at noon.


I told him no thanks, but promised to bring the GPS along, just in case.

Some people have no faith.

1 comment:

Sue Jackson said...

I hope your appointment went well.

I'm no expert, since pain has never been an issue for me, but from what I've read, the pain of CFS is usually a nerve pain that sometimes responds well to neurontin (a medication for nerve pain). There are also new nerve pain meds on the market for fibromyalgia.

Also, if pain is a significant issue for you, are you sure you don't also have Lyme? Just something to consider, especially when living in the northeast.

Good luck - I hope you found your doctor's office and had a good appointment!

Sue