Thursday, February 25, 2010

Doctor's-office day


It's a big day for my mother. She'll be seeing Dr. Lawrence today on her scheduled appointment. That usually means a rather entertaining afternoon. Mother's probably getting her clothes out and getting ready for the appointment as I write. She often does that when a big event is coming, and she's often ready at least three hours in advance.


I accompany my mother to her doctor's appointments cuz she can't hear half of what's being said. The doctor does talk loud enough for her, usually insulting her with his customary one-liners. She often takes them seriously, even though the doctor does not.

Mother likes Dr. Lawrence because he reminds her of Doc Adams on the old-time Western TV series "Gunsmoke." No nonsense, somewhat stern, down-to-earth, gray hair, glasses, short in stature and "the mustache." Actually, the mustache is probably the big reason Dr. Lawrence reminds her of Doc Adams.

Mother's like that with mustaches. She gets all excited every time she sees Vern Eskridge cuz of his mustache. I don't know if he still has it cuz I haven't seen him in a while, but, as I recall, it's one of those little thin ones that runs just above his lips.

Mother's brother Frenchy had one of those, so whenever she sees Vern and his mustache, she gets to think of Frenchy who died several years ago. Like Vern and Dr. Lawrence, Frenchy wasn't very tall. He might have been taller than Mother, who at this point might make 5 feet tall, if she's lucky. But I doubt it.

Anyway, those associations have endeared both Dr. Lawrence and Vern to mother. And, they are nice guys too.

Today at the appointment, after nurse Marian has checked her blood pressure, pulse and pro-time, Dr. Lawrence is gonna quiz her and see if her brain is still working. He does that every time. Usually, she passes the brain test with about a 95 percent, especially if we talk about the ZAGS (who play tonight, by the way: GO ZAGS).

He looks through her chart and he does a few check-ups of his own----can she breathe deeply, has she had any medical problems of late, is she exercising adequately. To hear Mother tell it, she runs five miles a day---with her walker, of course---spends hours doing household drudgery and works herself silly.

Well, maybe it's not up to all those standards, but if Mother thinks it is, that's okay. Her house does stay pretty clean as she tidies up from time to time, and she will be glad to have Cis back from Hawaii next Tuesday to vacuum and visit.

This week, I've done some of that stuff to help her out, including observing her cat Rowdy on Tuesday. He seemed perfectly happy and content. Mother, however, thought that morning that he must be sick cuz he's been sleeping a lot.


Mother finally decided that evening that Rowdy was okay after asking me to get him an appointment with Cherise. Turns out Barbara's dog Pita had a tummy ache so she took Rowdy's place when I went to Cherise's yesterday to take pictures.

The telephone just rang at 7:43 a.m. It was Mother.

"I'm up and dressed. What time are we leaving to go to Dr. Lawrence's?" she asked.

I told her I was in the midst of writing a blog posting about how she gets ready hours in advance.

"Well, I'm ready," she said. "I just need to know what time you'll come and pick me up."

"It will be 12:45 p.m., " I answered. "You have five hours to wait."

After I read the first part of my blog to her and got her into full-fledged giggling, she said, "Well, I don't have my shoes on."

To which I said, "Take your time over the next hour and get them on. Then, do your crossword, then watch some TV . . . ."

"What hour do I have to start being ready for you to come?" she asked, just to make sure.

"Be ready at noon and know you have 45 minutes to sit there and wait for me," I responded. "Now, let me finish my blog."

"Okay," she said. "See ya later."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everyone who has taken one of their parents to a doctor's appointment is smiling this morning after reading your account - whether they experienced this last week, 30 years ago or have it on their calendar for next week!

Helen

Patsy said...

You are lucky. My mother wants to drive herself and when she gets there she finds out that the appointment is not until the next day :-)

Anonymous said...

A familiar tale, and one that surely made me smile. Reminds me of all the plaintive "When are you coming to Sandpoint?" phone conversations I've experienced.

Do ya think that'll be us in a couple of decades?

Just checked my clock; you have 2 hrs, 15 minutes until departure time!

Mary

Anonymous said...

This blog post ... I love it ... is one reason I chime in to check out your post everyday or actually every evening. To be completely honest, I don't always read to the end if I don't know the people that might be your subject of the day .. but I always like to check it out and I suppose that's part of blogging and the readers that enjoy them. I have always loved "slice of life" stories and this is one of those. Very sweet.

Brian Long

Anonymous said...

Very touching. I wish more mom's had daughters like you. It would be a much happier world.

Word Tosser said...

The real kicker is.... every Monday, before I come over Tuesday...she straightens up the house, and clean some... because..she doesn't want me to see it a mess... which it never is as you know... I asked her one time and that is what she said..which I laughed... as my mother would do the same thing before her cleaning lady came on Wed.