I have a friend that I meet for lunch every couple of months. We have settled on Asian Bistro in Woodinville as our meeting place. The food is delicious, healthy and $10/plate. We meet at 1 PM. The lunch crowd is gone and we have a nice quiet place to talk with great food. We were going to meet last Tuesday, but I had to help a friend and so we rescheduled for the 18th.
In a brief spurt of blind faith, I headed for the restaurant without double-checking my email nor by phone. I got to the restaurant in a triumphant moment of punctuality a few minutes early. Fortunately, I had my latest Jack Reacher book by Lee Child. I got a soda and started reading. It was a nearly sunny winter day outside the large storefront window while I read my book.
Mark drives a late model fancy light-colored SUV. Everytime I glanced up, there was at one or two more light-colored SUVs driving through the parking lot access road or parking at the curb. It was amazing!
While reading and waiting, I reflected back on Mark's last email. I had the nagging suspicion that while I was thinking 'next Tuesday', he wrote 'the 18th' for our rescheduled lunch date. I could have gone out to my car and called him from my cell phone, but figured he would either be there or I would get to come back another time.
I ordered Chicken Phad Thai at the cook's suggestion. It was fresh, light, delicious and spicy. After I finished lunch, refilled my soda and read some more. Driving the slower route home past Mark's office located in a big giant warehouse, I decided to stop in and drop off a book on…you guessed it…gratitude! Inside the office was a empty foyer with some stairs going up to the second floor. Me & my wheelchair were not going that way. A man came in from the warehouse. I told him I was a friend of Mark's and left the book.
It was a beautiful day for a slow drive through the farmland north of Redmond. The joyride came to an end when I was faced with the conundrum of getting to my doctor's office in Factoria from downtown Redmond. The phrase you can't get there from here came to mind. I got back on the freeway and zipped over to her office with only a slight cheat by taking the carpool-only exit that is five minutes faster than the regular exit through a traffic knot.
The two ladies at the check-in desk were helping others and would be a couple of minutes. I rolled around to the side and checked-in with the check-out girl. There was another gentleman waiting at the lab. Typically people get taken first come, first served. I told the new vampire that the other guy was there before me. She had my name and so off we went to get my monthly blood test to check the level of my anti-coagulant. I have to take Coumadin to avoid further blood clots in my left leg and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.
Being a regular patient, the lab staff knows that I am willing to let the nursing students and lab tech interns take my blood. Today's student was a cute tiny demure 40ish Filipina. She did okay with the blood draw, but forgot to have gauze in-hand to press on the vein when withdrawing the needle. The regular tech took the blood sample and handed her a piece of gauze. She taped-up my arm with a couple of strips of tape with a bit of joshing from the nurse that had come to take me back to the consulting room.
Normally, I sit there for a minute or two after giving blood with pressure on the draw-site to keep the blood from leaking out of my vein on the inside of my elbow (we always use the same draw-spot due to it being the best site to get blood). Today I rolled off after the nurse to get my blood pressure and temperature taken like every other visit to the doctor.
After the nurse took my vitals, she noticed that I had some blood on my shirt sleeve. I had not waited the usual minute with pressure on the draw-spot. There was a raisin-sized blood pool in my elbow. The nurse got more gauze and an elastic wrap to hold the gauze in place with pressure.
She let me know the doctor would be in shortly and left the room. Most of the time, my doctor is there in a few minutes with the lab results. Today she was running a little behind due a rush of patients before the clinic closed early to avoid an impending snow-storm. The nurse popped back in and let me know it would be a few more minutes. I had my book, I was good.
My pro-time, which is a unitless measure of coagulation rates, was in the okay range—not too fast and not too slow.
I love my doctor. After giving her my update on gratitude since my last visit right after I started my gratitude kick, I told her she is a great doctor and a kind lady as she was leaving the room.
I am supposed to come in every month. I always reschedule for every six weeks. After getting my next appointment, I came back by the lab room. I flashed the blood on my shirt sleeve and the two regular techs dug up some hydrogen peroxide to was the blood off before it set in my shirt. A minute or two of wiping by one tech and the student nurse came in as if she was looking for something. We got her to take over wiping off the blood and I talked her through what happened and how I got blood on my shirt. It wasn't her fault that I bled on my shirt, but she was the one that stuck me, so she was the last one to touch me before I bleed a ¼ teaspoon of blood. I reassured her that it was okay, gave her a hug and was on my way.
In the past, somebody not showing up when expected (whether scheduled or not!) or less than good care would trigger my abandonment issues causing me to be afraid and act like a cornered rat. Today I got to read a great book with lunch in the sunshine and then get a hug from a little cutey at the doctor's office. That is a LOT of progress to be grateful for.
Bonus, it snowed a couple of inches around 7 PM and then was getting washed away by rain in the wee hours of the morning. I got all the beauty of looking out my window at a winter wonderland without having to actually deal with snow. 
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