Yesterday morning, I had an appointment with my Internist for 9:30 for a complete check up which was to be preceded by a blood sample, a bone density test and a mammogram. I had to be a the clinic, twenty miles away by 8:00 a. m. At 1 p.m. I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to look at my foot and to check out my knees. One would think I would have several hours in between for lunch and shopping. Oh how wrong those thoughts turned out to be.

My Internist was delayed at the hospital and I got in to see him at l0:30. My tests were all excellent but I had had a little bit of chest pain so he sent me for an ekg. I had to wait an hour for that and then go back to his office.
He explained that it was fine but he wanted to make me an appointment with a cardiologist just to make sure. At that point it was l2:20. I jumped in the car and went to Dillards to return a sweater that didn't fit and just barely got back to the clinic for my next appointment at one o'clock.

When I walked in Michelle told me the Orthopedic surgeon had an emergency and would be an hour late. I drank my can of slim fast that I had prudently stuck in my purse and settled down to observe my fellow patients and read ancient magazines. There was one man who intrigued me. He was dressed like Indiana Jones. Hat, boots, jeans, sport coat and a blonde pony tail. He even looked like Harrison Ford.
There were at least 30 of us in the waiting room. At 2:30, the Dr. arrived and I got to see him and be sent for xrays of my foot and knees. At 4:00 p.m., he gave me the news that my artificial knees were beginning to deteriorate but not to do anything about it until they began to hurt because the underlying muscles were so strong that it had enabled me to keep them much longer than their expected life expectancy of ten years. My foot had already been examined by my Internist who told me what was wrong...I didn't ask him to look at it, he just pulled my shoe off and took a peek. After twenty years he has developed a proprietary interest in my well being. The xrays revealed that he was right and that I needed something to shift my weight farther back on my foot. They make an insert to do this which costs 400.00. I took my prescription to physical therapy and they wanted to check my insurance to see if it would pay a portion of the cost. I told them I would gladly pay for it if the insurance did not and they told me I would get a fifty percent discount. They are ordering it. My Internist had told me that they have special shoes for this but it costs 250.00 a pair. If any one wants to look this up they are called NVP and you can go to NVP.com. and view them. I inquired about how they looked and he said, "Not too attractive." which was no big surprise. The insert can be changed from shoe to shoe so it seemed the most practical.

It was 4:l5 when I left the clinic to come home. I fed the dogs and poured a glass of wine and made a grilled cheese sandwich. Ted had been to his V. A. physician and had a lot of blood work. He got home after a mere four hours however.

We needed a movie and watched the new version of "The Women". It was not nearly as good as the play or the old movie. Or were we just too tired to appreciate it?