Ed wasn’t getting better so we went back to the doctor’s office and saw the nurse practitioner. She’s pretty good if you don’t mind never seeing your doctor on an emergency basis. She gave him a steroid injection to reduce inflammation in his lungs, a nebulizer treatment, and a prescription for an antibiotic and something else. When the steroid finally kicked in he felt a lot better.
We went over to the next building so he could get a chest X-ray. He’s convinced he has pneumonia. We won’t have the results of that till tomorrow. Meanwhile, the diagnosis is bronchitis. She offered to sign him in to the hospital but he decided to see if he would improve without it. Iatrogenic infections are a real risk these days.

We waited a decent amount of time at the imaging center and I had a chance to check out their magazine section – Seventh Day Adventist literature and The Watchtower (Christian Science sheet). Also the TV in the waiting area was on Fox News. I was in agony listening to that garbage, felt surrounded, and wondered who in Hell was is charge of this facility and what kind of a right wing nut case was he or she. A wonderful philosopher I have quoted before, Bergan Evans, said, "a rational man lives in the modern world like a spy in an enemy camp." I felt today like that spy.

I amused myself by looking at other patients waiting, many of them tattooed, many of them obese, and the women had perfectly manicured toes in sandals as if that would compensate for everything else. They’re all, apparently, listening to Sarah Palin, who says “the gummint” can’t tell you what to eat.

Meanwhile, Ed feels he can't continue all his volunteering because it is laying him low and he plans to cut way back and not do anything for a while. He says that now, but I think he'll change his mind. He can't be idle.

After we got home, I checked the pharmacy and when Ed’s prescriptions were ready, I went to get them and also groceries because we were out of everything. One way off the island – the bridge. A new bridge is being built next to the old one and the old one was one lane today. I was lucky to get into the moving line going, but coming back I got stuck waiting about 45 minutes. A fellow in front of me crept over the median to get a look, then crept over to the other side to get a look – and he did this about 4 or 5 times and after 35 minutes he got tired of waiting, turned off and went in the other direction. I thought he was stupid because we moved right after he left.

I am not saying I am always patient, but if I’m not hurting, I’m pretty even-tempered about things. So I sat and free-associated and listened to opera on the CD player. Lucky it was my favorite singer because I still haven’t mastered the gizmo that fast forwards the selections. When one of Ed’s choices (oh, guh guh guh) is on and I can’t change it, I just lower the volume. Blessed silence. I’ll have to get a tutorial from Ed.

xx, Teal