To dye or not to dye

The other day (Tuesday, April 8, 2008) our 45-minute trip into Strong Hospital in Rochester so Linda could get a C-T scan to verify her lymphoma was in remission came to naught.
Linda had contrast dye when her first C-T scan was done months ago and developed a rash.
“Just tell them about it,” her Doctor said, when she reminded him of the rash.
“You’ll have to be pre-medicated,” a nurse said. “We’ll reschedule your scan so you can do that — how about next week or next month?”
“My doctor appointment is next Tuesday — I need the scan before that.”
Around-and-around we went. Finally the C-T scan was scheduled for tomorrow, which dumps my hitting the YMCA. “I’ll call in the prescriptions for your medications.”
So Linda dutifully went to the pharmacy yesterday (Wednesday) to get the prescriptions but they weren’t there.
Obviously calling in a prescription is a great effort, or at least it gets put on the back burner.
I’ve found I have to verify the prescription got called in before stopping to pick it up. —And then I might have to pull teeth to get the prescription called in.
Then discussion began as to whether the contrast dye was needed at all.
“I’ve always had it before,” Linda said.
Around-and-around we went again.
“We’ll call ya back,” but they never do.
I remember the huge pile of unfinished junk that kept growing bigger in my desk long ago at the bank.
People I couldn’t call back, because I had more pressing matters, like a shortage in income accruals from the Note Department.
Finally it was decided she didn’t need the contrast dye — they’d called the Doctor — so she didn’t need the pre-dye medications.
But I put my foot down.
Four 45-minute sojourns (two trips) to Rochester-and-back is enough, especially when the vaunted medical establishment can’t get its ducks in a row.
If the C-T scan tomorrow comes to naught, and they have to reschedule yet again (which means rescheduling the doctor-appointment), I’m gonna be mad.
“I’m sorry, I know I should be more diplomatical, but I can’t keep making long trips into Rochester for nothing.”
Probably a gallon or more of gas gets burned every trip, plus I can’t do anything else, and I have to leave the poor dog alone in the house, and uh, he has cancer.
Just imagine some poor non-driver having to arrange transportation for all these fruitless jaunts.
I remember at the Physical-Therapy a poor girl with back-problems having to arrange a livery for every visit, coming-and-going. (The livery was paid for by United Way, but she had to arrange everything.)

“Linda” is my wife of 40+ years. She has lymphatic cancer. (It’s treatable — she will survive.) —Our dog, Killian, has lymphatic cancer also, and is being treated for it. It will go into remission but only for about a year.

RE: “Which dumps my hitting the YMCA.....” —I work out about 2-3 days a week at the Canandaigua YMCA; it takes about 4-5 hours per day, including the drive (the YMCA is about 25 minutes away).

The pharmacy is about 10 minutes away in the nearby village of Honeoye Falls. A trip to the pharmacy uses about a half-hour. I am consumed with trip management, because every errand is on average about 25 minutes away. Errands get combined.

Fresh out of college, in the late ‘60s, my first job was as a management-trainee with a large bank in Rochester. It lasted about three years, but I got “laid off” for not being enough of a viper.

RE: “Income accruals from the Note Department.....” —Our branch’s Note Department had a daily income-stream (“accrual”) from all the loans (“notes”) it had made. The amount had been figured too small.

Shortly after I retired, I was prescribed Physical-Therapy for balance issues resulting from my stroke October 26, 1993; although I retired because of “episodes” of light-headedness I no longer have. (They seem to have been a side-effect of my calcium-blocker blood-pressure medication, which I dropped. The Physical-Therapy suggested getting back in shape was a better way to control blood-pressure, and that calcium-blockers were just a band-aid. [This is what I did.])