I woke up all calm and collected this morning, determined to have a better day than yesterday. Well not that yesterday was a bad day but it was just a tiring day. Sometimes the day of having Methotrexate is fraught with lethargy, fatigue, nausea and the runs. Yesterday was hard with the runs in the morning and nausea in the afternoon. I could not seem to get warm either despite of sitting in the sunshine on my new sofa. Feet did get warm eventually and I kept 3 layers of clothes on. I lazed all day and it was felt in some quarters that I had not done anything worthwhile for the day.
However, I was optimistic that today would be better as I opened my eyes. Had my morning cup of tea and sent the Man of to work. I really do not miss the days when I had to get up early and drive 40 miles to work at 6 30 am. The sun had already come out even though it was forecast as rain all day. I had a small debate with myself as to the wisdom of washing my hair. You see I had decided to hike down to the nearest doctor’s surgery and book myself in. When I called them the day before I was informed that one just has to show up, there is no appointment system here. Yesterday as I was not too good, I had decided to postpone my visit.
Well seeing the sun and that outside was generally warmer than inside I boldly washed my hair. Now I do not wash my hair more than twice a week as with all these drugs it falls….. Some days I have nightmares of becoming bald. But wash I did, even though using a bucket and small jug is harder than the shower. Well the shower does not have pressure in the hot water system as it is ancient and on the first day in this house, I scalded my chest and head while frantically trying to mix the cold and hot water. Today I went for my jeans and fleece top on which I would wear my jacket so that I would be protected in case it rained as forecast. Seems that I have lost a wee bit of weight since I reduced some of my drugs. This thought cheered me up no end. I started of jauntily down the road at 9 am. Now the surgery is not far by car but I had to walk this distance. I mark the distance by first I reach the auto repair shop a couple of blocks down, then 2 blocks down is the biggest meat shop (Ham and Bacon) and after two more or so blocks it is the 7eleven shop and petrol station. This is the end of Bungaree Road. I have to cross over the road and across the railway bridge to get to exactly opposite the petrol station.
My side of the road did not have a sidewalk just grass. I thought about crossing but then said to myself why not walk on the grass? This was my first mistake! The ground was uneven and I twisted my foot. As I was just passing by a house where men were pruning palm trees I could not even swear loudly as this foot twisting. I quickly moved to the other side of the road and limped along the cemented path. As I walked I saw the road rise up and hoped that the climb up and then down a couple of times on this road would not be hard. As usual down by the meat shop there were many cars and all trying to park in front of each other, way wide of the pavement. Looked like housewives on the meat run!
Got to the surgery without any further injury to myself and booked in as a new patient that is filled in my particulars and contact. Now I will not bore you with the details of the chat I had with my doctor but I came out pleased to get a referral to a rheumatologist that’s not too far and I can get myself there by bus. Oh yea as I wandered down the road I saw bus 708. Now, this is another one, as previously I had only seen 711. Now I know there are 2 busses to Paramatta. Feeling pleased I walked back and both times it had taken me about 20 minutes to walk the distance. For someone who at one time could not walk to the toilet from the bedroom I have come a long way.
I rang the rheumatologist and made my appointment again giving my contact details. I was asked to contact my old rheumatologist as ask them to fax my records through before my appointment. I very happily rang the Melbourne rheumatologist and passed on the fax number and my new land line number. As I put the phone down I was struck by doubts. Had I got my phone numbers right? I had given a number and when trying to remember my mobile number I just could not think and so had told all that just use landline. I put the number I had given into my mobile and tried calling my landline. I got a busy signal. Now how is that possible? Can it be that the phone is off the base unit? Surely that does not give a busy signal? And what was my mobile number? I could not remember. What to do? After a few minutes of this quandary as now I realised I had given wrong phone numbers to every doctor’s surgery I had visited or called. While I did not expect anyone to call me I had a small panic about giving out wrong number… would they get annoyed if they tried to call and did not get me? Would I be told to go away as I could not even provide a correct contact number… never to darken their doors with my poor memory?
Suddenly I thought I need to call my husband. Even though he is at work and probably will not be happy about personal calls… he a stickler for protocol. But I had to get the right number. So I did call him and asked if he could tell me our home number. I am sure I gave a garbled story of why I needed the number. But as soon as he told me the right number I realised what I had been doing…. Giving half a number of each of my phones – landline and mobile. Why do we have to remember so many numbers? There is a number for the pin of all your bank cards, numbers for your phones (these have been a particular bother as I have been moving about and only now got my own home), numbers of different bank accounts, number for visa, number for Centrelink, numbers and passwords for the various employment agencies so on and so forth.
As I started calling all the doctors’ surgeries I found the funny side of it. Explaining that I had got the numbers of my mobile and landline phones mixed up and had given half of each was particularly embarrassing and I ended up with laughing at myself and am sure that this will make a good story for the receptionists who took my calls. Maybe I should have stayed in bed and avoided making an idiot of myself. Hey a good laugh is good for your health and I think I contributed to at least 3 people’s good health today.
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