[MelodyL]

Hi all:

I have been having this awful pain in my left shoulder so last week (during Alan's visit yet), I casually mentioned to Dr. Fred that I would be calling him because of my shoulder. In two seconds,he ordered an x-ray for me, examined me and told me to come in today and we'd see what the x-ray showed.

So Alan and I go there today. How odd it was for me to be up there on the table and Alan sitting on the chair. Alan says to me "I'm going to get the Dr. to send you for a colonscopy" I told Alan, "you mention the word colonoscopy and you don't eat dinner tonight". Alan shut up.

Dr. Fred (I love this man) walks in, sees the x-ray report has not come in yet, and hollers out. "Call up the place and get me the results in five minutes'. They did and in five minutes, he's holding my report in his hands.

It said "mild degenerative , blah blah blah. He goes "hm. Let's see. I'll give you a shot and you'll tell me how it goes. I do want you to go for an MRI and Alan goes "why" and we both say at the same time "because you can't detect a torn rotator cuff in an x-ray". Dr. Fred burst out laughing.

Now I don't like MRI's and it has nothing to do with being in a tunnel.

I once had an mri and I had to stop them because it felt like it was pulling out a crown in my mouth. They had to stop and give me a Cat scan instead.

I never forgot that experience. I did have an MRI after that with no problem, so I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! We tried to do the MRI two times and both times it felt like my crown was being yanked out, it felt like something was pulling at my crown in my mouth. If anyone has a clue why this happened, I'd love to know. So I explained his to Dr. Fred and he goes, "Okay, let's see first how this injection turns out".

So he goes out and gets this humongous injection. But I have no problem. I'm a dental phobic, and not a needle phobic. You can shoot me anywhere, with anything, I don't care.

So he's trying to prepare me for the shot saying "now Melody, don't be afraid, I'll be gentle", and I go. "Knock yourself out, shoot me". I close my eyes, Alan holds my hand and Dr. Fred does his thing (I felt nothing, just a mild pressure, this guy knows his stuff). He goes "all done" and I say "now aren't I a good patient?" He goes. very good.

Now he turns around and says "by the way, have you had a colonoscopy"? and I go to him "listen Dr. Fred. I have to take baby steps in these things. I just had a mammogram, I have to go to a dental appointment soon, I might have to have an MRI, AND I KNEW YOU WOULD BE BRINGING UP COLONOSCOPIES!!!!
Then Alan looks up at Dr. Fred and says: "Thank you, I can now eat dinner tonight".
Dr. Fred laughed and said "no problem, we'll take baby steps. But I do want you to have a stress test, you are almost 60, and while you're doing good and look good and you're heart sounds fine, you are diabetic, blah, blah. and I go. "No problem, but I want to go on the treadmill, not on the table so can we wait until it gets warmer and my arthritis is better"? and he goes. "oh, no problem".
So I am now officially Dr. Fred's new patient.

Oh I must tell you about a woman I met yesterday named Paula. She will be an inspiration to everybody. I met her on the access-a-ride going home from a bridal shower.

I jump in and we start talking and I'm jabbering away about the shower and
she's smiling.....then she goes......"I'm blind". I said "you're blind?"."Oh you poor thing". She shows me her cane. I said "Jeez, you really have it rough, what happened?" She explained she had two aneurysms in her brain (her father had them too and died when he was 37 years old. She was born with these. She is now blind because of them. She became blind 7 years ago. She is also on her second husband!!!!!!

But the best was when she says to me. "Oh, that's not all I have, I have
multiple sclerosis". I said 'jesus Christ, what else could life hand you?"
She laughed and said "well, yesterday, the doctor told me I smoke too much".

I said "Lady, if I was blind, had two aneurysms, then I developed multiple
sclerosis, I'd be on a crack pipe tomorrow morning"!!!! With that, the
access-a-ride driver laughed so hard, he nearly ran us off the rode, the
lady burst out laughing and we laughed for 45 minutes.

I told her "you want to smoke, go home and smoke whatever you want to
smoke". And don't listen to your doctor." She said "well, last year someone
gave me a joint and I was so afraid I'd be arrested, I couldn't smoke it".

I said "oh really? what on earth could they do to you that's worse than what
you have now, PUT YOU IN A CELL????, jeeez, you're blind, you have aneurysms and MS for heaven's sake!!!!

That made the driver go nuts laughing again.

I had my camera in my handbag and I had been taking photos at the bridal shower. I looked at this lovely woman and asked if I could take her picture, that I wanted to remember her and she said "oh, please do"!!!

So I shall have a momento of a very nice woman that I met on an access-a-ride bus, who had such a sense of humor. She was amazing.

mel