From 'expired' to 'retired'

The news from New york is that the surgical team wants to see more of me. More specifically they want to see an MRI of the area where there was a cancer on my liver. This is quite some task as I now have to get one medical group to cooperate and perform a very expensive test at the request of another. This is the heart of the beast when it comes to medical expense. Apparently though I have two very select groups working for me.

Once I gave phone numbers for New York to my local people things happened and they found a slot for me this coming Monday to have the MRI done. Then I simply request that the imaging group produce a CD and I overnight that to New York. Then New York will look at it and make more medical decisions at what will seem like the speed of geologic time passing.

You may notice I sound a little cynical about medical teams. I am. I have been banged up, beat up, damaged and often in need of medical help many times for simple things like broken bones or repair of gushing wounds. One thing that seldom happens is a medical team making decisions in a hurry. There also seemed to be an unspoken creed among medical teams that they never hurry and they never let the patient feel like he was part of the whole episode. Well, the people working on my case are breaking that whole perception down. From the time I was first suspected of being in deep trouble, every medical team member had made me feel like I mattered. This is different and I am not accustomed to it. The team in New York is human and makes me feel comfortable. The local team is friendly and efficient. give me some time to drop my defenses here and accept that these people really care about me as a human being. It is a rather new and welcome sensation.

So I go into the weekend feeling better about the people who are handling my case. They are doing one hell of a job. I feel am going I am going to make the transition from ready to expire to simply being retired. The I have to work on that situation because I don't want to retire just yet, I still have something to contribute.