On Word & Upward!

  Common Courtesy I know I’m not alone in thinking that it is polite to show up on time for an appointment.  Sure, I’ve gotten appointment times wrong and shown up the day before (never, thankfully, the day after), but usually I am there a bit early, hoping that the appointment will get over with. Yes, that’s the attitude you develop after having hundreds of them. And even the docs will acknowledge that sometimes you need to go to a lab, an infusion room, or their offices more than once a week.  And it’s not pleasant. So why can’t they hold up their ends by signing the damn paperwork so that my medicine is all set to go for my two o’clock appointment? Now, before I rant, I want to say that this cancer center was thoughtfully planned (for the most part. I still don’t think the blood lab with its wide-open door is very private). The cancer center is located at a downtown hospital. It’s a separate building but joined by a footpath to the rest of the hospital.  The imagi...

  A Warrior, Not a Worrier How I wish      “So, when did you have your third Covid shot?”      “I don’t remember,” I answer the tech. “I had the fourth shot last Monday.”      She notes that, but continues to probe. “Can you remember the month you got that third shot?”      “No.” I chuckle, then tell her, “I don’t carry that card around with me.”      “Well, we need to know.”      “Ask the cancer center people,” I tell her a bit forcefully. “They have all that information in their system.”        Oh, how I wish the three different systems talked to one another!        Finally, she gives in. On to the next questions about medications. She tells me a Latin name for some drug and all I can respond is, “What does that drug do?”   Because if she can tell me what it does, I can tell her if I take i...