Friday, April 26, 2019, 3:30 p.m.
I was glad that my replacement Kaiser card arrived this week so I could use it when I checked in for acupuncture today. When the receptionist gave me the printout for this appointment, I noticed that I have a new appointment scheduled with the Hearing Aid Center on June 24. Okay, thanks for telling me! I will have to remember to put this in my Google calendar when we get home. I didn’t know that tomorrow I would receive an appointment card in the mail!
I overthink and I overtalk. The medical assistant at the door of the acupuncture room asked me what my pain level was today. I told her 6; that’s all she needed–or wanted–to know. But I had to elaborate and tell her I was having more pain today because of the high stress of having my wallet stolen last week. TMI! Somehow I managed to schedule my next appointment for Friday, May 31, without going into any details of getting ready to go on vacation.
She gave me #3 and I was glad I was earlier than #8 like last time. I found my chair and was happy to see a foot stool already in place in front of my chair. I spoke to the woman in #2, saying I was glad they had foot stools out today. I cleaned my ears with the alcohol wipes I was given, adjusted the foot stool, and put my backpack under my chair.
The acupuncturist today was the same young man who did it last time. He is bald and soft spoken and makes me think of a Buddhist monk, though I think he has a Latino name. It took about 10 minutes, I think, for him to get the needles placed in all the patients, though there were fewer patients here than last time. I think there were 8.
When all the needles were placed and he had given oral instructions to the two new patients, he dimmed the room lights. The New Age-y and very relaxing music was playing softly. Now I could fully concentrate on mindful breathing and meditation. Once during the session, the woman on the other side of me, #4, took a drink from her water bottle. I would have been afraid to do that, afraid I would knock some of the needles loose!
I love this time of full relaxation! It’s a pretty much pain-free time. It lasted until 4:25, meaning we had close to 45 minutes for today’s session.
When almost all the needles were removed, there was a cell phone that rang. This, in spite of the signs in the room that said “No electronic devices” and “Please turn off your cell phones while in this room.” The woman was instantly mortified and said (louder than the phone’s ringing), “Oh, crap! Nobody ever calls me on this phone!” I realized that I had not muted the sound on my phone, either; but I also knew that if I got a phone call no one else would hear it because my phone is synced to my hearing aids! But it would probably knock some needles out if I tried to hang up the call by pressing the button on my right hearing aid. I would just have to let it ring and hang up on its own. Fortunately, I didn’t have to find out today!
Linda and Emily had been vegging in the van. Actually, Linda had been playing solitaire on her phone. We discussed if we were going to go to Safeway to look for fresh raw lamb for Emily and did go to the Marketplace shopping center and found imported New Zealand lamb, touting “grass-fed.” While there in the butcher shop, we saw our friend Scott Emerson. After Safeway, we decided on impulse to go into Unleashed by Petco, remarking that we had never been here since we’ve had Emily. We spent a lot of time looking at things and ended up buying the poop bags that we needed.
Emily wanted to walk outside so we let her take her time, as much time as she needed. We noticed a young black man sitting on a nearby bench, and had a patch on the left sleeve of his white shirt that identified him as “Security Staff.” And the only thought in my mind was, “And where was the ‘security staff’ when we really needed them at South Shore last week?!?”
