July 18, 2022, 11:30 a.m.
Today was my last appointment with Francis, my Pain Physical Therapist for the past 4 1/2 years. Both the parking lot and the waiting room were eerily empty today. Francis said they are like that all the time now. We remembered the days of the in-person Pain Management Program when there might be 30 people in the waiting room.
He told me that the Pain Clinic has hired two RNs and a dietitian and they, with him, have been having an online 11-week Pain Management module, which I could join. Yes, I could, but it wouldn’t be the same as it was in January-February of 2018.
Francis is planning to retire (early) with his last day being the last day of next month. He and his wife are going on a cross-country cycling trip, from Colorado to Nebraska, in September.
I couldn’t possibly begin to remember everything we talked about, but I was in his office for an hour and 15 minutes. I told him, of course, about Linda’s hospitalization and intubation at Eden Medical Center in May and about her ongoing recovery. He told me that his 90-year-old father who lives with them is also on oxygen. So he knew all about oxygen concentrators and portable oxygen units.
We talked about my ongoing diabetes care. He told me that in his 15 years at Kaiser in Pain Management that he had not encountered any other patient who has had as much control of diabetes as I have. That made me feel good!
I told him to stay on Facebook so I could stay in touch with him and he told me to send him a Friend request. I am losing my personal in-person therapist, who has done me WAY more good than anyone in the Mental Health department. But I knew it was coming a year ago so I have had time to mentally (and emotionally) prepare for this.
My last in-person appointment with him before the pandemic was January 2020. Then he and Dr. Julie Whitehead managed the weekly online pain group (on Tuesday) which I was in from June 2020 to October 2021 when Julie moved to Oakland to what for her was upwards career mobility, so Francis could not continue the weekly online pain group by himself.
I drove myself the 10 miles from San Leandro to Union City, which I knew I could do. It was just more fun when Linda was able to drive me so we could talk during the ride. The drive today was uneventful. Normal traffic since it was not during commute hours.
When I got home, Linda had been up and moved the vacuum cleaner from the laundry into the bedroom (on my side of the bed). I wonder if she’s giving me a hint! She asked for ice cream.
Debbie, one of our new next door neighbors (a lesbian couple), knocked on my door to ask if they could put more plants in our planter box that runs on the property line between our houses. We talked for a little while, and she told me she was just diagnosed as pre-diabetic. So–you know me–I started the conversation about a low-carb diet. She said she has eaten low-carb now and then for weight loss, so I didn’t have to convince her about that.
