Just What the Doctor Ordered

30Aug

Thursday we have a get to know you and your history appointment at the Family Health Clinic. When you are in the MOTP, they assign you to the clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, which in-turn assigns a Family Physician for non-transplant related issues while you are here. Sometimes, but not always, they will take the support person into the practice as well (the doctor assigned to us has agreed to include me - yeah!). This has been a concern as, having lived in ON, we know what a shortage of Family Docs there is and have many friends who have been unable to get into a practice. In fact, Carman’s cousin is a doctor in Barrie and has unable to retire. He and the other doctors in his practice haven’t been able to find anyone who will take on their patience and they are reluctant to leave them hanging - bless them all!

It is a team practice at TWH and includes a host of specialty doctors, so we will be well cared for. Our assigned Dr. is very friendly, compassionate; thorough in collecting our data and grateful for my “BINDER” of information on Carman’s IPF. The Binder goes with us to all appointments and includes the history of our journey with specialists, tests and respective results, medications and personal notes from each procedure and appointment. She reviews the meds list and provides us with prescriptions for those we will be needing in short order (we brought a 3 month supply and are getting to the bottom of the bottles).

It’s not something you usually think about, but can you remember when you had your last tetanus shot; infection for which antibiotics were prescribed (specific dates); date and reason for which you were last hospitalized? Do you know your blood type? Family history for incidence of heart ailments (including parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.)? If you don’t remember what you had for lunch last Tuesday, you won’t likely be able to recall this medical information either. Trust me, it sure helps to take the time to record it and have it available in an appointment!

As we leave, Carman says “She’s a nice young girl, isn’t she?” to which I promptly reply, “Sweetie, she’s had more education than you’d ever sign up for and is a full fledged doctor, I don’t think you should call her a young girl - she’s a very accomplished woman! The fact that she looks like a teenager to us just indicates that we’re getting used to seeing wrinkles in the mirror!”

Tonight, Brad and I have decided that our peeps need a night out, so we’re dragging them (and the O2 strollers) to the Jays game. They are playing the Tampa Rays, who are still vying for a playoff spot, so it should be a good game, as the Jays try to shut them down.

We leave Jess & Carman to do some balcony bonding while we head out to gather some pizza for an early supper. We peruse the current offerings, then text our peeps to see what topping choices they’d prefer (ahh, the beauty & convenience of modern technology).

We fire off a text - Choices are meat supreme; bacon double cheeseburger, Canadian, Pesto Amore, and Sweet BBQ Chicken (it has broccoli on it so I know Carman won’t pick that one). What would you like?

Carman - Meat supreme (that’s my man!)

Jess - does the Canadian have pineapple?

Me - (to Brad) what region of Canada includes pineapple??? (text to Jess) - no, just meat including bacon 

Brad got her the Meat supreme too and then they had to pick most of the sausage off - HOT Italian sausage that is...burny, burny - lips on fire!

We grabbed a cab to the Rogers Centre and Brad was able to acquire 100 level tickets for the bargain sidewalk price of $25 each (a far drop from the box office price). Sadly there were only about 7,000 tickets sold for the game - wouldn’t it be better, at game time, to drop the box office price and get bums in seats for the Jays to feel well supported?

I was guarding our peeps (to make sure they didn’t participate in any sidewalk breakdancing and waste precious oxygen). When Brad returned, I tapped at the door and asked a lovely security lady which gate was best for us to enter thru with the seats we had. She graciously allowed us thru the locked door and directed us down a short hallway - bringing us into the stadium only 3 sections away from our seats. We slowly made the short walk along the concourse and then chatted with our usher, Shawn. We asked if we could sit in the row at the back of the section (one step down from the concourse and not a sole in the row) and park the Rollator right behind our seats beside the railing. I told him we’d be glad to move if the seat holders showed up later. He assured us that we’d would be fine and likely if anyone showed up they’d look to sit closer to the field anyway. Brad heads out for popcorn and we’re all set for the first pitch!

Thanks for all your help Shawn!

Within a few minutes, Brian from Guest Services appears and tells us we’re fine to stay where we are and if we need anything at all, to just let Shawn know and they’d help us out. Awesome!

I recalled the first 10 years of attending games with my folks, when they’d visit us, and all 55,000 seats would be filled with roaring fans. The boys didn’t disappoint us and we thoroughly enjoyed cheering them to a 2-0 score, complete with several waves around the sparsely filled stadium. Oxygen supply (or lack thereof) sent us on our way at the bottom of the 8th, but when we got home, we discovered they’d been able to hold the 2-0 score for the victory!

I know you hate this pic Jess,
but I don't and it's my blog...:o)

With Brad's quick thinking and sleight of hand, we even did our own little plug for organ donation at the Jays memorabilia booth...

Could you really see these two beautiful people, look them in the eye and say "have a great day!" and then NOT rush home and register online to become an organ donor...then ask all your family and friends - "Hey, have you registered yet?"

Leaving early was a great idea as it turned out, there were no crowds to navigate thru, the gate was only about 30m from our seats and there was a van cab waiting at the curb for us on exit! We may just be figuring this thing out...

Another well executed night of fun with Bra-sica! Thanks Friends!