Forget About It

    Dave's primary doctor--I taught his sister back in the day, when she was a high school junior and he was a mere seventh grader.  I vaguely remember seeing him as a little kid.  I have not seem him since then. He and Dave used to play  golf together at the Battenkill.  A number of years ago, during those halcyon days, a noted artist painted pictures of the Golf Course and some of the club members, which included the doctor's then wife,  offered them for sale.  Marilyn spent several hundred dollars for a painting of the 6th Hole, a serenely beautiful scene, even if you're not into golf.
    Somehow it fell to the doctor to deliver the painting, when it became available.  Through ill fortune, I happened to be the one to answer the phone when he called for directions to our house. He was calling from his car, and I made the assumption he was driving from Greenwich, the home of the golf course.  So I directed him from there.  But it turned out he was calling from Cambridge, so he got lost.  I can't remember how the painting finally got here: probably Dave picked it up at the Battenkill. Naturally, I felt embarrassed to have sent a doctor, of all people, on a wild goose chase.  But all worked out, and hopefully was forgotten.
   Today I drove Dave to his doctor's appointment, which I have been doing since the fall, on June 17.  Before that, I never even went with him to his appointments, much less into the room.  But a few weeks ago, I changed that and went with him into his neurologist's office, and today for the first time into his primary doctor's office.
   The doctor greeted Dave and then turned to me and said he thought he remembered meeting me. Dave offered that I used to teach in Cambridge, but the doctor said that would have been when his sister was there.  Then, said the doctor, he thought it might have been when he delivered a painting of the golf course.
   I said, "Gulp!"

Real Simple

   I don't have much opportunity to engage in conversation these days.  But in the past month, two different medical professionals, and also a family member, have mentioned the same term.  Occam's Razor is evidently a touchstone in the world of medical diagnostics.  Simply put, it espouses the principle of parsimony.  The assumptions introduced to explain a thing must not be multiplied beyond necessity.  What can be done with few assumptions is done in vain with more.The simplest answer is often THE answer.  Now if we know what we're talking about, why not just say it?

Birthday Remembrance

Helen Cecelia Donovan,  December 30, 1900

Birthday Prayers

Dorothy Evelyn Rita Madigan
    12/29/39----06/01/2011

Diagnosis X

   The doctor said, and this is an exact quote, "I don't want to make anything up."  He has referred patient, and any potential diagnosis, to an esteemed specialist and evidently doesn't want to venture any further out on the proverbial limb.

In Dreams...

    In last night's dream, he was playing golf with his brother, and the swing was good and the ball was going as directed, and his comment was that only yesterday, he could hardly move at all.

Lack of Vision

   Or, "I think they don't care."
  October 8--- Double appointment set for (1) Field-of-Vision Exam and (2) Office Visit with the esteemed Dr. Weiner
   October 7, Received call at 4:00 p.M. saying Dr. W. would be "unavailable" and Manager would call me back to reschedule. Will need the 2 appts.
   November 10--No call from office after more than a month, so I called to check my patient status.  They had been  busy, I'm told.  They rescheduled, in 2 parts, for Nov. 23 and Dec. 1.
  November 23--Drove to Clifton Park for the intensive Field-of -Vision test.  The machine was broken, awaiting repair.  Rep promised to call me back that day, or even night, to apprise me of situation, important because of my pending appointment with the inimitable Dr. W. on December 1.
  Nov. 23, 24, 25----Did not receive the promised call.  I'm so hurt.
 November 25, evening---Received recorded call confirming my Dec 1 appt. But that's not to happen until after the Vision Exam
 November 27---I called to say what the heck, but the office was closed til Mon.
 November 30---I was going to ignore my scheduled visit, which was to be in Troy office, but decided to give them a courtesy call.  I explained, and I mean I had to explain, the situation that I was not to see Dr. W. until after the F of V test. She had to leave to check my story.  She came back to tell me that yes, she'd called the Clifton Park office and the machine was being worked on right now.  She left again to check with Dr. W. and returned to tell me that I could have  the Field of Vision test tomorrow morning, Dec. 1 at 9:30 on the repaired machine in C.P., and then keep my 3:40 appt. with Dr. W. in Troy
   I told her that, since I'd received no call, I'd assumed the Dec. 1 Follow-Up appt. would not happen, and I had made other plans, which was true.
  She said she'd cancel then.  That was it.
 I'd  been previously informed that Dr. W. will be out of the country for about 9 weeks or so, and would not be available for  any appointments until his return, sometime in February of 2016 or so.
I guess they don't need my business, and I hope I don't need theirs.