tuesday the 17th

Yesterday was full, thanks to more last-minute tests. Dr. Nguyen wants me to be in a group for my drug trial by the end of the week, which required that I get an EKG and more blood work. Scheduled long before that, though, was the fitting for my prosthesis back at Nordstrom.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw it. People make jokes about prosthetic limbs a lot, and I didn’t find them funny until now. It’s an icebreaker, for sure.
Someday, somebody’s going to ask me about my surgery, and I’m just going to pull it out and show it to them, and I’m going to laugh.

From the fitting, I went to Kaiser to get my EKG, which was a Marx Brothers routine of its very own. I was greeted by the nurse, Esme, who was full of energy and fun and talked nonstop while she took my blood pressure. She talked so fast, in fact, that I didn’t catch on when she told me she was going to stick around to watch the procedure because she wanted to learn to be a technician herself.

She started to explain what an EKG is and forgot what she was saying, and then remembered she had to find the technician, Nathan, who seemed to be missing.

Nathan was eventually found, and he arrived, and didn’t look at all like a medical technician. He was quite young, and he looked a little like he could be Esme’s grandson. Esme was confused my the multitude of wires and leads, and asked a thousand questions as she hooked me up under Nathan’s supervision. They made an odd couple, with Esme’s questions, and Nathan’s answers, which seemed to confuse Esme even more, and their banter, and the way they moved around each other.

I got a treat after dinner. Ryan has been looking for opportunities to feed me sushi whenever he can in the time we have before I start chemo. We’ll take any opportunity, but since we have to feed the kids, our opportunities are limited to after bedtime, and there are not many places open that late.

Fortunately, we remembered the excellent sushi bar at the Pearl City Zippy’s, and we got in just in time.

Despite my love of sushi, I am still a novice when it comes to sitting at the bar, in front of the chef, and still feel intimidated, but Yoshi-san, the sushi chef, was in a great mood. Ryan even scored extra pieces of sushi. We left full and happy.