Entertaining Office Visit

A glimpse into today's office visit.

It's been 28 days since I started the Copaxone, and today I had to go for my one-month checkup. They checked my vitals, drew some blood, and gave me medicine. Oh, yea, and I had to bring my unused medicine so my contact could count the unused syringes.

My contact calls me this morning before my appointment, and she tells me to meet her in her office instead of the infusion department where we were originally going to meet. Thought: since I write about my contact so much, I'm going to give her a name. What name shall I give her? Clara, I think. Yes, Clara. I get there, go up to Clara's office where she meets me in the waiting room so we can go down to the infusion department because there were no exam rooms open. Yes, you read correctly, we were going to meet there, but that got changed this morning.

We chat in the elevator about nothing, the crummy weather, how the weather changes your mood and induces headaches. Stuff like that.

We get to the infusion department where it takes about 30 tries to get 6 blood pressure readings. Clara kept getting error messages from the cuff unit. “I'm dead, aren't I? I died and no one told me.” I try standing up straighter, take the purse off of my shoulder, cross my arms, uncross my arms, but nothing seemed to stop the errors.

Clara Also comes over to us. Clara Also is a nurse who works in the infusion department. The first time I met her, she introduced herself as Clara, also. So obviously she's been Clara Also since then. Anyway, Clara says to Clara Also, “I don't think this is the right cuff for her. It doesn't seem to fit.”

Clara Also replies, “Well, it's a normal adult cuff.”

Clara said, “Yea, this isn't the right cuff for her.”

We all laugh. And agree. And the last reading of my blood pressure was the highest one, which is still low-ish. Ninety-something over sixty-something.

So now it's time for Clara Also to draw some blood. Not sure why she mentioned that her vanity plates say “Gngr snap” because every variation of “Soul Stealer” was taken (yes she calls herself a ginger). As the blood starts to flow into the tube, I say, “Oh look, here's a little bit of my soul now.” She promised to tell me where her new freckles popped up when I'm there for my next visit.

Come October, I hope I remember to ask.