Mom was feeling generous tonight.
Tonight’s phone call was spent trying to make me feel guilty for not providing her with grandchildren. This is a common theme, but for some reason it’s been dormant for a while. Tonight her lecture gave off a hint of desperation, as though I might suddenly change my mind, find somebody, get married, and produce several grandchildren before the cancer takes away her chance to spoil them.
But it’s ok, because I don’t have anything else on my mind to drag me down.
In the meantime, she saw her doctor the idiot today. She told him that from now on she’s not going to return monthly for blood pressure and cholesterol checks. This guy actually had her doing that, and he had her so worked up that she’d check her BP five times a day and immediately gulp a pill if it went up over 140/80. He had her thinking that if it got too high for just a few minutes, she’d immediately have a stroke.
I’d like to have five minutes alone with this guy. With or without a baseball bat.
I finally convinced her that it is NOT necessary to take your BP every few minutes, and it sure as hell isn’t necessary to contribute to this guy’s boat payment every month. But the appointment was made for today, so she went.
He walked into the room and started coughing. She asked if he was all right and he explained that he has a cold. “And you still wanted to see me?” she asked. “Oh, you’ll be fine,” he said.
Meanwhile mom is living under restrictions from her oncologist. She can’t go anywhere where there are a lot of people, because her resistance is low and now would not be a good time to get sick. And this idiot doctor is coughing on her while insisting that she get a flu shot.
She told him that she won’t come back next month. “Well, all right,” he said, and had her make an appointment for December.
Now MY blood pressure is up, and while I’m not running for a pill bottle, my chances of sleeping tonight are slim, again. I should start calling mom first thing in the morning. It’ll give me time to get burnt and then calm down.
September 21, 2008 at 12:35 am
[...] Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving. -Erma Bombeck [...]
September 21, 2008 at 9:35 am
If you switch to morning calls, it’s true you will then have all day to calm down again, but you won’t hear about doctor visits, etc. until the next morning, so you will worry all night while you are waiting to hear. Either way, you are still stuck worrying or being aggravated all night. Sorry.
September 21, 2008 at 4:54 pm
You have a point there. Though if mom doesn’t tell me about test results anyway, it probably won’t make a difference if she doesn’t tell me about them in the morning or if she doesn’t tell me about them in the evening.
Yes, on less than three hours of sleep I’m a little punchy. ;^)