July chitchat

[agate]

If I read this right, you were out and waiting at the DMV for an hour and a half even though it was 100' outside?

Congratulations and bravo! Now that's one less concern, and being rid of a nagging worry is always nice.

Even though I'm a nondriver, I have to turn up at the DMV now and then to get a state ID card, and last time I went there wasn't much of a wait at all and the picture they took of me was a really good photo. I've never had such good luck before.

I've heard some horror stories about long waits at DMVs.

By all means, celebrate! You'll be good to go on your wheels for a while now.

[Virginia]

If nothing happens Agate, I'll be good to go for 5 years. I had even been studying for this test that didn't happen. I am not sorry that I studied because it is always good to refresh yourself when it comes to driving. Why they didn't test me I don't know. They were testing others because I saw them.

I can't believe I went out in 100 degree heat, but I thought if I didn't get it taken care of I was going to worry myself to death. I turned the A/C on the highest I could and of course the DMV office was cool, so it was going to and from the car that was hard. They had a TV on that was giving the news and occasionally it would give the temperature and it would have 100 degrees.

Today, I am feeling this. I am extremely tired and I went to bed earlier than I normally do and got up a little later. So now I have to recover.

Something is going on with Eric, but I don't know what. I sent him a text telling him I had gotten my drivers license renewed and they maybe should watch out if they were in North Raleigh. He hardly responded. Also, he was planning on coming over here today but I haven't heard from him. I don't know if he went to the Doctor and got the results of his MRI or if he has started hurting again. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of his wife's Mother's death and tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the murder of her Aunt and Uncle. They still don't know when the trials will begin.

[agate]

I hope you'll hear from Eric soon, Virginia. And maybe you'll be able to sleep off yesterday's DMV experience.

It's odd the way drivers are tested, I think. I may have posted about this before but years ago I had some helpers who couldn't read English, and as we were driving along I kept noticing how many signs there were along the way and wondering how in the world they managed. Some were advertising signs that they could ignore, but others were important signs for drivers, directing them.

I called the DMV and asked if licensed drivers are required to know how to read English, and the person I spoke to got very huffy and said, "Why in the world do they need to read English? All they need to know is how to DRIVE."

I recall having to know the shapes of several important signs, and I understand that if you know those shapes, you don't need to know what the words mean. But there are lots of other important signs out there, particularly on freeways.

More than once one of those helpers got lost, and I wonder if that would have happened if she'd been able to read English....

Maybe the way drivers are tested needs some rethinking? There seem to be many really catastrophic accidents on the road.

[Virginia]

Agate, funny you brought that up. Eric called and we were talking about that very thing. Here, they give the test in English and Spanish, but giving the test in Spanish doesn't help a person read the signs on the road. I wouldn't want to drive if I couldn't read what all the signs say. I did find out that if a person fails the test they can go back the very next day and retake it. I thought you had to wait 30 days, but you don't. If I had known that I would not have worried quite so much.

Eric's Doctor is going to meet with two other Doctors in his practice and is to call him Monday to let him know what they feel is the best course of action for him. The Doctor told him he knew he couldn't walk hardly at all and asked him what his PCP had been telling him. Eric told him the PCP had been saying he had a Neuropathy and that was causing his problems. The Doctor said you might have a Neuropathy but I can guarantee you that is not the reason you can't walk much. So we will see what the Doctor has to say Monday. Bad timing with them getting ready to move back into their house in the next month or so. But if they can get him out of pain it will be wonderful.

[agate]

Wonder what the doctor had in mind when he said he could guarantee Eric that it wasn't neuropathy that was causing his walking difficulty. Does Eric just have to stay tuned and wait until the doctor comes up with an idea about what is causing it?

So they're about to move back to the house? That should be exciting for them provided that the move-back isn't too difficult just now. Maybe there are ways of streamlining the process. I hope so.

I have really good news:

I got my first manual wheelchair around 1985 and it wasn't replaced until 2015. Since I had kept the first one that long, I expected to have this newer one that long. Its armrests need to be replaced but that happens from time to time, and sometimes the durable medical equipment company just sends replacements to me in the mail. For a while now I've been holding them together with tape.

The special-order inflatable cushion never was big enough for the seat on this chair. It's a 16"x16" cushion that should have been 16"x18". Dealing with this company is never easy, and so I just let it slide, but after the falls and the back problems, I've been keen on the idea of having that cushion replaced.

And the wheelchair back is wearing out. It probably isn't the best fit for my back either. So recently I gave the company a call to request these three replacements. I was immediately told that my wheelchair is now "obsolete," and they are refusing to issue any replacement parts for it. They told me to ask the doctor to rx a new chair.

I wasn't surprised when I called the doctor's office and was told she probably wouldn't OK it unless I came in to be seen. My next scheduled appointment isn't until early August but I was OK with waiting. I figured that there's always more tape, and I could tinker with the back and might be able to make it work better by removing it and putting it back on in a slightly different way.

I put the whole matter on a back burner for the past week. But today the doctor's office called and they have put through the rx for a new chair! I was really astonished. I'm such a new patient for this doctor that I've seen her only once briefly.

I was afraid that the doctor would decide she couldn't prescribe any new chair because, after all, I can walk, and why should I have a wheelchair?

There is a school of thought, though I doubt that many doctors would believe in it, that says you have to have completely useless legs before you "really need" a wheelchair. It's a great relief to realize that this new doctor isn't going to argue about my need for a wheelchair.

It's also a relief to know that I won't need to do any more tinkering with this chair. In a few months I might have a new one.

The tinkering with the back would involve wrenches. The first wheelchair came with a booklet that recommended about a dozen different wrenches. I have them but dread having to use them. I'm just not very adept with wrenches.

[Virginia]

Agate, that is good new! First of all that it appears that you are going to get a much needed new wheelchair and on top of that you seem to have a new Doctor that you can call on. This is a good thing. I hope you get a chair you like since you say you sit in yours most of the time. Put away the wrenches. If they find the one you have is in too good shape they might cancel the new one.

Congratulations for trying.

[agate]

The rules doctors have to work around must be daunting sometimes. When I spoke to the doctor's office, it was explained to me that the CMS rule is that for a new wheelchair rx, the doctor has to have seen me some time in the last 6 months. They figured out that since I saw her in February, I could still squeak by under that rule.

CMS = Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I hear about CMS very often. Apparently every medical expense a person is likely to incur has to go past CMS and be approved.

[Virginia]

Yesterday evening it rained cats and dogs here. For any who might not know that expression it means it was very heavy rain with flash flood warnings.

I was in all day but Eric came over and put a lamp on my office desk with a very bright light. My lamp that I have loved for many years has played out. I will take it to get it worked on. While he was here his wife came in. First time that has happened in a very long time. I didn't have on any makeup and here she was, had already been out getting some things for their house when they are able to move back in. She thinks it will be in a month. That lady is so organized it makes me feel bad. She was reading off a list of little things she had questions about for the contractor. She doesn't miss much. I told her when something happens to me she is going to be shocked at how I live when she sees my closets and cabinets because she will be one of the ones to clean things out. I asked her to keep in mind that I haven't been able to see the back of my cabinets in a long time.

She really is energetic. She keeps, the just turned one year old, during the week and she takes him out somewhere almost every day. They stay on the go.

Today it has rained almost all day and the temperature has remained in the 70s. It will be back in the mid 90s by Tuesday but weather man says it will feel like 100 or more.

[Ikoiko]

Oh gosh, I think I stopped wearing makeup in my 20s or 30s.

[Virginia]

Ikoiko, I am sure you look great without makeup. I am very fair skinned and need something to brighten me up a little. My neighbors all laughed when they found out I had no makeup at all, not even lipstick while I was in the hospital or rehab. They have been seeing me with makeup since they have known me.

[agate]

I gave up on makeup too, long ago, probably in my early 40s.

It was expensive and cluttered up the place, and I never was much good at using it apparently because I'd put it on so it looked good in the mirror, then go outside somewhere and catch a glimpse of my face somewhere and be horrified at the mess I'd made.

A couple of years ago when a neighbor died I was one of the people in charge of going through her apartment and sorting out things people might want since her family couldn't be here to do that. I came across a nice mirror that gave a 3-sided view of the face and thought that might be helpful for home haircutting. Then I found out that you could set it to several different lightings. This, I was told, was a cosmetic mirror.

So people who really know about makeup probably know that different light situations cause the makeup to look very different.

Do people take courses in how to do makeup? It's so tricky that I think I'd need some carefully supervised training just to get it right.

[Virginia]

Well, I will.confess that before I was married and living in Atlanta, I took a very short course in (I can't remember what it was called) but it had to do with how to walk, how to get in and out of a car properly. In other words how to be a lady. I think they taught me how to put on lipstick with a brush, but I can' remember any thing else. I didn't go long enough. I was alone in Atlanta and this place was close to where I worked. I think I quit right away because when I got out it was dark and I had to wait for the bus to go home.

[agate]

Putting lipstick on with a brush sounds like a useful skill, and it's one I never learned though I've seen people doing it and always wondered how they managed to get it on right. It looked as if they first drew an outline and then filled it in.

You can tell I never got very far in this makeup thing. In fact even mascara was a problem for me. I went to a class once, walking in the snow, and didn't realize that the snow on my face had made the mascara run. I sat through the class and later looked in a mirror. My cheeks were covered with very dark streaks.

[Howie]

Virginia, I lived in Atlanta for a few years in my misspent youth. I'm sure it is very different now.

[agate]

I've been in Atlanta a couple of times too though not to live there--just visiting an aunt several times for about a week each time. I recall how hot the summer days were--a heat considerably more oppressive than any I'd known anywhere else.

A person would need makeup in that heat just to keep from looking too wilted.