Tuesday I was heading over to Seattle by ferry to a neurology appointment. I called the aid car with some weirdo stuff this weekend so needed to check in with my big gun doctor. (Reminder to self: when calling an aid car make sure you are not wearing your horse riding bra - you know the old questionable one? Because, not that you are necessarily thinking about that in a time of medical trauma, but what if they are super handsome and charming and seem like they are not from around here? And are not nerdy like the last EMT guys who blushed when they put the heart monitor stickers on you? Just sayin' ....) Sorry. Sideline.
When we parked on the ferry for the 40 minute ride, a smiling woman in her 60's tapped on my window. She said, "I think I am supposed to meet you." Huh. This has been an odd journey of late, so why not? We talked a bit and I invited her to sit in the truck with me (40 years of ferry riding I have never invited someone to sit in the car with me...) A thoroughly sweet woman, she went on to say last night she was at a dinner party and mentioned that she really wanted to ride a horse again. She and her husband are going to Maui and some folks at the dinner said Hana on Maui had the most beautiful horses. She pulled in behind my truck on the road to the ferry (which by the way I never take to the city because I can't park it anywhere and the gas mileage is atrocious.) While driving she saw my bumper sticker, "Fight Smog, Buy Horses - Hana, Maui", and my personalized license plate about traveling. The coincidence struck her as odd, and so she decided to meet me. She had horses previously in her life, but has no room for them now. She moved up from California to be with a new husband and felt isolated (welcome to the Northwest Freeze!) on the end of a forested road in on a drippy gray weathered island. We talked endlessly like very old friends until we landed in Seattle. It was not awkward at any moment, truly like we were just picking up on a conversation we had already started.
We exchanged numbers and went on our merry way.
I went to my neuro appointment, gave him my list of symptoms, and he sent me directly to the cardiologist and an appointment next week with the words "We may have it figured out why you had the stroke... this sounds like your heart. " Since my hormones are in flux again (ah, lovely menopause) it is playing havoc with my heart rate. I had this before the stroke, but post stroke nothing. Post stroke there was a complete and utter change of diet and lifestyle. I was in charge of nothing. Not the house, kids, career, whether the cars got their oil changed. I ate nothing greasy, caffeinated, sugary or salty. I slept a lot. I lost 3 clothing sizes (it doesn't look it being that I am 6' tall!) Today, my diet isn't quite that strict (caffeine and sugar have slipped back into my life) but it is much better than previous.
Marcy left me a sunny message tonight about a "mile high" chocolate birthday cake she was given two days ago (her birthday was valentines day) and wanting to meet at the local public place to share with my kids and I.
See, there is something to this heart stuff.
I am doing this "heart opening" , or trying anyway, and people start walking in my life.
I haven't even told you about three men in one day inquiring about getting together for wine, coffee, lunch....that does not happen to me. Ever.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
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5 comments:
I'm really enjoying this post and the ones before it. I, too, am not good at opening my heart--and then when I do, I manage to open it to the wrong sort of people. I'm practicing, and hoping for good things. Three men? Really?? :)
Jayne,
Like I said, it is a strange place I have been in lately. And it took a lot to get to this type of living. I suppose the threat of death was one of those things!
And yes, 3 men one day. No idea where that came from. Can't say I didn't enjoy it!! But I also was very awkward about it all. Andrea
Good lord, three guys :-) Was one of them the handsome EMT guy? I suspect they can't ask for dates with "patients," alas.
What is the doc muttering about with your heart? A particular type of arrhythmia? Afib?
There are times when I've also wanted to approach someone about something because of something that just happened, but in today's world, I don't. (On a ferry, like you were though, isn't very threatening.)
But one time, as I was sitting in the DMV for a couple of hours with a lady sitting next to me and us chatting about something, when the lights went flickering on and off (this was just after the killing of all of those children in Connecticut). Everybody there, including the men, just froze. The looks on everybody's face was a look of "what's going to happen next?" We were sitting right by the door and the lady I was talking to said, "Let's get to the door." At that time, we were together in not only thoughts but that we were the best friends we have ever had.
Turns out that earlier, there was a Hispanic lady with two toddlers. Now, you don't go to the DMV with two toddlers running around and she just let them roll on the floors, scream and do whatever they wanted to do. She just waited there for her turn to come up. When it did and on the other side of the high counters where nobody could see them and had forgotten about them when one of them started turning the lights on and off while her mother at the counter now could have cared less. In fact, that's how the lady next to me started talking. I thought it was me getting irritated because these kids were really unruly and their mother just sitting there. The lady next to me said if her mother was there, who was 83 years old, she'd go over to the lady and tell her to control her kids. And that's how our conversation started.
Karen Anne, No, not the EMT guy...that would have been creepy! They were just a handsome pair.
Now the docs -neuro and cardio - are in disagreement with what is going on. More tests. Yippee.
Buffy - ah, unruly children. I find myself thinking "Hey, maybe you should keep an eye on your youngster?" But then I am sure there were times when they were young and I was exhausted that I let them act out. Although turning lights out in a public place I would have nixed!
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