Friday, June 24, 2016

Three Beautiful Things 06/23/16: The Deke Flies to Indy, Radiology Relief, Inertia and Emergency Dinner

1. The Deke and I were up at the crack of this morning's dark rainstorm and out the door at six o'clock to drive to Reagan National Airport so the Deke could catch her flight to Indianapolis and join other family for a reunion and the Indiana Fiddlers' Gathering. Cars, trucks, and buses clogged the roadways and I had never made this exact drive before, but with the Deke's help and with the wizardry of GPS, we arrived at the crowded airport and the Deke got inside, got through security, and found out her flight was delayed two hours. If only we'd known!

2. I spent time this afternoon sorting out the recommendation from the radiologist that I have a chest CT scan done. Through the online Johns Hopkins My Chart service, I received the radiologist's report and discovered that my pre-transplant chest X-ray in 2015 as well as Wednesday's X-ray show potential minimal and unchanged infiltrates in the lower region of my right lung. In other words, what was there fifteen months ago is still there, unchanged. In 2015, the doctor did not recommend further action, but, with this X-ray, the doctor recommended a CT scan to get a more detailed look at this spot so he can evaluate in further. Infiltrates often equal pneumonia. I've had pneumonia twice, toxic in 1973 and "regular" pneumonia in 2009. I'll find out next week after I have the scan done on Wednesday the 29th if the doctor thinks what he sees presents a problem that should concern me. All of this information was a relief to me. The words "minimal" and "unchanged" lead me to think there's some abnormality in my lung, but it doesn't seem like a major problem.  We'll see. I am remaining calm and hopeful and positive.

3. I had thoughts about going out for a bite to eat around dinner time, but I just couldn't get myself out the door. Inertia.  So, I put a little oil in the cast iron skillet, heated/fried several small corn tortillas, covered them with black beans, and topped the beans with feta cheese. It was an inertia driven-I don't have many groceries-I don't feel like leaving the apartment emergency dinner, and I was happy and a little surprised how much I enjoyed it.

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