No good ride goes unpunished

Backpack by Great Bags

If you're thinking, enough with the rides already, you're in luck because I'm not scheduled to go to Boston until three weeks from now.

Yesterday was one of those days when you're in a bad mood and you can't exactly figure out why. It didn't take long to realize it was from spending a total of more than six hours in the car the day before. Well even more if you count my mini trip to Holyoke for a checkup at 8:30 a.m. with a glaucoma specialist. (Eyes fine, need to be checked because my mother had it. That was a mess. Ophthalmologist, a family friend, told her she had cataracts. When she went for a second opinion the second doctor said, "Mrs. Gordon, you don't have cataracts, you have glaucoma." It made for a lot of anxiety in the last years of her life. She used drops to keep it at bay but she was an artist and when she started to lose a little of her peripheral vision she was obviously petrified. So that is why I get my eyes checked.)

Then almost as soon as I got home it was time to get my second ride of the week to Boston. My doctor had put instructions in my file for me to ride alone due to some of the upsetting experiences I had with other passengers. Nobody pays much attention to that (notably Kenny, who taunted me by telling me he didn't care what I said, he was going to go out of our way to get another person), but the driver called and said she saw the note and the other passenger was very lovely and was it OK. I know this driver (a nice woman from Jamaica), so I said of course it was fine.

The logistics were not, though.

We went first to Mass Eye and Ear, so difficult to get to that nobody goes there, and then to Dana-Farber. It isn't that far in distance but it is in time. It has a tiny little drop off area on a small street. It's easy to miss (which I have done) and when you miss it you have to drive around for at least 15 minutes to get back.

The drop off was OK but after the driver picked me up at 3 and we went back to get the other person, she missed it, and we circled, and since it was Friday of Columbus Day weekend, it took an hour to get out of Boston.

Then it was practically bumper to bumper for much of the way home. The trip took more than four hours. When I got out of the car I was so stiff I could barely move.

I forgot to say that the appointment with Melissa, the whole point of the trip, was fine.

We had a lot of things to discuss, though, which brings me to saying that I have writing projects to do but sometimes get waylaid by my other job: managing my health.

The three squamous cell cancers, (two will be getting Mohs, the other hopefully will respond to cream); an endocrinologist appointment to me made to check on how my bones are holding up (a little dicier than most women my age because of the prednisone); and the matter of how my skin will do with ECP (the light therapy on my blood) every three weeks instead of every other.

You can stop here if you don't want more details about my skin.

The problem first manifested about a year and a half ago with dimpling on my thighs and stomach and a tightening of my skin in areas that I didn't even recognize until the procedure started working. The skin on my abdomen was especially strange, like a little bowling ball or an early pregnancy.

That softened up but it is still not normal. I tried to describe it to the nice doctor who came around on Wednesday, and he said some people say it feels like a band around your body. And that is how it feels. I don't like to wear anything tight but that is how my jeans feel.

I found some good medicine yesterday in going with a friend to the Paradise City Arts Festival. I haven't been since back in the day when I covered it for The Republican. Looking at all the beautiful things was a real picker-upper. I have been wanting a backpack, especially for when I travel and I sling a bag over my shoulder and immediately feel the effect on my neck. The one I had in mind is made by the same designers, Great Bags & Maple Leather Company. who made a shoulder bag that I have. I could have bought it on line but I wanted to see them in person.

I consider it almost a medical necessity.  I also bought a beautiful dress. If you know me you can probably guess the color (purple). I hope I have a few clear weeks when I can do the writing I need to do to pay for what I bought yesterday.

In any case, going there with a friend cheered me up. And it was only about 20 minutes in the car.