Yesterday we got a whopper of a storm in New England. I don’t know what the count was inch-wise, but it came down all day, Boston University was closed, and I spent the day toggling between shoveling, binge-watching Downton Abbey, and painting (not bad at all!). First pass in the late morning, followed by a walk with Harlow. Then, in the afternoon I went back out to clear the path from my carport to the street and clear the sidewalk as well. The plows had closed the car in and hail and rain began to add to the already heavy snow when I dug myself out.
When I was done, I stumbled inside, treated a severe sugar drop (it’s hard to tell sometimes – am I having a coronary? Am I really out of shape? Am I cold? Am I hot? Is my sugar dropping?), and felt really grateful to have my very own carport to shovel out in front of my very own home.
The rain/hail continued through the night and by morning, everything was covered in a very thick layer of ice! I went outside to investigate, my coat over my PJs (cause really, who cares?) and shook out some ice-melt onto the areas that needed it – pretty much everywhere. It was like tossing a pebble in the ocean and waiting for the ocean to flow away. It seemed pretty futile. I had to return to do multiple passes of the ice melt.
I picked my phone up inside to photograph the ice and I saw that one of my doctor’s had left a voicemail. The results of a routine annual test had come back and she wanted to share the results with me. She asked that I call back. I didn’t think much of it, but as I waited for her office to pick up, it occurred to me that there likely wasn’t reason to call unless it was bad news. The receptionist said “Oh, I think she just went into an exam room.” she then asked for my last name so she could pull up my notes on a screen.
She then told me to hold.
If my doctor is in an exam room with another patient and the receptionist pulls up my info and finds reason to pull the doctor from the exam room to answer my call, that can’t be good, right?
Suddenly, I’m sitting on my porch and wondering Is this the time they tell me I have cervical cancer? I have never been a person to think I am above anything happening to me. I may have an attitude of entitlement about some stuff, but when it comes to “Things That Could Happen To People”, I’ve never felt immune. I do not feel cursed either, and am not typically a hypochondriac.
It took forever for the doctor to come to the phone, and when she did, her voice was cheery. Hooray! What a relief! Doctor’s are NOT cheery when they tell you have cancer. At least, not in the movies and I’m pretty sure not in real life, either. She went on to tell me everything was normal and she’d see me in a year.
Once the palpitations stopped I went back to chipping away the ice.
BEAN'S BABBLETORIUM 