Simply Shocking

I was electrocuted today. Deliberately. With my permission.

When I saw the doctor a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the numbness in my little finger. I know that peripheral neuropathy is one of the possible side effects of diabetes and was concerned. She dangled the carrot of possible ulnar nerve impingement in front of me and suggested I have a nerve conduction study just to check it out.

They don't do that in Davis, or even in Sacramento, so I had to drive farther up the foothills to Roseville to meet with the delightful Dr. Lai, whom I assumed was a man,but who definitely was not. She proceeded to spend 15 minutes electrocuting me.

It's not the most pleasant test you can take...given my choice, I might choose another sigmoidoscopy over having this done again, but I once again gave thanks for all that training in LaMaze breathing that I took during my birthin' babies years, which I used a lot, trying to concentrate on muscle relaxation, and not on the jolts of electricity surging through various parts of my hand. On a scale of 1-10, I'd put the discomfort level at about a 3-4, though, so it really wasn't all that bad. Just not much fun.

And guess what? I have an inflammation of the ulnar nerve. Who knew I'd be happy to have what amounts to carpal tunnel of the elbow? They can do surgery, but given that this is not impacting on my life there seemed no point, and I, for one, was certainly not going to demand it. She suggested keeping my right arm extended straight out whenever possible in hopes of easing the pressure on the nerve, which is a little difficult when you spend so many hours at the keyboard. But for the moment, I'm just going to leave it alone and see if it gets worse...and keep the arm straightened out whenever I can (I just noticed that I was resting my head in my hand, with elbow bent on the desk as I was re-reading this. Must change that habit!)

After my appointment, I spent an absolutely delightful afternoon visiting my "big sister," Joycie.

When I entered St. Vincent High School, everyone in the freshman class was assigned a big sister, who would put us through a silly initiation ritual and then help us adjust to the school.

Most of the big sisters never had anything to do with their little sisters once initiation was over, but Joycie and I have remained friends all of our lives, as the photo on the left shows. The first picture is from my initiation in 1956, the second is in 1966, both of us holding our daughters (Jeri is just a few months older than Robin), and the bottom photo was from today. (Note that my hair style has not changed in 53years!!!)

Joycie and her husband Bob used to live in San Diego, but moved up to this area several years ago to be near daughter Robin. For all these years we have been "going" to get together, but it just never happened. But with my appointment being only about half an hour from their house, it would have been silly not to stop by and see them.

I called Joycie from Kaiser and she gave me directions on getting to their house, but I write down lousy directions and once I'd gotten off the freeway I was hopelessly lost, but then remembered I had a perfectly good GPS in the trunk of the car, so I got that out and used it for the very first time--and it unerringly took me right to their door.

I got a tour of their "new" home (as well as an introduction to the wild turkey wandering around in the back yard) in the foothills. We had a nice lunch and talked over old times and new times. We discussed politics (fortunately we agree on everything) and television programs (we like all the same things) and computers (we are all addicted).

I was amused to see the line of Sponge Bobs on top of Bob's computer.

We took the inevitable photos, with her camera and with mine, and then I got ready to go, with promises of coming back with Walt again next time. Though, given how long it's taken to get this meeting accomplished, some of us may be dead before that happens!

Still, it was just a wonderful afternoon. It's really nice when you reunite with someone who has known you for almost your whole life and discover that the friendship is as strong now as it always was, despite time and distance.