S.S.D.D.

Well, not everything's the same, of course.

I'm recovering and becoming more active - until I'm not - until I am again. The house is not only getting cleaner with Rich's help, but things packed up way back in 2011 are getting unpacked, organized, put out or away properly, or facing the age old question, "What on earth was I thinking when I packed ____?" Fortunately, there is an abundance of thrift stores in the area, mostly raising funds for charities, which welcome donations. We can see properly out several windows now, can enjoy stained glass pictures hanging in front of them, and admire long-hidden art up on the walls. Part of seeing them is the replacement of long-dead ceiling-high light bulbs.

(No, we still can't find what passes for studs in these walls, but picture hangers work on glue and velcro now.)

And... we're packing stuff up for the return to Minnesota. Just don't hold your breath, folks. We'd all be moldy and cobwebby if we were to do that. Because, you see, there's still no good information on when Steve can get his back procedures, first the trial on the pain interrupter, and - hopefully - the installation of a permanent one much like they do a pacemaker. Not to mention requirements for follow-ups.

There is progress, or what a sleepy snail might consider as such. The required psych evaluation has been passed. Of course, it wasn't smooth. Not the test - that was fine. The scheduling was another matter. (Yep: S.S.D.D.) The first appointment was cancelled. The doc doing it moved out of the local office and it was rescheduled for later and relocated to Chandler, AZ. If you need a map to prove to yourself, rather than take my word for that being a long drive, particularly for somebody who reacts to every excruciating little bump, go for it. Don't forget to count the mileage for the return trip. For an area of the country with no frost heave, some of these freeways have a lot of bumps.

Today's trip was back to the local office. There were "preliminaries" needed before scheduling the test of the external interrupter. It seems like the preliminaries involved a blood pressure check, reading the labels on his pain meds and evaluating the number of pills remaining for a determination of his possible next prescription, and listening to me gripe about how long this was taking.

Yep, he let me accompany him into the exam room to play "bad cop." I did. They were polite. There was the reassurance that the procedure had been approved. There was also some blah blah blah about somebody named Steve who was looking for an opening in the schedule to fit us in, but no specifications, and we'd never heard anything from/about this person regarding any inkling of hope for anything happening besides an infinite set of planetary rotations around its axis.

In other words, S.S.D.D.

With another co-pay.