Two days ago I had a freaky, Oh My God what's happening? kind of moment on my way home. I get on 75 heading south towards downtown and I notice there are no cars on 75 northbound. None. For miles. I am so startled. I drive and drive, and try not to wreck while I rubberneck over to the northbound lanes.Finally, I see a police barricade holding back the northbound traffic. It's a parking lot over there.
I call my friend Brian, who is an event planner and knows all. "The president is in town," he informs me. Then today, I perused my favorite news site, Oddly Enough [weird news and photos and funny captions, what's not to love?!] and found this: http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/07/24/whered-you-get-the-turkey-leg-mr-president/. So the pres was here! I believed Brian, but the photo of W at Dobbins Air Force Base was still a teeny weeny bit thrilling. I work very near Dobbins.
It's almost as good as the day I ate lunch near Evander Holyfield. I walked right behind him coming back from the bathroom! He's not very tall. [No, I didn't follow him to the bathroom, I'm not that weird.]
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We had an interesting morning. Here's what I reported to my brother:
Since Mike had that bad episode last week where his arm was burning and he had to sleep with an ice pack, I wanted to get him in to see a specialist. Colleen arranged for us to see Dr. Allan Peljovich, over at Northside, who specializes in hands and lower extremities.
Dr. Peljovich was very nice, and very kind to Michael. He took an x-ray. There is no overgrowth of any size to warrant surgery and he likely will never need surgery – only about 5-10% of child amputees ever do. Dr. P said the pain occasionally and burning feelings occasionally were normal.
There is also some phantom pain and sensation in the missing hand and fingers, which Michael had never admitted to me before. Dr. P told Mike that’s totally normal and nothing to get freaked out about or worry about. He seemed relieved to hear that. He told me in the car later that the phantom feelings are sort of scary. Dr. P said the brain just doesn’t realize the hand is gone. I told Mike I had heard of that, about phantom pain in missing limbs, and it’s normal.
Dr. P also said to pay attention and when there is pain or burning or itching, to think carefully about what was happening a day or so before that, to try and know what actions to avoid. He said Mike can do anything he wants with the short arm, though, as long as it doesn’t hurt. That’s good because he uses it to get more power in his backhand when playing tennis. [There has been no pain or burning since he started playing tennis a lot, though.]
He didn’t think a followup visit was necessary. We can just go back if there is a big issue.
The only awkward time was when the nurse was taking the medical history. She asked me what information I have about his mother and father and I said I have none. I also don’t have any medical to speak of, except for some notes in Russian in a little booklet. She also asked me about the accident which caused the amputation – even though I had written out an explanation which was perfectly clear. I think with any new doctor we see from now on I am going to ask them to talk to me privately about the history. Michael looked really unhappy when she was asking me about it.
When we were going home in the car I told Mike he needs to help Alesia this afternoon to get the house straightened up before Lesleigh comes over, and he sighed and looked at me and said “Lesleigh is family. Why are you so OBSESSED with the house, Mom?!” LOL
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I wrote up a review of The Great Debaters and it's here:
http://deescribbler.typepad.com/flick_pages/
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I just read that the water advisory was canceled. Woo hoo!! We'll be drinkin' some H2O tonight!!
