Kate’s Inner World

Samain                                                                     Thanksgiving Moon

Up and on the road around 5:30 am. Out to Park Adventist Hospital in Littleton for two more imaging studies. The first one, an ultrasound, looked for narrowing of arteries feeding blood to the bowels. If they are narrowed, food passing through the intestines can put pressure on them and cause nausea and pain. The second, a barium contrast study, combined fluoroscopy, which follows movement in internal organs, with still x-rays. This study was to determine how food moves through the digestive system from top to bottom.

The techs let me stay with Kate for the second study. I sat on her rollator, think walker with a seat, wheels, and a brake. To not expose me to the x-rays I had to sit back in the little booth the technicians use. I got to see the barium she swallowed go down her throat and into her stomach. This was fluoroscopy. Very strange. I’ve gotten to know the inner you, I told Kate.

Afterward we went to Krispy Kreme and got a couple of original glazed to blot out the chalky taste of the barium.

Gabe’s concert is tonight. Big fun.

20180418_154539 (2)Last night, as the kids and I were making pizza over at CBE, I got a call from Kate. Cell service is dicey in the mountains, but I finally understood. The door blew open, again, and all three dogs escaped. Uh-oh. That meant I put on my hat and left, telling Tara on the way out, “Our dogs escaped. It’s more important.” Drove home. Kate tried to call me three times but for some reason I didn’t hear the calls. The neighbor had brought the dogs home while I was on my way. Since it’s 30 minutes each way by the time I got home and found this out, it was too late to return. I’ve not been a reliable teacher this first semester.

As we’ve noticed other times our dogs have escaped, they were pretty damned pleased with themselves. Rigel’s smile would have lit up Broadway. Kate said they came home prancing. Oh, what a good time we had.

Life on the mountain. Never dull.

 


One Response to Kate’s Inner World

  1. Avatar Paul Strickland
    Paul Strickland says:

    So Charlie, the Baha Men are popular at your house?