The Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto is a modern, beautiful new building. I was impressed with their efficiency in Livermore, and here as well. They fell a bit behind and we had wait time, but not much. However, I wanted to avoid traveling through the mire between Fremont and Palo Alto and insisted we go the short cut over the Dumbarton Bridge. Wrong move. We allowed one hour padding to get there on time. We barely made it and had no time for lunch before his multiple appointments began.
His first eye exam, reading the charts. His vision is 80/20 in his good eye, and 200/20 in his bad eye. He had four separate exams.
I thought his exams were eye and regular physical. I had it wrong. They were all to do with his eyes. The cataract was so thick, it couldn't be measured on the first machine and had to be measured on a second machine.
The doctor, our last stop, gave him the good news that he could have the second operation one month after the first one is well healed. . We rushed, hungrily to the canteen only to find it closed. The cook's helper was just dumping the rest of the soup and gladly gave us a bowl instead of dumping it. Our lunch, finally. And, I was able to get a coffee to keep me awake on the long drive home, now in the middle of the worst traffic. We returned the way we should have come and new to me was the streamlined new roads and fixes that have been done to that once horrible section between Palo Alto and Fremont. My memory of that road was a time costly mistake.
We stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and arms and take a drink of water. At the vista view point, from the foothills above the valley, we stopped to enjoy a beautiful sunset.
We watched it until it finally sank behind what looks like Mt. Diablo.
It was the first time I've had a dinner of cheez-its and wine. Then wired from the caffeine, I boiled some eggs and ate those, too. I couldn't get to sleep until after 10:00. Now, we have to go back for the surgery on October 8th, I think it is. We know the right roads to take and we'll spend the night for follow-up check on the 9th. I'm grateful Jim is so patient. We laughed a lot over our cheez-its.
No comments:
Post a Comment