Neon Diaries 3

Neon Diaries 3Here is (I think) a 1960 Chevy Impala from the little car show we stopped at on Saturday with my new favorite filter “cartoon” applied.

When I dropped off the Miata at the body shop last Monday they said they were allowed 5 days to fix the car (I’m guessing that is the insurance company telling them that) and they would call me Friday (4 days later) to tell me how they were doing. Friday came and went with no phone call. Monday was business day #5 with no call saying the car is ready. Today was day number six without a peep from Satcher Ford Motors’ body shop. I have been holding off calling them, but I guess tomorrow I should check in, if only to just let them know I’m still interested in getting the car back.

Filled up the Neon with gas today. Two hundred ninety five miles and it took 9.5 gallons of regular fuel, netting 31.5 MPG. Not bad.

Started up, still up.
Neon Top Transitions since 04/24/06: 0

Kensington Mansion & Nupogen

Kensington Mansion & NupogenWe went back to the doctor’s office and they sucked more blood out of Donna’s arm. The white blood count was down some more, to 3.5 thousand cells/mcl. This is both good and bad. Good because that means the chemo is doing its job of killing fast growing cells, but bad because the white blood cells protect you from infection. Also her total blood count was down as well.

Before we left the office Donna was given a shot of Nupogen to start bringing up the white blood cells. We also got a couple of syringes of the stuff so that our plant nurse can give her a shot on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. Thursday we return to the doctor’s office or another blood test to see how the stuff is working.

Today’s wait was about 25 minutes which is not to bad in the scheme of things. While the doctor was talking about white blood counts he said something to the effect, “That is why I want to see someone one week after the first chemo session.” So whose miscommunication caused last Friday’s snafu? His to his staff? The staff to us? You can bet we are going to ask more questions when they set up the next set of appointments after chemo session #2.

Communication Issues

So far the treatment we have received at the Carolina Cancer Institute has been great, we like the doctor, any of the nurses so far have been great, heck we even like the lady in billing, but, and we are not sure where this is rooted, communication about changes in appointments have really been shoddy. The first involved rescheduling of pre-treatment tests and the initial doctors appointment.

Friday we got another surprise. After the first chemo treatment last week we were given two appointment cards, one to come in at one week and have blood drawn and a second to come back in two weeks to see the doctor. The blood work was scheduled for 8:30. Seeing as Donna was still taking one Ativan in the morning and we have an unfamiliar car, she wanted me to drive her over. No problem, we both told our bosses that we were going to leave the plant at 8:15 and would be back in 45 minutes at the latest.

When we checked in at the desk we were told that the doctor wanted to see us today too. After the blood was drawn, we asked where was the doctor? He is not here yet, but should be in about 15 minutes would we wait. OK but not too much longer. We were seated in an exam room and we waited. We were just about to give up and leave when we heard his voice through the thin walls. OK, he’s here we’ll wait a couple more minutes. After waiting some more, all the while hearing him talking, we got up to leave. As we passed by the chemo room we could see him talking to patients. Had no one told him we were waiting? On our way out we told the nurse to reschedule us an appointment. She said could you wait, we can write you an excuse.

We didn’t have time to explain that it wasn’t that the excuse wouldn’t have been good or anything, it more the fact that we had already told folks we would be only gone a short time. Work has been wonderful about the missed time and they would have said, no problem, had we come back later than we originally mentioned, but it was more the principle of it all. When had the doctor decided that he wanted to see us? Sometime during the week? And if that was the case why weren’t we notified. Was it normal procedure to see the patient after giving blood one week into chemo? If so, 1) they need to work on their description of the appointment because we both understood it to be just a blood draw and 2) they should schedule it differently so that the doctor is in the building.

Turns out the doctor does have a legitimate reason to talk to us, Donna’s white blood count was a notch below the lower limit on Friday. The normal range is 4.1 to 10.9 and her’s was at 4.0. Her pre-chemo level was only at 5, so the drop, while not huge, is still cause for some concern. The nurse left a long message on our answering machine asking if we could come in at noontime to see the doctor or if not could we be there Monday at 3:ooPM. We of course couldn’t go in at noon because we didn’t get the message until 4:30PM when we got home. I guess the nurse didn’t get the hint that we were leaving because had to be back at work.

Neon Diaries II

Neon Diaries IIGot up this morning and took a road trip. Donna wanted to visit the Swan Lake Iris Gardens in Sumter, SC and I wanted to go to Denmark, so that’s what we did. First stop was to the country, er, city of Denmark which is famous around these parts for two things, it is the closest spot to board an Amtrak train and is the home of artist Jim Harrison.

From there we headed northwest towards Sumter. Somewhere around halfway there we passed a small sign at a gravel road that said Kensington Mansion. About a half a mile later we did a u-turn and went back to check out the place. They offered tours, but we could find no one to tell us anything about them. We walked slowly around the whole outside of the place and just as we finished our circuit the latest tour was finishing up, 4 people and one guide came out of a side door. We asked if there was a brochure or something and Donna got a 1/3 sheet flyer thing and the guide wanted us to stick around for another hour for the next tour. We declined and drove off.

At Sumter, after a lunch at Chik-Fil-A, we visited the Swan Lake Iris Gardens. Lots of hungry swans and turtles and not much on the way of gardens. We walked around a bit and did a boardwalk around the lake which looked remarkably like the boardwalk near the river of two weeks ago in the gardens of Orangeburg. After an hour or so we had had enough so we got back in the car and turned west for home.

Just west of Columbia we almost past right by a little car show at a roadside flea market. I’m hoping we missed the big action of earlier in the day, it was 2:30PM, or this was one very poorly attended happening. I took a few pictures of some of the more interesting cars there before we ate an elephant ear and came on home.

Started up, still up.
Neon Top Transitions since 04/24/06: 0

It’s A Knickknack, Patty Whack, Give The Frog A Loan.

Since I got Gameday Audio back the FRS are 1 and 3. The old Red Sox fan in me would remark that it was probably my fault, I jinxed them by starting to listen to their games again on the internet. But since 2004, when the Curse of the Bambino was finally laid to rest and the Sox were the World Series champs, I know better, random outside events have zero effect on the outcome of a Boston baseball game. The fact that the FRS have lost three out of the last four games they played really means they probably just suck.

Buying Beer For The Neighborhood Kids

Every morning when I get to work I fire up the PC and wander into our “cafeteria” to fill my mug full of ice and water while the computer boots up. Donna and I start work at 7:30 and the production and assembly folks start at 7:00, so the place is usually deserted.

This morning as I approached the ice machine I hear, “Psst. Bri-yan.” Over by the water fountain, just inside the door, is one of the women who work on the assembly line motioning me over. She hands me 50¢ and asks, “Can you go buy me a large cappuccino?” So I put my mug on top of the ice machine and get her a hot cappuccino out of the coffee machine. As I bring her her cup another woman shows up and asks if I could do the same for her. I say, Sure.” So she hands me 2 quarters and I head back to the coffee machine. After they have both poured their paper cups of steaming cappuccino into their approved, covered mugs, they thank me profusely and go back out to their respective assembly lines.

I’m guessing that they are allowed into the cafeteria as far as the fountain so they can get water, but can’t go anywhere near the snack or drink machines unless it is during breaks or lunch. It felt just a little like going into the package store to buy a six-pack for some high schoolers…

Neon Diaries

The title is an homage to what I used to call this site…

My ride for the week is a Dodge Neon and up until 2001 when Plymouth disappeared from the car making map, they both sold the car which were nearly identical. At least when GM badge engineered cars that were basically the same, they got different names and they gave them a different look by changing the front end, tail lights, etc. Chrysler didn’t even try, the only difference between a Plymouth and a Dodge Neon at first was the nose badge. During the 3rd model year they broke down and at least added the car company badge on the trunk too.

A woman who works with my wife owns a Neon, hers is a Plymouth. A year or so ago she was involved in a little fender bender and off the car went to the body shop. When she got the car back it looked almost better than when it went in. But there was one small glaring mistake, it had a Dodge badges on it, not the correct Plymouth ones. I guess the body shop called their supplier up and just asked for Neon badges. She made them order the Plymouth ones…