Tuesday, February 07, 2006
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER....2003
I love the fall. Warm days and crisp nights. The sound of the drum corps at a football game….the yellow mums at reunion time….the squirrels running around the yard playing tag when they tire of burying acorns….Halloween, Thanksgiving and family. Then all the preparations for Christmas. Life is good when you center on all the things that are “right” in your world……and there are a lot of those.
We spent Thanksgiving with George again and it’s a fun trip. I have written many times about our first nights in Shawnee….without a doubt we are always found at the Old Shawnee Pizza Shop. We used to take the kids there for special occasions when it first opened in a house on Quivira Road. Is there anything more fun than a pizza shop or McDonalds when you’re a kid?
We always tried to do something special on “pay days” and watching the children’s obvious delight made it special for us as parents. I can still visualize their happy little faces as they looked at the menu…..the menu. It was a magic rite to get the kind of pizza you wanted and there were so many choices to pick from.
The kids still laugh about “the plan” when we went to McDonald’s. They could have a cheeseburger and then a choice. If they wanted fries they had to order a coke. If they wanted a milk shake then they had to give up the fries. It was all part of living within the budget of a “one income” family. I made the choice to be home with our kids rather than work.
When they were small most of the working moms were career women who chose to follow their careers AND have their family. I didn’t see that as an option. Of course, I didn’t have a career and so it wasn’t a huge decision for me. I came from a family where women raised the kids and dad worked……it was the accepted thing. I am thankful to have lived when it was a choice. I understand the fact that things have changed…our world has changed….and families have been forced to change.
Rocky began complaining about a headache back in the summertime. It came and went and sometimes he would mention it, most of the time, not…..he went to the doctor on a routine checkup and had a colonoscopy in November. On his visits to the doctor he mentioned the headache but nothing was found amiss. December came around and business slowed somewhat with the holidays…..his right eye began bothering him and he went for a checkup and new glasses….however, it didn’t seem to help the pain he felt behind the eye.
After the holidays he said he wanted to go see the doctor and have an MRI…..he knew there was something there that wasn’t right. His remarks over the months didn’t have a ring of urgency and I had not given them my full attention. Rocky is not one to live in a doctor’s office so I was surprised when he pursued this headache thing going on. When he mentioned MRI I asked if he was still having his headaches now and then…..he said it had been constant. He went to bed with it and woke up with it. NOW he had my attention. We agreed that after the new year he would have an MRI even over the doctor’s hesitation to make an appointment for one.
He told Rocky earlier in the fall that Medicare wasn’t paying for MRI’s unless there were very serious signs of necessity. That held him back from writing the order. We decided Medicare or not, Rocky was going to have an MRI…….which would be our first order of business after new year’s…….
Sometimes you just have to be your own doctor.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
We spent Thanksgiving with George again and it’s a fun trip. I have written many times about our first nights in Shawnee….without a doubt we are always found at the Old Shawnee Pizza Shop. We used to take the kids there for special occasions when it first opened in a house on Quivira Road. Is there anything more fun than a pizza shop or McDonalds when you’re a kid?
We always tried to do something special on “pay days” and watching the children’s obvious delight made it special for us as parents. I can still visualize their happy little faces as they looked at the menu…..the menu. It was a magic rite to get the kind of pizza you wanted and there were so many choices to pick from.
The kids still laugh about “the plan” when we went to McDonald’s. They could have a cheeseburger and then a choice. If they wanted fries they had to order a coke. If they wanted a milk shake then they had to give up the fries. It was all part of living within the budget of a “one income” family. I made the choice to be home with our kids rather than work.
When they were small most of the working moms were career women who chose to follow their careers AND have their family. I didn’t see that as an option. Of course, I didn’t have a career and so it wasn’t a huge decision for me. I came from a family where women raised the kids and dad worked……it was the accepted thing. I am thankful to have lived when it was a choice. I understand the fact that things have changed…our world has changed….and families have been forced to change.
Rocky began complaining about a headache back in the summertime. It came and went and sometimes he would mention it, most of the time, not…..he went to the doctor on a routine checkup and had a colonoscopy in November. On his visits to the doctor he mentioned the headache but nothing was found amiss. December came around and business slowed somewhat with the holidays…..his right eye began bothering him and he went for a checkup and new glasses….however, it didn’t seem to help the pain he felt behind the eye.
After the holidays he said he wanted to go see the doctor and have an MRI…..he knew there was something there that wasn’t right. His remarks over the months didn’t have a ring of urgency and I had not given them my full attention. Rocky is not one to live in a doctor’s office so I was surprised when he pursued this headache thing going on. When he mentioned MRI I asked if he was still having his headaches now and then…..he said it had been constant. He went to bed with it and woke up with it. NOW he had my attention. We agreed that after the new year he would have an MRI even over the doctor’s hesitation to make an appointment for one.
He told Rocky earlier in the fall that Medicare wasn’t paying for MRI’s unless there were very serious signs of necessity. That held him back from writing the order. We decided Medicare or not, Rocky was going to have an MRI…….which would be our first order of business after new year’s…….
Sometimes you just have to be your own doctor.
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
