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I see my gastroenterologist today. I’m not looking forward to it because I expect her to pressure me to have surgery that I don’t want and don’t think is a good idea. I’m not sure how I’ll be getting to the appointment. I might take the bus, or I might get a ride from Scott’s parents, depending on when they come down our way and when they leave. I need to get to Taubman around 1:00 so that I can arrive at the specific clinic by 1:15. If I take the bus, I need to leave here at noon.

I took an Ativan last night because recent experience suggested that it was likely to do me more good then than this morning. I’ve tended to sleep badly the nights before appointments and to dream about failing to hear my alarm and/or somehow screwing up getting to the appointment. I didn’t have that problem last night, and I pretty much slept through. I may still take an Ativan before I go out, but I’m not sure yet.

Scott’s parents’ current plan is to arrive any moment now and spend two hours doing yard work. I’m not sure what they’re going to do, but I want to ask them to see about pulling up all the trees starting to grow near the house before they can wreck the foundation. Any other yard work… Well, I’m sure there are things that would be nice but that aren’t strictly necessary. Scott’s father will probably insist on mowing the lawn. If Scott had remembered that his parents were going to come down, he’d have done it on Monday or yesterday, but he didn’t remember until they emailed him last night.

I made spinach bean soup on Monday and completely forgot to put any seasoning in. It’s not terrible, but it is very, very bland. Salt and some rosemary or dill would have helped considerably. I’m trying to decide if I should eat before I head out for my appointment or take food with me. Eating at 11:00 will be kind of early, but I don’t expect I’ll be home before 3:00, so I don’t want to wait. Packing a lunch, however, puts some constraints on me

The problem I’m having in going through Cordelia’s room is that I’ve run out of things that obviously need to go. There’s still a lot that I would get rid of, but I’m not her, and I don’t know what stories she attaches to the various bits and pieces. I know she doesn’t want old coloring books or old math homework or empty cardboard boxes, but other stuff is harder to classify. Does she want old birthday and Christmas cards? Did she make this drawing or did someone else? And either way, does she still want it? I could take the fact that it’s folded up and at the bottom of a bag of junk in a corner of her room as proof that she doesn’t want it, but those bags were mostly filled by our cleaning lady without input from Cordelia.

I wanted to throw out the foam and plastic leg brace they gave Cordelia at the ER, but she thinks we need to keep it in case she hurts herself again. I really don’t think so. First, because I don’t think she’s going to dislocate her knee again soon and, second, because she wore the dratted thing, day and night, for three or four weeks with it directly touching her skin. It’s got to be filthy. Ah, well. It’s in the hall closet now, so at least it’s no longer on the floor in Cordelia’s room.

The books I ordered for Scott for Father’s Day are in. I just have to get Cordelia to walk over and get them. I paid upfront, so it should just be a walk without any other fuss. I’m just not sure when she’ll be willing to do it. I emailed her last night to ask, but she didn’t get back to me.

I’ve been watching some of Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple stuff and have liked it better than Geraldine McEwan’s stuff. I don’t think it’s entirely a difference between the actresses. The Hickson stuff differentiates the characters better, well enough that I almost never lose track of who is who and how they relate to other characters.

I spent a good bit of time yesterday searching the house (mostly the basement) for a particular box of stuff that I want to sort and put away. I’ve figured out a place to put the contents where I’ll be able to find things as I need them, but I can’t find the box in question. I’m 90% certain that Scott took it into the basement, but the box I thought was it turned out to hold books (which I have now shelved, so that box is gone). I really have no idea at all where the box I want could be. The basement is a lot tidier than it was, so there aren’t as many places where it could be.

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Scott’s parents are going to participate in a large, sub-division wide yard sale. I have no idea how much of what we’ve got to get rid of would actually sell, but we’ve got a lot of excess crap that could go. Maybe someone will want that paraffin bath or the quilt Cordelia refuses to use.

Scott’s mother says they’re trying to avoid pricing anything under one dollar because of not wanting to deal with coins, but I think that the books and CDs are more likely to go at a lower price (and the VHS tapes will probably only sell if they’re about ten cents each. She suggested ten for a dollar which might work if people can find that many that they actually want).

The sale is the weekend of the 25th, so I have time to look in the nooks and crannies for things to get rid of. I don’t think we’ll send any clothes. None of what we’ve got to get rid of is likely to be good for anything but rags.

Scott’s mother is going to drop me off at my appointment this afternoon. She was afraid I’d expect her to stay for it, but I reassured her. I have no idea when the appointment will end because it depends on how late the doctor is running (and she’s usually running late by this point in the day). Cordelia will be fine coming home to an empty house if it comes to that.

Now I just have to find some lunch. I’ve got about half an hour to take care of that. I’m not hungry just yet, so I may still end up packing a lunch. I haven’t decided yet. Taking my water bottle seems like something I definitely should do, though.

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Oh, dear. I knew Scott had double payed my Discover card bill, but apparently he actually triple payed— My account balance shows an overpayment of about $1200. No wonder Scott thought we were desperately broke this month. I think that the third payment might actually be a problem with our bank. I can’t imagine Scott would have set up payments for both June 4th and June 7th. At this point, I’m worried that the second payment should have gone to Scott’s Discover card or to the Visa we share.

The gastroenterologist recommended daily Benefiber. She gave me a handout on the low FODMAP stuff, but she noted that what helps/doesn’t help is pretty idiosyncratic. Some people only actually need to cut out one or two foods.

She ordered blood tests— iron and B12 which haven’t been checked any time recently. The clinic that does the blood drawing was just down the hall, on the same floor, so I took care of it today. There was a little confusion over what was to be done because my primary care doctor’s orders for blood tests were in the system, too. We ended up agreeing that they would just do the tests ordered today. I don’t see a point in doing the A1c test so soon after the last one, and I wasn’t fasting so we couldn’t do the blood glucose test. The TSH test isn’t scheduled yet, so they weren’t looking at that. I’m not sure what else my primary care doctor had in mind, but we ended up deciding to leave all of that for July when I do the TSH and fasting blood glucose.

The gastroenterologist was an hour and a half late. There’s no cell phone reception in that part of the building, so I couldn’t text Cordelia to let her know. I emailed her, but I rather suspect that she still hasn’t seen the message. (The doctor puts down the lack of cell phone reception in the building to the presence of the helipad on the roof. I had been assuming it was the age of the building combined with whatever they’ve got in the walls to keep various instruments and scanner and such from interfering with each other.)

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Scott’s current theory, on the Discover card thing, is that he misdated the payment for May. That would explain both the current double payment and the fact that my bill didn’t get paid at the point it was supposed to in May. Scott says it can’t be a payment for his Discover bill because the amount wouldn’t cover even half of his bill (which includes all groceries and gas and so is always high) and because he pays the Visa bill via a different method.

It’s still very frustrating, but at least it’s an explanation.