This morning the weather report cracked me up. It was 24 below in Gaylord, and they said that Traverse City had some cloud cover, and so we were "considerably warmer". Our temperature was 1. (!!!) We lost our cloud cover, because by the time we took Mother to the doctor, the skies were a beautiful blue, and cloudless. Or as Willie Nelson would say, "unclouded".
(If you want to hear Willie sing The Unclouded Day in person, go to the following link, and he's the background music. If you scroll down past the memorial, you get all of the lyrics. Willie sings the *whole* thing!)
http://www.minibite.com/serious/nicky.htm
This was the first time going to the Clinic that we used a wheelchair for Mother. She always says "I'm not that desparate." But this time I told her that the doctor said it had to be that way because he didn't want her to get dizzy and pass out. Using the wheelchair was so much easier than having her struggle along hanging on to my arm and going so-o-o-o slowly. We both enjoyed it. Dick was in charge of the chair, and I really appreciated it!
We had a good doctor visit. First came a chest x-ray, which revealed that Mom has a "touch" of pneumonia. The doctor prescribed a 7-day course of antibiotics. He said to apply ointment to her side to relieve the pain she has left over from the shingles. They did an O2 test, which turned out OK, and a blood test which we'll find out about later.
I feel much better about her condition than I did yesterday. I think that Shannon may be a bit of an alarmist.
Mother is supposed to call Dr. Auer at the hospital on Friday and Monday between 8-9 a.m. and have him paged. He wants to talk to her to see how she's doing, if she's eating properly, and to give her the test results.
Right now I'm watching the Michigan basketball team be slaughtered by MSU. It's quite painful. Right now it's 61 - 47. Is that enough of a drubbing? Yes it is. Oh well.
