February 17, 2026

Happy Birthday, Mary Toleno. 

I will come and hug you in person soon.

Back in June I was scheduled for eye surgery and three days before I developed a staph infection on my face and called to see if I should cancel, which of course was a stupid question.  But in the process the receptionist realized there was a note from the anesthesiologist requesting that the surgery not be done in the clinic, rather it should be moved to a hospital.  Ten days later the eye surgeon rescheduled for Nov.

Two days before the Nov. surgery I received a phone call from the eye doctors saying that the clinic had cancelled my surgery because the evaluation that the anesthesiologist had requested had never been done.  I said this was all news to me.  They told me that I would get a call to schedule an Airway Evaluation at the clinic.  I heard nothing.

The beginning of January I had my yearly eye exam.  So we are now talking a year has passed.  The eye doctor was annoyed that the surgery had not occurred.   I asked him what he thought I should do.  He said "nothing" he would get involved now and make sure I was scheduled.  3 or 4 weeks went by and I decided I would call the surgeon's office and ask what was up.  That receptionist said, oh call the clinic and schedule the evaluation yourself.  OK, I did.  The clinic had no files on me whatsoever.  They didn't know anything about me.  I explained that their anesthesiologist had cancelled the surgery in November and no one had gotten back to me.  The receptionist got her supervisor who said let me call you back.

Twenty minutes later she called me back and said can you come tomorrow for the airway evaluation.  I said, no, how about in a week?  She scheduled me for this morning at 10 a.m.  Mind you the clinic is an hour away.  

I got up this morning an hour earlier and I drove to Springfield hoping the snow would not arrive.  I found the clinic with very little problem and I tolerated the arthritis pain so that I could at least get one medical issue resolved.  I was shown to a cubicle with a bed and that plastic bag on the bed and told the doctor would be right in.  He came very quickly, asked the nurse if he could borrow her flashlight on her phone, asked me to say AHHHH and looked in my throat.   He stepped away from me and said you're fine schedule the surgery."  I said, "that was it?  For that I waited a year and spent 10 dollars on gas?"  He looked at me and said, "It's protocol."  The nurse laughed with me.  I said am I wrong, was that not a huge waste of my time?   She agreed with me, scheduled my surgery for Friday the 13th the week of the Ides of March and showed me the short cut back to my car.  Is this a story of ridiculous protocol, right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, or incompetence?  And which ever it is should I have any confidence?  

I took myself to Barnes and Noble and bought some books with money I don't have, but what the heck.  I bought some groceries and I drove up to the rookery and took in the desolate beauty.  

I feel good about

catching up with 2 friends I haven't talked to in months whom I'm really fond of.

the snow never did come today

getting some actual time behind the wheel and enjoying my new wheels.

cooking a good dinner.

and going to bed early with new books.  

And I suppose I feel good about having my eye surgery scheduled although that means I'm out of the pool for 3 weeks and I better have this pain management under control by then.

Life is just a bowl of cherries...