July 9, 2021
Hi there. I am H-O-M-E from my latest Stanford excursion. I am super tired...but I can NOT sleep. So, you get the story of the trip:
As I was getting ready to leave on Tuesday, of course I checked on Shirley, even though she had been holed up in her box for several days playing hermit. She had been busy renovating (i.e burrowing, as she would normally do in the dirt in the summer) the cardboard condo, if you'll recall, and I expected her to remain in her house for the duration of my trip (approximately 48 hours). I hadn't looked in on her before now to see what she had been doing in there. What a mess. It looks like she is adding on a new wing.
While running around getting ready to go, I noticed that Shirley was eating the plate of food I had left out for her the day before. I was still going to make her a fresh plate regardless. After a bit, I checked on her again. She had emerged from her box for a drink of water. She had debris from her remodeling efforts on her back. Ha!
Just before I was ready to go, there was Shirley at the slider wanting to go out. Shirley! UGH! I let her out for a bit... (She needs the sun.) But of course, right before I leave what does she do? Poop and pee in her box. I hadn't looked...I had smelled it coming into the kitchen. No wonder she wanted out. It was as if she were telling me to make up her room, like I'm the maid service or something . Ugh. I cleaned it up as best as I could and put a new "floor" in (actually several layers of new floor so she can dig into it if she needs to. Silly (and stinky) girl...
Anyway, I got fresh water for her and I made her more food. As soon as it was ready, I got her in. She was confused by the short trip outside, but I didn't have time to wait for her to adjust to being back inside. I had to get going.
On the way to the Bay Area, I took a shortcut to Highway 5. The shortcut goes through the town of Firebaugh. Just about a mile outside of the town, there had been a horrible accident. It hadn't happened too long beforehand. Police, fire and EMS services were still on the scene, with people being loaded into the ambulance while I waited. The road was blocked and one direction of traffice at a time was allowed to continue on via accessing the left shoulder of the road. I'm not sure how many cars were involved. I think it was possibly three or four. Right beyond the fire engine, though, there were two cars that were smashed up pretty badly, one of them flipped over as well as bashed in. Both cars looked as if they might have been on fire somewhat. SCARY! I hope everyone was okay.
Traffic was awful and I was ever so glad to arrive at my best friend Erich's house. He made dinner (fajitas), but first things first...He had to taken care of the most important thing. Hello? It was cocktail time on the patio.
The next day we arrived at Stanford for my appointment. We had a little extra time, so we scored some breakfast at McDonald's across the way in the Stanford Shopping Mall. We got into the building, found the neurology building again and...were told my appointment was in the other neurology building across the parking lot. Who knew?
My nerve conduction study appointment was a two-hour ordeal. I had had EMGs done before, four other times. The results have always been inconclusive. I had told the doctor this, but she wanted to give it a shot herself.
The first hour, I was with a tech who used this device on me.
He stuck electrodes on me, measured my arms and legs, marked me up with Sharpie pen, and had his assistant (who was learning how to work the machine) crank up the voltage and administer the shocks! OWW! He only did my left side, from my feet up to my hips, and from my hands up to my shoulders.
This illustration is from the internet, but you get the idea. They are looking to see how long the electrical shock takes to reach my nerves.
The second hour was done by the doctor herself. She reviewed the first test results, then she went about poking me with a needle into my muscles along my left leg, arm, back and (Eek!) near my groin. Once in, she would get a reading, then have me flex the muscle as if it was in use. Her hand was always in the way, but this is what it looked like (also from the internet):
It may not look like much, but that needle was jabbed in there and was not comfortable.
When we were finished, we went back across to the mall. On the previous visit, Erich had spied a Shack Shack. He had heard about them, but had never been around one before. He wanted to try their burgers to see what the fuss was all about. So, since I was done at noon, we went over to have lunch there.
If I hadn't know the place was a chain, I'd have been very unimpressed. The interior was less than impressive. It almost looked like some mom & pop place trying to go for a modern look but not quite succeeding. It was minimalist, for sure. I wasn't impressed.
This was our lunch. We both had a basic, single Shack Burger. He had some small fancy drink and I had a large iced tea. He ordered these special fries (honey mustard or something like that) and I just ordered plain fries. Both fries were the regular size. Guess how much. Altogether, it was $28+. Jinkies! Erich commented that In & Out had better burgers. I thought they were pretty comparable to In & Out. The fries were better (I didn't need the stupid powder stuff though). But $28? Uh---NOT again.
Here is a closer look at the fries. One order was ordinary--and I think those were my plain fries. But Erich insisted those were the honey mustard (?) ones...so I was stuck with these that had some weird powder concoction sprinkled all over them. Hmm. I ate them anyway...
While I had hoped to have dinner out at Trader Vic's in Emeryville later that night, we didn't do much. We had some Korean food at a place not far from the house. It was rather unimpressive. Waaagh.
The next day, i got on the road about 1130. The traffic was light. Not far from San Leandro, I got a call from Stanford's pulmonology department, wanting to schedule my tests. Was I available on the 22nd? The 22nd was when I had hoped to run down to Bakersfield and try the new tiki bar, The Sinking Ship---but that could wait. Sure, I told the guy. I'll be there on the 22nd.
I called Erich back to reserve his spare room yet again. When he learned I had to be back in less than two weeks, he made the spontaneous decision that he wanted to come visit me in Fresno. Did I want to come back and pick him up? Sure.
I got back to his place and it took some time to get the show on the road. He had to water his yard, pack, and go through the refrigerator to see what he wanted to bring to my house that would spoil (vegetables and the leftover fajitas, mostly). We got going two hours after I had originally left and ugh---the traffic was terrible! The traffic was pretty much a constant until we turned off on the shortcut through Firebaugh. It was such a relief to get home. Shirley was in her box sleeping away. However, it was interesting to note that her house was turned completely perpendicular to how it had been when I left. She moved it--which is not unusual for her.
When I got home, there was a message with my results waiting for me from Stanford. While a little abnormality was found, it wasn't conclusive and not really enough to go on. The report is below:
We are heading into another heatwave for the weekend. I think it is supposed to hit 115 by Saturday or something. UGH! I don't know what we"ll do aside from hang out. We'll probably catch some movies. I am off to meet my friend Troy/Okie in Three Rivers on Monday afternoon and I have a doctor appointment (just the dermatologist) next Thursday, but that's it.
I'll keep you posted on the next appointment at Stanford.
I hope you are well.
CHEERS!
SG
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