Jun. 18, 2003 ~ He called
this morning, and I talked to Soldier Boy for about 20 minutes! I was so excited I could barely stand it! He's doing fine. Says it's getting hot there, but it's not too bad yet. There are new phones there at the base, and there is rarely a line, because these are not free phone calls. They use phone cards, which are quite expensive. Personally, I think it's an excellent use of his money! We had sent him one phone card, which would work out to about a five minute call, but five minutes is five minutes. He can buy cards there at the base, so it's not a problem. He also said they have lots more stuff available to buy now, so I don't need to send any more packages. Well. I sent him one yesterday, and a friend was kind enough to buy something for me to pass along to him, so when that arrives, I'll be sending that, too. And that's probably going to be it. Maybe. I am hopeful that he will be coming home in the next couple of months or so, and sometimes it takes a month for packages to get there. Just trying to time it all right. Did I mention that it was wonderful to hear his voice? It was wonderful to hear his voice!
We had a scare last night. Thought we were going to have to take College Boy to the ER. He was in pain, enough to frighten me, and my instinct was to take him to a doctor right away. But I made phone calls to the insurance company's 800 number (where nurses answer questions about things like this), and got a recording saying that they were dealing with an emergency, and it might take longer than usual to respond to my call. "Call 911 if you feel you have an emergency," we were told. I didn't think it was quite that serious, but I sure wanted to talk to a doctor. Our family doctor was not on call, and the doctor on call seemed to be taking forever to get back to us. When a loved one is in pain, every minute feels like an hour. After a fair amount of time, I called the answering service again... they said they had given the doctor our message 45 minutes earlier. Finally, I just called our family doctor at home, something I've never done before. I apologized profusely for the call, explained the situation, and asked if he thought this was an emergency. Based on what I told him, he did not. He advised us on what to do, and told us to bring him in to the office the next day. He ran some tests, which will take a while, but at this point he thinks this is muscle-type pain, and hopes it will resolve in time. I called the answering service and said we no longer needed to talk to the doctor on call, but I guess that message did not make it to him. He called us nearly two hours after receiving our first message. He was involved in another emergency at the time, and I'm sure he assumed we had enough sense to just go to a hospital if things got bad enough. I'm so glad we didn't do that. Thank goodness for small town doctors who list their phone numbers in the directory!
Another thing... we got a phone call that my uncle had a stroke last night. While my cousin was telling me about it, his brother beeped in and we were disconnected. Cousin never called me back, which doesn't seem like a good thing, but I'm hoping he is just really busy or distracted. He will call back when he can. I've left one message and will email, too. Because of the new privacy laws (is that nation-wide, or just in Texas?), we can no longer call the hospital and get information about a patient. We are hoping for the best, and keeping Uncle in our prayers.
A bit of good news... I had lunch with Mr. Billy yesterday, and he is feeling much better now. Was his usual, smiling self. Kept insisting that I try the cherry strudel from the buffet, and tried to get up to get some for me. He struggles to get up and down, so I was having none of that, but he did talk me into having the strudel.
The day started out foggy and dim, but the mist cleared in an hour or two, and now it's beautiful outside. A little warm, but we can handle it. College Boy is resting, but didn't want to sleep long, so I'd best go wake him up. Then there are horses who need attention. And I should probably wash dishes.
This has been a rambling entry, hasn't it? It has. Some days are like that.
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