Yesterday’s adventure was a trip to my gastroenterologist. I do that about three times a year. I think that’s based on how often he likes to talk about music with me. I suspect most people don’t look forward to the social aspect of going to the doctor. I love mine. It’s a schlep to get there, the subway to a bus to a walk. As it was a beautiful day, I enjoyed the walk There was also an idiot story. I keep a KN95 mask in each of my jackets, so I won’t go out without one. We still need to wear them on public transit. I wore my mask on the subway and bus and took it off during the walk. When I arrived at the medical building, I had to put the mask back on. It was gone. I tried every pocket, between the jacket, and hoodie that meant five. It wasn’t in any of them. I checked again it didn’t magically reappear. I later reconstructed what happened. I was listening to music on my phone with the ear buds. I had put the mask on first so when I took it off the earbuds because intertwined with them. I had to take everything off and pull the earbuds through the mask loops. That is when I must have dropped the mask as I got involved in then untangling the earbuds. Good thing I bought 30 masks. That did mean I was maskless for the moment, but the medical building provides everyone with a surgical mask. I feel naked in that, I’m used to the KN95. Still, it’s better than nothing. I’ve noticed that people still don’t know how to properly double mask. You don’t wear two surgical masks. The problem with the surgical mask is leakage from the sides, not insufficient filtration. You don’t wear two cloth masks, the problem with those is insufficient filtration. The correct way to double mask is a cloth mask over a surgical mask. The cloth seals the sides of the mask. It always helps to remember why we you do something. If you thought about why you wear a mask, you’d never have it under your nose. How does that have any effect on the air going in and out of your body? The nose is the primary conduit.
Before I saw my doctor, I saw a resident training under him. I had to fill out health surveys, that’s new. The third page was on my mental health so for the first time ever I had to discuss my depression with a doctor that wasn’t my psychiatrist. I had to assure him that my Crohn’s has nothing to do with my recent depression. My second blog post ever was titled Pain = Depression. That was when the Crohn’s caused me chronic pain and that did depress me. I’m not like that now. Now my pain comes from the depression, not the other way around. The irony here is talking to my GI makes me happier so helps with the depression. He wrote down the details of how to listen to Gord’s Gold. Maybe I should give him a shout-out.
For the second time in my life, I got a phone call while waiting for a doctor in the examination room. I told my friend I couldn’t talk and that we’d talk later. Then I realized that she did not get her ringtone. That’s the kind of personalization of my phone that I love. The file with her ringtone was transferred from the old phone but not its attachment to her contact info. I then went through all the friends with ringtones and reassigned them. I hardly get any calls but everyone I talk to on a semi-regular basis should get their own ringtone. For musician friends I use their music. I should start assigning other friends songs with their names in them. I already did that with Carey. He is a good old daddy. I just added Jim Kweskin and Samoa Wilson singing Sweet Sue as my sister’s ringtone. Can somebody send me an mp3 of Elvis Costello’s Alison for my other sister? These silly things matter to me.
I combined my walk with my doctor visit. It wasn’t a long one, 3.6 miles but that’s good. I continue to slowly lose weight. I am 178 lbs fully clothed. I had set my goal at remaining between 170 and 175 but when it went up to 183, I couldn’t get it back down until I started going on my walks almost exactly a year ago.
When I got home, I had a nice talk with the friend who called me at the doctor. I then had mental health food for dinner, poutine. After that I wrote and recorded Gord’s Gold. Guess what, it’s a good one. I know they are all good ones. This one was my first with the show’s new closing theme, Goodnight Irene. I edit it right onto the last host segment. The show is very good for my mental health. It turned out that the day I took for my physical health helped my mental health too. Now it’s time for more mental health food, French toast for breakfast.
Wise Madness 