One step up, two steps back

I called the vascular surgeon's office this morning about scheduling the fistula repair, and they returned the call a while later to say that if I could get to their downtown Seattle office by 3:30, it could be done today.  So I arranged for Doug to pick me up and we headed out into nightmare downtown traffic - it was terrifying.  We got to the building, parked in the garage, and then discovered that the only way to get to an elevator was to go down a flight of stairs.

We reached the doctor's office and I was prepared for the procedure.  Half an hour of work later, the doctor said my fistula was so wasted that he couldn't repair it then.  I had two options: come back tomorrow for a surgery that would allow him to cut open my arm and do the repair, or to have him make a new fistula and then have a catheter in my neck for a few months until the new fistula would be usable.

No real choice there, so tomorrow Doug will come once again and take me up to Swedish Hospital in Edmonds at 1:00 for the surgery.  At least we won't have to fight traffic.

Here is a view under the trees when we stopped in traffic on the way home.  I was taken with the pattern of the tiny branches.

Have I mentioned that I'm really tired?