Abstract Thursday : : Hope

I hope for a better world with more love and less hate in it. These are strong emotions and I don't think one will ever cancel the other out, but I can hope that somehow we can tip the balance in favor of love and all that it entails. 

I woke up at 3am and never went back to sleep, so I'm a bit bleary eyed today but I drove across town yet again to see the good Dr Gonzales, administrator of cortisone shots among other things. I told him that I had made a decision to go ahead with knee replacement surgery and asked how far out Dr. Howe is booking surgeries. He said he thought about three months. I have an appointment in January with Howe, which would mean April or May, but Gonzales suggested  I make an appointment with Natalie, his assistant, and she could probably get me on the schedule sooner. So I checked off one doctor appointment but added another! But not until the end of November, the first available opening.

He gave me a cortisone shot in my knee, going out to get the equipment, and coming back in with the x-ray therapist and his updated ultrasound machine. As he was explaining the fine points of the newer machine, the nurse prepped my knee and the deed was done with a running commentary about the ultrasound machine and how it turned the needle blue so the doctor could guide it to the right place. It must have helped a lot because the injection was virtually painless.

The temperatures turned positively wintry last night, and it was still only 38F (3.3C) when I stumbled out of my warmish bed with Spike's encouragement. He jumps up on the bed and, even though he can't see, he stares at me, and I can hear his tail thumping. Hard to ignore that. It has warmed up a bit, but never reached 70F. However, the sun is shining and it is lovely outside, so I took myself out when I came back to sit in the sun and warm up.

John is back to getting light treatments for his skin, so he drove off across town for that after I got home. He didn't think it helped much before, but now he has decided it helped 'a little' so we will be tag teaming with the car for the rest of the month....

We do have some nice things planned for the weekend....