Friday 02/11/2022
My first of two appointments was at the imaging center at the big Stanford medical campus that they created in Redwood City over the past decade. I’d been there a couple of times with Marian. My previous CT scans were at a smaller clinic in Palo Alto, but for unknown reasons the Stanford schedulers had moved me to Redwood City.
I elected to use Lyft for this three-cornered trip. First up to Redwood City, leaving just before 8am. This was a CT with contrast, which means, they put an IV in my arm and during half the procedure they shoot a glob of contrast juice into me. This causes an immediate flush of warmth in my head and neck and a taste of burnt metal at the back of my tongue. Whatever works. The whole procedure took half an hour and I was out a little after 9.
So now a Lyft over to the main hospital to meet with the surgeon. I believe I mentioned when we met last August, that she was showing pregnant. Today she was not, but I didn’t think it would be polite to mention that because one never knows how this change occurred. Anyway, good for me that she’s not staying home being a mommy.
The actual good news was that my aorta is healing nicely. It has closed up more of the “false lumen”, the bulgy bit where the outer wall separated from the inner wall. And some “micro leaks” around the stents are no longer seen. So now I am on a 1-year callback instead of 6 months.
I asked the nurse practitioner who talked to me first, about the renal cyst. She found it quickly and said it was 15 cm (about 6 inches) which sounds large. So in my spare time sitting there waiting for various people to come and talk to me, I messaged Dr. Tamrazi who drained it last spring. He replied back later in the day that compared to prior images, it was about 33% of the former size, and not displacing any other organs, so let it be.
From here I pondered walking home, about a 2-mile walk. But it was near noon and I’d had not a lot to eat or drink yet, so I took yet a third Lyft. I gotta say, Lyft is working swell. I had to wait 7 or 8 minutes for the first ride, but only 2 or 3 minutes for the other two. And the cost? About $50 total, $16*3 in round numbers. Yes I could have driven myself, but it was very relaxing not to have to worry about parking or routes.
At 4pm it was time for Rhonda’s open meeting on Covid issues. She said we could all hope this was the last such meeting she would need to hold. Although not all restrictions are off, and the dining room won’t be open for dinner for another 2 weeks, quite a few things have been relaxed as the Ommy-cron surge seems to be passing.
At 6 it was time to go down and wait by the garage door for others in our Maples car-pool. I’m in demand because, having contributed to Stanford Athletics, I have a parking pass, so no matter who drives, me or Patty or David G, I show my pass and we park next to the arena. How to be popular…
Utah played Stanford close for the first quarter, Stanford only ahead by 10 at the half. Then early in the 4th quarter Stanford went on a 14-0 run and put it away decisively.
Codgerville 