Of course, the word “hemoglobin” didn’t mean a damn thing to me this morning when an uber-nurse mentioned it. I mean, I KNOW what hemoglobin is (more or less) but that went roight over my head with a great big whooooshing noise. Noooowwww that I have talked to The Commander (yes, she *answered* her iPhone all by herself), I get it.

Why did I *not* “get it” this morning? Partly because I am feeling sorta blotto in general. Duh, where did I leave my phone string / hat / keys / boots / hairbrush (oh, whaaaaaaare is my hairbrush?) / whatever? And then there is med-speak. I understand it the best when docs / nurses/ therapists translate things into nanamoose speak. What that means is, that I get my best info when I am actively listening to medical professionals talk directly to The Commander and explain things on her level. At this point, they know my moom well enough to know that, despite some cognitive processing and hearing difficulties, she is an extremely intelligent person who still has a few tricks up her sleeve and they try to adjust their delivery of information accordingly.

On the other hand, sometimes when I ask a medical professional a question, the answer kind of goes over my head. I am not complaining. I think I am flattered. I think these pros (at least the ones in my hometown) realize that I am not an idiot (some of them may even remember me from high school and more than a few had The Commander as a high school teacher). Nevertheless, I am an IT professional and there is some med-speak that I don’t get, especially the abbreviations and ESPECIALLY if it is all delivered fast. So… [wonderful] nurse: “Hemoglobin is low.” KW: Huh? Commander: “They’re giving me blood.” KW: Ohhhhhh. Yeah. “We’ve” been there before…

We drove down to the Planet Ann Arbor today, with much trepidation on my part. Until we got below the bridge, we were listening to radio out of Sudbury, Ontario. School bus off the road near Timmins, ice but no injuries. Lack of housing in Attawapiskat. (Occupy Attawapiskat… I am not kidding.) Weather conditions along the coast of James Bay. I was sad when we lost our Canadian signal even though I know it was just because they shut down the station so they could go get coffee at Tim Horton’s.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 5th, 2011 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.