Chairs, Flowers, Blood and Feet

Outside the fabric and quilting store on 10th Street

Astoria, Oregon ~ August 20, 2012

Spending a few moments in a plastic Adirondack chair outside the quilting and fabric store after getting energy work done downstairs was a higlight of the day. I was relaxed, the chair was comfy, the sun was perfect, and a nice breeze blew up from the river. Unfortunately the photo showing the trees turned sideways when I uploaded it, so I took it down. I've had that happen before with images on Blogger, not sure why. It was a phone photo if that makes a difference.

 Columbia Memorial Hospital exit and Park Building

Astoria, Oregon ~ August 20, 2012

This morning I had my blood drawn again and had to return one of those ultra-fun 24-hour pee tests. The women in the lab and the records office and I are getting to know each other pretty well by now. They are all very cool, so that part is fine. If I want a copy of the test sent to me, I have to go down the long hallway and fill out some papers. Finally we all know the drill, and this time the lady was right on it when she saw me coming. 

Some days the hallway is an issue, though, because I still cannot walk anywhere without my feet getting sore and bleeding internally. The two latest theories both say my nerves are giving the veins signals to behave wrongly, as there is nothing at all wrong with the veins (which is good). The podiatrist in Astoria thought the screwed up signals might be from low potassium, but my potassium is normal. The vein doctor at OHSU in Portland thought fibromyalgia could be causing the nerves to give wrong signals. Maybe so, because my feet began to get weird the week after my bad fibromyalgia crash at the end of May 2010. Maybe we're getting somewhere with the cause. The tests are about my parathyroid problems (which also affect nerves, so who knows), but it's all connected. I see the fibro specialist in about six weeks and am beginning to try some new things on that score. More in another post.

I know I am getting very tired of the walking problems (although I am beginning to get the awareness of being grateful for every little thing, such as the fact that I still HAVE feet). After yet one more set of tests, it was elevating to walk out the side door of the hospital and see such bright flowers. I didn't even notice the sculpted bush until I downloaded the photo. By the way, the hospital is behind me. The nondescript brick thing is the Park Building across the street.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Emergency Room Tapir

Astoria, Oregon ~ March 3, 2011

(With more octopus and less jaguar.)

You never know where you're going to find a tapir! Fortunately, I had my cell phone with me and it had a camera.

I had the worst flu or cold of my life - or whatever kind of bug it was - in late February and early March of this year, and on March 3rd I took myself to the Emergency Room to figure out why I felt so bad. As it turned out, I had a freaky reaction to Tylenol PM and I was having something just short of panic attacks. Since I wasn't seriously ill or damaged, it took them over three hours to get around to processing my tests. Meanwhile, look who was there to keep me company! Under the circumstances, I was especially glad to have the little tapir's company.

I don't know who got the idea to paint a mural with a TAPIR of all things in the temperate lands of northwestern Oregon, but we are, after all, in a rainforest, albeit different from the one where this little Asian tapir lives in real life. 

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Dec 1, Portland: Another day at OHSU

I wanted to remember breakfast. This image was stronger when I was back further and the perspective was greater, but we were walking, and I didn't take time to direct the scene. Most of the pix in this post are of that type - on the fly. Memories.

The contrasts caught my attention in the parking lot as we walked back to Jane's condo to get ready to go in to OHSU (Oregon Health Science University: the hospital) for the day. My job was to be moral support, but of course I did it because I wanted to be there.

Moss along the paved sidewalk, and a red curb.

A beautiful old live oak. I'm sure it was once happier without the pavement. Its better angle is from the right in this image, but we were walking and I missed it.

Beautiful fall trees still have their leaves despite rain and wind. This is at Jane's condo in Lake Oswego (Portland).

The drive up the hill. Trees. Talking about the 70% chance of success, hoping it will be within the 70%, and what does that really mean. What does it mean to think positive? But it doesn't hurt, and we were doing our best to think positive even though the procedure was already said to be very tricky.

Yellow autumn leaves still glowing in the morning sun.

Oddly, I like blurry photos along the road. This is so Oregon, even in the midst of the city.

The tram at OHSU was under construction for so long, and now it faithfully carries people from their cars parked at the base of the hill up to the buildings where they work or visit the hospital and other buildings. It's massive, and is built with interesting shapes and colors. We opted for parking in the lot on top.

Into the maw.

More modern shapes and contrasts. If you have to have something done at a hospital, it may as well be an interesting one.

More angles at OHSU.

Tram top and covered walkway.

More new construction.

Shapes and reflections.

From inside the 9th floor hallway, I tried to get a shot of this deco design through tinted glass as we waited.

The halls have some nice paintings. This is in the 9th floor waiting area. Strange. A woman in a wheelchair needed a signature from someone not in her own family and not on the hospital staff. They were to sign a form witnessing that the woman had signed a document. I offered. The lady was grateful, but "She doesn't know who I say I am," she said. "That doesn't matter," said the staff member. I signed. Of course, I didn't have to show I.D. either. Weird.