Everything's Working

Hard to know where to start today. One of those days. I'll just start at the beginning. 

I accompanied Thomas to day one of his week of medical procedures. He is undergoing stem cell harvesting. I got up and did an early 6:15 a.m. spin class. Then off to Corte Madera to pick him up. 

Awesome morning. Clear, crisp, cloudless. No pix because I was driving.

Thomas had hot steel cut oatmeal ready with Oatly oat milk. 

Has anyone else notice how Oatly has taken off like wildfire? I can understand why - it tastes delicious. Over the last few weeks, when I tried to buy it at several stores, the shelves were empty. Don't even get me started about their non ice cream strawberry whatever it is. This company is on to something. Beth is even considering giving up cows milk.

Busy medical day. UCSF Parnassus at 10 a.m. UCSF Mt. Zion at 3; UCSF Parnassus at 4 p.m. We'd have to squeeze in lunch.

Simple blood tests, etc in the morning at Parnassus. Nothing scary or painful (yet). Thomas has some very important analgesic cream called EMLA. So important that he wrote a song about how he would never forget EMLA. He forgot it this morning. 

Walking out of UCSF, I went to throw away my paper mask. Trash or compost? Thomas said, if in doubt, throw it in the trash because they have to take everything. A worker at UCSF, Janelle, overheard us. She added that they have to take everything, except dead bodies. Grim thought. We hustled over to Tadich Grill for lunch. 

Quick cuppa at Andytown on the way. The benefit of talking loud in public - Thomas was talking about our trip to Nashville. Crystal and Brady, tourists from Nashville, came over to chat.

To Tadich. You already know it is my favorite restaurant in SF.   Tadich opened 1849. 1849 is such a significant year for SF. I can't think of another place so closely associated with a date or event (the gold rush). I'll ask Ferg. He'll know one. I'll let you know.

We shared a Tadich appetizer plate and both had grilled petrale sole. Great waiter: Mati from Morocco.

Off to UCSF Mt. Zion. Big procedure. A surgeon inserted a port in his neck. 

They need to use the port tomorrow when they hook him up to the vampire machine that takes blood out, separates out the stem cells and puts it back in his body. I left him alone for that procedure. I walked up Divisadero and browsed a bit at Bi-rite Market. We finally got out of there close to 5 p.m. 

Back to UCSF Parnassus. Thomas had to have a big bad ugly shot of a drug that stimulated his stem cells to leave his bones so they could be harvested. Side effect: diarrhea. He'll be connected to the vampire machine for five and a half hours tomorrow. He has to take enough immodium that he does not shit the bed. I drove him home to Marin with one bathroom stop. TMI? yes.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and made some notes. I was thinking about worries. Not that I was overly worried about anything. I wrote down, "it's all in your mind". When you think about it, all our worries are just creations in our own mind. If that makes sense, maybe we can look at worries that way and worry less?

I also wrote down my thoughts about how my mind works. I see patterns in things. It helps me solve puzzles. It helped me at work. I was able to solve problems in cases and put all the pieces of a case together to tell a compelling story.

OK, so I probably have you all worried about Thomas. It is not all in your mind this time. Before we left UCSF at the end of the day, the nurse took a history from him in preparation for the stem cell harvest to come. They discussed his treatment. He said, "everything's working".