July happenings

Not much happening lately.  Which is good.  No news is good news during these times.

At the beginning of July, Mom had a doctor appointment with her cardiologist, which we moved to online.  This meant that instead of taking her into a lobby, passing by a bank, getting in an elevator and going up to the third floor for her appointment, she could stay in her own kitchen and visit with the doctor.  The doctor's office sent her a KardiaPro with which she would be taking her own EKG.  So of course she would need help with all of this so the plan was for me to do this appointment with her.  I had not been inside her house since March 19th!  There were times when I wondered if we should have just kept the in-person appointment but there just is no telling how things are going to go.  Around the time of her appointment, cases seemed to be skyrocketing here in San Antonio, so either way, there didn't seem to be too much of a good choice.  But in the end, we decided that not having to go into lobbies, elevators and offices was the lesser of two hard choices.

First thing we did this day of July 8th was I drove Mom to her primary care doctor's office so that she could get her blood drawn because she takes Warfarin.  As much as we all would like to put off these in-person appointments, some appointments just cannot be put off indefinitely.  She and I both wore masks and did the sanitizing routine as much as possible.  At the doctor's office, we parked in the shade and I called the desk from inside the car and let them know that she was there to get her blood drawn.  We waited probably about 10 minutes and then they called me back to say they were ready for her.  So, I walked her to the door, made sure she was safely inside and then I went back to the car and waited for her out there.   I probably waited outside for a good 20 minutes and then she came back out.  On our drive back home, we drove around High Lions Lake, which she always loves to do.
Back at her house, the plan was for me to stay outside as I was getting the laptop ready for her cardiologist appointment and Linda would help with the actual appointment inside.  But plans tend to not go according to plan.  And besides, it was HOT outside!!!!
So, I went inside to one of the back rooms where the air conditioner is and tried to get everything ready.  But my laptop wouldn't connect to the wifi.  I thought I had used my laptop there before and that it would just connect automatically.  I asked Linda if she knew the password and after many many tries and Linda eventually just coming in to help me find the password, we finally got the laptop to connect.  5 minutes after her appointment time.  I think we all felt a little apprehensive with all three of us being so close together in the same room.  We were just hoping our masks and keeping surfaces and hands clean, etc. would work.  We took Mom's EKG with the KardiaPro and that was automatically sent to the office.  Finally, about 15 minutes after her appointment time, we connected with the doctor.  Mom was tickled to see her doctor on the screen!  The appointment lasted all of 5 minutes, if that.  But it got done.  The doctor proclaimed her doing fine with the EKG results and all the questions he asked.

Then I packed up my stuff and drove home, totally worried about the next two weeks and hoping all of us would be ok.  I think Linda and Chris do an excellent job of keeping Mom safe there at the house and I was hoping that doing this appointment wouldn't jeopardize all the good they've done.

It has now been more than two weeks since the appointment and it's such a relief to know that all went well.

Exactly one week after that appointment we got word that one of our good friends, Ray Proa, passed away from the Corona Virus.  It was such an incredible shock to us.  We spent so many soccer games together watching Fernando and his sons play high school soccer.  We even drove together to watch their soccer games in Del Rio and Eagle Pass!  One of his sons is also in the hospital with the virus and as of this date, we do not know how he is.  July was quite a worrisome month for us.  Also because Guillermo had a doctor appointment where he had to stay in the office for sesveral hours for an infusion.  Many people were coming and going during those hours.