Hi You,
Follow Up Appointment – Part One
Ok, I actually had this letter written last week, but didn’t give it to you. I have no excuses. Truly. But let me catch you up. Two weeks ago, now, I went back for my 4-month labs with Dr. B. To see if my iron levels had gone up. Then a week later, I had the follow up appointment with him to review my bloodwork. Why is it that every time I go into that appointment, I’m even more tired than normal? This time, there was a wild storm here the night before, Tropical Storm Elsa. Yes, let’s please name the storms after Disney Princesses from now on. Elsa, the Ice Princess, was definitely a little frigid. Long story, but we had Tornado Warnings that went off throughout the night, so Mona and I basically slept in the closet. That’s right, the closet. This Jersey girl doesn’t mess around with Tornados. I slept about a total of an hour and a half that night, and most of it was on hard wood floor. Not ideal.
Anyway, back to the story. When I arrived at my appointment, they brought be back into the room and I nearly drifted off to sleep while waiting. Dr. B walked in, sat next to me, and asked, “how are you doing? Your labs looked good other than your iron and ferritin which is still really low.”
Now, you might remember my slight (not so slight) reverse Nightingale Syndrome I had on this man, a while back. Yea, it hasn’t gone away. “I’m ok. I still don’t like those supplements; my body doesn’t respond well to them.” I murmured.
“That’s ok, we won’t do those again. Next week, we will schedule you for an iron infusion.” He replied.
“A what?” I asked.
“An IV of iron, you’ll feel great. It’ll help get your levels up and very few people have any side effects. Like 1 in 4000.” He said.
“1 in 4000” I thought. “That doesn’t really sound like a small amount, maybe 1 in a million or even 1 in a couple hundred thousand, would sound better.” But being tired, I said, “ok, that sounds good.” He checked my heart rate, which I can imagine was probably a bit faster than normal. And as he did he asked. “Are you happy here?”
“I honestly don’t know.” I said. “I don’t know if it’s the low iron that is effecting my mood and outlook or am I just not happy here.”
“Are you dating anyone.”
“Um, ok, we are going here now.” I thought. “No.” I said “But, have you seen the selection pool in this town? It’s pretty much s*%t.”
“I know, try to find a guy here that isn’t a complete douchebag.” He said. “My wife and I have a couple single lady friends and we can’t find anyone out there to set them up with.”
“Thank you! I’m not sure what is going on, but it seems like the single men here have given up trying. Any what’s with those 2-foot-long beards? Who told them that should be a thing?”
At that point his nurse chimed in. “Oh girl, you have to get out of this town. You have to look outside this city. Atlanta. Charlotte. Raleigh. Savannah, even.”
“Oh, I know! All you have to do is go to the airport and you can see, instantly, how different it is. There will be a handsome man, well dressed, well groomed, not going anywhere towards my gate. Nope. He’s catching the flight to Denver, or DC.”
Dr. B said, “I’m sorry if I got too personal, but we were just talking about this conversation out there, and it’s frustrating. This town is great for college kids, married couples and families but for single women, it’s terrible.”
“You didn’t get too personal at all,” I smiled. “You’re my doctor,” I thought, “pretty sure that we are past worrying about too personal.”
As he stood up and started walking towards the door, he said, “So next week we will do the iron infusion and then I will see you back in three months. You’ll be here in three months. Right? I didn’t mean like not on the planet in three months. I meant here. Here, here.”
“Ummm.” But before I could respond, he was out the door.
His nurse and I just sat there and laughed.
“What was that? That was amazing.” She said
I laughed, “I have no idea, but if I’m not on the planet, my low iron is the least of my concerns at that point.”
xoxo
Letters to You 