Potty Privacy Issues (no, not Republican related)

Hi again, it’s been a while I know, but I’ve been busy. As usual, let’s start with the medical stuff to get that out of the way. I’ve still been working on the medical insurance transition. Say what you want about HMOs, but Kaiser really had their act together for the patient. At least in my case they did. That is not to say the new one doesn’t, but I’ve had to do more of the legwork on my own.

For example, I’m used to making one call, usually to the same one or two people, and just sit back and everything was resolved for me. Travel to Cleveland now requires me to set up the flight, hotel, ground transportation, meals, etc. I need to save all the receipts and then submit them. It’s not too bad, but I’m used to making one call and all of it being done for me.

Plus, I need to arrange a general purpose doktor for my needs. Although I don’t need referrals for anything as long as I stay in-network, finding a doktor is proving to be more difficult than I thought it would be. I’m looking for someone close to my home, and also someone who can see me quickly. So far I’ve called quite a few, and they are all out on holiday leave or are not accepting new patients. Plus, I don’t want one that deals with pediatrics since waiting rooms are difficult enough without that distraction. I remember calling one that had me wait over seven hours in their waiting room that was more like a romper room since they were booked that day and said if I waited long enough they’d see me. With Kaiser, I’d call in the 1-800 number for the advice nurse in the morning, and since they had my entire records available, I’d be fast tracked and would be in the doktor’s office meeting with the doktor within an hour. The longest wait I had was maybe fifteen minutes. Those days are over.

Yes, I’ve got a Cleveland visit in another few weeks. A series of the usual tests and a consultant visit with the transplant doktor. Nothing but the usual.

Over the weekend Darcy and I went to Reds at the AFI Silver theater. As I’ve been feeling okay for the most part, I thought I’d try eating a large popcorn. Everything was fine, until the night. Boy, my system is NOT ready for popcorn, nor will I suggest it will ever be. My dad doesn’t like it when I get very descriptive here about my details in the potty, but let’s just say I didn’t get to sleep until maybe 6am.

We also went to dinner with two good friends to an organic vegetarian-only place, Great Sage in Clarksville. Awesome restaurant. I do have one major issue though, not surprisingly with the bathroom. There are two toilets there: one standing urinal, and one sitting. They are positioned in such a way that if two people are using them at the same time, a two and a half inch gap in the “privacy walls” exists such that they can see each other doing their thing. I cannot believe the restaurant allows this, or maybe it was installed by females.

I’ve pretty much lost my inhibitions for bathroom going due to necessity, especially following the episode a few years ago when the threat of a catheter was held over me unless I produced enough urine- I did everything including handstands in the bed to go, but I’ve already talked about that at length. Search on “you go now” and I’m sure it’s there. Anyway, I thought the gaps at the bathrooms at the BWI Airport were the worst until I saw the ones at the Great Sage. I’m going to let them know I’d love to eat there but the lack of privacy is enough to scare me away by choice. I wrote them an email so let’s see what I hear back.

Since my last update, I’ve also visited Toronto with Darcy and T.R. The city is always fun, and the Steelers/Bills game was fun for a preseason tilt as well. Speaking of bathrooms though, I’m sure whoever designed them at the SkyDome (okay, Rogers Centre) does not go #2 very often. The great majority of men’s restrooms at the SkyDome have maybe forty standing urunals and two, count ‘em two, sitting toilets. Of course, those are occupied by slobs who pee on every inch of the area including the seat, or are used by those who need to sneak in a smoke. That is a disgrace.

Enough bellyaching: one of the highlights of the trip was having dinner at Ilio DiPaolo’s Italian Restaurant with my family. There were twelve of us including the kids who are getting big. I’m convinced that Calvin is doomed to be nothing but a great musician given the headstart he’s getting from Lori and Ted. I’m looking forward to hearing his band’s music in ten or fifteen years. Hopefully if I get better he’ll invite me on stage sometime when he’s playing the large arenas in a few years! I also suspect that Sarah will be heading into medicine. Maybe she’ll be able to grow a liver for me someday…

I also got my Marillion Weekend tickets for Montreal. I’m not thrilled about going to Montreal again (they smoke everywhere!) but hopefully things will be better this time than my previous visits. I would have preferred Toronto (duh!) or even Vancouver. Maybe it’s just the Leafs fan in me though.