Luzia, a preview

Bling from the Cirque de Soleil show, Luzia, in Calgary

I had a plan for Friday night.

I was going with Richard and Miranda’s little family. to see Luzia, the Cirque de Soleil show that is playing in Calgary

But at Thursday, midnight my hip pain was greater than my ability to keep it submerged in the back of my mind, being ever so present that I called the first ambulance of my life – at least the first one that was picking me up as a patient.

When the paramedics asked me where you are on a scale of one to nine for pain, I only found myself at a 3.

I can think of something worse than the pain I am in – like maybe if someone were torturing me by putting pins under my finger nails as well, or perhaps my arm was cut off as well.

So I have to keep that pain number low in case something else might happen and I have room to bump it up.

... a back shot of Alice's new wings ....

However, my blood pressure was way up and I told the paramedic that once we got to the hospital, I would be begging for morphine.

“You don’t have to beg,” she said, “I am giving you a shot right now. I usually give people over 65 only 2.5 mg, but I am going to double that for you.”

Well, in a few minutes the pain was gone and I thought to myself, “I should hop out of the ambulance for I am cured already.”

Then I remembered that they would be leaving with their morphine, and I wanted to stay within easy reach of it.

My plan was to go to the hospital quietly, not bothering anyone with my extra-ordinary pain load, but Mati had heard me come up the basement upstairs to check the back door.

“Leave your door unlocked and a light on for the paramedics if they are coming up through the alley,” the dispatcher had said.

So I checked that the door was unlocked.

Now for 50 years it has always been unlocked so why would it be locked tonight, but I didn’t think that out and save myself the trip.

I just was working on checking that the door was unlocked as the dispatcher had said, and it was that quiet opening and closing of the door that alerted Mati that something was just a little different in the house.

He came out to the kitchen in time to see that yellow light on the top of the ambulance flashing as it slowly rotates.

Betty, modeling the new jacket her mother made 
for her to  wear as they watch the 
Gay Pride Parade tomorrow in Calgary.

Mati has enough email addresses that he could alert some in the family that I was off on a journey on my own, so it wasn’t long until Richard was at the hospital, restless sleeper that he was that night.

“What are you doing here,” I asked Richard when I saw him, as though both of us had separate reasons to come to the hospital.

“I am fine,” I went on, “ I have slept about 4 hours here in the chair waiting for my turn to get a bed in admitting.”

“Well, that is strange,” he said, “given that you have only been here for about a half an hour.

Morphine works in mysterious ways, its wonder to behold.

I didn’t stay long at the hospital.

I had an x-ray of my hip done by 8 am, made it to the appointment with my family doctor’s locum by 9 am, had pills for more morphine by 10 am and was referred to a joint injection clinic for a steroid shot in the hip by 2:30 pm.

Look how long Betty's legs are growing.
Is it any wonder she is a meat eater?

That is about as good as it gets for same-day medical services.

Now I am in the queue to get my hip done, hopefully a little closer to the top of that line up.

I was sorry to miss the Cirque de Soleil, but the girls showed me the costumes they bought after the show, Alice, one with feathers, and Betty, one with butterfly wings.

I had gone out and seen the show on you tube a few days ago, in preparation for going to the event, getting myself ready to see what was happening, as in a cirque de soleil show, there is so much to be seen that I can’t keep it all together without a pre-preview and then a preview.

I almost feel as though I saw the show with them.

Arta