Anchorage
Cody, TK, and I are here in Anchorage, and thanks to a friend, all of us are at our respective destinations.
Cody is at A Happy Dog Day Camp, with the expectation that he'll stay there until I can walk. I dislike the idea of how long that's likely to be, but at least I know that Cody enjoys his time, there. I also know that it's less fair to him for me to not let him outside except a couple times on a static line, and selfish of me to want his company. So. At least for a while.
TK is staying at a vet's boarding facility. He'll stay there until I can go home, since he doesn't require any sort of mobility on my part. I'm hoping this will be better than the place he stayed last summer. (God, that was awful.) I still haven't ever found anyplace to rival the cat boarding place in Portland, but I'm hoping that this, at least, won't be traumatic.
I have a reservation at a hotel for the weekend. I'll need to figure out what to do after that.
The orthopedic clinic has walk-in (Hah!) hours, and I was able to get in, last night. X-Rays, brief exam - "You definitely need an MRI, and a follow-up with the surgeon. Almost positive there's an LCL tear, probably an ACL tear, likely some other damage as well, but the MRI will let us see."
So now I have an appointment for the MRI on Wednesday at 1 (because they had to wait two business days to be sure they can get pre-authorization from the insurance... and we're all just assuming that they will, at that point, because, yeah). Then a follow-up with the surgeon on Friday. I could have seen the surgeon on Tuesday, but, of course, not useful with the MRI needing to wait until Wednesday.
This hotel is awesome. It's the Hampton Inn, behind Applebees. It's not so much the facility (which is nice - clean, well maintained, etc.) It's the people. They got me the room closest to the lobby, so I don't have to hobble, far. The random people working this morning came up and spontaneously offered to make me a breakfast plate (from the free breakfast stuff - which doesn't suck!) - and when I was almost done, someone else came up and asked if I wanted anything else and offered to make me a waffle from their waffle-maker thingy. When I bought some food from their little store, last night, the desk person carried it back to my room for me.
And they're not just awesome to me. I was talking to the manager, who was working the desk when I was waiting for the shuttle (yes, they have a free shuttle to the various hospitals, on call, until 10 at night). He was trying to do a hundred things at once, and I noted how busy he was. He said he was that busy because he was covering the desk when he would normally have been back in the office. But the person who was supposed to be working the desk was gone for 45 days with her son, who was being treated for Leukemia. The staff had all agreed to cover her duties so they could save her job for her, for when she got back. Seriously awesome.
Anyway. They're awesome enough that they don't have any rooms available after I check out on Tuesday. This week is apparently very popular in Anchorage. Still trying to get in touch with Hank, in the hope that I might be able to stay with them for some of the time I have to be here.
Cody is at A Happy Dog Day Camp, with the expectation that he'll stay there until I can walk. I dislike the idea of how long that's likely to be, but at least I know that Cody enjoys his time, there. I also know that it's less fair to him for me to not let him outside except a couple times on a static line, and selfish of me to want his company. So. At least for a while.
TK is staying at a vet's boarding facility. He'll stay there until I can go home, since he doesn't require any sort of mobility on my part. I'm hoping this will be better than the place he stayed last summer. (God, that was awful.) I still haven't ever found anyplace to rival the cat boarding place in Portland, but I'm hoping that this, at least, won't be traumatic.
I have a reservation at a hotel for the weekend. I'll need to figure out what to do after that.
The orthopedic clinic has walk-in (Hah!) hours, and I was able to get in, last night. X-Rays, brief exam - "You definitely need an MRI, and a follow-up with the surgeon. Almost positive there's an LCL tear, probably an ACL tear, likely some other damage as well, but the MRI will let us see."
So now I have an appointment for the MRI on Wednesday at 1 (because they had to wait two business days to be sure they can get pre-authorization from the insurance... and we're all just assuming that they will, at that point, because, yeah). Then a follow-up with the surgeon on Friday. I could have seen the surgeon on Tuesday, but, of course, not useful with the MRI needing to wait until Wednesday.
This hotel is awesome. It's the Hampton Inn, behind Applebees. It's not so much the facility (which is nice - clean, well maintained, etc.) It's the people. They got me the room closest to the lobby, so I don't have to hobble, far. The random people working this morning came up and spontaneously offered to make me a breakfast plate (from the free breakfast stuff - which doesn't suck!) - and when I was almost done, someone else came up and asked if I wanted anything else and offered to make me a waffle from their waffle-maker thingy. When I bought some food from their little store, last night, the desk person carried it back to my room for me.
And they're not just awesome to me. I was talking to the manager, who was working the desk when I was waiting for the shuttle (yes, they have a free shuttle to the various hospitals, on call, until 10 at night). He was trying to do a hundred things at once, and I noted how busy he was. He said he was that busy because he was covering the desk when he would normally have been back in the office. But the person who was supposed to be working the desk was gone for 45 days with her son, who was being treated for Leukemia. The staff had all agreed to cover her duties so they could save her job for her, for when she got back. Seriously awesome.
Anyway. They're awesome enough that they don't have any rooms available after I check out on Tuesday. This week is apparently very popular in Anchorage. Still trying to get in touch with Hank, in the hope that I might be able to stay with them for some of the time I have to be here.