Getting old is not going to be good!

Yesterday I had to do an errand for DH. His mother has had a lot of issues with her eyes and she needed to go for a follow-up appointment. I was told that the appointment was going to take three hours. Seriously?  Yep - so I went prepared. 

We arrived at the place - I don't even know who she was seeing, but I believe he's a specialist or an ophthalmologist?  First up - she needed a test. She had to be there at 11:40 to have a wee test that took all of 30 seconds. Then her appointment was at 1 PM. Why? Can you tell me why they would do that? 

So we sat in the waiting room and I soon noticed the number of people waiting and waiting. One lady said - "my appointment was at 11 AM (it was close to 1 at this point). I'm diabetic and I need to eat". Lady - if you're diabetic, you should be carrying food with you at all times! How many hours were wasted by everyone sitting in that room? It's criminal that eye doctors can do this to us! And many of the people waiting were with someone! 

Then at 1 PM, she gets called into to see the technician so she can read the eye chart and they can put drops in. Seriously?  Now we have to wait for the eyes to dilate and this could have been done when we first sat down. While we were in with the technician, the doctor went on lunch at 1 PM. Are you kidding me? Yep - and he took a full hour! She was the third patient called when he came back at 2 PM, but we didn't get out of there until almost 2:30. That's a blatant waste of people's time. I'm disgusted but from the sounds of others, this is normal for an eye specialist!

A couple of other observations I made while there. My ears are very crooked! I was trying glasses on and holy smokes, everything went on very crooked as they sat on my ears. I'm also a very visible minority in my own town. And while this was funny, it really isn't, but when they called people's names, they had been sitting for so long and many of the patients are older, that they were so stiff that they could barely walk. And it took a moment for some of them to realize that it was their turn. Thankfully, it's not a draw where you miss reading your ticket number and they move to the next one! 

So we get in to chat with the doctor and he said something about her blood sugar. My MIL could stand to lose some weight. I piped up with something and the next thing, he was chatting with me about diabetes and how over 50 percent of his clientele are in because of complications with their eyesight and diabetes!  WOW!  He was pretty passionate about it as well. And I guess I don't blame him since most diabetes is avoidable or curable if people watch their diet! He even gave me a sheet on what he recommends people eat - it's the stuff we all know - low-fat protein, unsweetened yogurt, some fruits and veggies. 

And I was feeling super guilty. I had brought some embroidery along to stitch and OMG - look what I had in my project bag - a bag of candies that I was chowing down on while waiting. ACK - I'm going to die blind! It was hilarious but of course, I didn't offer up the fact that I was binge eating candies because I was starving!

My project bag with that hidden bag of candy!

Here's something that's very important for everyone. You need a Grab n Go bag. I found this bag and wondered what was in it. I found one of those redwork embroidery blocks that was marked with the blue wash away pen. I was still able to see the design so I grabbed that.

Look - my bag still had the tag on it. That's gone now!

Price tag still attached

I promise to eat better! I promise to not eat so much sugar! I do NOT want to get diabetes and spend half of my life waiting for some eye doctor to see me. That was awful, but at least I had something to do.

Look at this great cup - I got this as a gift the other night (thanks, Annette) and I love it because it looks like a quilt. Even the little container of marshmallows (which are NOT made with sugar - oh no!) and the package of hot chocolate (also NOT made with sugar) have the same packaging. I love it!

Hot chocolate gift pack

This is what I got accomplished in three hours while waiting. Actually, it was about two hours as I did spend a wee bit of time on my phone. I'm not sure what's happening there, but the battery just seems to drain very quickly these days. I'm due for a new one in January - I hope I can wait that long or I bite the bullet and pay the difference which is probably less than $100 at this point and get a new one.

What I got stitched while waiting

Hard to see in this next picture, but yes - I can still see the lines.

Pattern still exists on this block

And here's my new book - my new lifeline. Everything I do or need to keep track of is in this book! So far - so good! A few more lists that need to be added to it but no more hunting down lists of this and that! That's half my battle most times is that I can't find the information that I know I have. 

My very important book

I did manage to cross off a lot of things off my list yesterday so I was very happy about that.

And now it's time to get the day going as there are more things to do. The exciting thing is that the amount of stuff going on the list has slowed enormously so that is encouraging!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!