John and I had a long day today, most of it was spent waiting.  With the temperature at 25 degrees this morning, I decided to skip my morning walk and sleep in a little.

Following breakfast, John and I got cleaned up and headed out the door to Eagle Pass and my doctor's appointment with the spine specialist.  Our trusty Garmin led us to the hospital.  After much driving around looking at addresses, we finally went to the main entrance of the hospital seeking information.  There in the lobby was a sign pointing to Dr. Dennis's temporary office in outpatient registration.  When the doctor's office called and made the appointment, they just gave me a street address--they didn't tell me he was seeing patients at the hospital.  Oh well, we were an hour early and planned on lunch before my appointment.  When I dropped off all the paperwork they sent me to fill out, the receptionist said they could take me back after a few minutes.  That was the beginning of the waiting saga.  We waited to be called into the exam room, waited for the nurse, waited for the doctor, and we waited for the doctor to check the MRI with the radiologist.

When looking at the MRI, Dr. Dennis couldn't see the problem reported by the radiologist who read the MRI and wrote the report.  Since I am free of pain right now, he wanted a more extensive set of x-rays of my lower back and to see me in one month when he's back in Eagle Pass.  At that time he'll go over the results and then we'll decide on a course of treatment.  Our waiting began once again as we waited to register, waited to be called in for the x-rays, and then, finally, had the x-rays.  It was a very, very, long day.  Since we didn't get a chance to eat lunch, we treated ourselves to a meal at Fuddruckers before hitting the road home to the fort.