Monday, September 22, 2008

The 7:20 am phone call

Now I am usually awake LONG before 7:20 am. Ricki has to be ready to go downstairs to her school transport by 7:35, so I get up at the latest at 6:50. (That’s so I can wash my hands, wipe the cobwebs from my eyelids, and have a quick cup of “Brew”-i.e., coffee- before I wake Ricki up at the latest possible moment, being 7 am.)
But today Ricki is not going to school (due to the operation yesterday). (She feels great, but I think all the blood spots in her eyes would freak her classmates out a bit…) So I was sleeping in, when the phone rang, and rang, and rang…
I figured it was my husband, calling from the grocery store. He has this habit of going without checking the fridge (because it’s “your job”, so he doesn’t need to, LOL), and then calling to hear what we need. OK. I’m glad he goes. But not wanting him to realize that I had still been asleep, I raced to the phone and answered in a cheery “wide-awake” voice.
The voice of Ricki’s school transport driver came over the line. I had told him in advance that Ricki would no be attending school for two days at least, and that I would call him Monday afternoon about Tuesday. (I would have said three days to start with, but there is a short class trip on Tuesday that Ricki won’t want to miss… so we’ll see….)
- “So how is Ricky?” he asked. (“Oh how sweet of him to ask”, I thought to myself.)
- “Oh, she’s fine. She had the operation yesterday. I think it went OK. She does have a bit of temperature, but I’ll call you later today about tomorrow…”

Then the driver’s voice continued: “Well, you can give her Optalgin for the temperature; I just wanted to check how she was.”
Only it wasn’t the driver.
It was the surgeon. Same voice, different person. GULP.
(me): “Well, thank you so much for calling.”

(Me to myself): Now the doctor is going to think I’m a real blimey stupid lady. What’s that bit about being in touch about tomorrow?!? My appointment to see him is Wednesday! And even worse, the “She had the operation yesterday. I think it went OK.” He’s going to think I’m a bit crazy…
So I called him back… got a voice message box… and explained. Hope it helps! Color me greenish-pink from embarrassment.

6 comments:

A Living Nadneyda said...

Hi RM,

Nice to meet you... I followed a comment from SuperRaizy's latest post.

I hope Ricki has a quick and successful recovery from her surgery and will enjoy her "new" eyes. She sounds like a charming, challenging, loving little lady.

Batya said...

You don't have to apologize if the surgeon didn't introduce himself. It was a normal/acceptable mistake on your part.

Refuah shleimah, a full and speedy recovery.

rickismom said...

Thanks to both of you.
Batya, it may have been his fault (I mean, it WAS), but I still came out sounding rather dumb, which was embarressing.

I had another caller who I always thought was Ricki's aide (same first NAME and VOICE). I finally told her to please Identify herself as "XYZ from Jerusalem" when calling....

A Living Nadneyda said...

I'll never forget the time my brother called me up during my post-high school year's stay in Israel... we must have been chatting away for five full minutes before I realized it wasn't my brother at all... it was my friend H from high school, who had just moved to Israel and used to call me up every once in awhile to make sure I was doing OK. (I never told either of them about my mix-up - way too embarrassing!).

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

"She feels great, but I think all the blood spots in her eyes would freak her classmates out a bit…"

That's so nice of you to be considerate of them. I know I would get nauseous by it.

ahh that is an embarrassing situation. But you don't have caller ID?

rickismom said...

Yes, babysitter, but tomarrow I'm sending her anyway. The red has gone down a bit, and she is itching to return. The redness stays for about two weeks! (But yesterday was MUCH worse.
No caller ID.....