Playing Hooky

I skipped school today because I had an appointment for a mammogram and I mistakenly thought it would take up the entire morning. Something about all the waiting we do in America for any kind of medical procedure had fixed my mind on a similar situation here in Norway and I couldn’t have been more wrong. My appointment was for 8:35. I arrived at 8:32 and stood in the reception area for less than a minute, wondering what to do, since no one was anywhere to be seen. A door opened up, a nurse looking woman came out, asked me my name, checked her clipboard and then invited me into her office. I sat next to her desk, she asked me a few questions in Norwegian (which I mostly understood), then she told me to take off my shirt so she could take a look at me. It was a little awkward, as I’m so used to health care personnel in America always leaving the room for the whole disrobing thing, but she just sat there and watched me take off my shirt. She then grabbed my boobs, checked them over a few times and then told me to go into another room for the x-rays. No vanity robes, nothing, I just walked from one room to the next topless. A bit odd even for me, but apparently standard operating procedure here.

In the x-ray room were two women that spoke no English and apparently they each had a specialty – one specialized in the right breast, the other the left breast. It was the funniest thing. One of them positioned me for the right side x-ray while the other one took the x-ray, and then they switched places and the other woman worked the left side. I asked (in Norwegian) if they wanted me to smile while they were taking the picture, but they apparently didn’t appreciate my sense of humor (or my Norwegian is so bad they didn’t understand me.) I was out the door by 8:42. It took less than ten minutes for the whole thing and I planned on not going to school today because of that. (Maybe their efficiency lies in the fact they have “specialists” for each side.) I could have caught the next bus and been to school by 9am but I had already told everyone I’d be gone today so I just kicked in to “hooky” mode and Kory came and got me. We went downtown together to the NAV office to find out a few more details about the travel plans to Trondheim next week – like getting to and from the airport in both cities. Apparently they have a special bus that’s also just for medical appointments that transports patients between the hospitals and airports and back again. Amazing. The woman there also told Kory to call the hospital hotel in Trondheim to tell them we are coming. So when Kory got home he called to say we’d be there Monday night and they said we should come Tuesday morning instead. Kory told them even if we took the earliest flight possible, we wouldn’t make it on time for the 10am appointment. She said we could just be late to meet with the doctor. So I’m thankful for that because Kaleb’s teacher is holding a parent meeting on Monday night and I really didn’t want to miss it.

After we finished there, Kory dropped me off at The Praying Women’s group which was meeting this morning at ten. We had the best time, once again, soaking in prayer, then praying for each other. I didn’t ask for prayer for my knees, but one women just came over and prayed for them and all the pain went away. Hallelujah! They are some mighty prayer warriors, those women. I’m so excited I get to be in that group. Kory wasn’t too happy though when I told him that when I was “soaking” I kept getting a strong pressure feeling on my chest and I kept seeing a big red X. I take that as some kind of caution against doing a stent, but until God tells Kory that, he’s not buying it. Lord help us.

Kaleb’s fever broke last night so he was feeling a little better today. He was still pretty punky and would have stayed home if it wasn’t Thursday when he has his favorite class – forming (hand crafts). He looked terrible, but went anyway and was proud after school to give me a cutting board he’d made and a clay coaster. He didn’t feel like playing much this afternoon though, poor guy. We left him home alone tonight too, which is strange for me to do but apparently very common here in Norway. Both Kory and I wanted to go to the meeting at church, so Kaleb got himself to bed and we went to hear “Norway’s pastor” (aka the TV evangelist) at Filadelfia Church. He was good. My favorite story was when he said one day a little girl was having trouble with her skis and needed some help. She yelled to a man standing nearby – “Hey you – come over and help me!” He came over and helped. The man happened to be the King of Norway, but she didn’t know it. The speaker reminded us that God is “that guy” just standing by waiting in case we need to call on Him for some help and He’d be happy to oblige. Amen.