My Doctor Makes House Calls

My doctor and friend Deborah came over today (her day off) to eat lunch and play duets with me. She was on call, so periodically she would have to talk to someone with the stomach flu and go through the bland food diet drill or whatever, but otherwise she and I just had fun together. I had agreed to make an elegant lunch with my latex gloves on and not to breathe or salivate on her food. She didn’t seem worried in the least. Although we avoided an entrance or exit hug, otherwise our visit made me feel totally normal for the first time in a long time.

I remember as a young child carefully planning what I would serve my friends at a tea party. There was in fact one such tea party when one of the Baptist girls was saying the blessing first and our Episcopalian friend Debby managed to eat all the cookies while we had our eyes closed. Those damned long-winded Baptists...

Well, I got up today with a menu in mind that included all of the forbidden foods of my last 5 weeks. It actually grew as I made my way through Whole Foods, buying everything I saw that was in the least bit tempting. Not only did I want it to taste good, but I wanted to make a pretty lunch – one pretty enough for a picture. So here’s the menu I came up with:

• Homemade lemony shrimp salad with chives and capers on a butter lettuce leaf
• Tomato - avocado - Kalamata olives with a balsamic olive oil dressing
• Fresh orange sections
• Crusty French bread with very rich gooey better-than-Brie cheese
• Mixed raspberries - blueberries - kiwi fruit with mango sorbet for dessert
• Individual Sharffen Berger Mocha bar (since everyone always needs just a bite of chocolate)
• Fattoria Paradiso 2004 dry white wine

It was an easy lunch to prepare and fun to eat with someone who appreciates good food. We went easy on the wine so as to be able to still read music after lunch.

Deborah tuned up her bass and with full stomachs and always with loads of humility we began to play. We played all the pieces we were getting good at and then we took another look at the Claude Bolling Jazz Suite, which is always good for making me realize how little I really know about jazz or even about playing the piano. We concluded with a few more old warhorses that have become favorites. Then Deborah packed up her huge instrument and hauled it out to her car, suggesting that I take a long walk. She jokingly said, “Just wear a hula hoop and tell people not to get any closer than that!” What a riot!

Little by little, life is returning to normal. By the time I next see her, I will have no further restrictions. She reminded me that we will do a blood test in a couple of weeks to see if my Synthroid dosage needs to be adjusted, but otherwise I will turn into just another patient who only has to call my doctor for professional reasons when I have the stomach flu or something that everyone else also has.