transport for them from their homes or work is very appealing. I had discussed this with most of them, without giving much in terms of details, and they were definitely enthusiastic. Ultimately though, they are mostly resigned to doing whatever is necessary to stay alive. To be honest, I don’t have much in the way of details to give them. All I have is instructions to drive my truck to a Mountain View office park, and then simply drive a different truck and trailer back home. I would do the return trip with my new coworker, Jo-Anne, who has some knowledge of dialysis. I believe she will also be my first confirmed patient too. I believe some dialysis teams have multiple vehicles, but we were not going to someplace new, so that seemed pointless. And I don’t care about the truck, which recently passed another hundred thousand miles. Beyond knowing about Mountain View, Jo-Anne, picking up a truck, and returning home to Bishop, I also had a number for someone named ‘John’. Apparently John was some kind of a get-out-of-jail free card. Time to go visit some flowing water… that is really flowing.
THE SECOND CONVOY It is 7 a.m. on Monday and a rush of calls to the 6 a.m. crew is coming in. The vampires again hedge and get told to come in by 2 p.m.. But this time we immediately get calls to the 10 a.m. crew asking if they can come in. Basically all of the vampires scheduled for today are getting called in. All of them refuse. When my call from Fane (my RN) comes in, I answer: “Sorry, no, I can’t come in today. I should be fine though, I did dialysis through another clinic yesterday, so I should be good until Wednesday”. Fane seems a bit perturbed, but just grumbles a “Fine, see you Wednesday”. “Have a Happy Independence Day!” I finish with. - 81 -
