Day 7,099,548

Also known as Day 2.

We did the resting nuclear test today and met with the cardiologist. He started by announcing in a dramatic ominous voice that my heart test was abnormal. So we're sitting there waiting to find out when they will put me on the heart/ lung transplant list and he shows us the pictures --- during part of the stress test, there is a tiny spot at the very bottom of my heart that might not be getting as much blood as the rest of the heart. It may have been that they just couldn't get a good picture of that spot because of my size. How will we treat it??? aspirin daily (which I have been on since 1968, seriously ! ! ) and a beta blocker added to my other blood pressure medicines.

Couldn't he have led with that?? instead of sitting there for 15 minutes like my heart was gonna give out right there in his exam room. Cardiologists and neuro guys are the worst. They are so doom and gloom.

Anyway, he wants to get one more test -they keep saying that - just one more kind of test, one more set of pictures, one more blood draw. Anyway, today I had a ct scan of my abdomen with iodine contrast and barium and tomorrow i have a ct scan of my heart with just the iodine. It is all really hard on the kidneys especially since I am diabetic so I'm supposed to be drinking and flushing and drinking more and more (water type liquids, nothing heavier, hehehe). So I have another day of fasting and lots of drinking water all this night and all tomorrow and tomorrow night.

We checked out of the Marriott this morning - the state paid for us to stay 2 nights for free and then we found a really good rate on a comfort Inn down by the port. It is Fur Rhondy weekend and a lot of the activities are down around the comfort inn. so we checked into it after I had been at the hospital for 6 hours today and it was filthy and moldy and smelled bad and had water damage all over the ceiling and some kind of picture that some tenant had created on the wall paper apparently with some kind of body fluids. It only shows when the light comes in the window in the afternoon. So we decided we were just gonna take a loss on tonights stay and we were able to cancel tomorrow nights stay there.

Then as we were trying to leave they had the operations manager come out and try to get us to stay in a better room and then they had the main manager of the company up here come out and try to get us to stay. She said our rooms just aren't like that - they are usually really nice. Let me find you a room that is up to our standards. So she took Alicia to see another room and it was just as filthy and beat up and Alicia said, It has mold just like the other one and the lady said where and Alicia showed her where it was and she said, ewwww this is icky. Oh my, I'll take care of checking you out. sorry

I know, we are pansies. But I just needed a place where I could chill for an evening and drink my water and feel safe and clean, so we are back at the Marriott. We did go online and get a better rate than Marriott said it would be so that saved us some money.

Yesterday, we spent a couple hours at the Providence Cancer Center which is proudly sponsored by Conoco Phillips and BP oil. (its in giant letters on every floor of the medical center). Anyway,, I said, I have to just step inside here and get a picture in my head so that if I have cancer and have to come in here, I will be okay because I know what it looks like.

Well, it was fabulous. Chairs and sofas and a gas fireplace arranged into all these seating combinations, computers to use whenever you want, private meditation rooms, and craft rooms and really private rooms called rabbit dens where you can go between appointments and eat or watch tv or sleep. And they are what they call a "navigation team" and I have a navigator and she will help me get thru all of this.

Alicia looked like a deer in the headlights the whole time we were in there. Jan and I were both trying to address her needs as well as mine and Jan kept trying to pat her knee and comfort her and she wanted nothing to do with it. It would have been funny if it wasn't about something so serious. I wanted to go back there today between appointments to rest, but Alicia wouldn't even go on that floor of the hospital (and when we did have to go on that floor, she kept her head turned the whole time so that she couldn't see the beautiful entrance doors), We could have stayed tonight in the cancer housing - the services are mostly free, but the housing isn't free, but it is very affordable. But she isn't up to that yet. Baby steps for everybody.

I was very comfortable in the cancer center and found it a place I know I will find comfort in when I need it (and they gave me a teddy Bear and a beautiful suede journal and all kinds of information and stuff.

So everything looks pretty good. Thanks for your continued prayers. Love, Charlotte