ECHO...echo

I had my echocardiogram yesterday morning.  I overslept and got stuck in traffic, so I was 15 minutes late.  I have never been to that office when they were not running late and it was no exception yesterday, so I still had to wait 30 minutes.  When the tech came out to call me, some elderly people started yelling at her that they were there first.  She said, "This lady is not seeing the doctor, she is here for a test."  A lady yelled, "Yeah, right.  Liar!"  What is with people?

The test is easy.  You just lie on a table and the tech uses an instrument like an ultrasound and scans your heart.  I heard it beating, so I said to her, "I guess I'm still alive."  She laughed and said she thought so and they would do everything they could to keep me that way.  It took about 10 minutes, and when I walked out to the waiting room, the lady that yelled looked like you could have knocked her over with a feather.

I left the office, walked to the elevator, then realized I didn't have a doctor's note for work, so had to go back and get one.  Sort of embarrassing.  I'm forever doing that.  I'm always so anxious to leave that I never remember the note.  Even though I'm not getting paid for the sick time, it works against me to not show that I was actually at the doctor's office.  The city has what they call a "Sick Leave Abuse" list and if you abuse your sick leave too much, you are laid off for a week.  I don't want that.

When I got to Aria Hospital, the parking lot was full, so I had to do valet parking.  The valet driver was not there, so I had to wait for him to show up which made me even later for my appointment.  Well, getting my car back was just as bad.  The road in front of the hospital entrance was jammed, so he had to leave my car in a lane in the lot and come get me.

I knew I needed to get gas, but didn't have time to get it before I went to the hospital.  So afterwards on the way to work, I ran out of gas.  Fortunately, I was by the gas station and was able to coast into a spot and get some.  It was up to $30 to fill my tank!  Unbelievable.  So when I got to work, I told my co-workers that I had just had a Murphy's Law day.  Fortunately, the rest of the day was rather uneventful.

Joe called me at work this afternoon.  He said Jefferson Hospital had called about my pre-op testing.  I thought I had to be down there at 10 a.m.  In fact, I have a paper where that is written down, but now they are telling me to be there at 1:30 p.m.  They want me to eat first.  Right.  I haven't been able to eat lunch in months.  The testing should take 3 hours.  What in the world can they be doing?  When I had the pre-testing for my breast cancer surgery, it took less than an hour.  My goodness!

Tonight was the last night of Bible Study for a few weeks.  They are taking a break for the holidays.  Unfortunately Joe had a massive headache and was not able to go.  He wasn't even able to eat dinner, so I had a baked potato which just hit the spot.  I had a little bit of ice cream left, so after awhile I thought I would finish it up.  Unfortunately, my stomach did not like the idea so I got sick.  I felt awful for hours, but I didn't throw up, so that's an improvement.  I think.

That's my excuse for this late entry and I'm sticking to it!

12 days to surgery