Heart to Heart

Once again I've been remiss . It has been awhile since I've written. I have been : a) busy, b) tired, c) lazy. ( Every thing is multiple choice now. )

It is just a week away from Spring Break, and I join all teachers in the joyful thought of its arrival! I expect to spend a lot of time during SB just reading and doing nothing. Well, maybe I should do some work in the yard, weather permitting, do some window washing, energy permitting, do some shopping, finances permitting, organizing, time permitting. If there is any time left over after the reading I'll get right to some of those tasks.

Yesterday I spent the greater part of the day at the Cardiovascular Associa;tes' offices. I had some changes in my EKG a few weeks ago and you know how it is in these times, we have to rush off and have tests in order to protect the primary care doctor from litigation.

I had to be there at 11:45 and I had to abstain from ANY form of caffeine for twenty-four hours in advance of being there and abstain from food and drink for 4 hours. I couldn't even take an Advil for my headache that was a direct result of the caffeine restriction. I had to teach until time to go and I felt pretty miserable. I feared that I was coming down with WGA. (what's going around) but the testing took my mind off that in a hurry.

First off they had to put an IV in my arm. I have had enough experience to know just what that maneuver entails. "Let's see here, is one of your arms better than the other?"
'Yes, they are not always successful with the right arm." (Notice I have disowned my arm by referring to it as 'thee arm')
"Well, I think I'll just give it a try anyway.I think I can find a vein here. Let's see if this one will work. Oh, I hope I'm not hurting you too much, I hate to fish around like this but the vein keeps slipping away. Your veins are so small! " (This translates to, see? this is your fault!) O.K. Maybe , I'll give your left arm a try" ( Again ,I wish to refer to it as 'the left arm') We proceed with more 'fishing in the left arm, The ' fisher' is exhibiting more and more angst.
"Sometimes they have to use one of 'the' hands." I suggested.
" I think I will have a look at your hands. Just let me put a piece of gauze over this." I now have matching arm gauze pads! After much scrutiny he found a vein that looked suitable to him. It was located on the right hand in the area just above my thumb and index finger. Finally, success! Whew! That procedure lasted about 25 minutes, Bruce and I ( we became quite friendly) had a long day ahead of us. The nuclear part of the test was uneventful, except that to protect the equipment they keep it quite cold in the lab. and I impressed Bruce by turning blue, then black and finnally dead white (my hands). He wrapped me in sheets and towels in an effort to warm me up. I ended up being the only patient of the day clad in a grey hospital garment and a winter coat and a scarf.

A great deal of time is spent sitting in a room waiting for the pictures to be read. I made the aquaintance of a few other women that were awaiting their pictures to be read. We had some in -depth discussions about health care, doctors and books. I was reading "The History of Love" at the time. They were all wishing that they had done that too. Not "The History of Love" but just brought


a book.
Next on the agenda was walking on the tread mill while being wired up with little patches that were hooked up to the monitor. I was really exhausted by that activity. I finally said I didn't think I could go any longer when they insisted that I could go on to the finish. They said I only had one more minute. Do you know how long a minute is ? I had to sit in a chair and pant for about five minutes before going on to the next act.
The cardio echo gram was the least invasive and rather interesting to see the ultra-sound of my heart beating and the sound of the blood swooshing in and out of the chambers. At one point it sounded like, "wow, wow, wow, wow, "very soothing." Bruce had to take my IV out, no problem there and then I got dressed and left for home, starved, tired and looking forward to all the caffeine I could drink. It was 5:00. Results, Tuesday.


There are 304 days left till a new president

Quote " It will take time to restore chaos, and order...order out of chaos."

President Bush;, speaking of the mess in Iraq, April 13, 2003