Thursday January 7th,

Hello Readers, Hope your day has been as productive as mine. It was a pretty good day and I feel that lots got accomplished, but I am so tired again. Each time I come back I am more tired than I was when I left. Today was very overcast and cloudy. At the end of the day the sun was finally peeking out and things were looking pretty again. I had to be at the hospital at 8 am this morning. I had some heart tests to do..wasn't really too scared till I got into the room and saw more wires and a TREADMILL! The first part of the test I laid on the bed with sticky buttons placed in about 12 places on both sides of my upperchest. The tech then proceeded to do an ultrasound on my heart. I got to watch and it was pretty cool to see. It was in color so she could see which blood was returning and which was being pumped out. She gave me a tour of my heart valves and artery. I really liked how she treated me and shared her knowledge. Then said "remember exactly how you are laying right now..." I said "Ok?" And she then explained that the next part of the test required me to get on the treadmill and get my heart rate up to 158 beats per minute. Then once that happened I had to jump on the bed and get in that same exact position so that she could take pictures of my heart again to compare and there was only a 30 second time frame. Talk about pressure...ha ha! I made a pun..get it? Blood pressure! LOL.
The treadmill part was not fun. And everytime I was about to ask "are we there yet/" the dumb thing would start going faster and go up like an incline...Think I was breathing like a horse when the nurse yelled "Jump!" I did too. I leaped from the death machine to the bed into position gladly. But it was very difficult to hold my breath for the ultrasound tech when she was taking pictures. There was no way I could talk..how do people do that for longer then 10 minutes every day? That was pure torture, especially in a hospital gown with footie slippers.

After that test we came back to the hotel because I didn't have my next appointment until 1pm across the campus. We talked the van driver into taking us to a place called "Whole Foods". If you are from Spokane..it's basically a Huckleberry's on steriods. But even awesomer. They made everything look yummy in there. I have never seen such a variety of cheeses, whole grain breads, crackers, organic fruits and veggies, seafoods, meats, etc. Have you ever heard of a "air cooled" chicken? Google it...I am sold. We bought red pepper hummus, pita bread, sun dried tomato and basil humus, some really yummy cheese and carrot and onion for our soup tomorrow. It was such a fun place. There was a fantastic wine selection, but Karen didn't want to look and I knew we couldn't buy..so I just admired from afar. I want a "Whole Foods" in Spokane.
Our van driver was Wayne. I call him Cowboy Wayne. I was asking him if the land we were passing was wild or just planned that way because it was pretty. He said "Oh that is wild land, don't go walking on that.." Karen and I had been taking short cuts through the "wild land" a lot to get to the hospital to catch the early morning shuttle. Karen looked at me and I looked at her and we both asked "why not?" Wayne then proceeded to tell us that even though it's January and the snakes and scorpions are mostly dormant, they occasionally come out. He told us that all the landscapers duct tape their pants to their socks because you would never even see a scorpion and it would have bitten you 9 to 11 times before you got it off. He said never walk in the wild again. We said very meekly that we would not..and here I was hoping to see a snake..lol.
So we will be walking on the side walks from now on. We were surprised to see that there were no signs saying not to walk across the dessert, but apparently everyone else already knows not to do that. We got back, put away the groceries and then got a ride to the hospital to catch the shuttle to the clinic. At the Clinic I had to see the heart doctor. He went over this mornings tests and all was normal. So happy to hear that. He gave me a physical and listened to lungs and heart beats etc. My blood pressure was fine, I have a rapid heart beat..98 beats per minute. I asked about that and the smaller you are the faster your heart beats..wierd. Anyways I have lost more weight..down to 120 pounds. Haven't weighed that since I got married..in 1992. Of course losing all that weight made it really easy for them to find my heart today..but we won't go into that.
After the bone doctor I saw a "sleep doctor" which is their word for shrink. He was very friendly and made a lot of notes. There was even a couch..but I sat in a chair. He changed one of my medications and I think it will be a good change as eventually it will elimate 2 that I take now. After the "sleep doctor" I had a bone density test. I had more x-rays of my spine (if the x-ray techs are recognizing you...there is a problem. I am praying I keep all my hair with the amount of radiation in me. And then a bone scan with another machine in another room. Finally it was time to catch the shuttle to the hospital..it is about an 1/2 hour ride, then called the hotel van to come get us. I was way to tired to walk and my feet were so swollen.
The hotel had a pasta bar set up for dinner. It was very yummy and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I am down typing in the lobby right now. In a bright orange pod..have to take a picture, to hard to explain. Well it's 8:30 pm..so this girl is taking her meds and a hot bath. Then the Mentalist is on..at least I hope so..I am posting more pictures. I am sorry it won't let me make comments under them. But I have also posted some on my face book page and they do have comments...love to all from the "Wild Lands", Becca