Tuesday late afternoon - Post hotel nap post

So now it is 5:30 or so. I just woke up from my nap in my nice comfy bed at the hotel using a bed wedge to elevate my head with lots of pillows. My Peachhead friend back in L.A., Andrea Koepke (if you don't know what Peachhead is, you will have to ask me later) loaned me her pillow of this type that she used after her OHS in January. I thought about bringing it with me to Rochester, but it was just too huge, and I already had too much luggage, so I decided that we would buy one here for $35 or so (actually, there were priced cheaper here than anywhere else I priced them) and just leave it when we left. Vince could not get over the waste factor of doing this. It was driving him nuts, so finally, this morning, as I was sending him over the the Mayo Clinic store to buy the pillow, I came up with the idea of leaving the pillow with Rabbi Michelle Werner (who, by the way, is closing escrow on her house here today! Mazel Tov!) and letting her give it to the next needy person. He was ok with that, so I got to take a nice and comfy nappy in the hotel on my pillow this afternoon.

So, I awoke from my nap, and am snacking on these really good dried blueberries and sunflower seeds (soaked to wash the salt off) while Vince is out at the store. As we were leaving the hospital, a person stopped us at the pharmacy as I was being pushed by a Mayo escort in a wheelchair. This person had a big box for me which appparently was sent to me in the room, but we left too fast to get it. It was a giant box of goodies (lots of high iron/low salt snack and dried foods) sent by my co-workers at MGM. How nice was that? I really appreciate that all you MGM people, and I thank you as I crunch on your blueberries and replenish my iron. Vince is going to be cooking me a nice pasta dinner from some more of the dried goods in the box. I think I see the hands of my MGM pal Stephanie H. on this as the company that sent the box was in Connecticut, but I am not sure.

There was a comment on my latest blog entry from Deb, the great day nurse I had for my 3 full days on the floor. All of the nursing care here was superb. Very friendly and attentive, and I have to say, puts Cedars to shame. At Cedars the doctors are great, but from my personal experience, G-d help you if you are an inpatient. Here, they are all really on the ball, very consciencious, and nice to boot. Apparently there was also a male ICU nurse named Jason who I never actually laid eyes on (I was out of it the whole time he was taking care of me) but I hear from Vince that he was superb and put up well with Vince's "High Functioning" personality and incessant questioning.

Alright, I am going to sign off now and take a walk. I have my nice little inspirometer to blow into, and to answer CJ's comment who went through this whole process a couple of weeks ago, I managed to get the little thingy up to 1550 m.l. today, which I considered to be quite an accomplishment. Pursuant to CJ's advice, I got one to try out when I was waiting for the cath early on Friday morning before the operation, and the highest I could get it then was 2000 m.l.