Day 1

Wow, I almost forgot to blog for today and i've been thinking about it all day about what i was going to say and all that..and then i almost forgot when i was finally at my computer. I am such a dork!
Today went fairly well. Because I had sent in all my admin paper work I was able to start off with my tests and didn't have to go deal with all the paper work. So my first appointment was at 720 and was for blood work. We walked threw the "subway" which was like the bottom floor of the hospitals. It was nice because we never had to go outside where it was maybe 3degrees.
Anyways, we walk up to the line and there are like 10 people in front of me. Dan and I thought the wait would be long but it wasn't even 5 minutes before I got checked in and sent threw the purple doors into the waiting room. The waiting room itself had at least 20 people and again it took me 5-8 minutes of waiting. They had soo many people taking blood.
Because we were done so early before my next appointment I thought I could go get my pulmonary function monitor early. They told me that I had to wait until my appointment time because it was a class like setting where they told you how it works.
So we went back down stairs and went to get my EKG done. We were again very early but I went ahead and checked in and was taken back in about 10-15 minutes. They had a bunch of changing rooms w/ a lock and key so you can lock up your stuff when you are getting the EKG done which i thought was really nice. They also had a bunch of EKG rooms so it went quickly. This office is where I was also supposed to get my holter monitor but I had to go get my chest x-ray first. When I checked in for my x-ray they gave me a pager which went off maybe 5 minutes later. I was on a roll and was glad I was getting stuff done quickly.
I was getting hungry but had to wait until after the first half of my research echo. Dan and I went down stairs to get my holter monitor which I again got done very quickly. While I was getting it the girl asked if I had certain things done before she put it on and I was saying yes. She then asked if I was going to try to get my stress test done today instead of tomorrow and I said no I see the doctor in the morning and I am still trying to get out of it. LOL! I can't have this holter on when I do the stress test.
I then had 90 minutes to kill before i could get my pulmonary function monitor. Because I was getting hungry I decided we would see if I could get the first half of my research echo done. First they couldn't find my name in the research stuff so the receptionist paged the doctors in the back who came out and talked to me to see why i was trying to do it early. When i explained I was getting hungry and was done with just about everything the lady told me she would she was she could do. When she came back out she asked me to come back as soon as I got my pulm. func. monitor and they would start then.
It was 930-945 at this point so Dan and I went upstairs to wait to get my monitor. The "class" i went into had 3 older men. I swear they made me stupid with there dumb questions. I felt like my brain cells were dying. My questions was logical. I asked what time i needed to bring it back so that it could be read before I saw the doctor because they were saying return it by 9 and my appt is at 915. I wanted to make sure that I could still just put it in the drop box or if i had to let someone know so that it could be read right away. These men couldn't figure out how to put it on there finger correctly even though she showed us. She told us to leave them in the cover and they asked if they could take it out.. then this one guy wanted to know how to get the results because he had nothing on his schedule for tomorrow and the lady said well you need to discuss that with your doctor, he will either call you or write to you and the guy was like okay I see him tomorrow afternoon.. I just wanted to die laughing.
Now it was time for all my echos which was def. the longest part of the day. The guy doing my research echo was Japanese, and has only been in the US for 8 months. HE was very funny and reminded me of Ando from Heroes. The only English he knew was what was written on a cheat sheet which I thought was kind of funny. He was going to use 2 machines that take slightly different pictures, but once we started someone came in to get one of the machines because it had an appt to be upgraded. The Dr was very confused I kind of felt bad for him but they gave him time to take the pictures he needed so it all worked out. There are times when I have to hold my breath or bare down to adjust the pictures. He would practically yell "hold it hold it hold it" or "keep pushing keep pushing keep pushing". It was so funny. I then got to eat and while they asked me to eat all of it I couldn't and wouldn't have because it had a hard boiled egg (EWW). It also had 2 chicken breast pieces, 2 rolls, sliced American cheese and some lettuce. So I made 2 sandwiches and ate most of it. There was also orange juice which I really don't like. I was so thirsty so I chugged it at first and then remembered w/ the after taste why i don't like it. I was still thirsty so I went to drink more but I was not thirsty enough so I had to stop because I just couldn't handle the EWWness. My chest hurt which is always does when I eat so that kinda sucked. But then they did the 2nd half of the echo. I pretty much dozed threw as much as I could because I was so tired. That whole process took about 2 hours.
When I was done w/ that I went back to the desk and checked in for my clinical echo. I waited for about 15 minutes which wasn't bad. I was actually called back at my appt. time. They did it in 2 parts, first she took pictures looking threw my mitral valve to look at the pressure and the time it takes to open and close. She sent that to another computer so that it could be read because it needs to be read on a different computer then the other (i think that's what she was saying). When she first went to send it though it didn't want to work so she had to go restart the computer in the back and try sending it again. Once it was sent they did the rest of the echo which again I dozed threw. It was cool though because you have to lay on your left side and they have the machines on your right, so they hooked up monitors on the left side so you could watch. The only part that sucked was that my baring down didn't give them a particular picture so I had to breathe in something called AMYL NITRATE. They warned me it smelled bad and could give you a headache. It makes it so that your heart speeds up as if you were jogging while you are laying down. It was awful. With the chest pain and headaches I have already been fighting this just made it so much worse. But once I was done with that I was done for the day.
I went straight back to the hotel and took a nap. It was great. I have been so tired all day, like I am every day but had not been able to sleep. I am so glad they were able to move up the research echo so that i could eat and sleep.
Dan and I went to Applebees for dinner which was nice because I was able to eat whatever I want. Tomorrow I can eat breakfast but I can not eat for the last 2 hours before the death ...i mean stress test. Its kind of scary because while I want to be okay, I kind of want there to be a small problems so that the doctors would move faster with there actions.
Anyways, it is about time for bed again. I hope that wasn't too much rambling for you all.
More tomorrow when know something. I will also post a few pictures of the sunrise from the 18th floor of the hospital. I also plan on taking some more of the amazing buildings.