Day 452: Random Shots

Since I started blogging, on 1/1/13, I’ve created several posts with “Random Thoughts” in the title (including here, here, here, here, here and here), about topics including — but not restricted to — doctor’s appointments, sleep, fun, and love.

Today,  I can’t promise any coherent thinking — random or otherwise — the morning after I:

1. Underwent a sleep study in a hospital.
2. Had a full day at work.
3. Saw my favorite musician, Pat Metheny, in concert.

So, I’m completely taking myself off the hook here, promising only random shots I took with my iPhone, yesterday.

Shall we begin?

This is Lori, a co-star of yesterday’s post, before she removed all the stuff she had put on me, the night before, for the sleep study. In further proof of her kindness (which I wrote about, yesterday), she had told me, “I love my job, but do you want to know what I HATE most about it?” and then answered her own question, “Ripping tape off of people.”

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Despite proof in several previous posts that one of my socks comes off, during the night, this process was incomplete, during the sleep study. Does this portend inconclusive results, in general?

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I took this shot of the shower at the sleep study to show the effects of anxiety, especially when one is rushing oneself (usually needlessly).  I had been thinking, “Oh, no!  I have to take this shower FAST because check-out time is IN TEN MINUTES and I don’t want to make them stay later because then they’ll HATE me” (or thoughts to that effect). So, I left the bathroom to ask Lori, “How do I turn on the shower?  I can’t figure it out!!!”  And Lori, in even further proof of her kindness (1) told me not to worry about being rushed and (2) did not make fun of me.*

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For those of you who are curious about sleep studies, above are the kinds of questions they ask you afterwards. Here’s the second page of that post-study survey:

My suggestion for better communication was inspired by Lori, who said to me, “Did you bring conditioner to help get the stuff out of your hair?  If you had spoken to me ahead of time, I would have told you to do that.”

If you’ve read yesterday’s post, I introduced you briefly to Allie, Lori’s daughter. Here she is:

And here’s the inaccurately named Mr. Brown:

More, and perhaps conclusive, proof of Lori’s kindness: Check-out time for the sleep study was 7:15 AM. Note the time on Lori’s cell phone. She still wasn’t rushing me, at all.

I had some time, after I left Lori & Company, before I needed to leave for work. So I moseyed over to the Cardiology Department, to see if I could find people I knew. Lo and behold, I saw one of my cardiologists, Dr. Mark Estes, in a meeting:

While I’ve written about Dr. Estes before, I haven’t included any photos of him in this blog. That’s him, furthest to the left.

Here’s another shot of him, seated at that meeting:

Now, it might seem that I was being inappropriately bold and snoopy, taking those two photos. I assumed it would be okay AND I did check it out with Dr. Estes, soon afterwards.  Dr. Estes not only was cool with the photos, but he invited me into that meeting room, to introduce me to everybody there. I can’t remember exactly what Dr. Estes said in his introduction, but it included phrases like, “This is one of the most famous patients at this hospital,” and “November 22, 1963 wasn’t significant only because of JFK being shot. That was also the date of Ann’s first pacemaker implant” and “My first meeting with her  got me into this specialty.”

Those aren’t exact quotes, I know, but what he said was all pretty amazing. He also recommended that everybody there read this blog. So if those quotes AREN’T accurate, maybe they can let me know.

That’s Melanie, a beloved, familiar face I saw immediately after I entered the meeting.  That helped me feel comfortable and open, as Melanie always does, at my Pacemaker Clinic appointments.

As I was leaving, I was taking more surreptitious shots of the meeting, but — this time — Dr. Estes caught me. He invited me in again, asking those assembled if it was okay if I photographed them. They all agreed, recognizing that this was for a future blog post.

I heard Dr. Estes say, as I was leaving, “We’ll be viral, by this afternoon.”

My parting shot: “I WISH!”

Thanks to Lori, Allie, Mr. Brown, Dr. Estes, Melanie, other assorted cardiology people, and Pat Metheny (who didn’t make it to this blog post but who gave a KICK ASS concert last night). And thanks to you — of course! — for helping me go viral, in any way.

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* If you’re having trouble with this, as I was, you turn the shower on with the giant lever on the top.