""Life, It may not always be easy,
But it will always be worth it.""
Our hotel, I loved looking out our window at night to see the city lights.
It was beautiful.
It was situated fairly close to the hospital. Just a short taxi drive which cost between $7.00- $8.00 a trip, depending on traffic. Taxi's in Toronto start their fares at $4.95.
This wasn't our room, but our bed looked exactly like this one. Is it any wonder why Alan had such a hard time getting me up every morning. Hee-hee! The most comfortable bed I've ever slept in!
This picture is of part of the lobby and you can see into the restaurant. The only problem with our hotel was that they have this beautiful restaurant but it was only open for breakfast. It left us to fend for ourselves for supper, which would have been fine, except that we were exhausted after my appointments at the hospital all day.
We had a little more time to sleep in this morning as my first appointment wasn't until 8:45. However it cost us over $11.00 for our taxi this morning. The OPP officer who was killed in the line of duty, his memorial is this afternoon and they are already starting to close of the streets for the parade.
My 2D Echo (Echo-cardiogram) was at the Peter Munk Cardiac Center on the 3rd floor of the Toronto General. This is an ultrasound of the heart. It will tell them how well my heart pumps the blood. It also looks at the valves which separate the chambers to see how well they open and close. I was a little concerned taking this test as I had one done 6 months ago on the Island and it didn't turn out.
My 10:00 appointment is back up on the 12 th floor for my 6 minute walk test. Here, they want me to walk at my own pace for 6 min, rest for 20 min and walk for another 6 min. I set out hauling my oxygen in a cart behind me and I only make it a little over 3 min. I rested for 20 min and started over again but this time with a tank of free flow oxygen (instead of my pulse tank) in a cart behind me. This made it a little easier this time I made it about 4.5 min. Not so good and my time is up for the day. I will have to come back another day, later in the week for more testing.
We were on the run to our next appointment when Melissa McPhail tracked us down. Melissa is another Islander who just received new lungs in November. She looks fantastic, very beautiful, strong and healthy. Actually, she ran down a flight of stairs to find us when she realized, I was another Islander lol. Since we were out of time, we decided to meet for lunch later in the week.
Next appointment was at 11:00 on the 10th floor, Pulmonary functions tests. While I was doing these breathing tests my husband is in the waiting room with a bird's eye view (looking out the 10th floor window) straight down to the street below where the memorial parade for the fallen OPP officer is going by. Lucky man, he gets to watch this as I a get to have a needle injected into my wrist for an arterial blood gas test. Yipee, hurts like HELL, but it's a necessary evil, as it checks my oxygen level in my blood.
At 12:30 We report to Medical Imaging on the 1st floor for my CT Chest/CAT Scan. I get to have a little rest while the scanner takes a series of pictures of my lungs.
My last appointment of the day was my physical exam with Susan Cherneko. I was taking my second step into her office and she's asking me how long have I had Scoliosis? Wow, my posture is something that I have been battling since puberty, memories of being 10 years old and my mother and teachers telling me to straighten up. Never, has anyone including doctors ever mentioned scoliosis. I told her this and she would check better after my other tests were done. She then very thoroughly checked my heart, lungs, abdomen, head, neck and extremities. Then she checked my back and sure enough there is a slight curvature on my upper right side of my back. Now that the team knows about this curvature they will take this into account in how to make me more comfortable during my 10 hour transplant surgery. After the examination was all finished we sat and discussed the test results which are back already. No problems so far, because of the size of my lungs and the type of my blood are all normal. This time " Normal:" is a good thing because I would make an excellent candidate for transplant. Yipee. Fingers are crossed that the later results will be as good as the earlier results.
Back to our hotel, for some rest and then to find supper and later some phone calls. Tomorrow we get to do it all again!!
But it will always be worth it.""
It was beautiful.
This wasn't our room, but our bed looked exactly like this one. Is it any wonder why Alan had such a hard time getting me up every morning. Hee-hee! The most comfortable bed I've ever slept in!
We had a little more time to sleep in this morning as my first appointment wasn't until 8:45. However it cost us over $11.00 for our taxi this morning. The OPP officer who was killed in the line of duty, his memorial is this afternoon and they are already starting to close of the streets for the parade.
My 2D Echo (Echo-cardiogram) was at the Peter Munk Cardiac Center on the 3rd floor of the Toronto General. This is an ultrasound of the heart. It will tell them how well my heart pumps the blood. It also looks at the valves which separate the chambers to see how well they open and close. I was a little concerned taking this test as I had one done 6 months ago on the Island and it didn't turn out.
My 10:00 appointment is back up on the 12 th floor for my 6 minute walk test. Here, they want me to walk at my own pace for 6 min, rest for 20 min and walk for another 6 min. I set out hauling my oxygen in a cart behind me and I only make it a little over 3 min. I rested for 20 min and started over again but this time with a tank of free flow oxygen (instead of my pulse tank) in a cart behind me. This made it a little easier this time I made it about 4.5 min. Not so good and my time is up for the day. I will have to come back another day, later in the week for more testing.
We were on the run to our next appointment when Melissa McPhail tracked us down. Melissa is another Islander who just received new lungs in November. She looks fantastic, very beautiful, strong and healthy. Actually, she ran down a flight of stairs to find us when she realized, I was another Islander lol. Since we were out of time, we decided to meet for lunch later in the week.
Next appointment was at 11:00 on the 10th floor, Pulmonary functions tests. While I was doing these breathing tests my husband is in the waiting room with a bird's eye view (looking out the 10th floor window) straight down to the street below where the memorial parade for the fallen OPP officer is going by. Lucky man, he gets to watch this as I a get to have a needle injected into my wrist for an arterial blood gas test. Yipee, hurts like HELL, but it's a necessary evil, as it checks my oxygen level in my blood.
My last appointment of the day was my physical exam with Susan Cherneko. I was taking my second step into her office and she's asking me how long have I had Scoliosis? Wow, my posture is something that I have been battling since puberty, memories of being 10 years old and my mother and teachers telling me to straighten up. Never, has anyone including doctors ever mentioned scoliosis. I told her this and she would check better after my other tests were done. She then very thoroughly checked my heart, lungs, abdomen, head, neck and extremities. Then she checked my back and sure enough there is a slight curvature on my upper right side of my back. Now that the team knows about this curvature they will take this into account in how to make me more comfortable during my 10 hour transplant surgery. After the examination was all finished we sat and discussed the test results which are back already. No problems so far, because of the size of my lungs and the type of my blood are all normal. This time " Normal:" is a good thing because I would make an excellent candidate for transplant. Yipee. Fingers are crossed that the later results will be as good as the earlier results.
Back to our hotel, for some rest and then to find supper and later some phone calls. Tomorrow we get to do it all again!!
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