Back from a mini vacation. Ed took me to a Lee Memorial walk-in clinic for persisting symptoms that are worrisome in older people – sudden lack of balance, dizzy headache, etc. The clinic said I’d need tests and sent me to its hospital in Fort Myers and I was there for 5 days and got at least $50,000 worth of tests and ate truly bad food. I had three okay meals: a tuna salad platter, a penne dish with red sauce (very bland sauce, however I put some French salad dressing on it) and the fresh salad was excellent, and I had French toast and sausages for one breakfast that were okay. One dinner entre, the grilled mahi mahi tasted like soggy cardboard. Made Olive Garden look like a gourmet’s dream.

The “fresh” fruit salad tasted like plastic. How do they do that?

I had a cat scan, MRI, MRA (neck area), heart sonogram, chest x-ray. The MRI was 4 insertions, three for fifteen minutes each and the last one for about 5. My nurse had gone to get Xanax (I was unaware of this) to help me through the test and I had been carted off by the time she got back. I didn’t know some people are so spooked by being in the tube with an iron mask on (it does have slits) that they have to be sedated and some even get general anesthesia. For those who don’t know, you are not allowed to move any part of your body at all and you feel entombed.

They gave me ear inserts because the headphone like apparatus they started out with hurt my ears too much. The inserts probably blocked out less noise but that was okay. I made up rhymes to go with the sounds (ear splitting honks and vibrating organ-like sounds and some that sounded like a pile driver).

I silently chanted a mantra that has always helped me – “great strength, inner peace”. They gave me a panic bulb to press if I got an anxiety attack I couldn’t handle. When they finally pulled me out, I said, “Hey, I was just getting used to it.”

The other tests were far more routine and I know you must all have had them. There was a discussion as to whether my blood pressure was too low – 107/57 at one point and that this was the cause of my dizziness since my brain wasn’t getting enough blood.

Anyway, they couldn’t find anything wrong with me and kept telling me I must be doing something right. My gtf, Nadine, thinks I have an inner ear problem. Ed says he doesn’t think so because I leaned to the left and another day leaned to the right. Well, why couldn’t both ears be affected? When he wakes up tomorrow morning (it’s almost midnight now) I’ll ask him.

There was a Middle Eastern doctor who got so angry with me when I dissed the food that he stormed out and called me a bad patient. Hey, don’t kill the messenger.

I am writing my internist a note about him. I think he probably needs a cardiac evaluation because over-the-top anger in a doctor is very unprofessional and he was obviously on a short fuse, or he is just enraged about any woman having an opinion about anything at all. He wouldn’t accept my apology. He also looked like a cockroach but I wouldn’t have held that against him if he hadn’t been so punitive.

I came home in the late afternoon today (Saturday) and will be taking a med for my symptoms. I am allowed all my usual exercise routines but must rest in between. They stressed that I should not get up suddenly and should first dangle and then stand, etc. But when I jump up, although it makes me feel sick and dizzy,I don't fall because I make quick adjustments that have so far worked.

I met some interesting people, will try to keep in touch with one of my nurses (who actually tied my sneakers on for me although I was in the process of doing it myself).

Another nurse was so annoyed with me for getting up without buzzing for help that she plugged in a beeping monitor that senses when the bed is unoccupied. I got up anyway. They are used to people who think they can manage and can’t. She was nice enough to unplug the device.

When I got home, I gave Chewy a cuddle and Max came around brushing against my leg, and Brunswick, who is very affectionate with me, was nowhere to be found. This was one p.o.’d kitty. I found him under the bed and he moved away. So I reached in and petted him and a little later he came out and was okay. So I am forgiven for abandoning him.

xx, Teal