A MUCH BETTER DAY AND THE BONE SCAN WAS A BREEZE

IN THE GARDENS OUTSIDE THE STRATFORD HOSPITAL LOBBY

Yes it was a much better day right from the get-go.  I was up twice in the night to use the washroom and each time the pain in my back was not as bad and as the early morning progressed I noticed the pain spasms fewer and farther between.  Of course I am on pain meds which I'm sure are keeping things down to a dull roar but overall I think the pains are easing off.

 Pheebs and I did make it out for a short run in and around Bayfield with a stop at the cemetery for a quick walk.  

THIS MORNING'S UPDATE PICS FOR C AND G

<<<<< NEEDING A BAG TO CARRY MY KINDLE, CAMERA, AND A FEW MEDS KELLY GAVE ME HER COMPUTER CASE TO PUT THINGS IN.  NO IT'S NOT A PURSE!!!!
Home again I cleaned the Jeep windows, grabbed a shower, and by 10 o'clock I was eastbound for the Stratford hospital again.  And what an absolute beautiful morning it was for a relaxing drive through Southwestern Ontario's scenic rural farmlands.  Luckily we can travel back and forth to and from Stratford on nice paved backroads with very little traffic and the hospital is at the west end of the city closest to us.

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DRIVE TO STRATFORD THIS MORNING

It was 10:55 when I rolled into the Stratford Hospital parking lot and luckily found a parking spot right close to the southwest entrance I needed to enter.  

LUCKILY FOUND A PARKING SPACE CLOSE TO THE WEST BUILDING ENTRANCE

And as the day played out my luck just continued to continue.  No problem finding the Nuclear medicine bone scan area and couldn't help but notice there were hardly any people around anywhere.  Bonus.  Tiny waiting room with only 3 people but they were soon all gone.  How nice to sit quietly reading my Kindle.  No chatter noise.  Nurse came along right on time at 11:15 and led me to another room down the hall.  Big comfy chair, a few easy to answer questions like who am I and what year was I born.  Not knowing anything about what they were going to do to me I expected this was where the 'ouchy' part would take place when they stuck that darn sharp needle in the back of my hand again but nope, never happened.  I was expecting a plastic IV tube but nope that didn't happen either.  Before I could even get myself into a good serious worry about all this she had painlessly injected my right arm with the nuclear supper sauce.  It was all over in seconds and I hardly knew it happened.  She said 'that's it' your free to go anywhere you want and eat and drink anything you desire for the next 3 hours.  Just be back in the waiting room by 2:30.  Wow, pretty easy peasy so far.

JUST LOVE THESE EMPTY WAITING ROOMS

From the bone scan area I headed straightaway for the lunch counter in the main lobby area and grabbed myself a ham sandwich and a coffee.  Very few people in the lobby so I looked for the darkest corner I could find with soft seating.  Landed myself a nice spot near the coke machines.  Just me and my Kindle in the whole area.  Bonus.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting there by myself eating my ham sandwich, drinking my coffee, and quietly reading.  I so much like just hanging out by myself.

AND THAT'S WHERE I GOT MY COFFEE AND HAM SANDWICH

COMFORTABLY SEATED IN A QUIET CORNER I CONTENTEDLY SMILE AT ALL THE EMPTY SEATS

CONTEMPLATING MY HAM SANDWICH

After about an hour I headed outside with my camera taking a few photos around the small but nice outside seating area.  A walk around the hospital grounds and Nurses Residence brought back a lot of old memories for me.  I actually had a room a couple times in that Nurses Residence back in the 80's but that's a whole chapter of my life I've never written about.  It was a very different world I lived in back then.  

A NICE WALK AROUND THESE PEACEFUL GARDENS

STRATFORD HOSPITAL STRAIGHT AHEAD AND TO THE LEFT....NURSES RESIDENCE ON THE RIGHT

OLD ORIGINAL HOSPITAL ON RIGHT AND THE BIG NEW ADDITION STARTS FROM THERE AND GOES LEFT

Back inside the hospital again I grabbed me an orange juice, popped a pain pill, and snuggled back into my dark little corner by the coke machines.  The only times I'm getting pain in my back now is when I go to the washroom and it only lasts about 6 seconds.  I had been worried yesterday about what would happen if I was still having those jarring pains when they were doing my bone scan.  Luckily, I needn't have worried.  About 2:15 I wondered down a few dark halls to the bone scan waiting room.  Again, nobody there.  What bonus day I was having.  Ten minutes later a nurse came along and lead me to the bone scanner room.  I was pleasantly surprised to know I did not have to go through all that disrobing and backwards blue gown stuff.  She simply had me take everything out of my pockets, glasses and watch off and even my belt.  The scanning machine looked similar to the Cat Scan machine I was in a few weeks ago.  Shoes off and lay down on this rather comfortable long bench type bed.  Lady technician said I would be with her for 45 minutes and I was to behave myself.  Okay so she didn't say the last part but I behaved myself anyway.  My attitude with medical people is this.....they are there to help me and I am there to make their job of helping me as easy as I can.  It's just my nature.  So Okay back to the scanner.  Laying flat on my back with arms straight down my sides the bench slowly moved towards the big round donut machine.  A big square screen type thing with a crosshair symbol on it slowly descended and stopped about an inch from my nose.  I thought maybe I was about to be squashed flat.  Geeezzz I thought, 'did I walk through the wrong door and am in the bone crusher room instead of the bone scanner room??  Now, a word of caution here for anyone who may be claustrophobic.  This could be a difficult time for you because you might feel very confined in a very small space.  The technician fired up the scanner and for the next 40 minutes or so it softly whirred away sounding like someone had a vacuum cleaner going in the next room.  This machine was not as noisy as the Cat Scan machine which sounded like roller skates in a revolving dryer.  The bed I was on moved so slowly in and out of the donut I hardly knew it.  The screen part of the machine actually did most of the moving as it hovered and rotated over various parts of my body.  Sometimes very close and sometimes back off a bit.  Seemed to concentrate on the abdomen a lot.  I didn't have to do a thing and I'm sure people have probably fallen asleep during this procedure.  So if your headed for a bone scan at some point in your life I'd say not to worry.  Well unless you are a loud snorer that is.  I was back on my feet and out the scanner room door shortly after 3 p.m.  Five minutes later I was in the Jeep and headed for home.  

IN THE HALL OUTSIDE THE BONE SCANNER ROOM AWAITING MY TURN

Still a bit of pain in my back going to the washroom but other than that it was a great day and an equally great day driving home under sunny skies ballooned with big white and gray puffy clouds.  Maybe it was such a great day because I had just come out of two back to back not so great days.  Funny how things work like that sometimes but I've been aware of that phenomena for many years now.  It's almost like 'go have yourself a really bad day so you can totally appreciate a really good day when it comes along:))

WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS DRIVE HOME THIS AFTERNOON

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The European Union commissioners have announced that an agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy.  Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.  There will be growing public enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f".  This will make words like "fotograf" 20 persent shorter.  In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.  Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.  By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v".  During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud, of kors, be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.  Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German lik zey vunted in ze forst plas.
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- I love you. Is it you or the beer talking? It’s me. Talking to my beer.

- A young woman went to see a fortune teller who told her: "You will be broke and unhappy till you are fifty."  "What happens when I'm fifty?" asked the young woman.  "Nothing," said the fortune teller. "But you'll be used to it by then."=================