TWO TRIPS TO LONDON TODAY IN NASTY WEATHER BUT THAT'S OKAY BECAUSE KELLY ACED HER STRESS TEST THIS MORNING:))))))

 WE STOPPED HERE SO I COULD STRETCH MY CRAMPED LEGS

It was cold dark and windy morning when we all piled into the Subaru and headed out the driveway at 6:48 a.m.  With the possibility of freezing rain ahead I  had my fingers crossed.  Fifteen minutes into our drive the first raindrops began hitting the windshield but luckily, those raindrops were not freezing.  From that point on, it rained all the way to London where Pheebs and I dropped Kelly off at University Hospital's main door at 7:58.  From there we turned around and headed back north out of London.  Our first stop was the Ten Mile Road 'Medway Cemetery' where we stopped and I stretched my cramped legs.  The next stop along the way was at Lucan's Tim Hortons where we slipped through the drive-thru.  When the young kid at the window handed me my coffee the lid wasn't on tight and I ended up with a minor coffee spill on the same pants I had greased up with a Double Buddy Burger at an A&W a few weeks ago.  Maybe these are just my bad luck pants.  From there, with a shaky coffee in hand, we headed on home lollygagging all the way.....in the rain.

 DROPPING KELLY OFF AT THE HOSPITAL THIS MORNING

 COFFEE SPILL ON MY PANTS

I managed to grab myself a few zzzzz's before loading up Pheebs and heading back to London later this morning about 11:15.  They told Kelly she would be done around 12:30 so Pheebs and I pulled into London's big Masonville Mall parking lot to await Kelly's call.  We were only there about 15 minutes when my cell phone rang.  It was Kelly and I could tell right away from her cheery-sounding voice that she had had a good morning and I knew we had dodged yet another bullet on Kelly's way to a liver transplant.  Minutes later, with two Tim Hortons coffee in hand, I picked her up at the hospital's main entrance and we were on our way home.  And, it was still raining.

WHEN TODAY'S RAIN BECAME TOO MUCH, FARMERS ABANDONED THEIR MACHINES IN THE FIELD

I wrote a whole conflooberation of Kelly's procedure today and then tonight, Kelly found a copy of the procedure's description.  So, instead of my back asswards fumblings I give you here the real thing.....Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI)   The technician places small pads (electrodes) on your chest, arms and legs. The pads have wires that hook up to a machine to record your electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG). The ECG keeps track of your heartbeat during your test and is used to tell the camera when to take a picture.

You’ll wear a cuff around your arm to track of your blood pressure.

The technician will put an intravenous line (IV) in your arm. 

You’ll exercise on either a treadmill or a stationary bicycle.

If you can’t exercise, your IV will be connected to a bag that has a medicine to widen the arteries in your heart or make it go faster, similar to when you exercise. This is called a chemical stress test.

When you reach your peak activity level, you’ll stop and receive a small amount of radioactive material (tracer) through the IV.

You’ll lie still on a table for 10-30 minutes while the gamma camera takes pictures of your heart. Several scans are done during that time to provide pictures of thin slices of your entire heart from all angles. It’s important to hold still with your arms above your head while the pictures are being taken.

During the resting part of the test, you’ll receive more tracer and another set of pictures will be taken. This set of images will be compared to the images taken after exercise or stress.

So, everything was good and everything was positive today.  One of the two nurses conducting the recumbent bicycle test told Kelly she aced the test with flying colors. The nurse also said the results of all of today's tests will be known in about five days.  We're hoping for good results there too.  Not sure what the next step is but we'll be back to University Hospital on Thursday when Kelly has an appointment with an Anesthesiologist person.  It looks like an hour-and-a-half appointment, and with Thursday's weather calling for a sun and cloud day, Pheebs and I will likely cruise around a few country roads waiting for her to give us a call to pick her up.  Tomorrow looks like another rainy day:((

Ellen's Groove:))  In this video, Ellen slows it down and using a fretless bass melodically plays Yousician's 'Quantum Science'.  Notice also how her outfit matches the background.  Kind of reminds me of a Japanese tea garden setting.  A nice change of pace for Ellen. 

 I THINK TODAY'S HEAVY WIND GUSTS WERE TRYING TO BLOW THE TARP OFF THIS WAGON HAULING CORN

Al's Music Box:)) Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphy from his 1975 album, 'Blue Sky-Night Thunder'.  In a 2008 interview, Murphey talked about the origins of the song and the context in which it was written. He was a third-year student at UCLA, working on a concept album for Kenny Rogers (The Ballad of Calico). The work was demanding, sometimes taking more than 20 hours a day. One night, he dreamed the song in its totality, writing it up in a few hours the next morning. He believes the song came to him from a story his grandfather told him when he was a little boy – a prominent Native American legend about a ghost horse. Murphey did not have a horse named Wildfire until a few years before the interview, when he gave that name to a Palomino mare.

 PHEEBS AND I SOMETIMES SEE THE STRANGEST THINGS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The little girl was SO proud of her Christmas presents, her first watch and her first perfume. She really made a pest of herself throughout the morning, going up to all the relatives and sticking that watch in their ear and insisting that they smell her perfume.  The preacher was coming for lunch, but before his arrival, the girl's mother had said, "If you mention that watch or that perfume just once more, I'm going to send you to your room for the rest of the day."  The meal went rather well, and the little girl held her tongue until just when the dessert was being served. She wanted to make sure that the preacher, too, knew about her new watch and her perfume: "If you hear anything or smell anything ... it's just me!"

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Two hunters are lost in the woods.  After wandering around for a couple hours they decide to weigh their options, one says:  "I heard if you shoot in the air someone will hear and come to your rescue".  So they fire a few times in the air and wait, nothing happens so they try again a couple more times, after a few hours of this they're starting to get worried and one says: "I hope we get help soon", to which the other responds, "I know, I am almost out of arrows"!

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