The last 24 hours were (fortunately) quite uneventful yet due to the entertainment value, worth writing about.
Even though the traveling can be a bit much at times, Mom and I both thought it best that all her pre-admission tests were done in NY as opposed to here in Delaware. With the timetable being so tight and her needing both her primary care doctor and her cardiologist to give medical clearance for the surgery, the thought of having the tests done in DE and then be delayed for who knows what reason in their getting to NYU was not something we wanted to chance. So yesterday afternoon we headed north.
The scheduling person at NYU Cancer Institute for Dr. Hiotis is, frankly, a pit bull. How she got everything scheduled for one day is beyond me, but it was clear today that when Christine calls the folks at NYU they make it work even when they don't want to. ....and part of today had to be handled elsewhere because NYU simply could not (or would not) budge.
So yesterday at 4 PM we headed to north Jersey to stay overnight in a hotel because Mom's PET/CT scan was scheduled for 7:30 AM at Park Avenue Radiologists. After checking out a bunch of different hotels and prices it was clear that I wasn't getting away with anything under $200 for the night. So at the point, screw it all: stay at the Embassy Suites and be comfortable! ...of course, finding the Embassy Suites in Secaucus, New Jersey was another thing. Fortunately my little gps got us there with a minimum of yelling between driver and passenger.
Mom was thrilled with the room! She had her own room with a 32" flat screen TV, a king bed, and a beautiful handicapped bathroom. And me? I had the entire living room to myself....with my own 32" tv, the microwave, the mini-fridge, the COFFEE MAKER, and a sofa bed...but frankly who cared about the sofa. I had some space, we wouldn't trip over each other, and Mom wouldn't worry about waking me if she needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Fast forward to bedtime....here comes the entertainment I promised. Mom was all set to get into bed, wheeled herself over to the side she usually gets in on, stands up and.....the mattress hits about 4 inches ABOVE her ass! It was a pillow top and little miss "I'm 5 feet tall" (she's 4' 11" if she's anything!) can't hoist her butt high enough to get into the bed. So she gets back into the wheelchair, rolls into the living room, exclaims "I'll sleep here on the sofa and you take the bed. It's perfectly fine." And before I know what's happening she's out of her chair and starting to sit down on the sofa bed.....which is 4 inches BELOW her ass! The world now moves in slow motion. There I am reaching out and lunging forward yelling, "Www--aa--ii--tt Ffff--ooo----rrrr meeeeee toooooo heeeeeeeellllpppppp!" And there she is making contact with the mattress and rolling onto her back, legs and feet flying up in to the air heading back OVER her head, nightgown flipping up and COVERING her head....and yes, the curtains in that part of the room were still WIDE OPEN!!
The next 10 minutes were taken up with me trying to get her upright, over to the edge of the mattress and back up and into her chair......this took place with us laughing hysterically, and yes, the curtains still wide open for all the world in the Courtyard Marriott across the way to watch.
Finally she's up and into her chair and I told her we were going back to the bedroom and getting her in the real bed. So now, picture me ON the bed behind her so that my knees are pushing down the edge of the mattress pillow top so that it can get UNDER her butt all while she is trying to shimmy backwards onto the bed. ....and no, those curtains were NOT open.
Finally she gets settled, I have worked up a good sweat and am now WIDE AWAKE. But she was in the bed and that was that. (Oh, and just let me tell you that it was a damn good thing I got her into that bed too. The bar running through the center of the sofa bed....let's just say I'll be sleeping nice and soundly tonight here at home because there was ZERO sleep for me last night.)
Out of the hotel @ 6:15 AM and outside Park Avenue Radiologists at exactly 7 AM. The PET/CT scan went along right on schedule; everyone was incredibly nice and helpful; and we were out the door and back in the car @ 9:40 AM heading over to NYU......and we were starved!
After a (gulp) magnificent....NOT...breakfast in the cafeteria at Tisch Hospital in the NYU Medical Center, we headed over to Pre-Admissions and, shocker of the day, were in and out in exactly 55 minutes! We were told it would take 3 hours....nope. 55 minutes. We headed to the car and were cruising cross town to the Lincoln Tunnel by 1:30. This meant ZERO cross town traffic, ZERO tunnel traffic and ZERO NJ Turnpike traffic. Mom was home cuddling and cooing her evil, um, er, sweet little kitty cat (thing was born of a demon seed I tell you!) by 4 PM and I was getting yelled at by the pups by 4:30 PM.
....and now we just have to go to see her cardiologist on Thursday and hopefully all will be set and in motion for next week's surgery....that is, if her primary care doctor remembers to fax her surgeon the medical clearance form. ...guess I'll be on the phone a lot tomorrow.
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