JD Hadfield came to visit. He was one of our assistants and a real go-getter. It is always nice to see how they are doing and what is happening in their lives.
With the Salt Lake Temple now closed for renovation for the next 4 years, we expected the Bountiful Temple to be so crowded, but it was not hustling and bustling as I had expected to see when we went for an afternoon endowment session.
Jan Evans has a birthday in January, so we went out to lunch with all the friends to celebrate. Jan ended up paying the bill for us. She said she got some inheritance money from when her father passed away and she not only wanted to treat us to lunch, but she also invited all the friends and spouses to have dinner with her and Bill at The Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City and she would pay for it.
That is a lovely, fancy buffet meal and we were all excited and looking forward to that at the end of the month. Jan has always said she doesn't just celebrate her birthday, she celebrates her birth month. Unfortunately, as I will share in a future post, I was ill that evening and so we had to miss the dinner.
Glen was so disappointed as we know how good that food is and how nice the dining experience would be and we were both looking forward to going. He says I now owe him big time!!!
After lunch at Plates and Palates, we went over to Debi Winder's home for dessert. She hadn't taken down her Christmas decorations yet, so we admired her beautiful tree.
LaVona Lewis, Colleen Kossin, Debi Winder, Jan Evans and Diane Stewart
Jane Crandall was at the restaurant but was unable to go to Debi's home.
We were sad for a moment that Kade wasn't with Haley, but then happy for Haley that she got to enjoy a baby-free lunch for a few minutes. Her friend Jess was watching Kade.
It was comforting to learn the x-ray findings were I had no extra fluid in or around my lungs. Hurrah!!
When I read the results, I saw that Rebecca had been right all along about why I was in so much pain all those weeks after my chest had been opened up by the cardiac surgeon. Rebecca likes to consult WebMD on the internet about medical things and report to us on her findings. We call her RebMD.
RebMD was sure the surgeon had left some foreign object in my body and that was causing the fever, swelling and pain. Of course I laughed at her diagnosis...UNTIL I read this CT Imaging Result!
It says, "A metallic object is present...consistent with a remnant portion of a medical device... It is very likely partially embedded in the wall. The morphology is not typical of the tip of a pacemaker lead."
Also noted, "...a manubrial sternal wire is present indicative of prior thoracic surgery." So now I have more hardware in my body along with my pacemaker.
The two medical assistants who were with me got a work-out, especially since one was pulling an oxygen tank all around wherever I went. It was quite comical.
The pulminologist reviewed the x-ray, CT scan and previous breathing test results and came to the conclusion that he feels like he wants to start conservatively by upping my asthma inhaler making it 5 times stronger to see if that helps.
He talked about other stuff that might be going on with my lungs and mentioned possibly taking a look inside my lungs to see what he could see. But, I was happy he didn't start with that option.
I did get a chuckle when I read the summary of my visit when I read, "61-year-old female who presents today for initial evaluation of shortness of breath. Her case is quite odd." He goes on to expound and writes that on my Pulmonary Function Testing "she has an odd plateauing of her flow volume loop."
Well, isn't that just the story of my life??? My medical issues all seem to be an anomaly to every doctor who cares for me.
That afternoon I had a cardiology appointment. Dr. Freedman walked into the room looking very sheepish and asked how his patient was doing that he failed on. He told me that the head of surgery at the University of Utah had called him about what had happened when he worked on me. I felt bad for him that he had gotten called out because of me.
My pacemaker got checked that day. My incision looked good. My heart hadn't gone into atrial fibrillation since my last check. Things were looking so good that he cut my new heart medication amiodarone in half and took me off my other heart medication diltiazem. I knew he didn't like me on that medication from the first time he saw me, so that was no surprise.
In cutting back on the medications, he is hoping the sinus node, which is the heart's natural pacemaker, will wake up a bit and start working better. So far, so good. I have felt great being off that medication.
With neither doctor restricting me from flying out of town, we happily got our bags packed and were eager and anxious to go to Florida. I found the Mickey Mouse umbrella I had bought many years ago during a very rainy visit at Disney World and packed it just in case we had another downpour.
We had been looking forward to a nice vacation after all the ordeal with my two failed surgeries. It was a perfect invitation for us to have something to look forward to.
It was so wonderful to leave white, snowy Utah and arrive in green, sunny Florida. This was our view from the front of the 6th floor of our villa.
This is the view from the screened-in porch of the back of the villa.
"NO SWIMMING. Use caution when approaching our wetlands. Snakes and alligators are present."
WHAT???!!!??? You better believe I kept my eye out every time we passed by this area!!
A Disney employee took pity on us and helped get us a FastPass to one ride of our choice. We chose the 22-minute Kilimanjaro Safari ride "through the lush African savanna to search for lions, elephants, giraffes and more."
