Colman and I spent the majority of the day on Wednesday in the emergency room at CHOSA. I picked him up from school because he was complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. When I called his cardiologist, he told me that he thought from the way Colman was describing the pain that it was probably his lungs and not his heart, but with Colman’s history, I better take him to the ER to get it checked out.
It was the perfect way to kick off heart month.
After seven hours of being exposed to five thousand different kinds of flu, an EKG, chest x-ray, an echo and hours of SpongeBob, (God help me!) we were released. Everything looked normal for Colman. They, too, thought it might be related to his lungs, but were not sure either.
(An apology to the little girl that tried to peep in Colman’s room. I didn’t mean to slam the door that hard with my foot, but, seriously, your sister sounded awful and had just gotten a prescription for Tamiflu, which, by association, makes you a disease-y pup as well.)
After several hours, I went in search of something for Colman to eat. I’d picked him up before he was able to eat lunch at school and he was starving. I had no idea when I set out to the cafeteria it would be more like a foraging mission. The cafeteria at CHOSA has undergone a major change. In future, if you happen to be there and want anything to eat, I suggest Mi Tierra across the street for mexican food and margaritas because there wasn’t anything appetizing in the cafeteria unless you like salads and diet Pepsi. Seriously, I wasn’t even hungry when I went in there, but with all the diet food on display, I was starving by the time I walked out.
Everything was low fat, low calories, which is kind of a predicament since I was trying to pack as many calories and fat into a meal as possible. I finally found a piece of pizza that looked marginally okay and some whole milk, which Colman scarfed down. The smell of the pizza brought the ER doc to Colman’s room, “Hey, where did you find the pizza?”
“In the cafeteria. I kind of had to hunt for it, though. What happened in there?”
“We’re only offering healthy choices. You can’t even get a decent soda in the middle of the night now,” he said.
“I noticed. And diet soda is so good for you, right?”
“Thank you! My thoughts exactly. FYI, don’t even bother with the vending machines unless your craving granola,” he said with a shudder.
“I’ll consider myself warned,” I said.
We will be in Houston February 13th to finish up with the additional appointments and tests for the transplant evaluation. Then we’ll be back in Houston February 20th for a checkup.
This morning I’d just gotten to work and was thinking about all of the things I needed to get done, including stepping it up on the college savings because Liam is going to be in the seventh grade and I only have five more years to save for college, when a lovely friend sent me this video. It truly hit the spot. I’m not sure what I like most, the working-class English accents or the little girl’s use of the eff word. But I’m thankful I have such wonderful friends who brighten my day by making coffee come out of my nose. I appreciate each and every one of you.
Swallow all food and drinks.
Enjoy.
Crazy Heart Mama 