A Mini Before the Biggie

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Cleveland Clinic is legit! I don't have a lot to compare it to, but it is still very evident why it's the number one heart hospital in the nation and the number two overall care hospital in the nation.

The campus is huge! I'm so glad that we decided to stay at the hotel connected to the main hospital. It makes it so easy to get to and from all the appointments. It also allows the girls to go to and fro by themselves safely.

Yesterday, Eric's day started out pretty early with appointments that continued up until 3:30 in the afternoon. I accompanied Eric to the first couple of appointments, and then he was on the "conveyor belt" of labs and tests.

In the meantime, the girls and I set out to the grocery store. We Ubered to the closest Aldi's. Thanks to advice from Tania, (a fellow Poudre alum who lives in Cleveland) we brought our quarters for the carts and our own bags. We were all set, until the Uber driver got to be a nervous Nelly about leaving us there. But it was all good and I convinced him we were fine... And we were, except that I neglected to buy bowls to eat cereal and milk out of! We might eat our morning cereal out of hotel glasses.

That evening we headed downtown to eat dinner and take in an Indians game. It was gorgeous weather and a lovely night at a ballpark. We even got to "root, root, root for the Cubbies" during the seventh inning stretch!

Today Eric had a heart catheterization. This was the mini. His surgeon insists on the procedure for all of his patients, though the folks in the cath lab found it unnecessary for Eric, given his age and overall health, plus that he had a fancy echo and CT the day before, which both clearly showed that he doesn't have any blockages and that he has a super leaky valve. But surgeon's orders, and it's best to be safe and give the surgeon every ounce of information possible before Eric goes in for the biggie on Monday. The results of the cath were just what we already knew.... no blockages and a super leaky valve! Still, it gave us good practice for what to kinda sorta expect on Monday. Today's procedure itself was fairly routine. We were optimistic that they could run the cath through the wrist, and they did, but they "missed". So they ended up running the cath through the groin. No big deal, just two sore spots instead of one. Eric needs to take it easy the rest of today and for the most part tomorrow, but has been given the "all clear" for Cedar Point on Saturday! 👍

Click to see a "Musically" by Maggs and Eric






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