This is Shannon - and yes, she is sticking her tongue out at Annie. I finally pulled some of the pictures from the snow storm off the digital camera. Apparently I haven't pulled pics off the camera in quite some time - I had over 84 on there. I will place some cute ones over in the right hand side of my blog. I still have to find a better picture of me than the old college one that is here now. Perhaps I can get my parents to snap a good one of me and my hubby at Christmas.
Today is my stress test. If you ask me, they have done a rather good job of stressing me out already. No coffee, no food - not even water. They plan to starve and dehydrate me before this test - then they plan to make me RUN??? I have looked at other websites about stress tests and other hospitals only recommend no food or drink 2 hours prior to the test. So why did I pick such a cautious hospital to have this at? I could have gone anywhere - and yet I chose the one place that is going to make me wait until after noon to eat and have a cup of coffee. They don't call it a stress test for nothing. I thought about taking the digital camera to the hospital today to have the nurse 'capture the moment'. Perhaps I will reserve that for the day of my nephrectomy.
You want to see something really sobering - read all the fine print on the surgical consent form for a nephrectomy. I got mine in the mail yesterday. It vaguely mentioned something about 'by signing this I acknowledge that my heart and/or lungs could fail during or after surgery'. YIKES!! It goes on to say that even if I have a DNR - the doc is going to bring me back anyways. I bet he will - he has to keep me alive long enough to be able to finish out that payment plan with him for the surgery. It is good to know that he is so determined to pull me through this. At the top of the form it describes the type of surgery. Apparently my doc is keeping his options open because it stated, 'Right Open Partial or Radical Nephrectomy'. At least he has a broad vision for what could occur.
I hope I do ok on the stress test. I am hurting this morning. I wonder if the lack of caffeine could make my kidney rebel? As long as I can walk away from the treadmill short of a heart attack - I will be pleased. It's not like I am 400lbs and totally inactive - but I haven't been on a treadmill in a couple years - and the only reason I got on it was it looked like fun when hubby did it and I wanted to test out my MP3 player. I quickly found that there are other more fun ways to listen to my MP3 player. Question - does sprinting back and forth across Wal-Mart count as activity and some level of fitness? I haven't done this for a couple months - but I used to have the stamina for it. Put a girl in a BIG store and we can usually suddenly become fit enough to exercise.
Well, time to feed Shannon. She is glaring at me. I take her glares very seriously after the other night. Shannon bit me. Not in a mean way - but rather in a 'I want that piece of food that is in your hand and I want it right now - give it to me' sort of way. For being a fat jolly beagle, she sure was able to jump high enough to grab the food and my pinkie while she was at it. I also have a slightly puffy lip thanks to Annie. I went to give her a cute little hug and she shook her head and banged her head into my mouth. That hurt. I am sick and they are supposed to sense these things - perhaps be more gentle - and you should never bite the hand that feeds you. Perhaps it was because the girls ran out of peas and got stuck with canned spinach. All I know is that they are temperamental - especially Shannon. Fortunately we are back to having canned peas in the house - that should make them happy. And if they are really nice - I will give them some banana for breakfast.
Will post an update after my stress test. Wish me luck!!
Today is my stress test. If you ask me, they have done a rather good job of stressing me out already. No coffee, no food - not even water. They plan to starve and dehydrate me before this test - then they plan to make me RUN??? I have looked at other websites about stress tests and other hospitals only recommend no food or drink 2 hours prior to the test. So why did I pick such a cautious hospital to have this at? I could have gone anywhere - and yet I chose the one place that is going to make me wait until after noon to eat and have a cup of coffee. They don't call it a stress test for nothing. I thought about taking the digital camera to the hospital today to have the nurse 'capture the moment'. Perhaps I will reserve that for the day of my nephrectomy.
You want to see something really sobering - read all the fine print on the surgical consent form for a nephrectomy. I got mine in the mail yesterday. It vaguely mentioned something about 'by signing this I acknowledge that my heart and/or lungs could fail during or after surgery'. YIKES!! It goes on to say that even if I have a DNR - the doc is going to bring me back anyways. I bet he will - he has to keep me alive long enough to be able to finish out that payment plan with him for the surgery. It is good to know that he is so determined to pull me through this. At the top of the form it describes the type of surgery. Apparently my doc is keeping his options open because it stated, 'Right Open Partial or Radical Nephrectomy'. At least he has a broad vision for what could occur.
I hope I do ok on the stress test. I am hurting this morning. I wonder if the lack of caffeine could make my kidney rebel? As long as I can walk away from the treadmill short of a heart attack - I will be pleased. It's not like I am 400lbs and totally inactive - but I haven't been on a treadmill in a couple years - and the only reason I got on it was it looked like fun when hubby did it and I wanted to test out my MP3 player. I quickly found that there are other more fun ways to listen to my MP3 player. Question - does sprinting back and forth across Wal-Mart count as activity and some level of fitness? I haven't done this for a couple months - but I used to have the stamina for it. Put a girl in a BIG store and we can usually suddenly become fit enough to exercise.
Well, time to feed Shannon. She is glaring at me. I take her glares very seriously after the other night. Shannon bit me. Not in a mean way - but rather in a 'I want that piece of food that is in your hand and I want it right now - give it to me' sort of way. For being a fat jolly beagle, she sure was able to jump high enough to grab the food and my pinkie while she was at it. I also have a slightly puffy lip thanks to Annie. I went to give her a cute little hug and she shook her head and banged her head into my mouth. That hurt. I am sick and they are supposed to sense these things - perhaps be more gentle - and you should never bite the hand that feeds you. Perhaps it was because the girls ran out of peas and got stuck with canned spinach. All I know is that they are temperamental - especially Shannon. Fortunately we are back to having canned peas in the house - that should make them happy. And if they are really nice - I will give them some banana for breakfast.
Will post an update after my stress test. Wish me luck!!