Good Times At Vandy -- Let's Hope They Do Medicine Better Than They Do Football!

Lately, we have been enjoying the heck out of our medical insurance.  Sure, the circumstances are undesirable, but it's good to know all those monthly premiums are good for something.  I decided to get my annual physical out of the way this week, before Pete becomes completely incapacitated.  The nurse practitioner began by asking me all the usual questions about my home life, whether or not I work, and then asked me to rate my stress level.  HA!  I proceeded to share the details of the last 3 weeks with her, hoping to explain why my stress level was a 13 out of 10. She asked about the type of tumor Pete had, and I told her the doctors were unsure at this point, but felt fairly confident it was an astrocytoma or oligodendroglioma.  Her response was "Well, at least it's not a type of glioma.  Those things are REALLY BAD NEWS!" Mmm-hmmm. Oligo...dendro...GLIOMA.  Thanks for the encouragement, ma'am!  Have you ever considered a career in motivational speaking?

But enough about me, let's move on to Pete.  Today was his pre-op appointment at Vanderbilt -- a 6 hour fun-filled day of labs, needles, X-rays, MRI's, and other shenanigans.  A good time was had by all.  Actually, all sarcasm aside, we did manage to have a pretty good time.  Most of the nurses were a lot of fun, and seemed to appreciate that we made light of our circumstances.  And now, for your viewing pleasure, a photographic play-by-play of our day.

8:00 am -- getting ready to face Nashville traffic with Pete as my backseat driver.  Phrases such as "You can begin braking" and "You'll want to start merging" were used quite frequently.

Waiting for our surgery consult.  I'd like to say the crazy faces were a result of sitting in the waiting room for hours on end, but I think we'd only been there about 5 minutes.   

My favorite person of the whole day, Ms. Ruth!  She gave Pete his EKG, and proceeded to flatter him with all sorts of compliments about his large biceps and rippling abs. 

Getting blood drawn for labs.  He was such a brave boy.

Check out the cool shirt!

Woohoo, everyone's favorite part!  Phrases such as "I'm going to need a bigger cup" and "Come on Pete, show 'em how it's done!" may or may not have been used.

Worn out at the end of a very long day, and still waiting for the MRI.  

We also saw an unusual man roaming the halls of the hospital, talking to himself and wearing what I'm pretty sure were boxer briefs.  There's no way in Hades those things could be considered shorts.  Picture not included.

And that, friends, is the sum of our entertaining day at Vanderbilt Hospital.  Our next visit will include hospital gowns, catheters and new haircuts.  I know you're as excited as we are!  Stay tuned!