Well, we are safely back in our home away from home (aka hotel room) now, after an extremely busy and exhausting day of testing, imaging, and Doctor visits. So far, all is going well.

I have only good things to say about the staff the organization and the timing of everything.

By 11 am this morning we had 

ECG

Lab work

Ultrasound 

echocardiogram

Then a short break to have some lunch before we were seen by the Cardiologist who would be following up with Doug after the procedure who was pleasant informative and thorough 

But we were not done yet.

The next visit was the surgeon Dr Bakaeen. He explained the procedure by showing us all the images that had been taken and making sure that we understood why and how it was going to be done. He was not rushed and was happy to answer all our questions and concerns.

Then there was Heather RN, a pre-op nurse. I know I’m not a working nurse anymore, so I have no way of implementing this, but every medical clinic should have a Heather!

She sat down with us and rewrote Doug’s medical history, taking nothing that was already in there for granted, she checked everything from medications to past surgeries from years ago and from old injuries to new ones, she was also pleasant informative, and thorough, she listened to what Doug had to say and typed it all in, no judgment no rolling eyes and no looking at her watch like she had to be somewhere more important. At that point we felt like the most important people in the hospital. She was amazing. That visit was probably close to an hour.

The next person to come in was the anesthesiologist who put us at ease by describing in detail what was going to happen and why. Full marks to her as well

Then we went to admitting for the final stage and now Doug is ready for tomorrow, well as ready as you can be for something like this.