November 20, 2014. Ridgeland, Mississippi. The Lost Day.

November 19 was supposed to be an ordinary day, except for one test early in the day. I assumed I would be home by ten to carry on my normal activities. In reality, I got nothing done of any value, except for the test. The Cardiologist was fitting my test in with all his other chores. Dr. Cotton was on call so my instructions were to report to the hospital at 7:00 but be prepared to wait in the event the he is in an emergency situation. They explained the system, which is that emergencies always come first, with elective procedures wait. For the first time in ages, I became a patient. I was put into a small room where the procedure would be done and the nurses made me ready. My IV and blood pressure cuff and heart rate monitor plus oxygen were all in place. I was lying on a gurney wearing a hospital robe and socks and two blankets. By 8:20 I was all ready for Dr. Cotton to take this TEE test. Fist I slept for half and hour, then listened to the nurses conversations for another half an hour. Finally I asked the nurses to remove the cuff and give me my magazine. I had already removed the oxygen and heart rate clip. Finally at 10:30 everyone appeared and promptly put me to sleep. It knocked me out so I could not really function for the rest of the day. Fortunately, Christina both dropped me off and picked me up. The rest of the day I slept. The test went well. The heart is not causing the fluid on my chest. These sedatives knock you out but it certainly makes the testing process easy. But the whole day was wasted.