Mike had a meeting in Bridgeport Tuesday and I went along to take care of
some shopping while he was meeting.  It had been nice up here, but the warmth
down there was unbelievable!  We had to turn on the a/c in the car - in
Michigan in April!  And I was weeding some of my gardens yesterday.  Can't
believe this weather, but it's soon to change.

I'm really glad you had such an all-around wonderful day.  Days like that
remind us of why we keep going with our battles.

I think these first few lovely days, esp. when unexpectedly early, really
bring out the best in people around here.  I refuse to reply "Fine", to the
"how are you" question when I'm not, but I usually find a way to divert the
discussion if it isn't the time to get into it.  Lately it's been easy, with
many vairations of "just enjoying the beautiful weather" available.  That
takes the talk right into a subject everyone's happy to explore - except
maybe the folks stuck in at work!

And as for your pulmonologist - keep in mind that apologies aren't
necessarily declarations of guilt!  Shoot, i believe everone here is sorry
you had to go through that and we obviously aren't to blme!  What he says is
just subject to either interpretation because of the situation.  i think he
just meant it as we did - you are a patient he values as a person and he
wishes you hadn't had to deal with it.

It's about time that you had a wonderful day like that. Hooray! Hugs.

DeeTee

Donna, so very glad you had such a wonderful day.  You surely deserve some
of those, in fact you deserve quite a lot of them.  Being able to visit
friends plus having such a good doctor's visit was good for you.  And having
unknown people being so nice to help, well that just adds to it.  And it
makes us feel good to hear of you having such a good day.  Have more of them
to tell us about, okay?
Gwen

Yesterday I had an appointment with my lung doctor and I see him in a
town that is about a 1/2 drive from where I am.  I do this because it is
quicker, easier, and much more efficient than seeing him locally.   I
also use that time to hook up with family that is more out that way or
friends that I don't always get to see real regularly, so there are some
bonuses to it as well.

In any case, yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous sunny, warm day with a
nice breeze as well.

My appointment with the lung doctor wasn't until 4:00 p.m., so I went
out around noon and hooked up with a friend for a couple of hours, then
went to visit the new super walmart that had opened in the area.  I used
one of the motorized carts to tool around in because the new store is
huge!  The people in the store all seemed so cheery and always stopping
me to ask if I was finding everything ok and could they help me with
anything!  Wow, that is unusual, but was so nice!

Left the store and just as I got to the back of my van with the
motorized cart, a lady stopped and ask me if she could help me unload my
groceries, I told her thank you for offering, but it wasn't necessary.
She responded by saying it is so beautiful out and I would truly love to
help you unload your groceries.  Well, ok!  Wow, I couldn't believe it.
How incredibly sweet of her to do that!!!  She unloaded the whole cart
way way quicker than I could have ever done it!!!  I thanked her
profusely and started to turn around to take the motorized cart back up
to the entrance of the store when the greeter from the store yelled just
leave the cart out there, I need all the excuses I can get to come out
doors and enjoy this beautiful weather!  Well, he not only came out to
get the cart, but lifted my walker into the back seat for me and made
sure I could back out of my space without anyone other traffic getting
by.  Huh?  I was stunned.  Seemed as if people were just knocking
themselves out to be so kind, considerate, and helpful!!!

Wow, what an awesome day!!!

Went to my lung doctor appointment and we had a long talk about what
happened in the hospital.  He was so upset by all that took place and
kept saying he was sorry.  Sorry?  It wasn't his fault!  He said he has
made sure that I will never be on the regular med service again as my
case is just way too complicated and apparently the hospitalists doctors
make more money the faster they can turn over patients and get new
patients admitted.  He doesn't like that and said I will never again be
allowed to be on that service and he felt bad that I was on that service
this last time and had to endure all I did.  I apologized for having to
page him in the middle of all that mess and he said you did exactly what
you should have done in that situation by paging me and filing the
complaint with the patient relations dept.

OK, felt better that we at least talked about it and both got that out
of our systems.

Finally hooked up with another friend out that way and went to dinner.
Had the nicest waitress who really was on top of things.  They were
having some program at the restaurant where 10% of all the proceeds they
made that night were going to help a local charity, so that was kind of
nice to be there on a night like that.  They also had a raffle with a
number of great prizes.   My friend that I was with for dinner called me
this afternoon to say she had gotten a call that she won one of the
prizes and will go pick it up tomorrow!  How exciting!!!

It truly was an amazing day both weather wise and people wise!!!

Couldn't have asked for more and couldn't have been more blessed!!!

Thanks for letting me share!!!

Hugs,

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Donna
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1.)   ANGELS EXIST, but some times, since they don't all have wings, we
call them FRIENDS......

2.)    J.K.M.A.

And thank you for sharing.  I'm sitting around the house and trying to hack
my lungs out intermittently, so its nice and cheerful to read things are
going well 'out there'.  Gives me hope that this too shall pass.

I'm pretty sure that Wal-Mart like many other chains, has teams they send
out to new openings to get things up to speed.

I'm guessing the teams were still there or else their 'positive' attitude
hasn't yet worn off.

The staff at ours is nice enough, but no where near as cheerful and
chirping with happiness as they were.

Just as an example, at opening, not only did they bag everything at the
checkout, they also put everything back in your cart.  Cheerfully.

We do have a brand new In-n-Out Burger, with a friendly efficient cheerful
start-up team in place.  Guy chased we half way across the parking lot to
make sure I got my fried.  Which they most likely had already told me to
wait for, but who can hear?

Hope you rotten hospital experience leads to at least a few changes in
their behavior.

Jo

Donna, what a wonderful day you had and you deserved every minute
of it.

Joan

Donna,

I am glad you got to see family and friends when you go to the drs. appt.

Glad it was a nice warm but breezy day for you.

It is lovely to hear about the people that do this kind of thing to help out
others. Thanks for sharing that. It gives us hope about others.

Glad you and the dr had a chance to talk.

How did it turn out for your health. How are you doing?