Since I’ll be updating the blog while Kathy (who I’ll refer to as Conk from now on; it’s what I’ve always called her, and the only name my Grandmother knew her by) is recovering from surgery, she urged me to write a pre-op blog post to introduce myself. And to make sure that I didn’t encounter any technical difficulties, esp since my first few unsuccessful attempts to sign up to follow the blog didn’t inspire confidence. So Conk, if you’re reading this, you have one less thing to worry about.

This is my third time accompanying Conk during her hospital stays. There was Christmas in London in 2007, spent in St Thomas’ hospital by the Thames across from Big Ben. And a scary extra 2 weeks in Frankfurt at a hospital beside the Main in September 2016. New York City is the first trip built around a planned hospitalization, but like the first two, she’ll have a great view of a river, this time the Hudson.

Frankfurt 2016

Peg

I am excited that I was released from the neurosurgery department at Johns Hopkins today, so it is a GO for next Wednesday. Talked to a lovely woman at Hopkins who said that she would contact Dr. Smith and then she texted me to let me know that she had reached him because she knew that I was feeling anxious.

I celebrated by going to La Famille with Jane and Dana for a nice lunch. Dana worked many years as a nurse, so was a great person to ask questions about the upcoming procedure.

Lovely flowers were on the table. I used an app to make the photo look like a watercolor.

We also ran into Barb Cram, who is associated with my art group Falls Church Arts, and she boosted my mood with her cheerfulness. She was working on the flower boxes outside of La Famille, which is in the same building as Falls Church Arts.

Great phone call with Gin Barrett Shanley

Thank you to Martha Dudley Keller for connecting me with Gin Shanley, who went to Camp Atahi and Roland Park Country School with me, as she had a similar surgery many year ago at the Mayo Clinic. She was driving to Baltimore from a town on the Finger Lakes of New York, so we had plenty of time to catch up and talk about heart surgery. What great suggestions she gave me! I also found out that she went to Happy Hollow Camp one year when I was there.

More signs!

I have mentioned that I am always looking for signs. I have a few new ones for this surgery:

1. My surgery will be on 6/5, which is my friend Linda Johnson’s birthday. My aneurysm surgery was on 4/25/17, which was my sister’s birthday and that turned out so well. Birthdays seem to be lucky, or so I am hoping!
2. The name Daisy. When I was at the hospital they kept telling me that I would be sitting in the back seat for several weeks after surgery, like “Driving Miss Daisy”. In addition, the book that Dancy Bruce’s mother Betty Melville-Leslie wrote, “Raising Daisy Rothschild”, is on the way to me from Dancy! My friend Peg’s real name is Marguerite, which is French for daisy. She will be with me while I am in the hospital. When I am lying in bed there I will be visualizing a field of daisies!

Look what came in the mail today!

Also, Al reminded me that many cows are named Daisy and I probably will be getting Bovine valves. What more convincing do I need, right?