2030 hours room 603 university place family house 116 thackeray av pittsburgh
Tonight, Colleen and I have set not 2 but 3 (!) alarm clocks. This because both of our alarms failed to wake us up this morning (mine too soft, Colleen's too). We had planned to get up at 5:45 for a 7:30 first appointment. Both of us go crazy if we have to rush in the morning, so we felt we'd given ourselves a prudent amount of time to dress, eat breakfast, and pack up for Day 4 at the hospital. We both fell asleep easily last night--crashed is more like it. Pre-dawn, I stirred, calm in the knowledge the dual alarms had yet to go off. Nonetheless, I took a peak at my bedside clock. WHAT?!!? "Col!" I said. Her eyes pop open. "It's five of seven!" Her eyes pop open even wider. She looked about five years old.

We sprung into action--the tortoise and the hare. I, the hare, packed up pen and paper, water for both of us, elevatored up to the kitchen to grab our cold oj, and readied the wheelchair. Col, the tortoise, packed up pen and paper and medical records, filled her oxygen tank, and got in the chair tout suite. Of course, we were out of our pj's by then, a well-worn folded copy of the week's schedule in my jeans pocket, Colleen's copy in her tote. (Neither of us has lost this schedule; it's our bible here.)  So: Wheelchair to the down elevator, wheel to Col's Camry in-house parking lot, stash wheelchair in trunk, 3-minute drive to Falk Hospital during which we dissect The Tortoise and The Hare fable and how unlike the competitive Tortoise and Hare we are. We valet park at Falk (the first time we've indulged in this luxury), switch out the red for the black hospital wheelchair and oxygen tank, wheel to Radiology on the first floor, and check in at 7:27! On time! 

Just one more Pittsburgh miracle among hundreds since we've been here.

Colleen's heart cath, her last and most challenging test, is tomorrow morning with a check-in time of 6:15!
Thus, our setting 3 alarms. Wake-up time:  5:15! Col can't eat or drink past midnight, so breakfast won't be an issue in the morning. She just snuggled into her two soft blankies and closed her eyes. Here I go too.

PS on our Valet Park:  We finished at the hospital at 5 pm today. When we handed the valet parking attendant a twenty-dollar bill to pay, he said "Oh, our cashier is shut down for the day. So no charge--just this one time (wink)."  As he set out to get the car, I quietly said to him, "We've been here for 4 days and have run into angel and after angel." "Don't you know that God is everywhere?" he said with a big smile. "Angels keep turning up and helping us just when we need it," I continued. "That's what we're here for," he said still smiling. Colleen gave him a $10 tip. "God told us to give that to you," she said. One final smile. When he said, "That's what we're here for," to help, it was implicit, of course, that he meant that's what we're all here for.

PS: The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, and the University of Pittsburgh cohabit the same hillside here in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The buildings kind of tumble into one another. 

UPMC has three hospitals--Presbyterian Hospital (Presby), Falk Hospital, and Montefiore Hospital-- all cobbled together by tunnels and long hallways, and extremely confusing floor identifiers because of the steep hill upon which they sit. For instance, Falk G (ground floor) = Presby 3 (3rd floor) and so on. Because of the steep slope upon which the hospitals are built, the corridors Colleen and I have been traversing have uphills and downhills. All I can tell you is that wheelchair drivers like me have to be pretty darn strong, first to climb and second to assure slow, rather than runaway, descents.

Good-night