This will be another brief update. It will throw my good friend Eric right over the edge... where I've already tumbled.

Fabulous friend, Linda Jones, will be traveling with me to Vanderbilt tomorrow.

While there, in addition to my appointment, I want to retrieve medical records to send to Cleveland Clinic. This will require going all over the dang hospital. The paper report can be prepared at Medical Records. The CD of the Heart Catheterization will require a trip to Radiology.

My mid-afternoon appointment is located in portion of the medical center the distance equivalent of Pluto... another orbit, another universe... in a galaxy far far away.

Being on tanks of oxygen at 5L can be tricky. The tanks last maybe 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Thank goodness that at rest I can turn down the flow rate to conserve. We're leaving the mountain at 11 am. We'll pull back up around 6 or 7? The dilemma is trying to decide how much oxygen to take and how to tote 4 bottles around the hospital. Neither Linda nor I can do this.

At first I considered grabbing a wheelchair to cart the bottles, but I think that would annoy a lot of people... and I get it. Then I came up with a brilliant idea! I'm going to load the bottles into one of my suitcases with wheels - padding between the bottles with towels so they don't clank about too much. I think Linda can manage the suitcase and then I can manage myself.

*sigh* Does anyone have any idea how difficult it can be to navigate when one is *end-stage-my-sweet-ass-not* IPF and must move slowly with oxygen set at a flow rate of 5L per minute? Gah.

The thing of it is, Linda and I are going to have a blast. She's so nice. She laughs at my corny jokes. And then that makes me laugh. Just like all the other wonderful people who have accompanied me, she's upbeat and positive with a can-do attitude. We also share a kinship with hip replacements - I believe she'll be having a second one soon.

Um. We sound like quite the twosome, don't we?

So, if you should need us, just come to Nashville and look for two women hobbling along with a clanking suitcase... and lots of loud laughter.