October 6, 2010 What a day!

Beginning with Bob..I spoke to him first thing  this morning while i was walking Chloe and he sounded AWFUL!  It was just terrible. I didn't even know what to say...there's nothing you can say. It's just heartbreaking.    He was extremely  nauseous, could hardly talk and then had to get off the phone very quickly because he was about to get  sick...It was awful.

After our short conversation which happened around 6:15ish it was time to tell Natalie that we were going on her "Eye Freckle Removal Adventure".....I told Olivia  what was going on last night so it wasn't  a big surprise for both....Olivia was there when I told Natalie this morning....Natalie  cried I don't want to go until I quickly told her that SHE WAS GOING ON A TRAIN.....instant smile and   then  Olivia started to cry.....you can imagine the scene..then I reminded Olivia that there have been times that she went on adventures without Natalie including train AND airplane.  I went on to tell her that she was riding to school today with her friend Eleana...THEN Natalie started to cry..SHE wanted to ride with Eleana...and I explained that someday Abiah ( Eleana's mom) would be happy to take Natalie to school...SO we got through that conversation then the rest of the morning went well.  Full cooperation from everyone including Chloe who was chewing nicely on her new chew stick.

I  tried calling Bob  at 10:30 am which is when I generally call him at work and he wasn't there.. nor had the the guys in the NY office heard from him.  As you can imagine I was very concerned... I continued to try to call with no luck.  I had no idea where he was or how to reach him.

I continued on with the  task at hand ..I  took Olivia to Eleana's house so she could get to school ...Natalie and I went home and packed our things....my mom took Natalie and I to lunch at Friendly's (of course that was Natalie's  request WITH ice cream).

ICE CREAM and a movie IN THE CAR!  The new
minivan has a DVD player that I have made clear is for
long trips or special occasions. Olivia suggested I let
Natalie watch a movie on the way to Train Station.

Natalie and I met Ginny at Anne Peck's house which is on the way to train......it was POURING rain.  Off to Wassaic...We planned plenty of time to get to Wassaic because Ginny explained that often Wassaic's parking is FULL....that has NEVER happened to me...all the time I visited Bob in NYC the parking was NEVER full....however today IT WAS FULL!  However thank you Ginny for the great planning and we continued on to the next train stop and parked at Dover Plains...YES there was parking....ahhh..thank you!

Natalie learned to LOVE Ginny's bag. She had all kinds of surprises
coming out of that bag!

Shortly after we parked ( around 2:15)  and I ran Natalie over to the grassy area  to do an emergency  pee before boarding the train....on the way to the platform I received this email from Bob:

"They have me at Beth Israel and are giving me an IV.  I wasn't getting enough liquid, which conrtibuted to my mucous production and hence,  nausea..  Send me a note when you get here. "

I called Bob's office to tell them them that I heard from him and he was in the hospital receiving IV. We were all relieved.

Uneventful train trip. Even though Natalie enjoys the train she was ready to BE THERE!

on the train..

We arrived at Grand Central at 4:35 ...

and walked to the Doctors office and we were there right on time! However they were NOT right on time. We saw the doctor around 6:05.

...Natalie was getting  tired but very patient.  Bob joined us and after about 20 minutes was half falling asleep in the waiting room. He  looked and sounded so much better...tired but feeling better.  That was a step in the right direction.  He was carrying and drinking from the water bottle..he has to drink LOTS of water.

The doctor/surgeon agrees that it's best to remove Natalie's spot. We had not met the surgeon yet..only his partner and  Bob and I liked him as did Natalie.  Dr. Brian  said the spot would  continue to grow and eventually the surgery would be more involved.

After the appt Bob loaded  us into a cab and we were off to Jay and Susan's apartment on the upper West side.
Natalie requested pizza for dinner so Sue ordered it to have it ready when we got there. The beauty of living in NYC....TAKE OUT!  I   gave Natalie a quick shower, we ate and off to bed. She was sleeping by 7:30.

I'm waiting to hear from the doctor to find out what time to be at the hospital.  I'm getting very sleepy so I do hope he calls soon!

So that's all for now. Tomorrow will be  a very long day.  It's about an 7 hour process...with the surgery only occupying about 1/2 hour of that.  Pre op..post op..blah blah blah...

News is...we have to be at the hospital...lower east side...we are staying on the  upper west side...we have to be there before 7am  No food or drink after midnight.  That will be hard for Natalie..she wakes up and would like her breakfast and a drink   ASAP  daily. Yikes...here we go!