Friday February 23, 2007 9:25 PM

Note to the wacky Miele guys who sent the thing I had to hide in Jim's closet: That's a pencil holder? I had no idea. You can't imagine what was going through my mind.

And I just walked into the hotel lobby tonight and want to thank the two lovely women who sent the plant and fruit. You're right- I DO need some fiber. I'm actually eating a pear right now as I write this. The guy at the front desk says, "Gee, Mrs. Primiani....you get MORE packages...." I've been here so long they don't just call me and tell me there's a package anymore- they bring them up to my room.

I went this morning for my stress test. I got in and out of there pretty quick, but I don't know anything. They're faxing the results to my cardiologist at Deborah, and even if the test showed my heart was an hour away from exploding he would never call me. They have their procedures, you know. So I tried to book a consult with a cardiologist here but I can't get an appointment until March 16th. The woman in booking even called around begging for me, but no go. No WAY am I gonna be here until March 16th. Oh God...I hope not. And to the man in a very high position at Miele who thought I would collapse during the excercise portion, I did really well for a middle-aged out of shape broad who hasn't excercised in years. I just "schpritzed" a little bit.

Jim must be healing because he's getting very GROUCHY. Geez. He's still got the feeding tube because his incision is not healed enough to put any fluids in his mouth for the swallowing test. What they're doing now is coming by every day and putting some sort of iodine stuff in it to see if it still leaks. I guess they can see clearly because of the color of this stuff. They say he's healing very well, but not well enough yet. And the junk they pump into his stomach doesn't give him any kind of satisfaction like he's eaten something, so he's incredibly hungry, the incision still hurts, his tooth still hurts, he's mobile but bored and confined to four walls, feels helpless, wants to go home and he's restless and miserable. I stopped by right after my stress test just to check in, and in walks the psychiatrist. I always have the BEST timing. She decided an anti-depressant would be a good idea, but can't give him one until he can swallow because they don't make these things in an i.v. formulation, but in the meantime she prescribed a mild tranquilizer. Let me tell you...he needs a tranquilizer GUN, like the kind they use to get bears out of trees. He told me after he got the first dose that he LOVED it.

I bought him some more dvd's tonight (ANYTHING to keep him occupied and happy) and brought them over around 7pm. I walk in and he's holding his face in a towel because the feeding tube was falling out and he was dripping chocolate-flavored syrup all over the place. The poor guy...he had just gotten himself all cleaned up because his family is going to see him tomorrow, and now he's covered in i.v. feeding fluid goop. And he's PISSED OFF because apparently they had been paging a doctor for an hour before I got there, and no one had shown up yet to put the thing back in. When they put those things in they have to X-ray you to make sure it's in your stomach when they're done, so it's not like just anyone can do it. He''s jumping out of his skin..."I'm going to pull this damn thing out MYSELF!" he tells me. I can imagine the frustration because if it had been me I wouldn't have even waited THAT long to pull the thing out myself. Finally the nurse comes in, says she got a hold of the resident on the phone, and he said just pull it out for tonight and they'll put a new one in tomorrow. It was half out anyway so it didn't take much. He was happier because now he could breathe, but still agitated. He asks the nurse if she's ever had one of those things in before, and she says no, what's it like? She should have never asked him that because he gave her an earful. He sticks his finger near her face and says, "It's like I stuck my finger up your nose further and further and further and kept moving it around and just left it there." Well, at least he's getting his energy back.

I'm waiting up for Jimmy and Jim's parents and Jim's two friends to get here. I don't think they'll be here until around 1 a.m. I'm looking forward to seeing the little guy.