Mom and Dad's visit to Houston

Marjorie flew home to San Diego on Wednesday morning and my parents flew in Wednesday afternoon. We took them on a driving tour of Houston and showed them some of the really nice neighborhoods, and some of the not so nice areas of Houston. Jason made a really good crock pot pinto bean soup for dinner. Soup was great because it was a cold and rainy day. Then we watched Ironman and went to bed early because Jason had to be at the hospital early in the morning.

On Thursday, we first went to the diagnostic lab and Jason got his blood drawn. Then we dropped my parents off at the Houston Museum of Fine Art, since only one person could be in the room during Jason's paracentesis procedure (stomach draining). We didn't want my parents to be bored and stuck in the waiting room. Back at the hospital, we went to the Interventional Radiology department and got there an hour early, but luckily they took us back right away. We figured we would be in and out of there in no time. Boy were we wrong! They informed us that one of the blood tests wasn't done that morning. So they gave Jason a catheter in his arm... after many tries and 2 different nurses (he now has a huge bruise there). Then they pulled blood from it and sent it off to the lab. They told us the PT test would take an hour to be completed and then the doctor would do the procedure. We sat there for 3 hours while many patients came and went and we were just ignored. I kept asking our nurse about the test and he kept saying it wasn't done yet. Finally, I started complaining and he made some phone calls and found out Jason's blood was sent to the main building and the instrument needed to run the test was broken. So nice of them to tell us after we had waited there for 3 hours! They expected us to continue waiting. The doctor refused to do the procedure without having the test results. I told them no way. I made the nurse take out Jason's catheter and we took off. I told them that Jason has very few precious recovery days and we weren't going to spend one of them at the hospital waiting for blood work that might or might not ever get done. Especially when it was their fault that is wasn't ordered in the first place.

Jason and I were both in pretty sour moods. My parents had walked from the art museum back to the hospital and were waiting for us in the lobby. They suggested we go out and grab something to eat. We thought that was a good idea and would hopefully cheer us up. We decided to go to Chuy's. It is a Tex Mex restaurant that our landlord highly recommended. Lance Armstrong also spends almost a whole chapter in his book talking about how great it is. We agreed with both of them. We all really liked the food and the atmosphere was festive and cheerful. The burritos were huge. Jason could only eat half, but it was good enough to take the rest home.

When we got home, I wrote 3 letters of complaint and sent them off to various people at the hospital. That made me feel a little better. Then I argued a bit with insurance to get that out of the way. We took naps while Jason played Call of Duty on the xbox 360, and then we all played some Texas Hold'em and watched episodes from the first season of Saturday Night Live.

Today we had a leisurely morning and then took a day trip to Galveston. We saw the bay where the cruise terminal is located. We also saw a tall ship from 1877 called Elissa which was impressive. We bought a new puzzle to put together at the gift shop. Today was very cold, so most of our tour was spent inside the car. There is still a ton of hurricane damage on the island so we saw that, then had a nice lunch at a delicious deli located on the strand. They had amazing vegetarian chili and sandwiches made with really good bread.

This evening, I tortured everyone with Fred Claus (not recommended, even on blu-ray). Then me, Jason, and my dad played more Texas Hold'em on our iPhones while my mom read her mystery. We are not sure what we are going to do yet tomorrow. Unfortunately, we have to drop my parents off at the airport in the evening. They will be missed! But Sunday we get Marjorie back so that will be good! Jason has been feeling pretty good lately. Its a shame we have to go back into the hospital for more chemo on Monday. We'll try to post again before then. We miss everyone!