Pink Fire Trucks Tour

At lunch I joined a few friends at the hospital to support a fundraiser and awareness campaign hosted by our local fire fighters association as part of October's breast cancer awareness month. So glad I went.

October - Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Check out how great our new hospital makeover is looking these days! I had a 7:30a appointment so the lighting is a bit on the dark side. I’ll try and go back on a beautiful afternoon to show some panned views of the completed front – it looks so great and really adds a classy look to Court Street in that area.

My appointment was for my annual mammogram. We all know how important early detection is so I hope all you ladies out there are taking care of yourselves! This was my third year and every time I visit the Imaging Department at the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, they are so wonderful to me. And while I have heard not-so-great stories about mammograms, my checkups have been just fine – no horror stories, no pain, no drama. The machine below is what is used and I can’t remember what that white plastic piece is called that’s above the plate but it is was purchased about 1.5 years ago as a trial to see if it would help with the discomfort of the exam for some women. Seems to work for me. I hope you go. :-) Please visit the Susan G. Komen site for more information about breast cancer.

The Wellness Center

Shot this one with the Blackberry so it's not a crisp one; however, that's fine as I would not want to pull out the real camera and make everyone self-conscious or whatever. So I snuck this one as I was walking on the treadmill off to the side. It's hard to get a good shot when you're walking! LOL. So, I love that there are two walkers reading books. If I tried to do that, I would become so engrossed, I'd forget to walk. I tried watching football on Sunday while I was on the step machine and when Brady threw the 40 yard pass to Randy Moss, I caught myself stopping mid-step and beginning to yell at the TV! Yep, I better just use my time on the machine to listen to music or simply think about things.

We are really enjoying the Wellness Center here in town. Not only do we feel better, but we also get to see friends there. We're going to really try and stick with it by encouraging each other to go, even when we're tired or just feeling lazy. It's amazing to me how great I feel when we go to the gym and I get so excited about it but then it's so easy to get out of the habit of going. Crazy. Well, now we have a goal in mind so we're going to shoot for that. I should do before/after pictures.

Anyway, if you haven't been to the Wellness Center, then you should check it out. The staff is great and the facility is super clean and the equipment new. There's such a great variety to choose from -- regular treadmills (and fancy ones with individual TVs), all sorts of step machines, all sorts of bikes (with fancy tracking software, racing software, etc.), indoor pool, hot tub, racquetball court (did that in college, not interested in getting smacked by that mean ball), classes, weights, and so on. Oh, there's a juice bar as well. It's really cool!

Hospital Revisited

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Mark took me to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center for my bee sting? Well I returned the favor. :) This past week has been pretty exciting and exhausting and I don't really want to focus on what happened though I will say that Mark is at home now and recuperating just fine. Thank you for everyone's well wishes and prayers; we really appreciate it!

Here he is, getting a heart ultrasound while at the hospital. That was really cool to see his heart in action (it's fine, by the way)! Everytime you see red flashes, the technician told us it was blood being pumped into his heart. Cool. And yes, I asked Mark if he'd mind if I took pictures. :) And believe it or not, this was the only time I took pictures during the week's main event. I was a bit distracted, lol.

This is what I really want to say about the hospital here in Seguin: it is GREAT! Well, it's really the people working there. You know, you hear about ER and hospitals and usually it's not so positive. But given that we were stressed and scared, it was the best place and the greatest help we could have asked for in our opinion. The staff was amazing and simply wonderful. Everyone from the ER to the nursing staff that cared for Mark AND me while we were there. I really felt like they created a safe place for us while we dealt with all the tests and uncertainty.

So here's a great big THANK YOU to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center. You all are wonderful and we really appreicate you and all you did for us!

Sky Light Watch

...and a trip to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center. So I thought this would fit with the theme since it IS a shot of a sky. :)

Last weekend Mark took me to the emergency room because my bee sting had gotten worse by Sunday morning. You know, this lovely sky shot really brightened the ER and it made me feel better because it is so cheerful and healthy looking. I thought it was a very nice touch to add to the ceiling. That's right; it's on the ceiling! It also made the space feel bigger. As a matter of fact, our little hospital is going through some rather extensive construction and so far, everything is looking super! I can't wait to see what the hospital will look like. There is a lot of glass in the design so I'm sure it will be very modern.



Here I am sitting and waiting for the PA to fix me. I am only smiling because of two things:

1. That HUGE contraption behind me. Really, I felt like it was this creature that was going to zap me or something. It loomed there...ever present. They didn't use it on me; I guess that is good. I just had to have a picture of it.
2. After I got my steroid shot, there was not much to smile about, that's for sure. I have gotten those shots before and I do not recall it being painful! It was not the needle going in or coming out. It was about one minute AFTER I got the injection that I felt the stabbing pain where I received my medication. Wow. Don't get me wrong. I appreciated the relief. But still!

So, about the bee sting. This is my second sting and I'm not sure why I reacted so differently since the first sting was no big deal. My hand swelled and itched like crazy. It was at least twice the size of my left hand and it looked WEIRD. All poofy. Also, I had to have antibiotics because it looked like it might have been getting infected. The Benadryl did NOT help the itching nor did it knock me out so I could sleep. I learned a good lesson: gear up from now on to check on the bees! :)

Guadalupe Regional Medical Center

You know something? I don't think the recession has fully hit Seguin the way it has in other areas of the US. If you look around our little town, you will see a LOT of construction activities, including this project. It's an expansion to our tiny, tiny hospital. I'm very glad to see that it's very modern looking with plenty of windows. The original structure is one story and quite dated. Good for us for modernizing!

We're suppose to get Caterpiller in here but I'm still waiting to see construction. Meanwhile, I have already posted about the GVEC office going up and there's school construction as well. The only thing not moving is the housing market. There are plenty of very nice homes in Seguin that would have flown off the market in about a week if you were shopping three years ago. Now we have some great houses that have had signs in the front yard for a long, long time. Rough time to try and sell. We're very happy sitting tight with our little old house. :)

Guadalupe Valley Regional Hospital

Here are a couple of night shots of some of the construction at our local hospital. It's nice to see construction still healthy in little Seguin. Good sign for the economy I think. Plus our hospital really needs to grow and improve. Many people go to San Antonio for some medical needs since there are a lot more options in the bigger city.

I also posted about the imaging department this past July.

Guadalupe Regional Medical Center

Seguin has a hospital and it's getting modernized and expanded. There's some construction I will try and photograph soon but for now, I will show you the pager I received upon signing in at the Imaging Department recently. I guess I haven't been to a hospital for myself really so I don't know when this started but I think it's pretty neat. I was the second person in the waiting room, if I recall correctly, but I still got my own pager.