I know some of you may get tired of pictures, and some of you like them as much as I do, but I found some good pictures of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Mays Clinic online and wanted to share them. I'm interested in this place also, because it's where my cousin, Jill, will have to go for treatment of her Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

In the second pic, you can see the sky bridge on the left side, which goes over to the main campus of M.D. Anderson.  The terrace you can see just under the clinic name on the building, is outside the Waterfall Cafe, where we ate lunch yesterday. It is beautiful there. It's on the 3rd floor, and you can sit outside and eat lunch in pretty weather.

Next to the Mays Clinic building, is the Jesse H. Jones Rotary House, a hotel for patients and their families being treated at M.D. Anderson. It's run by Marriott. The sky bridge runs to it, also. We met someone there yesterday who was from Biloxi, Mississippi.

You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Right brained people probably also prefer cats  And left brained people know how to manipulate the outcome of these silly tests

1:45 p.m.....Here's a more close-up picture of the VA Hospital in Houston. I have not been in it, but it looks like a good place to visit. The old VA hospital was demolished, after this new one was built. When I saw it in the distance, I recognized it from pictures I had seen. Here is the history of the hospital.

Hurricane Humberto is now in Louisiana.

12:50 a.m......They just upgraded Humberto to a Cat 1 hurricane.

I'll start off by telling you that we thought Tropical Storm Humberto was coming right across Houston, but it has moved some to the east. The center right now is 20 miles southeast of Galveston. It will cross High Island soon. The Beaumont area will get the worst of the rain. They had been predicting at least 16" of rain for the Houston area. We've gotten a little rain, but it hasn't been bad.

Oh my goodness.....I hurt something terrible. I have literally walked miles today, and my arthritis is talking to me. In fact, it's yelling at me. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center is one monstrous place. I picked Kay up at 10:45 a.m. and we got to the Medical Center about 11:15. By that time of the day, the parking garages are quite full. There are sooooo many parking garages there, though, so I finally found a place after I dropped Kay off at the main patient drop-off. However, the parking was 1/3 mile away from the place I dropped Kay off. And I've walked that distance at least 6 times today. 

Kay did not remember where she was supposed to go. She doesn't drive out there herself. I had not taken her before, so this was new to me. I've been past the hospital many, many times, but never actually in it. But let me tell you.....I can find my way around that hospital now.

She did not tell me that the place she needed to go was actually in a completely different building a long way away from the main hospital. It's called the Mays Clinic, and contains the Breast Center.

After her lab appointment, a pharmacy visit, lunch at the Waterfall Cafe, and her doctor appointment, I had to leave. It was about 5:00 and I had to get to the business meeting. Kay's daughter works at M D Anderson, so she had come to the doctor appointment with us. She took Kay on up to the 8th floor for for an IV treatment to strengthen her bones. I went to the business meeting at church, and left there at 7:15 to go pick Kay up. Mary Ellen said she'd go with me. I am so glad she did.

When we got to the hospital, Kay wasn't where we had agreed to meet. We walked that whole hospital over and over, looking for her. Then we enlisted the police and hospital guards. They finally found her at a different exit, where she had been waiting for me since 7:00 p.m. By that time, it was 8:45. Mary Ellen and I walked back to the parking garage, and then drove over to the Breast Center building to pick her up.

The University of Texas Police thought Kay was a mental patient who had walked away from another hospital.  She assured them she wasn't. But by the time it was all over, we all felt like nut cases. (Note to those who know me well......don't even go there!)

We got back to the church in time to have a cup of coffee and a little cake from Kathryn's birthday party.

Kay's cancer is much worse. The tumors in her liver have grown about 50% in the last month. Her entire body is covered with tumors. The doctor took her off the chemo today. He said it wasn't doing any good. When this was first diagnosed, they gave her 2 years at the most, if she went through chemo. It's been well over a year.

She is to the point where she cannot remember what she said from one minute to the next. She told me she has been in a lot of pain, but she told the doctor she wasn't hurting. She cannot remember names. She knows faces, but she can't put names with them. She asked the doctor if it was because she's almost 60. He told her it was because of all the radiation to her brain.

She's been falling, which is a concern because she is on blood thinners. She gets blood clots in her legs. Mary Ellen is going to help her with housework, and I'll be the one to take her to the hospital once a month, or more often if needed.

She doesn't have very much longer, unless God chooses to work a miracle. But He's in the miracle business.

I got a few good pictures from the windows on the 5th floor of the Breast Center, and some from the sky bridge. It runs from the main hospital to the Mays Clinic. It's a little over 1/4 mile in length, according to Google Earth, but I'm not convinced of that. I walked it once, and took the golf cart the other 3 times. I have a route in our neighborhood mapped out, that is 1/2 mile, and this bridge seems easily as far as that route.

This first picture is of a small portion of the sky bridge going from the main M.D. Anderson Hospital, over to the Mays Clinic:

In this one, I am in that sky bridge, taking a shot toward the main hospital building. It's the one with the rounded top. You can only see about 1/2 of the building. To the left of where I was standing, is the Mays Clinic, where she goes for treatment.

Here, I was standing in the same spot in the sky bridge. This is the Mays Clinic building, where the Breast Cancer Center is.

And finally.....see that really long hospital in the distance? That is the Michael E. DeBakey Veteran's Administration Hospital. It is another montrous place.