Hopefully all moms reading this journal entry had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  Yesterday was one of those days that wonderful memories are made of.  My husband and I made a quick trip into the city at 11:00 AM to pick up supplies for the office. We were back home by 2:00 PM. I had made supper reservations for 4:30 PM at one of the local restaurants. We were joined by my parents, daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The Mother’s Day dinner buffet was “to die for.” After dinner we came back to our house for coffee and more dessert.

My son and daughter in law, who live in the US, called to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day. They sent me, via my husband, a gift certificate to purchase two crab apple trees from the local greenhouse.  I can hardly wait to get the trees planted – I love crab apples.

We were finally blessed with warm weather yesterday; the temperature during afternoon was 25C. Sadly, the weather forecaster is predicting freezing rain or a mixture or rain and snow for tomorrow. To make matters worse, we can expect an accumulation up to 20 millimeters. The wet weather will continue throughout the remainder of the week. We are usually swimming in our pool by the second week in May but that is obviously not going to happen this year.

No Name is back from his extended vacation and I had an appointment to see him last week Thursday. The nurse took my blood pressure during the appointment and even though I am on two hypertension medications my blood pressure was 180/100. No Name’s solution to this problem was to put me on a third medication. We discussed the plasma free metanephrine test and I informed No Name that this test was not available in Canada. I told No Name that I was contemplating a trip to the US and asked him if the results of a plasma free metanephrine test done in the US would be recognized in Canada. According to No Name, even though Canadian specialists agree to acknowledge tests done at the Mayo Clinic, more often than not they will insist on redoing the tests using Canadian testing criteria before they will accept the results. This makes it especially difficult if a test done at Mayo is not recognized in Canada.

The medical research I did in the last two weeks has not been a complete waste of time. A fellow Canadian who has been struggling to get a diagnosis contacted me a few weeks ago. She has shared with me some very interesting and pertinent information about Pheochromocytomas, has spoken to a west coast doctor on my behalf and has sent me some excellent spreadsheet templates I can use to track test results and blood pressure readings. Her efforts on my behalf are greatly appreciated. I posted some of my concerns on a Pheochromocytoma message board and received some very helpful replies. This information will be very useful when I proceed with further testing.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of Widebertha’s Message Board for their thoughtful, kind and helpful posts. You are a wonderful group and it is you who make Widebertha’s message board a pleasure to read.