BOM: Results and Reader Reaction

To be honest, I don't think the book has been out long enough to gather a lot of results or reader reaction. It was a top pick in the latest Romantic Times (yea!) and has a couple of nice reviews on Amazon (left by a couple of you!). Best of all, I've received a couple of reader letters that make it all worthwhile . . . like this one:

"Received and read She's in a Better Place today. Like many, I sat with my grandpa during his last minutes on earth and found G-Man's homegoing reminiscent of my grandpa's journey. I know others will be blessed with the dignity, strength, and peace you portrayed in this believer's passage into the arms of Jesus. This was the perfect ending to a wonderful, witty, and unique tale. I was continually amazed at the twists and turns. Thank you for such a great permanent addition to my library."

Letters like that make all the work worthwhile!

I'm going to chase a rabbit trail and tell you about the embarrassing thing I did yesterday. If you are a gentleman reader, you may click away now, please. The rest is girl talk. :-)

I've been having this weird chest pressure for about a year. My docs and I were pretty sure it was from GERD (a more palatable name for acid reflex), but just to be sure it wasn't some kind of cardiac problem, my doc suggested I have an endoscopy (that procedure where you go in, they put you to sleep for about ten minutes, and they stick a tube/camera down your throat and into your stomach.)

They do endoscopies at an outpatient Surgery Center in town. It's a busy place, people walking in and out all over the place. My appointment was for seven a.m. yesterday morning.

I didn't know if they would do the endoscopy in my street clothes or if I'd put on a gown, but I was told to wear comfortable clothes. Because it was cold outside, I put my loose-fitting velvet jacket over my shirt and jeans.

Well, a very sweet nurse comes to take me back, and she leads me into a cubicle that is semi-private-- curtained on two sides, wall at the back, but wide open to the world at the front. I look around, but there's no gown on the bed. "Just take off your shirt," she says, smiling, "and I'll cover you with a blanket."

I start to take off my jacket, but I hesitate. "Take off my SHIRT?"

"Yes."

My young and friendly male doctor walks by, so I smile and wave, but I'm thinking this is strange. I've never seen people sitting around in their underwear before, but what do I know? I've never had an endoscopy.

So I take my time folding my jacket until the doc is out of sight, then I quickly unbutton my shirt so I can get in the bed and get covered with the blanket.

When I'm standing there in my bra, the nurse realizes what I've done and she gets ALL flustered. (Imagine a woman suddenly stripping down to her Victoria's Secret in Wal-Mart or some other public place.) She grabs my shirt and holds it up like she's trying to cover me and says, "Oh, no, not this--unless you WANT to take it off."

"Why would I want to?" I grab my shirt again. I put it back on and button it up again quickly, praying that the doc doesn't walk by again. "But you said, take off your SHIRT, and that other thing is a JACKET."

Anyway, I got back into my shirt and got into the bed for my (quite routine) endoscopy. But I'm sure that nurse enjoyed telling the story of the Stripping Patient during her lunch break. :-)

And now that the world knows of my humiliation, it is quite complete. :-)

~~Angie

P.S. Don't forget--tomorrow is Q&A day, so if you have a question, leave it below. Thanks!

P.S.S. And yes, the procedure was painless and I'm fine. :-)