A Trip to the Hospital

We had to head up to the hospital yesterday (for me) and, as always, I brought one of my cameras along in case I saw anything worth capturing.  This time I grabbed my compact Fuji X30 camera with its fixed zoom lens.  

For those interested, the Fuji X30 is a small camera with classic rangefinder camera styling that was released about 12 years ago.  It has a fixed lens so there is no need for carrying extra lenses.  The disadvantage of this camera is the sensor is smaller than the sensors in my other cameras so the tonal quality isn't as nice as my other cameras.  Nevertheless, it does capture some nice images...  certainly better than any cellphone.

Since I was sitting in the passenger seat of the car while we were driving on the highway, the car was moving at 65mph while I was shooting photos.  This meant I needed as high a shutter speed as I could get to avoid any motion blurring due to our speed as well as due to bumps.  Sheila's Honda Accord has a very stiff suspension making it feel very much like a truck so it is always a bumpy ride unless we have a full load in the car.  I shot these with the shutter speed around 1/2000th of a second to freeze all of that motion.  I didn't shoot any photos inside the hospital but I did capture a bunch of photos while in the car on the way up to Burlington and on the way back home. 

And, we're heading toward the UVM campus and hospital parking garage...

Now we are heading back home so I have a view of the opposite side of the highway...

And, a sort of self-portrait in the passenger sideview mirror...

We had a long wait to get off the highway in Waterbury due to a high volume of tourists on the road.  While we were sitting on the exit ramp (I had plenty of time as we crawled 15 feet at a time), I noticed the sun shining through some autumn leaves...

This compact Fuji camera with its fixed zoom lens did a nice job!  I've recommended this little camera to many people over the years especially after it was first released but I think I'm the only one to have purchased it while it was available...  it's their loss.  Even today, it really is a great little camera despite its old age.  They stopped manufacturing this camera about eight years ago and, if you are lucky enough to find a very rare low price, the used market gets a price about 50% higher than the price when it was available new!  It seems that the older this compact camera gets, the higher the price on the used market...  upwards of triple and quadruple the price it sold at when new.  That is how good this old little camera is even today.

The hospital visit was mostly uneventful and I'm still waiting on the test results from the lab.  I think one of the vials of blood was headed to a different lab with specialized equipment so that result will take a bit longer to get back to my oncologist.  

These test results may cause us to drastically change my treatment.  Actually, the sole purpose of these tests is to see if I'm a candidate for one drug or another.  My oncologist is concerned with my overall health in recent years especially as I get up in years with less energy reserves for recovery.  

Even if we go with a new, drastic change in my treatment, we'll still be only treating symptoms (I think) since there is still no cure for this illness.  My oncologist seems to have been prepping me emotionally for a change like this for a year or so.  

Unfortunately, whichever of these drugs we choose will be another very expensive drug(s).  It is possible these test results may prompt additional tests (which is what happened the last time I had some blood drawn in August to prompt yesterday's tests).  And, of course, we'll probably have another fight with the insurance company to get coverage.

So now I just wait to hear from my oncologist.