MAYO part 2

My first trip to the Mayo clinic was in February of this year. I went for a week of testing, interviews, testing, meeting specialists, testing, getting poked and more testing. Every time I met a new specialist, they would order more tests. Every day I would get a brand new schedule with all the new stuff added to it. It made it hard to plan in advance for anything.

I met TONS of people and learned lots of new names (and forgot even more names). I explored the huge Mayo campus. It was suprisingly easy to get around, despite it being so large. Mayo connected to hotels, malls and basically the entire downtown area through a skyway system AND a subway system. The coolest part was the underground subway mall. We accidently found it. Apparently with all the subway corridors, many shops have opened up in them. Mostly eateries. The nicest section had a Subway, Dairy Queen, Caribou Coffea, Quiznos, a Christian Book store, several pharmacies, a children's toy shop, and lots more local stores. It was really neat!

After a week, we learned several important things:

• A kidney transplant is looking possible so far
• It will be extremely difficult
• There are many more tests to be done
• There are many more specialists to consult
• Hilary still MIGHT be able to donate
• Minnesotans LOVE their sandwiches
• Hobby gaming is popular in this area
• The doctors here really know their stuff
• The doctors here appreciate an informed patient
• Everybody talks funny
• I have to come back in March for a scary test where they cut open the jugular vein in my neck, fill me full of dye and watch with an X-Ray machine all while I am WIDE AWAKE!!!

I'll blog about that later...

-Nat