THE MAYO

DAY ONE

Our first day at the Mayo Clinic proved interesting. Sarah has her own team of Dr.'s managing her case. We spent the morning in registration and a case conference which really was kind of a tag team effort to talk to Sarah and ask her detailed medical questions and evaluate her physically. They also went over her medical records and family medical history. They then sent us to scheduling who gave us a list of tests Sarah had been scheduled for and we headed to today's appointments.

So far I have to say it is not a perfect system. They scheduled her to be here from Dec. 6 to 9. Yet the tests on her schedule had dates as far out as Dec. 15 and 20th. When we mentioned that, their first response was "Can you stay for those?" Oh, yah sure! Why not? None of us have lives or children, families or jobs? And it's not like it's almost Christmas or anything. Oh, and it's not like we are living out of a hotel either?!?! GET REAL PEOPLE! HONESTLY!

When we told them we couldn't stay that long they ended up just canceling those tests because they couldn't get them rescheduled the week we are here. The area's are supposedly too busy. Hmmmm. Frustrating. Seems to me like someone needs to do something about their test scheduling problem. It's ridiculous. One of my daughter's had a friend who came down here for two weeks and ended up not coming home for three months for just this reason. I know because Megan was going to send a package with us for her and found out the day before we were leaving to come that they had finished her tests and let her go home that day. Craziness! I guess Sarah will have to get those tests done at home and send the results back to them. Geez.

Sarah has already had six tests and she hasn't been to one area where they have seemed rushed or had lots of people waiting for tests. They just seem to have so many slots and when they are full they are completely inflexible. Sounds to me like they have an "A" personality without any organizational skills in charge of scheduling.

At any rate, we really liked our doctor team and they seem to know what they are doing. We are still hoping against hope and praying hard that she had a false positive on the Scleroderma blood test. Apparently, it is possible and it is the only thing really pointing to this diagnosis. She has no other signs of it. They checked her skin and a lot of other possible markers.

They are repeating the blood test and some other tests that were done along with some new ones. So, now the waiting game begins. Well, kind of. In the meantime, we are still showing up for more tests each day. We have tests schedule each day this week thru Thurs. morning and then Thursday afternoon we have our final conference with them. Unless, of course, something changes.

I will definitely keep you posted--especially if I need to vent about something dumb!

Also, Dad is hanging in there. He is pretty darn tired. We had him stay in the hotel room today. Well, he volunteered. We did choose to change hotels today so he got out for a bit. Other than that, he has been hanging out at the hotel. He still has only one really strong limb he can count on so the wheelchair is his best friend at the moment. He does use the walker from time to time but as tired as he is from traveling we have used the wheelchair more the last few days.

Mom is doing okay. She is a rock but we worry about her. Sarah and I are going over by ourselves for her early appointment tomorrow so she can sleep in. Well, that's the news of the day. More later, N.