1st Day in MN

Well, here we are in MN. The photo was taken from the plane. Btw, what IS all that cold, white stuff? ;-) We got settled into the hotel OK. We had to catch the light rail from the airport to the Metrodome - there were slight flashbacks of trying to find the train in Naples, lol! The University Hotel is situated nicely, right in the center of the campus, so there are lots of good restaurants all around. (Good for Lew, I guess!) We were lucky enough to come during a "warm streak" - it's supposed to get up to 40 today! The newscasters even told people they could leave their jackets off, ha!

Today I have my EUS with PFTs (Endoscopic Ultrasound with Pancreatic Function Tests). There was some confusion about the time. Last night I realized that I had 2 sheets of paper with different times - one was arrival at 7:30 am for a 9:00 am procedure, the other said arrive at 9 am for an 11 am procedure. Of course, I realized this around 7 pm last night (Sunday) so there was nobody around to call and verify the time. I left some frantic messages, hoping someone would call me back in time. Laura did call about 6:15 this morning to say she couldn't find me on the schedule at all! But she called around to a bunch of people and found out my procedure IS scheduled for 11 am. So now we're just hanging out at the hotel until 8:45 when the shuttle will take us over to the hospital, even though it's only 2 blocks away and a balmy 25 degrees out. I'm making Lew watch A Baby Story on TLC. He must love me so much! :-)

I'm a bit nervous about this test. Fortunately it's under general anesthesia, which I do much better on than sedation. But anytime I see that propofol, I get a little freaked out! What makes me nervous for this test is that they use secretin to stimulate my pancreas and then take samples of the pancreatic juices over about 2 hours time. Anytime my pancreas is stimulated, I end up in a lot of pain. It shouldn't cause a full blown attack, though, and I'll have an IV so they can give me pain meds if I need them. And I always end up vomiting too. Uck. I'll post again tonight with updates from how the day went!