Mayo Day 2

Up early and off to the hospital via the hotel shuttle...  It was, again, a humbling morning.  An older woman who needed wheelchair assistance came on board with her husband.  A five year old boy boarded with his mom.  We meandered around Rochester and got to Mayo with plenty of time to spare.  Now the funny part...I go downstairs to the lab level to first use the restroom, then get my blood work done.  I had the OJ bucket (you need to read yesterday's post) filled with pee, in a plastic bag then lowered into a Canadian Honker shopping bag so that I could walk around more inconspicuously.  I had to walk past the speciman drop area and other specimens were being picked up.  I did not even walk on the same side of the hallway, yet the tech working the area picking up specimens spotted me and said "Oh, I can take that."  Take what???  I'm incognito!  So, I had to explain to her that I needed to hold onto the bucket for another hour.  So much for my plan.

Anyway, again the place runs like a Swiss watch.  I had my blood work done, ate a snack, waited until 9, dropped off my bucket and went to leave.  The music was so nice in the lobby - piano - I hung around a bit then decided to head up to the 5th floor for the walk-in flu shot clinic.  Again another example of a finely tuned process.  One could do a case study up here on how to run a facility or an operation.  I might have to talk about this to my Operations Management class...I feel a lecture coming on.  I was equally drawn to wanting to work here because it runs so smoothly, then realized I'd go nuts because there is nothing to fix.  I got my flu shot and went back to the lobby.  While there, I saw the coolest wheel chair.  It was a wheel chair that was motorized.  The patient could sit in the chair and the person helping drive the wheel chair could stand on a platform and press buttons and such so that the thing moved around efortlessly.  It was like a wheelchair for two.  I thought of all the elderly folks that could benefit from this gizmo.  I talked to the receptionist and he said the shuttle to my hotel was another two hours, so I hitched a ride to St. Mary's Hospital and meandered through the place and exited just across from my hotel.  This time, however, I detoured via the Chapel.  I walked in the back expecting to find a dozen rows of pews and a generic altar.  WOW, was I surprised.  The "Chapel" is larger than many Parish churches - much bigger than the old St. Mary's in Waverly and much larger than the Chapel up at my high school ICHS in Lodi, NJ.  I said my prayers then I took a photo from the back, but without a flash as others were praying.  It's on Facebook and I'm not sure it does the structure justice.  It's just beautiful, ornate, "feels" like what a Catholic Church should feel like.  Of course this would be by my definition of what a Catholic Church should feel like - not anyone else's opinion.

I got back to the hotel technically after breakfast was done, but others were still eating so I had a hot meal and headed here to the business center.  It's easier to type on this PC than on Bob's iPad - plus my phone needed some charging so I'm using the USB charger here (I forgot my wall plug in at home).

FINALLY I got through to someone at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport who would help me.  Yesterday it was a series of phone messages where no one returned my calls.  Today I got a person - an actual human - she was very helpful.  She'll have my operating room notes and pathology reports sent up to Mayo today.

Now I plan to get some rest.  Last night I tossed and turned, and the thunderstorms did not help any.

I'll post more tomorrow after we meet with the new Endo and provide the game plan of next steps.