Testing Day 1

I spent Sunday night fasting (food and water) so I could be ready for my blood test first thing Monday morning. And when I say "first thing", I mean it. We were up at the clinic at 5:50 am. The Mayo clinic has a different desk for every possible test/procedure you can need. This means you have to first track down the desk in The Amazing Medical Labyrinth, and then sit in a waiting room each time you need something done. There is no multi-tasking there.

The first desk got my signature regarding insurance and sent me to the second desk where I got my schedule for the two days. There were at least 14 appointments on it. They gave me a brief (and LOUD - why have the other patients stand back for privacy reasons if you are going to shout so they all can hear anyway?) rundown of the days' events and sent me on my way.

The first appointment was a typical blood draw. I wanted to take the nurse who did it home with me so she could be my regular Vampire Lady. The one I have now is awful. I would love to get blood drawn and NOT look like I was a heroine junkie afterwards!

The second appointment was a renal function test. Of course, this was scheduled right after I have been fasting for about 12 hours, so I had to chug the water pretty hard for awhile. This was okay, since I was practically dying of thirst! They set me up in a little room, injected a small amount of contrast solution into the back of my arm and told me to wait for an hour. Not as bad as it might seem. They provided me with a nice warm blanket, my book, and a bottle of water. Mikey was there to keep me company, too. When they got back, I had to pee into a bucket and give some blood. I then waited another 45 minutes and repeated. Not so bad, except for the starving part. Luckily, I had a short break at this point and managed to grab some food from the hotel breakfast.

Next, I met with a nephrologist for my general medical exam and a surgeon for a basic discussion about the surgery. (Two different desks in two different parts of the clinic, of course.) This was followed by an ECG. This was quick and painless, although the gel pads were cold and sticky. I then headed to yet another section of the building to meet with a nurse who hooked me up to an 18 hours blood pressure monitor. Although this didn't hurt, it was annoying as all get out. The thing went off every 10 minutes and each time I was supposed to sit or stand still until it was done. It also made my arm sweaty.

My last test was a chest x-ray, taken by a very nice man who didn't really seem to know what he was doing. In fact, I had to go back a second time to redo one of the pictures. The most difficult part of this test was figuring out how to put on the paper gown, which had 3 - yes, 3 - arm holes. Being a clever girl, it only took me a minute to solve this little puzzle.

Mike and I then met with a social worker (she didn't really seem to know what she was doing either, but she was very nice as well) and answered questions about my support system (great), my work (great), the amount of pressure I was getting from people to donate (none), and whether I can afford to miss work (yes). This meeting ended at about 4:00 pm. Neither of us had eaten a decent meal all day and both of us were exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap and dinner.

So ends Day 1 of the testing adventures. Stay tuned for Day 2 - by far the more exciting day.