July 19^th – On our return from Canada, Scott took a call from the coordinator from U of M and agreed to another bone marrow biopsy there on Tuesday.  She said that they were working on scheduling his pre-admission testing and would get back with us on Monday.  Hearing nothing, we pulled up MyChart and sure enough he had several things scheduled; including admission to the hospital on August 4th.  Along with being able to research your own diagnosis, you need to be computer savvy too.  EVERYTHING is on-line.    

With my week already filled up with catering commitments, that meant asking sister Kathy for another favor.  She gladly agreed to be his driver.   That worked well because after a disagreement over burnt pancakes, we weren’t talking any way.  That’s a story for another day. 

Rewind to our visit to Mayo Clinic.   They wanted to do their own biopsy because the one done locally showed only 5% blood which was very concerning if accurate.  Option A was to have it done without anesthesia in one hour or Option B – we could stay in Minnesota and have it done in four days.  Knowing we all preferred to head home, he took one for the team and agreed to go with Option A.  Only he can tell the story as it deserves but short story he said NEVER again. After three drills with an ice pick, they had their samples and we were on our way back to the VRBO with a plan to head home in the morning.  Mission accomplished.

So – fast forward.  He shows up for his appointment at U of M only to find that we should have gotten a call with instructions to not eat prior to the procedure.  Sister Kathy, being the hostess that she is, had a spread of snacks available for their 2-hour drive.  There he was again, left with no option but to go forward wide awake again.   I guess it took some sweet talking but according to him, the gal convinced him that she was very good at her job and he would be just fine.  I’m not sure what they ended up giving him for pain but several hours later, he was telling me all about the pretty gal that rubbed his back while another did the drilling.  There was more to the story but I kind of tuned out after it started to feel like I was the third – or fourth wheel in his fantasy procedure.  Still making lemonade out of lemons I guess – but at least we can check that procedure off his list for a while and we didn’t argue tonight because he was passed out by 8:30 p.m. 

On the way home, they stopped at the kids’ cottage and had the rest of their picnic lunch.  Next week we go back for a full day of testing.  Looks like I’ll have to bring my “A” game to make it more memorable than today.