5 more days!!!

Annika and I made it to Mayo safely and in good time last night after dialysis.  I was disappointment when we got up to the room because it felt MUCH smaller than it did when Joacim and I toured the hotel a couple of months ago.  Maybe that's because I'm looking at spending the next month in here.  Ugh.  And the light bulbs....lemme tell ya 'bout the bulbs.  We walked in and turned one on, and it was that AWFUL blue led-bulb glow everywhere.  Every bulb in this room was outfitted with them, and they were all blazing at 100 watts, even by the nightstand.  I called to the front desk to ask if they had any different lightbulbs (I'm sure they were thrilled to hear from someone like me ;)  And then they proceeded to tell me about their new energy policy and that these bulbs were standard in all rooms.  And then I proceeded to call Joacim and beg him to bring lightbulbs.

I ended up getting a MASSIVE headache that evening, and Tylenol was probably the only thing that I didn't pack :)  Somewhere around midnight I got dressed and stumbled to the lobby to get some, but that was after I had already taken my Xanax and benadryl.  I'm sure I looked completely stoned...and I guess I was :)

All in all, the first night of sleep was crappy and minimal.  We had to be at Mayo around 7:00am and I was fasting.  So I was miserable.  Today's appointments included:

• blood draw
• random urine
• meeting with Tammy (transplant coordinator)
• meeting with Sue (transplant pharmacist)
• chest x-ray
• echocardiogram

The people here....everyone.....is just so very nice and comforting.  And I never wait for an appointment.  Never.  Some of the people that I meet at the appointments (like the X-ray and ekg) have no idea why I'm there, and they get so excited when I tell them, and I have to admit that it's a bit infectious :)

As far as the surgery goes, it looks like Adam and I are up first.  We need to be at the hospital at 5:30am for check-in.  Before that (at the hotel) I have an antiseptic soap that I have to shower with that morning, so I'm going to have to get up EARLY.  Our surgery is scheduled to begin around 7:00am, but there's always a chance that it could get bumped for a deceased donor kidney.  They'll take Adam back first, and I'll go back not too long after.  Adam's surgery should take around 2 hours, and while they're doing him, I'll be in the OR next door getting my bladder catheter placed.  Once Adam's kidney is out, it will be walked over to me and they'll begin mine, which should take 3-4 hours.  There will be anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours of recovery time, depending on how I come out of anesthesia, so hopefully by the middle of the afternoon someone will be able to update Facebook about how it's going.  There will be updates to my family throughout the surgery too so I'm sure that'll make them feel better.  I have no idea what they're going to do to occupy themselves that whole time, but I guess that's a worry that I need to let go of.

In some other good news, my lightbulb crisis is over!!!  This morning there was a new front desk clerk who Annika and I were talking with while waiting for the bus, and I mentioned the lightbulb thing, and he said he'd see what he could do.  Imagine my surprise/sheer joy when I turned on a lightbulb and saw that he had them all changed!!  Woohooo!  Yippee for small victories!!!