Update #1 from New Orleans
Sarah, Adelaide, Jack, and I arrived in New Orleans late Monday afternoon. My mom & Bill arrived at basically the same time, with Sarah’s parents arriving this afternoon. Sarah had appointments yesterday and today for lab work, an Octreoscan, an MRI, and other pre-operative admissions junk.
A few things of interest to many, it seems, that I’ve neglected to mention. Or some of it I did mention but got lost amongst my wit and anti-beaker spirit.
- Surgery is scheduled to begin at 7:30 in the morning. We’ve been asked to show up at 5:30, hooray. This surgery “typically” lasts between 6 and 12 hours. The nurse today indicated she’s seen it be as “short” as 4 hours, as long as 16. I’d certainly expect it to be within the typical timeframe. We’ll receive updates from the operating room every couple of hours, and I’ll try to forward on an e-mail after Sarah is in recovery. I’ll definitely e-mail this list again, but it may not happen until sometime Friday.
- After surgery, Sarah will be in ICU for a couple of days in all likelihood. Then in a regular room for a few more days. We’re hopeful this puts us back in Columbia on July 3, but that’s on the short end of their estimates.
- The hospital’s address is: Ochsner Medical Center; 180 W Esplanade, Kenner, LA 70065. Cards of encouragement are certainly appreciated, and while flowers, etc., are nice, won’t be very practical when considering the ICU and our travel schedule from there. The hospital said as long as the envelopes have the patient’s name included in the address, they’ll find the correct room.
Of note so far on the trip — turns out “Ochsner” is Creole for Hollywood. The carcinoid docs have set aside rooms where immediate family can stay in the hospital while the patient is in ICU. Normally on the second floor, but they are on the third floor temporarily. Because last week Harry Connick Jr. and others were using those rooms filming the upcoming made for TV movie Living Proof. After kicking them out, now allegedly Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor will be on location this weekend filming I Love You Phillip Morris. I’m not making any of that up and am ignoring countless opportunities for jokes.
In my last update I included “snoop around like crazy” as part of the surgical plan. Evidently there’s some more technical aspect to that, as one of the docs was just awarded a patent for part of that process. I assume that means it’s less expensive now.
Finally, thanks to the Columbia Smith family for hooking us up with Tuesday lunch at Cafe Adelaide. We were all treated like royalty, but none more than Sarah and Adelaide, who was convinced the place was named after her. I ate at arm’s length from New Orleans Mayor Nagin who spoke of making numerous improvements to the New Orleans airport as a priority and guessed that “if you’re talking about $10 billion, I’d say no more than $0.5 billion or so” was unaccounted for. Um, I mean, where I ignored him completely and went about enjoying lunch with my family.
Appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts over the past few and next few days, the notes of encouragement and phone calls we’ve received, and the general you-the-manness of all in this crowd. I’ll update again Thursday or Friday (or both) as the situation allows. And on a side note, screw ku.