Saturday, August 9, 2008

Day 14 Airports

I get to the clinic at 7am fasting and have my blood drawn.  I eat cereal and all of my eggs.  I am feeling fine, and excited to see the transplant team.  I have a 2 hour wait after I eat before my blood will be drawn again.

Dr. Harmon comes in and we discuss my stomach pain and I assure him that it is over and I feel fine.  We have a pleasant conversation and then he examines me and has to leave for  a surgery.  We are both really pleased with my progress so far.

Val comes in  to see me and we discuss my pain and decide that it was probably just gas, possibly from some brussel sprouts that I had the night before my pain began.  Everything seems fine, so I leave the clinic and take a shuttle back to the airport.

Due to bad weather in Chicago, my flight was delayed, but I managed to leave Minneapolis in time to be able to catch my next flight to Cleveland.

The Chicago airport was a mess.  There were many, many cancelled flights and people all over trying to get on other  flights.  My flight still seemed ok.  I got a slice of pizza to eat and waited for my flight.  I  got  on the plane and noticed that the rain had started.  Then the pilot announced that we were under a tornado  watch and would have to wait.  Then the crews shifts expired and my flight was cancelled.  The short story is that I  ended up spending the entire night in  the Chicago  airport.  The worst part was that my stomach pain came back about the time I got off  of the cancelled flight.  It was the same pain, and I could find no way to relieve it.  I tried the gas-X pills, I tried drinking water, and I tried to walk it off.  But nothing helped.  Like the other night, I  found it slightly more comfortable if I was sitting straight up, but in an airport there  is  no couch to position myself to try to sleep.  It was awful.  I  got no sleep at all.  I think I will have bad feelings about Chicago forever.

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