Wanted...dead or alive! ;)

It's nice to be wanted....
And MD Anderson wanted me! Once they received my records, after my brilliant, beautiful, blonde BFF Tami O'Daniel, NP Extraordinaire contacted them from my hospital room in Louisville, they were "offering" me an appointment to come to Houston.

Please don't take this the wrong way! I know I am blessed beyond measure to have the contacts in the medical community that I have and that I know how to navigate this mammoth medical system that we are fortunate to have in the US.

There was one small problem. Through my contacts, I was able to secure appointments with 2 highly skilled surgeons who were willing and able to perform my "Whipple Procedure" on Monday, February 18th. MD Anderson offered me an appointment on Feb. 25th! An entire week after I would have the cancer out of me IF I chose UofL or Vanderbilt. Which, both of my surgeons trained at MD Anderson. So, I knew I was in excellent hands closer to home. After the said appointment, they wanted an additional 3-5 days of outpatient appointments to determine the best course of treatment for me. I didn't feel I had the luxury of spending additional precious time waiting for more tests to confirm what I and my well respected physicians knew. I had pancreatic cancer and I knew that in the stage it was in, with the little bit of research I had done, surgery was first on the docket for me! I didn't have time to waste!

So...Off to Nashville with my baby sister on Sunday the 17th and one last meal of McDonalds! Yep...that was my last meal...after 4,000 calories of Graeter's Ice Cream over the weekend!

Next up, my week at VUMC...it's not the Ritz, but the staff were INCREDIBLE!!!