Deflection

I was informed this evening that I am to be at St. Mary’s Hospital at 9:00 tomorrow, and that sounds like it should work fine. At first I felt that this was going to be just routine surgery on one hernia. But now that it is three hernia, it seems like it is more than I was anticipating. Furthermore, the surgeon stated that the surgery could be three to four hours. From routine surgery for one hernia it is now going to that longer. Additionally, instead of this being out patient surgery, it has a gotten big enough that the surgeon stated that I should spend the night in the hospital. So much for being simple.

I am planning on coming back to the hotel on Tuesday and then drive back to Wisconsin on Wednesday, My dad worries that I might not be ready to make the trip back on Wednesday, but I can take all day. The instructions that that I need to stop every two hours for a walk, but I can make it every hour, so I am not concern.

It was windy here today and it got up to 78 degrees. I found an over look on the west side of the Mississippi River to see down in to La Crosse, so I stopped and took in a mile hiking. I got to the Carlton Building that is attached to Methodist Hospital and gave them a urine sample before the area closed at 1:00. I then got a Jimmy John sandwich and drove out to Cascade Lake to eat the sandwiches and hike around the lake. The trail around the lake is 2.1 miles, but since there was a long pedestrian bridge coming in to the trailer, I had to walk the bridge and added another half mile. Between the two trails, I put in 3.6 miles, so I guess that is a little over the three miles that my doctor likes to see. By adding my other normal walking in, I got 15, 800 steps or 7.22 miles that includes walking up a grade of 25 flights of stairs, so I guess that is not too bad, but I know that I will not get that type of exercise in tomorrow.

Part of the Mayo multi billion dollar expansion is the construction of an employee parking facility on the south side of Cascade Lake. It has to be over a mile and half from St. Mary’s Hospital and then the Clinic has to be another mile to the east all on second street. The parking structure looks like it could hold a thousand cars easily. I have no idea on what there plans are to get the employees in and out if the facility and then to the Mayo medical buildings. There is no four lane facility coming in and out of the facility for the employees, and Second Avenue is not going to let the busses be on schedule, since it is already congested. Only time will give us an indication on how this is going to work. Okay, I cannot stop being an engineer, despite the fact that I have surgery to look at for tomorrow.

I will take my I Pad with me tomorrow, so I am sure that I can write you a progress report tomorrow. Since I am sure that the surgery will go fine tomorrow, please wish me luck.

Thanks,

Roger