Tests, test, tests

Today Donny had 4 different tests scheduled at the Galter Center where all of Donny's appointments will most likely be from now on:

1. PET Scan (scan of the full body to determine if there are tumors anywhere else in his body)
2. Heart Echo (to make sure his heart is strong enough for Chemo)
3. Pulmonary Scan (to make sure his lungs are strong enough for Chemo)
4. CT Scan of the Chest, Abdomen and Pelvis (to determine how large the tumors are)

Mrs. Gelsomino picked Donny and I up and we left our appartment at 5:30am.  Donny's first test was scheduled for 6:30am so we needed to be there by 6:20am.  Of course, there was no traffic that early in the morning, so we were in the waiting room at Northwestern before 6am before any of the employees were even there.  Now, I know I am not always prompt, ask any of my friends or family and they'll agree that I'm often a few minutes late to things...but shoot, it was so early in the morning that I did not want to be THAT prompt.  After 6:20am the employees begin to trickle in and Donny is called up to the front desk to sign in.  Our appointment time comes and goes and Donny, his mom and I are all a bit anxious because his other 3 appointments were scheduled back to back.  Finally, at 6:55am, Donny gets called in for the PET Scan.

From there, the rest of the day went by pretty fast.  Mrs. Gel and I had some great quality time together and some delicious Starbucks coffee, which is conveniently located on the first floor of the Galter Center.  We had about 75 minutes before Donny's final test, so we decided to acquaint ourselves with the building a little bit.  For those of you who know Donny and I, we are food lovers, so when we walked over to the cafeteria, we weren't expecting anything special.  But were we wrong!  Holy cow, this was the cafeteria of all cafeterias!!  There was a full Sushi bar, sandwich bar, hot meal bar, pizza bar, salad bar, coffee bar, dessert bar...you name it!  As tempting as it was to eat there today because we were all starving, we decided against  it.  I'm sure we'll be eating there plenty of times in the future.  Take a look at the pictures below, I documented it all of course :)

As we were waiting for Donny to be called for his final test, I got a call to schedule his port-a-cath outpatient procedure.  The only open time that worked for Donny was tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10:45am.  Oh, and our appointment with Dr. P. on Friday got pushed up to Thursday at 1pm.  So Donny will have everything but the fertility meeting done by the time we meet with the doctor and get the official results and treatment plan.  We hope that by next Friday he will begin Chemo, but we'll find out more on Thursday.

Donny finally got called into his last test and it took forever. He thinks they forgot about him, poor guy.  They took him into the back, brought him down a hallway and into another room. Then he had to drink barium so the scan would pick up what they needed and wait an hour. Well, the hour passed and they hadn't come to get him so he walked around to try to find someone and no one was to be found.  An hour and 45 minutes later, Donny had the scan done, which took less than 10 minutes.

Then the day was over.  We each went to work and went to bed early.  It was a long day, and tomorrow is going to be even longer with him getting the port put in.  They have to put Donny to sleep and perform minor surgery to put the port in, so there is a long recovery period.  Although Donny plans on going to Football practice tomorrow night.  We'll see about that...hopefully all goes well and he isn't that effected by the anesthetic.

Until then...

The Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Bar was my favorite I think...

 Sushi Bar...YUM

Sandwich bar...like a sacked lunch.  Num num num num

Have you ever seen a cafeteria nicer than this?  Please share!!