Shands at UF

Just spent two days at Shands Hospital, Gastroenterology Division in Gainesville, FL. It's a part of the University of Florida, and a pretty impressive physical facility. Since "[t]he medical center has an active liver transplant program" I was anxious to sign up. But no, we went there for George. We really don't quite know what's wrong with George, but whatever it is, it's not good. She's lost a sizable amount of weight over the past few years, to the degree that she's currently down to 66¼ (official) pounds, clothes on. By any standard, even Ethiopian, even though she's only 4' 10" tall, that's not good. We've been actively trying to find out what's going on here, with absolutely no results. Test after test have yielded the same answer; nothing wrong here. Well, excuse me, there actually is something wrong here! Open your eyes! Her last doctor, who showed me virtually nothing, at last, finally, had the sense to recommend and set up a visit to Shands. A hats off to George's daughter Tobi for pushing some action in that direction. So, eventually, on October 10th, off we went.

Gainesville is about 150 miles north of here. So that's about 2½ hours of serious driving on I-75. That's O.K. though. I can do that. We decided that it might be a good idea to go up there on Sunday (the day before the appointment) so we could get a rested approach to the "system". Good thing, as it turned out. The appointment George had was for 2:15 P.M. on Monday afternoon. Being conscientious, we got there at about 2:05 or so. We waited for two hours and finally got into an examination room at 4:20 P.M. Not good. What was good were the people who eventually helped us. First a P.A. (Physician's Assistant) Rick Davis. This guy amazed me with his mind like a steel trap. After gathering up George's info from us, he disappeared for ten minutes and came back knowing everything in those records. I was guessing that he was quite probably an android. But no, he was much too nice and sympathetic for that. Listening, urging more information, nodding understanding, he got the job done. I think, maybe, he'd done this before. Next came the doctor, Dr. James Slaff. Also very nice and helpful. It turns out that these people are way overworked. Somebody is scheduling a huge number of appointments, many of which simply can't be kept, much to the frustration of the actual people involved in seeing patients, not to mention the patients. But, in time, we got in.

Next day, blood tests and CT Scan at the brand spanking new Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine Institute. This is a really serious building. Not many people would think that the home of the "Gators" would skrimp on sports medicine. They don't. After drinking 2½ cups of "contrasting" liquid (Gatorade, naturally, with a little iodine), George was taken into the CT Scanner. We'll get some kind of results, hopefully in a week or so.

The trip back was long and tiring. We stopped in Ocala (exit 354) at a Ramada Inn for lunch to break up the drive. This particular Ramada, which we'd been to before is owned by George Steinbrenner, who also owns the Yankees. It's worth it to stop at the Pinstripe Bar & Grille.

We got back home at about 4 P.M. or so. Long trip, so now let's just hope it was worth it.