2008 Mayo Clinic Trip

There is something about the word "Rochester" that demands a "D" from the mouth. There is no "D" in Rochester. But there it is. A good percentage of the time, Rodchester. Be it Minnesota or New York.

A lot of things in life are that way, we give it what it needs. And that is what we did a week ago Friday. We checked in at the appointed hour, around 5:30. We loaded the plane. Plane backs out and begins to taxi. Plane comes to a screeching halt. Pilot announces we will sit on the tarmac for an hour due to fog in Atlanta. Sure enough, when we arrived at Atlanta over an hour late, there was a lot of fog. Of course, our layover in Atlanta was about one hour and fifteen minutes so chances of us catching our flight to MSP was about slim and none. Also, arriving at the end of gate D and having to ride the train to gate B didn't help either.

When we got to B17, everyone was gone. We asked the agents about the flight but they said the door was closed and the plane was loaded, and it was. As it turns out, they gave our seats to someone else so even if the door was opened, we were out of luck. They issued us new tickets with confirmed seating for the next flight out.

It wouldn't have been such a big deal except I was trying to make a 2 PM appointment for blood draw, followed by x-ray skeletal bone survey. Arriving at 11:30 to catch the 12:30 shuttle van to Rochester was critical and I was waving bye-bye to my flight while standing in the terminal in the Atlanta airport.

The next flight out got us to MSP about 2. There was one seat on the shuttle so I took it and my wife took the next shuttle. I made it to Mayo in time to have the blood draw followed by the bone servey x-rays thanks to some last minute rescheduling.

If I had known what lay ahead waiting in the plane on the tarmac in Columbus, I would have demanded to get off the plane. That is the beauty of hind sight. Read following posts to learn more of our ordeal which motivated us to search for a myeloma expert closer to home.