September 1, 2010

The four story mall.

Guess where we went today?  OMG, the Mall of America is huge!  It has to be seen to be believed.  Name a store, it's there.  Some stores have several locations in the mall.  There's even this:

(I really took this photo for Trudy, who loves QVC!)

One of the side effects of CP is extreme fatigue.  Josh certainly has that, especially after spending the last few months more in the hospital than out.  So it was great that he was able to get out to the mall with me.  We walked around the entire place.  I'm hoping we can get a good walk in every day, because I do think it will help his recuperation after the surgery if he builds up his strength.

Here are a few other photos.  I hope you get the flavor of it.  This mall is BIG!

One direction in the mall.

Looking at the Nickelodeon playground.

We got back to the hotel, and Josh was wiped out, so it's been a quiet evening.

Tomorrow we plan to meet Terry and Karen for lunch.  If you recall, Terry already had the surgery and will be going home in a few days. Bernadette, the woman who got a surgery date after Josh, emailed us today to let us know she and John got home to Florida OK.  We are creating our own little support group.  It has been fantastic for Josh to speak to other CP sufferers.  Try as we may, none of us really understands what they go through like another CP patient.

Here's an interesting fact.  The estimated incidence of chronic pancreatitis is 2 out of 100,000.  Pretty rare, and rarer still to have it be idiopathic, which is what Josh has.

We're trying to watch the weather reports to see if the hurricane is coming to Connecticut.  They don't seem to be too interested in following it here in Minnesota, so TV coverage is very spotty.  Anyhow, we hope it will stay out to sea.

That's it for today.  Miss you all!

xxoo
Deb