Our address at Mayo

Hi all!

Here's our address at Mayo:

The Inn at Mayo Clinic
4420 Mary Brigh Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32224

Just put our name on it and we will receive it. Joe's proding and poking doctor appointments are done - YEA! Now we just have appointments with doctors/nurses telling us what to expect before, during and after transplant which we already went through at UCLA so we know what to expect. When Joe's doctor asked how long he had been on the list at UCLA and Joe replied over a year the doctor kind of laughed and said, "Oh, thats an eternity here! We don't really ever have that." Our hopes for Joe to be headed home in 90 days are alive! Janelle is busy creating crafts and sending postcards to family & friends and trying not to miss her puppy too much. We got a picture today from Camp Brunner(as Joe's cousin Julie named it) where Sam is staying with her cousin Bailey (also a yellow lab). Bailey is teaching her all about playing in water and what it's like to live on an acre - we may be in trouble when we get home. We fell in love with a little beach town called Neptune Beach which is only about 10 minutes away so we've been exploring the shops and restaurants and gathering shells along the beach. Not Carlsbad but a pretty close second! As always your love, support & prayers keep us going and a special shout out to Nicholas St. for taking such great care of our boy! We will be with you in spirit tomorrow at Kelsi's sweet 16 party - I can almost taste Terry's margarita now!
Love you all,
Julie

General Info

I realized we needed to share some general info about our trip for friends. Joe, Janelle & I are staying here at Mayo at a hotel connected to the hospital. Jimmy stayed home w/ our awesome support system of neighbors & family to finish out his freshman year in high school and track season. He will arrive in Florida on 6/18. Joe is going through a battery of testing to make sure his body can handle the transplant and if all goes well we hope to get him on the transplant list by 5/13 and then it may take anywhere from 4 weeks to 3 months for his transplant to happen. Joe has already waited on the list at UCLA for over a year but the list is about 10 times as long as Mayo so his doctor sent us here. We have to stay within a 2 hour radius of the hospital to be ready at any time for the call that they have a liver for him. After transplant we'll have more freedom. If things go well the kids and I will fly home the beginning of July and Joe's mom will come out to stay with him til he can go home. Our insurance requires Joe to stay in Jacksonville for 50 days after his transplant so we kinda have to see how things go. Fortunately Joe has no other complications with his rare form of liver disease called PSC(primary sclerosing cholangitus) so he feels relatively well. We're looking forward to spending time with his sister/family coming up from
St. Petersburg and hoping to see my friend Amy in Lakeland. Hope this helps. Again we can't say enough how much we appreciate everyone's support for us on this adventure in life. We truly am thankful for you all. Love, Julie

Opening Day

Hi everyone, Janelle here. My mom and dad met the new doctor today. A young no nonsense, Irish fellow who says it like it is. No sugarcoating. That's how my dad likes it. The doctor did say that it looks like there will be no problems getting on Mayo's transplant list based on how things look. Let's hope he's right. Tomorrow starts about six very busy days of testing. We will keep you all up to date. Thanks for caring, Janelle

Our rides

Our family made it safely to Florida today. Even though our 2nd plane was a little bit late our rides went smoothly. We are going shopping for a video camera tomorrow so we will show you all parts of our trip when we get home. Love, Janelle

Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville HERE WE COME!!!

The planning and preparing is done and our plane leaves tomorrow morning. A big thank you to all who are helping to make this trip possible - an army of family, friends, neighbors and co-workers - we could not do it without you!!!! Here's hoping we get Joe back in 90 days.