We got the final date of my Mom's surgery, which will be next Friday at the Mayo clinic in Minnesota. The procedure that they have to do is pretty intense reconstruction of your intestines, lymph nodes and gall bladder, called The Whipple Procedure:

The Whipple procedure today is very similar to Whipple's original procedure. It consists of removal of the distal half of the stomach (antrectomy), the gall bladder (cholecystectomy), the distal portion of the common bile duct (choledochectomy), the head of the pancreas, duodenum, proximal jejunum, and regional lymph nodes. Reconstruction consists of attaching the pancreas to the jejunum (pancreaticojejunostomy) and attaching the common bile duct to the jejunum (choledochojejunostomy) to allow digestive juices and bile to flow into the gastrointestinal tract and attaching the stomach to the jejunum (gastrojejunostomy) to allow food to pass through.

Contrary to popular belief, this was not created by Mr. Whipple from the Charmin toilet paper commercials.

Dan and I are heading out there to hang out with my Mom and Dad Thursday - Saturday and then Jon is coming down later in the week with Libby. Sooze is hanging back to help take care of my Grandma. Impressively, Jon is bringing Libby, their 2 month old baby, which for a new Dad with a new baby is a pretty impressive solo trick for most, but not for Jon, who is a stay-at-home-Dad, or as he likes to call it a "Man Mom".