This morning, Jack and Naomi had a Zoom appointment with a Thorasic Surgery professional from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Jason and Tim joined the conversation remotely. The purpose of the meeting was to review Mayo’s assessment of Jack’s case. None of the Millers knew where the meeting would lead. Would the Mayo take Jack’s case? Would they say it wasn’t interesting to them?

Here’s what Jack wrote about the meeting afterward:

After the conversation with the physician’s assistant from Mayo Clinic Tuesday morning it was determined that there will be another surgery to deal with the thymus issue. It is neither life-threatening surgery nor will it get in the way of elk hunting this fall in Colorado. So things are looking better and save some of your chocolate chip cookies for me.

That pretty much sums it up. The Mayo Clinic is taking his case. Jack expects to meet with a surgeon in a week to talk more about the details. The specialist he talked with today said the recovery time for the kind of surgery Jack needs is 4-6 weeks. She didn’t bat an eye when Jack said he wanted to be ready to hunt in the Fall.

“No problem,” she said. “Your job right now is not to worry about all this,” she indicated the medical details and his experiences in May, “and to focus on getting stronger.”

In light of the morning’s conversation, we’re anticipating the procedure will happen in late July or early August at the Mayo in Rochester. In the meantime, Jack needs to get healthier by exercising and eating healthy foods.

Jack and Naomi have purchased wearable Fitbit trackers to track how much they exercise (and how much they rest). Jason and Nancy are going to to the same from California. Together we hope we can all become healthier, and we’re hoping that Fitbit data will give Jack a way to see that he is recovering strength and stamina, no matter how slowly it happens.