Cyndi and Celia meet Dr. Hepworth

Hi Friends and Family! How is everyone? We are all doing well! Where do I begin telling you of our latest adventures in CO?! I had pretty much resigned myself to having to have that darned trache I was hoping to avoid - even though Dr. Reed, the Head of Voice and Swallow in Denver, had said it was very risky. I had spoken to Eric, Dr. Yakes P.A. about what my next step would be, as I had started having some bleeding inside my mouth, on the avm side of course, in the back upper molars. Eric suggested I get a second opinion from a doctor that they refer patients to about having the trache. So I set up an appt. to see Dr. Edward J. Hepworth (www.entmds.com) for Tuesday morning. Celia and I flew out of Corpus Monday, mid-morning, to arrive in CO in the early afternoon to gloomy, rainy weather! Our first stop was getting the car rental @ Enterprise. The traffic was terrible and with the rain, it took as an hour to get to where we wanted to go! We decided to have dinner and then check in to the hotel! Watched a little Dancing with the Stars, then got ready for bed - each of us settled in our beds with the latest Diana Gabaldon book, An Echo In The Bone - see photo.
Got up early the next morning and had a good breakfast @ the hotel! Ran into Giovanni - the waiter @ the breakfast buffet that we named one of our siamese cats after! He was telling Celia how he has seen many miracles happen for the patients with avm's that stay @ the hotel! We were anxious to get to the doctor appt., but it was 36 degrees out and Celia had to scrape some ice off the windshield! Yowza! We heard the heat index later in the day in Corpus would be 112! Saw a cute Yorkie being taken for a walk - had to go talk to the lady, as I was missing my little angel Hanz! Mark tells me that Hanz kept looking for me Monday night, and kept looking up each time he heard a car go by! I had told Hanz to keep my side of the bed warm while I was gone!
Ok! So, we arrive @ Dr. Hepworths office and after filling out some paperwork, we get escorted in to a room and start getting all my information in order. Dr. Hepworth walks in and Celia and I liked him right away! He is super nice, enthusiastic and just seems up on everything! I'll post a series of photos where you'll see Dr. Hepworth putting a tube in my nose and mouth to check my nasal and air passages! The glasses I'm wearing, allow me to see what he is seeing on the screen! He feels my air passages are not compromised, so a trache is not the way to go as far as he is concerned! Wow! He wants me to schedule my next embolization and he wants to be there to get me intubated and see what point I'm @ as far as the embolizations! He drained my ear with a suction tube and put in some ear wash for the ever present infection in my ear! I had been given something similar by Dr. Larkin in wound care in Corpus Christi, but very diluted! This ear wash Dr. Hepworth used was stronger and he wants me to use is several times a day! A prescription of that and some more Ciprodex ear drops that have a steroid, also for the ear infection!
Before leaving his office, he said his people will get with Dr. Yakes people and work on getting me the soonest appt. where Dr. Yakes can do an embolization and Dr. Hepworth can be present! By then, the other doctor that Dr. Hepworth works with will be back from Cambodia! I will probably meet with him the day before my next embolization with Dr. Yakes!
Dr. Hepworth asked if they could get some photos of me for their files, so that was our next step! Kris was taking my "glamour shots" (I wish!), then Celia got one of Kris and I together! We left the office full of excitement and hope that we were on our way to starting my embolizations again and not having to have that trache! Everyone @ Dr. Hepworths office was so nice and reassuring and that's exactly what I needed! I've needed this break from having the embolizations, but I am sooo ready to get going again! I owe a big debt of gratitude to my friend Carolina - she is a supervisor @ our main probation office and has always been very supportive of my medical situation. She recently got me back on track with my faith by encouraging me to go to adoration. I felt like I was just not going anywhere with my treatments and @ her suggestion, just offered it all up to Our Lord. I had come to terms with having the trache and dealing with whatever came my way, and now I get the great news that I may not need that trache after all!
Ok folks, I have got to get to bed! I didn't get to bed until 1:a.m. last night and my poor baby Hanz is already snoring probably! Mark isn't @ that point yet, because that's my job!
Thanks so much for keeping in touch with me and for all your love, prayer and support! Much love to all of you!

Cyndi