We're baaack! And what a relief!

Greetings everyone - Family, Friends and Prayer Warriors! This blog entry may be in several parts - we'll see how much I can get done tonight! Our first big adventure started shortly after Mark and Hanz dropped me off @ a meeting point where Celia would pick me up and drive on to the airport! Got settled into Celia's car and immediately started catching up! This was like @ 4:45 a.m. and next thing you know, we missed our turn to the airport and got lost! Our flight left @ 6:00 a.m. and we ended up on some back country roads! Our Good Lord guided us - because the gps wasn't doing that great a job and we could not believe it was as if time stood still - we made it! To boot, we kept hearing that there would be foggy out, but it wasn't, so that was a big help! Made our connecting fight in Dallas, picked up our car rental and headed out to our Conference with Dr. Hepworth that came from the other side of town, to meet with us @ Dr. Yakes office @ Swedish Medical Center where I usually have my procedures! Saw Dr. Yakes patient coordinator Sadie first - she was busy on the phone and with patients. Then saw Eric, Dr. Yakes P.A. come down the hall and gave me a hug. Everyone is so friendly, makes a big difference! Next, Dr. Hepworth arrives and we are escorted to a conference room to wait for Dr. Yakes. Meanwhile, Dr. Hepworth (ENT) is checking out my trache! Dr. Yakes steps into the office and shortly afterward, so does Kelley, Dr. Yakes other P.A.! Kelley mentioned that fellow avm-er Shalon Whitgob had just been taken in for her procedure and asked if I could come by to say hello as she sat in recovery. I told Kelley I would try, but we may be on the other side of town by the time Shalon got out of her procedure.

Meahwhile, Dr. Yakes, Dr. Hepworth, Kelley, Celia and I all sat down and went over what the doctors want to do next, and apparently both doctors agree that they need to debulk under my chin area before the avm starts to compromise my airways! We sure don't want to hear that! Both doctors want to get this done soon, so @ their suggestion we are looking into late April - and that trip will not involve any embolization swelling like when Dr. Yakes works on me. The debulking will probably take place @ a different hospital that Dr. Hepworth works out of! Dr. Hepworth mentioned going in under my chin area, cutting out an oval shape section and getting old tissue and fluids out through there! Sounds very scarey to me! We asked a few questions, got them answered and felt good about what we were hearing.

By this time Celia and I both hungry for lunch, so we head out to the Cheesecake factory for lunch @ Park Meadows Mall! We both ordered one of our favorite meals; sweet corn cakes with chuncks of avocado, some sour cream and something like chipolte sauce! We also shared a nice, big salad that had green apples, corn, greens and vinegrette dressing! See photo! Course we each decided we had to order a piece of cheesecake and I went for the key lime cheesecake and I think Celia went with the raspberry lemon ladyfingers cheesecake, or something to that effect!

After lunch we of course had to take in some of the mall sites, since we don't really have a good shopping mall here! Found a neat shoe store that Celia picked up some dutch clogs @ - I had liked some that had a flower print to them, but I wasn't in the market to shop for shoes! Celia picked some out that were navy blue and had little sparkles on them! I had told Celia I've been wanting to get some dark blue jeans, so we went in search of those! Course that is something really too time consuming for this type of trip, so I abandoned that idea right away! I always like to see the puppies @ the Pedigree Petstore, so we headed that way just to see how cute the puppies were! See photo! There were no pure bred Brussels this time - boo, hoo! That's ok - I have the cutest one in the world @ home waiting for me! I just enjoy being able to pick the pups up sometimes!

Had to go check Borders Bookstore out, since both Celia and I are such big readers! She generously volunteered to buy me another copy of the Stephenie Meyer book Breaking Dawn that I was carrying and was in tatters as I've read it 7 or 8 times! Should have taken her up on it, but had told her we were headed to Wal-mart later and we would get it then, darn! We were really trying to squeeze in some fun things before I knew I would be stuck in the hospital the following day. Boy, am I ever glad we did - we had no idea of the nightmare ahead! Celia had already volunteered to buy me the jeans I wanted, but It just wasn't a jean shopping trip. I always love going to see the latest @ Build a Bear, so Celia helped me choose some cute outfits for Saba and that was her gift to me! We did go to Wal-mart, but didn't find Breaking Dawn - went to Safeway for some specific cookies I like - little did I know I almost didn't even get to taste those! I was also looking for my favorite spray starch @ that store that I just don't find in Corpus Christi anymore!

So, we finally make it to the hotel and get all checked in! We had a 2 bedroom suite - very nice, w/a kitchen, living room and dining room table! We get all settled in and then decide that the lunch leftovers were just not what we were wanting for dinner - so Celia decides we go find a Diner that she and Mom enjoyed when they were both w/me when I had my trache surgery in November! It was a decent dinner, so after we ate, we settled in for the night! I'm ending this now and will continue immediately afterwards, just to take a break in the story!

Cyndi