November CO Trip 2013

Hi Everyone!
How are you?  Did y'all have a good Thanksgiving?  As always, my sister Celia sets an elegant table with wonderful gourmet recipes for all the side dishes!  Greg fried one turkey and baked another!  Davis was here from California, Mark came in from San Antonio and my co-worker/friend Diana also joined us!  I know she was happy to finally meet Mark and Davis since I talk about them so much!  My family is grateful to Diana for always being there for me when I've had bleeds @ work!  Blood doesn't scare her and she's offered emotional support as well!

Ok, on to all the all the fun I had this past trip to Denver!

This will be my first surgery with Dr. Randy Robinson who is a dentist and plastic surgeon!  My sister Celia started this trip with me, and since it would be a long trip, Mark will finish it with me until we fly home!  We arrive in CO, Nov. 18th & it's 65 degrees!  Got the car rental and headed to hotel to check in! 
Had a late lunch @ Ted's Montana Grill and I was hoping to see my buddy Michelle that is one of the waitresses @ the restaurant!  Wouldn't you know it, the hour she went home was the time we were there!  Celia and I both ordered the bison meatloaf with mashed potatoes and squash on the side!

 

Hey, remember I told you about that t-shirt Jim had made for me? (Actually he got me 2!)  That's what I'm wearing in the photo - it says, "It's an avm - Google it"!  So tired of people staring @ me all the time!

Don't know why Celia and I hadn't thought of this sooner, but I slept in one of the sofa chairs with my feet on the couch @ the hotel!  Worked out much better for me than trying to prop myself up with pillows on their too soft mattress!  We never were able to get Apria to bring over any air humidifier/compressors for my trache, so Celia bought a couple of small humidifies @ Wal-Green's hoping they would help!

So, the next day, Celia and I headed to Dr. Robinsons office for my consultation appt.  This would be my first time meeting his staff, so we were excited about that!

Dr. Robinson has a wonderful, bedside manner.  He hugs, so that's nice!  Super nice man, very intelligent and compassionate.  Told him I was tired of looking like a freak, and he hugged me and said he would be helping me!
We needed to get an updated x-ray of my teeth, so here I am with Randi Valleti, Dr. Robinson's nurse!

After that we headed to Park Meadows Mall and had lunch @ the Cheesecake Factory!  YUM!
I'm trying to do this in a hurry before we have to leave again for CO - more about that in a bit!
So later that day I report to Swedish, and right away, I saw one of the admitting clerks, Darlene and she gave me a big hug!  Went up to Dr. Yakes office to say hello and talked to Becky, one of his patient coordinators for a bit.  I think the other P.A.'s were busy with patients.  I know one of them was out on maternity leave!
After getting all my paperwork in order, headed up to 7 North, the area I usually stay in!  One of the first people to welcome me was Zufan - one of the techs that's been there a while and has taken care of me - she is from Ethiopia.  As I was waiting for my designer gown and things in my room, I was checking my Facebook account and noticed a fellow avm-er had just written that she was arriving in CO!  Wow!  I was super excited to know I may have a chance to meet up with Ashely Stanley from West Texas!  I had been writing to her on Facebook for a bit now and she was having an embolization with Dr. Yakes the following morning!
The nurse told me I would probably be taken to surgery about 6:30 a.m. and Celia said that was too early for her, so she would be seeing me later in the day!  I had asked her to have something ready for me to write with and on in case I couldn't speak after surgery.  Anyway, the time comes and I was transported to ambulatory care.  I asked one of the nurses if Ashley was anywhere nearby - and she was so she came over to where I was laying in bed waiting to get to be taken to surgery.  It was so great meeting her - she is so sweet!  After I got a chance to visit with her, one of the anesthesiologist that had taken care of me before, Wendy, came over to say hello!  I remember before getting the trache I was having a hard time opening my mouth very wide, and Wendy said she had lain awake the night before one of my procedures, worried that she wouldn't be able to intubate me for surgery!  Then the hospital Chaplain came in and we were talking, when Dr. Robinson came in!  He asked what was going on and the Chaplain said we were about to pray, so Dr. Robinson shut the curtain around us and we all held hands and prayed together!  Right after that, Dr. Yakes peeked in to say hello!  Wow, I was thinking I wished Celia were there to take photos!
Here I am shortly after getting out of recovery and meeting Ashley! 

Dr. Robinson also worked on the puffiness under my left eye, so I have an ice pack to help with the swelling!

I've had so much going on, I haven't had time to blog like I normally do and really want to get this out - so I'm popping in lots of photos and may tweak it here and there later!

Isn't it crazy how many hospital bracelets I had on?  Yikes!

See how Dr. Robinson lifted the left side of my lip that used to have some partial paralysis from the embolizations to get rid of the avm?  He said he's lifted it for now and later he'll make it pretty!  Looks better than it used to!

Here I am with my favorite Tech @ Swedish - Alex!  He's a cutie!  I want to bring him home to be my little brother! Ok, I even cropped this and it still came out sideways - sorry!

 

 Meanwhile, while I had been in surgery, it snowed and snowed in Denver!

This is not normal for us to experience this since we live in hot, humid South Texas!Since we were going home a day or so afterwards, Dr. Robinson removed the sutures and unfortunately, due to the tissue in that area not being healthy, they didn't take and my lip started falling apart!

I ended up having to tape my lip all up until I could get back up to CO to see Dr. Robinson 2 weeks later!  If only the sutures had taken, I would have been doing great!  I understand it took Dr. Robinson 3 hours to remove 11 teeth and he did run into some bleeding issues.  I honestly went in to the surgery not knowing whether I would survive it - but Dr. Robinson was able to get the bleeding stopped - I needed 2 units of blood and he cauterized and lasered any capillaries needing it.  Found out later that I received 2 more units of blood - I vaguely remember the nurses coming to check on me and my breathing was very shallow.  They were having a hard time waking me up and I guess with all the meds I was on, I was not happy that they were trying to wake me up and I got my cell phone and called Mark @ the hotel to tell him to tell the nurses to stop it and let me sleep!  I didn't realize it was 5:00 a.m. and Mark said I called him twice!  Thank God these nurses are so excellent!

Ok, I'm posting this and will continue another blog entry after my return trip to CO a couple weeks later!

Here I am with Dr. Robinson in the hospital!

Oh!  Here is a photo of my brother-in-law Jim - he and his wife Shelley take care of our kiddos while we're in CO!  They live out in the country and our furry kids have a blast chasing their cows along the fence line!  Hanz gets along really well with their outside dog Bessie!  As much as I miss my kids while I'm gone, I know they are in the best care with Jim and Shelley!

Ok, everyone - hope you had a great holiday season and not sure when I'll get to blog again, so if I don't talk to you soon - Have a Happy New Year!
Love to all!
Cyndi