Josh and I left Thursday morning and were lucky enough to get a direct flight into Denver. It's so much better now that there is no stopping over in grody Las Vegas! We arrived around noon, and headed down to Hertz to get our rental car. Slight snag in the program, as they were checking that online reservations for "family" members were legit. But the ladies in the office took the time to call Garrett at work and make sure we were related. Thanks Garrett!
Headed over to the condo for a snack and a little nap for Joshua before my appt with Dr. Reed. Because I changed my regular "days" for this trip from Tues & Wed to Thurs & Friday, we had to meet Dr. Reed at a different office than his downtown location. Of course we got a little lost. And we ended up ten minutes late to the appt. For those of you who know my husband, this late arrival was quite stressful for him! Seriously...
Dr Reed gave me a good review, and we spent time discussing his new practice opening soon in Littleton, complete with a "spa" as part of it! Of course the spa will be somewhat of a medical type place, but they are going to have relaxy massages and stuff too! How fun is that? So for all of the upcoming trips I'm thinking that I will pamper myself as a treat before treatment!!!
And of course, we HAD to talk about "Renovation Reed's" episode on HGTV! I of course gave him a big thumbs up as Josh and I agreed that the episode captured his personality well and that the portrayal was light hearted and didn't make him seem like the crazy, out of touch, rich doctor that I thought they might try to turn him into! So that was a nice break from the regular conversations!
After leaving Dr. Reed, we found our way downtown to meet up with Steph, James, and the girls for dinner at a great vegetarian restaurant Watercourse. It was yummy and it was great to see Steph again and show off my newly healed lip! Josh and I even shared a peice of vegan chocolate cake!
The next morning we arrived at Swedish around 8:00. Dropped off some "AVM cards" with our favorite admissions lady who is helping to spread the word and has been passing along my website info! Then down the hall to wait to get into pre-op. Nurse Rick came by on his day off to say hi! He was actually hoping to get to watch my procedure, but had important documents to sign that day and had to run. Next time! Him and Josh did discuss a few drives up the mountain to see some pretty scenery in case I was feeling up to it on Saturday. You can read about the trip we took to Berthoud Pass on my blog!
Got settled into Pre-op with almost an entire different crew of nurses on staff. Jill was the only one we recognized. Guess that is what happens when you switch up the routine. So I thought I would NOT jinx any of the nurses and just not mention that I am not a one poke IV girl. But ya, that sorta backfired. So my new nurse Nathan tried and failed. Sorry Nate, should've warned you! So out comes the warm towel and a call to a different nurse who is apparently better at getting the IV going in problematic patients! But Jill came in and got it on her first try and we were ready to go!
Chatted with Rhonda a bunch about AVM's, the upcoming election, and layaway's come back! Met with the Anesthisiologist Wendy (which promted Josh to break out in song of course..."Everyone knows it's Wendy!) who is apparently a partner in the Denver Anesthisiologist group and only works a few days a week and only with Yakes. So that was fun and I of course interpret that as special treatment! Although she did freak me out a little when she mentioned that they would wake me up WITH the tube down my throat and that I would be alert enough to squeeze her hand and tell her I was good to breathe on my own. Ya...I don't remember THAT happening before. She said I might not remember, and I was counting on that being the case! Then we took our short trip down the hall to the OR and Josh got to actually go in with me until they gave me the "happy juice" to relax me...and I drifted off to a new poster of a waterfall instead of the regular beach scene!
Next thing I know, I'm in post-op or now what I know is the PACU- Post Anesthisia Care Unit! Had a wonderful recovery nurse Hourvash who took extremely good care of me. I was feeling good and in hardly any pain at that moment, just sleepy and drifting in and out. There was no room to move me back into the pre-op area so I spent the 4 hours in the PACU with no visitors! :( But Hourvash did tell me I was her easiest patient cause I didn't really need anything and was pretty content just to sleep. Got my cranberry juice, ate some vanilla pudding, up to use the restroom, and then Eric was there to give me the boot!
Eric went over the procedure real quick. No alcohol, just coils (those things are expensive!) and of course the arteriogram and groin cut. I asked him how I should interpret the last two treatents being only coils and no alcohol. Should I consider these less aggressive? Was there a reason? Blah blah blah with all of my control freak charm. But Eric didn't seem to mind and basically told me not to over analyze. That Yakes assesses what is best at each treatment and is making decisions based on what needs work. He didn't think that it was a good idea to try to compare the treatments each time, and I think he is right. I know that I am feeling like there is progress being made and that we are on the right path. My desire for aggressive treatments to stay "ahead" of the game is fine as long as I don't lose sight of the big picture. So that was that, we went back to the condo and I fell asleep on the couch for most of the night.
Saturday, our plane didn't leave util 5:25 (the only available non stop) which actually turned out to be a nice change as we didn't have any reason to rush through the morning and also decided we would take a leisurely drive up to Berthoud Pass and be able to enjoy a little of the Denver area instead of just zipping in and out! I'll post a trip summary and some pics on my blog for everyone to enjoy!
Got home late on Saturday night, and Huddy was waiting with hugs! Rested all day Sunday in my PJ's and was back to work today. I'm definately tired and may have slightly overdone it at work today (cause I know you are all surprised to hear me say that) but I'm still feeling relatively well and positive about where I am right now!
Go to Trip #10!