Finally found a Doc!

WHEW - what a crazy week it has been. I had an appointment in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and in Cleveland on Thursday. So, of course I had to turn this into a mini-vacation :-) My friend went with me and we left Monday morning, flew out of Flint and into Chicago. I had a choice between a 2 hour lay-over and a 7 hour lay-over. Having never seen Chicago, of course I chose the longer one! We went on the subway, saw the Sears Tower and had Chicago style pizza - WOW on both accounts. The skydeck was amazing and the pizza, well, I am not sure I can ever eat normal pizza again! We finally got into Pittsburgh around 11 P.M. Monday night.

I was amazed by the hills in PA. Michigan is flat, hills don't exist so seeing houses on the hills just blew my mind not to mention what it looked like just driving around to get to the hotel. Tuesday morning we went to the top of Mount Washington and enjoyed the view (and took pics of course!) and then headed to meet with Dr. Sekula. After waiting two hours, I met Dr. Sekula. Super nice Doctor, took his time (an hour with me), knew his stuff but I walked away uneasy, scared and confused. Not really sure why but I just wasn't comfortable with him. Nothing personal at all since he was super nice and down to earth.

Headed to Cleveland after the Doctor appointment. My head hurt, couldn't sleep, was scared and hope wasn't in my vocabulary. Shook off what I could and Wednesday was a day off for us. We went to the Cleveland Zoo, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, took a nap (well, I did!) then went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Fun day but I was exhausted! We had a small amount of time so we went to the Art Museum and then to the Cleveland Clinic.

This place is like a city it's so big! Nice hospital to say the least. When we got there, we were warned how long the wait was (nice touch to at least warn me!) and so we went down and explored the hospital a tad. Cute shops, interesting food and a Starbucks had me thinking that Dave would love this place! A PA took me back to the room and went over symptoms then I waited just a few for Dr. Di. Nice guy for sure. Not as talkative as Dr. Sekula but he explained things in a way I understood. He wasn't afraid to use big words and drew me a diagram of his plan for surgery. Both Doctors basically said I should have surgery, they just approach it different.

I felt comfortable with him. I cannot explain it since there wasn't anything wrong with Dr. Sekula, just one of those things. Not every Doctor is best for every patient or maybe God was steering me toward Dr. Di - I am not sure. Some questions won't be answered until surgery as Dr. Di has variables depending on what he sees once he gets in there. The basic plan is to remove part of the bone in the back of my head, stretch the Dura, shrink the bottom part of my cerebellum and do a laminectomy of C1. In theory this will make enough room for my brain. He is scheduling into the second week of March, they will call me next week with a date.

Dr. Di does the surgery endoscopic, meaning my incision will be less than half the standard size for this surgery. Hospital stay will be about 2 nights instead of the standard 5 and recovery from the actual surgery will be much shorter. He can't say how long until the symptoms leave, if they even will but he is hopeful that I am a very good candidate for a successful outcome. I left with this giant weight lifted off my shoulders.

I have hope once again. I can see a future. I am not as scared. I Thank God for my church family and friends who prayed for me. A group meets every morning for prayer and they had me on their list for this week. They asked for peace and I have this. I have peace and hope. Those are needed when you are about to have brain and neck surgery :-)

So I am home now and soooo glad to be here. I missed my life! My wonderful husband, my loud kids, my crazy dogs - the whole works. Life is good, if only for today!