Just letting everyone know that I'm leaving Sunday for my follow-ups at Stanford.  My brother is coming with me.  I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure I'll be fine.  I'm hoping to have a little R&R while I'm there, but we'll see what happens.  I just hope that I get good news.  Everyone keep their fingers crossed.

Michelle

Good Luck Michelle I'm sure everything will be fine. I'll be thinking and praying for you. Keep us posted a.s.a.p.
                           Nancy :)

Good Luck Michelle!  You will in my thoughts and prayers.  Sending good news your way!!

-Shari

Just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to those that wished good thoughts and sent your prayers my way.  They were very appreciated.  

As has everyone stated before, this has been a very emotional week for me.  I went through my tests very well.  I even braved my clautraphobia and did not take any medicine and made it through the MRI just fine.  I actually somewhat enjoyed the Xenon test and got through my angiogram just fine, too.  As Jill knows, I don't like the angiogram and not fond of the Xenon test either.  So I felt like a real trooper when all was said and done.  And I'm still laughing about the psyche test they do.  Mark and I still do not know what similarities there are between a fly and a tree.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?  

And as has been stated in previous posts by Jill and Ron, my brother and I spent my birthday with Lori (Cubbie's) sister to give our support and help make the time go a little bit faster.  Kevin (Cubbie) was in surgery for about 9 hours.  Even though I never got a chance to meet him, it was wonderful to have met Lori.  We had a chance to talk for quite some time and I feel like I know Kevin very well now.  He had some speech problems before going in and from what I understand from reports from others, his speech improved after the surgery.  As with all of us, he still has a long road to hoe, but we will all give him our support when he gets back home and into a normal routine again.  Hopefully, we will get updates on his second surgery.

I had a chance to meet Trina's family while I was out there and they are a wonderful family.  We met once before her surgery and were able to see her right before she went upstairs for the prepping of her surgery.  I would have loved to have been there for her family during the surgery, but I had the Xenon test and angiogram early in the morning.  Shane and I both gave Trina big hugs before she went into surgery and assured her that she would be ok and that she was in the very best and capable hands of the surgery and anesthesia teams.  

Shane (my brother) and I also sat with Mark and his family (the Rowlands) as they went through the post-angio routine.  Unfortunately, he was not given the angio seal as I and Cubbie were, and had to lay flat for 6 hours.  He was a trooper even though I knew he was ready to start kicking and screaming on the inside.  We almost had a nurse convinced we were brother and sister, but I think she realized we were pulling her leg.  

My tests seemed to be ok preliminarily.  Dr. Steinberg did say that my MRI showed no new strokes from the last time (after my second surgery) and that he is pretty optimistic that I won't have another stroke.  I was also told that I had good blood flow in the temple areas where the arteries were extracted for the bypass.  

Theresa Bell-Stephens (bless her soul) came in right before they started the angio (along with another doctor that I recognized by face not name) to let me know that the Xenon test looked good, but she would get back to me within a week to let me know for sure and to give my results back from the angio.  

The good news is that I made it through my flights without any problems physically (ok Ron and Jill.....just keep quiet right now [smiley=bag.gif]) Well....we did have problems, but I'm not getting into those....maybe later in another post.  

The other thing that happened on our trip is that I found out that my brother has been having similar symptoms as me when I was diagnosed with MM.  Jill's family and the Rowlands's have convinced him to get an MRI and he WILL be taking care of that as soon as possible.  

We would like to say thanks to Jill's family and Ron's family for all that they did for us and the friendships that we have formed.  We love you guys!  :)

Michelle & Shane

Hey Michelle,
 So what did happen to the fight on the way back.  How did you end up in Chicago and ont Dallas?  LOL
 And Ditto on everything else.  You guys are a bunch of fun!

                                 Ron

Hmmmm, what similarities there are between a fly and a tree. I would have to guess they are both living things :-/. Other than that I would be at a loss too. Maybe it's a trick question and if you find a lot of similarities they know you're out of your mind...lol.

Glad to hear all went well with the follow up.

Rena

Good thinking Rena.

mark wrote on May 6^th, 2005 at 11:30am:

So what did happen to the fight on the way back.  How did you end up in Chicago and ont Dallas? Ron

Well....as far as the FIGHT went......I sort of got in a fight with the stewardess and the plane was diverted to Chicago for my arrest.  I am now sitting in jail waiting to get back to DC.  

Ohhhhhhhhhhh..........you meant the FLIGHT.  Well...as far as the flight goes....we kind of missed our flight....even though we got to the airport in plenty of time.  But at least we had a nice breakfast and Shane got to have a cigarette.  If it wasn't for that cigarette, we would have made our original flight.  I blame it all on my brother!  Ok....not all of it, but a tiny bit of it.  If we had gone to the gate first, we would have made it.

Oh well.  Cest la vie.  What can you do?  It's in the past.....I think we've learned our lesson and thank goodness we aren't taking any more flights real soon.  

Oh....and I believe everything happens for a reason.  I got to talk to the flight attendant on our departure from Chicago and it turns out that she has a friend with an 18 year old daughter that is having seizures and dizzy spells and no one has been able to tell what is wrong with her.  Luckily, the daughter is having an MRI real soon.  We got to talking about why I was out in CA this week, and I started telling her about moyamoya.  She wrote the website down and the doctors names I gave her.....Dr. Scott and Dr. Steinberg.  So maybe....it was destiny that I was on that flight.   ;;D

Michelle -

Glad to hear everything went well with the follow-up!  

-Shari

I cannot believe you mentioned the psyche test about the similarities between a fly and a tree, that has bothered me since I was given my first test in March!!  I begged the technician to tell me and I promised I wouldn't tell (I would only tell you guys [smiley=wink2.gif]) I still can't think of anything!!  I have asked everyone back here in KC and everyone has a thought but none that sounds right to me, if anyone finds out Please tell us