Always Take a Second Set

We got home at midnight and went straight to bed. I drove the last 3 hours and it was a struggle to stay awake. Emma was so excited to see us she about knocked us both over. Below is a summary of our day what we learned from the cardiologist and the vascular surgeon yesterday.
Mark and I went down to the hotel lobby around 6:00 am for breakfast and were probably the first people to do so. The breakfast area was all set up, the food was there just no people around. The food was excellent for a hotel breakfast. This Holiday Inn Express served egg white omelets, cheese omelets, sausage, home baked cinnamon rolls, fruits, yogurts, breads, cereal and pancakes. I had never seen the pancake machine before, a button was pushed and out rolled a hot pancake. It didn't taste like a sweet fluffy pancake one makes at home but wasn't too bad. Rhoda and Sarah came down around 7:00 am. Rhoda requested late check out and the hotel was very accommodating about that, giving us until noon. The shuttle left at 8:10 am getting us at our appointment the cardiologist a good 15 minutes before the actual appointment and just got settled in the nice comfortable waiting room when we were called in. Brigett,  Dr. Michelena, cardiologist's right hand man (lady RN) did a really good job explaining how surgery was going to work and gave us lots of papers and pictures. Dr. Michelena reminded us of Fedi, our Hungarian brother-in-law with his accent. Unfortunately the news wasn't good for me. The aorta is enlarged now to 6.4  is expanded all the way to the root and is dragging against the valve. He asked if anyone in our family died suddenly and then told Rhoda and Sarah they along with their three brothers would have to also have an endocardiogram as this may be genetic. We got on the shuttle to head back to the hotel when my phone rang. Dr. Michelena was on the other end telling me he had just read that my mom had a brain aneurysm and he wanted me to get my head examined. By this time my head was so cram packed with thoughts it probably did need to be checked out. He really wanted me to have a brain MRA. The girls got off the shuttle at the hotel, Mark and I rode it back to Mayo Clinic, found the right place but the first available time they could get us in was Monday at 6:15 am. Rhoda booked the hotel for us another night but after discussing our options on this we felt we would not be willing to stay 2 nights. Rhoda, Sarah, Mark and I just rested in the hotel room for the afternoon while waiting to see the surgeon. While waiting the girls were making fun of Mark's organization. He found an old folder from home and stuffed it with the papers needed for this trip but the folder was so big we went to Walmart to buy a book bag to carry it in. Below is what he brought and bought:

When we arrived at the hospital for our appointment the lady taking us to the surgeon looks at that book bag and asks, "do you want a wheelchair for that bag?" Our appointment was at 4:30 pm with Dr. Alberto Pochettino, a very well respected vascular surgeon. This was the appointment that having a second set of ears was critical. So much information was being packed into my brain that when he said, "more than likely you will need a new valve" I'm thinking, OK that's not good. Mark asked what were the options and I'm expecting to hear either mechanical or pig tissue, but what my ears heard instead was "either mechanical or anal tissue" My mind is questioning why oh why would they use anal tissue and there is no way they are going to take a graft of MINE to make a valve as immediately my rear end starts to clench,  when Mark asks what are the benefits or disadvantages of each? Again this is what I heard, "the mechanical won't wear out but I would need to take blood thinners the rest of my life, the anal will wear out in about 10 years and I would need another open heart surgery" OH how quick I replied, "I'll take blood thinners!"  It was't until we were driving home that I asked Mark, "Why would they use anal tissue?" Mark looked pretty horrified and replied, "he said ANIMAL tissue!" Oh how glad I am that we had a second, third and fourth set of ears in that meeting. We laughed and laughed pretty much all the way home.