2 Girl Nights in a Row...

I do have the best husband in the WORLD! We have our moments, like any married couple, but he lets me do a LOT! I'm very lucky, he's also excellent in the home. He cleans up after dinner (and while I'm cooking dinner, which can get a little annoying at times...but I love him!), he's the laundry pro (we almost got on the Rachael Ray show for his laundry skills), and he's so calm with the girls. When big wee one is pushing me to throw down limits, he steps in and totally calms the situation (how does he do that?)...soooo anyway...
Tonight I'm going to the movies with the MOMs club I'm in. We are going to see 27 Dresses and then heading to Ruby Tuesdays for appies. Tomorrow night I'm going to a comedy show at a local restaurant/bar/reception place and I am really excited! I've only been to one other comedy show before (about 6 years ago) and I had the most amazing time! If you know me, then you know its no surprise that I was on the stage with the comedian...it was the BEST time. That was also a girl's trip that my mom and I took...good times, good times.
All of this is greatly needed. With the inpending date approaching, my stomach has been a MESS! Last night, was the FIRST time I actually cried...felt emotion about the whole situation. I have been so blasse about it all, but its hitting me. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little scared. All the little things are starting to set in (especially after my "outpatient" procedure). I don't want anything to go wrong. And though I know some things will happen, I'll be sent directly to ICU (so Paul won't be able to stay the night with me) and the possibility of a trach tube, I'm also scared about the small chance of stroke. Basically, all the "normal" stuff that come along with surgery.
I've gotten some emails about what exactly is going on, you can click here to read more details about it, or you can read on a little more for a brief description.
Basically, I have an AVM, which is a rare vein malformation. Most people who have them have them in their spine or brain. AVMs are also more common in young children (sometimes you see a toddler with a large mass pretruding from their face or neck...that could be it)...BUT, mine is even more rare because its based in my neck, under my tongue. Its connected to my tongue, the portion that controls swallowing and speech, like the letter R or W comes from that section. Looking at me, you may notice I have a lump on my left side of my neck that looks like a small golf ball right under my jaw. Some notice, some don't. Otherwise, I'm a perfectly "normal" person. It doesn't really bother me, but it is slowly cutting off my air supply. Why not remove it? Doing so would involve removing that portion of my tongue that I mentioned above. Which opens a WHOLE new box of issues...so, we are doing this embolization procedure (the link gives more infor) which is a pretty normal procedure...but again, due to the area of my mass, its likely my air supply is going to be blocked completely. Hence the breathing tube, ICU and possible trach.
After its all said and done, my AVM won't be "cured" but it will/should be smaller and we'll continue to watch it and montor it. If another procedure needs to happen down the road we'll cross that bridge when we get there. The whole point of doing this now is that we have better control over the size of this mass, instead of letting it go and it getting larger and then it will be more difficult to work with.
So, there you have it. I'm freaked about the whole thing, mostly because everytime I meet with a new dr. they let me know that they have never seen anything like this, especially in someone my age! If I end up in the a medical journal, I'll let you know ;-)
Which in return, is why I'm really excited about my girly nights :-)
Happy Day!