I've officially been MAPPED

Well, it's official. I went through the mapping today and it was a success. YAY! Very strange and interesting procedure though. I would be lying if I didn't say I was nervous - I was. There are many cool things about CTCA, but one for sure is they are always on time. So arriving and going right into prep was refreshing. Also gave me no time at all to process things - which isn't all bad either. My prep nurse decided to train a new nurse on me while putting in my IV and I've decided, I'm not going to be so nice about this anymore. This was the most painful part of the whole thing, this trainee poking me - they ended up putting it in my wrist. I've been poked a lot - a LOT - this was the only time I almost started crying it was that bad. PJ kind of reprimanded me for 'being too nice' about this stuff, and ya know, he's right. I'm not going to let anyone practice on me - they can practice on someone else. In any case, IV was put in, my nurse was way too chit chatty with me - but I was quickly on my way. As I was wheeled in, one of the nurses said 'what kind of music do you want to listen to - rock, jazz, blues - your choice'. So, we had Led Zepplin playing throughout the whole procedure - very cool. I was also awake through it, sedated cuz I couldn't feel anything, so it was kinda like I was awake, but didn't care at all. It took about an hour, they go in to my femoral artery on the right side with this camera catheter thingy, take tons of pictures, put in the coils to block blood flow to my stomach and bowels, then once I'm done I'm whisked off to get a PET scan for them to take more pics of me with they dye in me to see where it all goes to make sure they know where everything will go when the y do the real thing. Amazing. Then I just had to lay there for another hour or so. They put in this star thingy to plug up the artery, so to make sure that all that heals, I need to lay still for a couple hours. Uncomfortable to lay flat on your back for that long, but this too shall pass. It really went just perfectly, I was so relieved. I think I was most nervous because I didn't know what to expect - didn't know what it was going to be like. But as soon as I found myself overwhelmed with fear or anxiety, I would just put all my trust in the Lord and turn all my fear over to him, and it totally lifted it right off my heart. Amazing.



So my official procedure will be on Nov 2nd - exactly 2 weeks from today. I'm so excited. Bummed to know I have to spend an entire week away from home - but, I'll do it and get it done and overwith. My mother and niece watched my kids for me today, and they will return again with my aunt from Los Angeles when I go in on the 2nd. How blessed I am to have friends and family to step up for me like this - I can't even begin to express how thankful I am to have such a wonderful community of friends and family that help me and make all this work for me. I'm going to be up for visits from anyone caring to visit me in Goodyear for those 6 days - PJ will not be able to stay with me the whole time, so if anyone is up for a visit, amazing lunch or dinner - please let me know. I'm game.



I really wanted to write more, but I am literally falling asleep as I'm writing this. Been a long day with a whole lot going on. I'll write more tomorrow, just wanted to bring everyone up to speed. Thank you friends, thank you family, thank you God for continually holding me through this journey. Hand in hand we continue to go. Oh - wanted to share a pic of my fabulous kids from this past weekend. They are just frickin awesome.



God Bless -