Wait, what? ~Part 5

Wait, what? ~ Part 1
Wait, what? ~ Part 2
Wait, what? ~Part 3
Wait, what? ~Part 4


So after miles and miles and miles of red tape I finally got an appointment at MD Anderson  Luckily I have sweet friends with connections which allowed me to get in the MDA system fairly quickly.  The real hold up was getting my insurance to approve a visit there. After multiple phone calls by more friends with connections, they finally approved a visit.

Once again my sweet Daddy went with me and we arrived at MDA early on a Wednesday morning. The waiting room in the Brain and Spine clinic was full and I realized quickly that I was lucky.  Lucky because I was only dealing with a brain tumor and I wasn't dealing with cancer- as so many people sitting in the waiting room obviously were.

As I sat waiting I got a funny text from Madison who was at home an hour and a half away.
It simply said: There are people in our front yard. 
I replied and asked what people and what they were doing.
She said: Your friends. They are praying in our front yard. 

As I sat in the waiting room at MDA some of my sweet friends were standing in my front yard praying for me.  How absolutely precious is that?

And so I sat in that waiting room with tears running down my face.  I cried because I am so very blessed to have some of the most amazing friends ever.  Seriously.

Later that day sweet Madison tweeted this:

I couldn't agree more. That is definitely one of my prayers for her. 

I had heard that MDA was an amazing place and it truly is.  They are so totally patient focused and truly think of everything to make your visits as easy as possible.  Each patient has their own social worker, insurance person, and advocate.  There is free wi-fi, signs in each waiting room telling you if each doctor is running on time or behind (and how much), and they have carts they bring in to each waiting room periodically with coffee and tea.  If you have to be in a hospital, this is the hospital to be in. 

We met with Dr. DeMonte and immediately loved him.  He was very knowledgeable, very kind, explained everything very thoroughly.  In between my visit with the surgeon in Temple and this visit and had done quite a bit of research so I didn't get any new information but he answered every single question I had planned to ask every before I asked it.  His stats regarding possible facial paralysis were less than 5% which varied greatly from the surgeon in Temple.  {Loved his numbers much more!}  When I asked how many of these surgeries he had done he said he couldn't count  because there were so many but at that very moment he had six other patients waiting to be seen with the very same tumor.  He truly is an expert.  

By the end of the day I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted Dr. DeMonte to do my surgery there at MDA.  I was certain but so very scared that my insurance would not pay for it- since they had a surgeon who could do it at one of their hospitals.  

And it turned out....I was right to be worried.