Mayo Clinic-Day 8

Mayo Clinic-Day 8 (Tuesday October 24, 2017)
I have decided that sleeping in doesn't happen in Rochester, MN. Our first appointment today wasn't scheduled until 9:35 am. Our son, however, decided to wake up at 5 am. I attempted to get him to go back to sleep for about an hour and then just gave up. I brought him over to the bed so he could just be close to Mommy and Daddy. He stayed there with us for about 30 mins. After that we decided to go ahead and start getting ready for the day. Watson hadn't showered last night so we decided that he needed one too. We gave him a bath and he just seemed a bit off. It was almost as though he had forgotten that we were his parents. After we all showered, Watson started to act more like himself which was nice for us because we were worried he no longer liked us! About this time, we could tell that Watson was getting hungry so we started rounding together all the family to head downstairs to eat. We all ate breakfast together which was a lot of fun. Watson ate a TON of food. Again, it was nice being surrounded by family and to feel of their love.

Following breakfast we headed to the Mayo Clinic for Brianna's MRI. This was her third MRI since we have gotten here. This MRI was necessary for the Biopsy for tomorrow. They are taking images of the path they should take in order to have the most success. They do this by placing markers on Brianna's head and that allows them to align everything up. While Brianna was getting her MRI, the rest of the family attempted to relax in the waiting room. I say attempted to relax because Watson cannot sit still. This is a quality that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love that he has a lot of energy and has so much joy but I also have a hard time with the fact that he can never stay still. Grandpa Turner took him for a little walk to keep him occupied for a bit and then I took him for a walk and then Grandma Turner let him watch Moana for a little while, then Grandpa Geddie let him play with his phone. It really is true when people say it takes a village to raise a child and I am glad that both grandparents were there to help me take care of him. I was grateful that we had not brought him by ourselves because that would have been pretty difficult. Eventually Brianna came out of the MRI and we headed to have some lunch.

Lunch was busy as always except this time we had a lot more people to help figure out what they wanted. While we were in line Grandma and Grandpa Turner took Watson for a diaper change as well as some time to release some energy. Grandma Turner let us know that they saw a violinist and pianist and Watson just stared in awe which was funny to hear as he doesn't tend to sit still! We ate a good amount of food and enjoyed our lunch conversation. I then asked Grandma and Grandpa Geddie to take Watson back to the hotel for his nap and they were happy to do so. Grandpa Geddie informed me later that he took a nap in our room while Watson was in the pack n play which I am certain he enjoyed.

Terry, Kim, Brianna and I headed up to the Neurosurgeons floor following lunch. We had an appointment with Dr. Meyer the Neurosurgeon to discuss the biopsy for tomorrow. We checked in and then were almost immediately called back. We waited for an hour for Dr. Meyer to come in although it felt much longer than that. Dr. Meyer came in and reexplained that surgery could not be done to take out this Tumor as it was too deep in the brain and he would do more damage than good if he tried to remove anything. He explained the risk of the biopsy to both Brianna and the baby and explained that they were very low and that we had a great team for tomorrow. He went over the scans and reminded us where the biopsy would be taken from out of he brain. His nurse then went over the logistics for what time the surgery would be scheduled for, where it was, what she could or could not eat prior to surgery (she had to fast 8 hours prior to surgery) and so forth. The biopsy was scheduled for 6 am tomorrow morning. That means we have to leave the hotel by 5:30 am to get there on time for check in. Brianna was also given some special soap to prep tonight and tomorrow morning for the surgery as well as being informed that she couldn't get her hair wet due to the markers from the MRI. After all of our questions were answered, we were instructed to head to the business office to verify that everything was all set financially for tomorrows visit. We headed down stairs and were informed that everything was all set and that we were good to go.

At this point, we had nothing left to do at the clinic so we headed back to the hotel. When we arrived, Watson had just woken up. Brianna was pretty exhausted so she wanted to take a nap. She went to the room and did so after asking her parents to watch Watson for us. I knew we needed some things from the store as did my parents so I went along with them to Walmart. I mostly needed some diapers for Watson but also wanted some time to myself to not have to make any real decisions or have to think too much. I felt pretty overwhelmed at the moment and just needed a small break. While at Walmart, I found a Nintendo Switch and just played the Demo game for a few minutes to kind of unwind. As simple as that was, it helped me feel a lot better. It was nice spending some alone time with my parents. We were there for a while and then we headed back to the hotel. Brianna had just woken up when we arrived back and she was in the room talking with Kim. Watson and Terry joined shortly after. We decided that it was time to go to dinner and it was Brianna's choice as she wouldn't be eating much the next few days. Brianna decided on a local burger joint called Newts. The food was great and we had a lot of fun spending time together as a family.

Following dinner we came back to the hotel. We had decided that Watson shouldn't sleep in our room so he didn't have to wake up when we did so early in the morning. We asked Grandma and Grandpa Turner to keep him for the night as they don't get to see him as often. We put his pack n play in their room and got him ready for bed. Once he was down, the rest of us went to our room to play some games. My mother had gotten a few games including a fart machine game. It is very similar to UNO but when you play a card with numbers you hit the fart machine. If it farts, you are out. We had a blast playing that game and Terry ended up winning. We then decided to play UNO Dare, a new game we bought out here. Instead of drawing two or drawing four like in the regular UNO, you can choose to do a dare instead. Some of them are really funny and the game brought a lot of laughter which has been commonly called the best medicine. We played a couple of rounds and then decided it was time for bed. Again, we were reminded of the precious gift it is to be in such a loving family. We truly have been blessed with goodly parents and we couldn't' be any happier.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day but we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. We belie in continued revelation, especially through prophets. We believe that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and as such was able to receive revelation. One revelation that he received was "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Doubt not. Fear not." Although tomorrow may be a long day, we are putting our trust in the Lord. We know that it is through Him that we can conquer our fears and truly feel peace. Brianna and I know that we can overcome the trials of this world because of our Savior Jesus Christ and because of our Saviors Atoning sacrifice. We know that we will find peace throughout these difficult times as well as we know that our family is forever. This knowledge continues to bring us peace. We also feel of your love and prayers and cannot thank you enough. Tomorrow will be the first step in deciding what is really going on with Brianna and we are grateful that we have this opportunity to find out so quickly. Thank you again for all of your continued support. Until tomorrow...