13 Months 21 days...

That is how long I have had bells palsy.  I had hoped and prayed that by this point in my "recovery" that I would be back to my old smiling self.  That unfortunately has not happened.  After doing therapy, electronic acupuncture, tens therapy, countless facial massages, and seeing two different neurologists and I've had improvement but no complete recovery. My experience with the neurologists in Brunswick have taken two very complete stands on the situation.  I had one tell me that I definitely had MS, which I completely do not have.  (He closed his practice, so I'm thinking that he wasn't that reliable). The other neurologist told us that it will just go away and not to worry about it, he would see me in 6 months.  (He moved his practice out of Brunswick the month I was suppose to go back to see him).  To say I'm frustrated is an understatement.  So, yesterday I went to the Neurological Department at the Mayo Clinic in hopes that they could offer me more than the other neurologists could. I tried to not get my hopes up with this appointment, but the Mayo is the best of the best and if anyone could have something for me, they would. 
After waiting in the waiting room for 20 of the longest minutes every we met with the doctor.  He was very nice and gave me the most thorough neurological exam that I have every had.  He confirmed that I didn't have MS or any neurological disorders.  I had a classic case of bells palsy brought on my difficult pregnancy.  He then told us that by this point all of my nerves have most likely re-grown in my face, but have not taken the same path as they originally did.  My recovery is most likely as good as it is going to get, which to me I hear...
You Will Not Be Getting Your Smile Back!
That is of course when the tears started.  He continued to say that he is going to refer me to their plastic surgery department to see if they have anything that they can do.  We agreed to meet with them on our next visit.  Not sure if it will be covered by our insurance, but it's worth looking into.  I never thought I would be the one going to talk to a plastic surgeon, that's not really my thing, but I guess this is a bit different than getting a tummy tuck or a boob job.  :)
This feels like a devastating blow to my moral, not to mention my self confidence.  I have a million different emotions going through my head and my heart. 
Why Me?  Why won't mine go away?  What did I do to deserve this?  I always felt my smile was my best feature and now what do I have?  Why is this happening?  I have worked so hard to loose 70 lbs., I'm the healthiest I've ever been, I'm exercising and have taken control of that, but none of that makes this better?  I still have no control in this situation.  This isn't fair!!  Should I just give up hope?  What is God's master plan in this situation?  I'm so frustrated, angry, broken...  but then there is another part of me that is trying desperately to put this all into perspective.  This is not a life or death illness, I don't have cancer, I am healthy, I am so thankful that out of this I have the most precious and perfect little boy in he whole world.  I'm emotionally all over the place.
In my effort to understand this all, I am thankful for such wonderful family and friends that understand what I'm going through and allow me to feel anyway I want to in the moment that I am in and support and uplift me.  I am most thankful for my husband who has to deal with me day in and day out having good days and bad days.  Who loves me no matter if I have my old smile back or not.  I'm so thankful that my friends and family have hope, even in moments that I don't, that lift me up in prayers constantly.  They are what are going to get me through this chapter of my life...smile or not...

Welcoming Our Baby Kai Into The World

Today I look into my sweet, little, baby boy's face in amazement that Kai is already 2 weeks old.  He will actually be 3 weeks and one day old by the time his due date actually arrives.  His welcome into this world was nothing like Chris or I had in our birth plan or our plan in general, but it was really not up to our plan it was God's plan all along.  To say that Kai's arrival was scary would be an understatement, for me it was terrifying.  It all started on Sunday evening, August 11th.  I had been on bed rest for a week because I was developing preeclampsia and my blood pressure was elevated.  I woke up from a nap on Sunday afternoon and realized that the entire left side of my face was in pain and I could not move it.  I couldn't close my eye, smile, taste, nothing.  I of course start to freak out, call Chris at work and told him I think I'm having a stroke and we need to go to the hospital.  He rushes home, we get ahold of my doctor and he says that it is something that is fairly common and it's known as Bells Palsy and it happens to some pregnant women in the end of their pregnancy.  He said to come in first thing in the morning and he would check everything out.  Let's just say there was very little sleep that happened that evening.  I went to the doctor first thing in the morning and they rushed me in, got my vitals and my blood pressure was 150/100 (this is bad and this is really bad for me because my whole entire life, I've had low blood pressure).  They get a sonogram to make sure Kai is ok and then they tell me I need to go to the hospital immediately.  At this point they have to get me stable because they can't induce me with my blood pressure this high and they can't do a C-section either because my blood pressure is too high for that and they have to get Kai soon. To add to the concern, Kai is only 36 weeks and 4 days, that is still really early for a white, male baby.  His lungs may not be fully developed by then.   I'm of course in a panic, calling Chris, my parents, friends, etc. and letting them know what is going on.  What is adding to my panicy state is that I can't get ahold of Chris.  Thankfully my dear friend Lois and Meghan are able to meet me at the hospital and help me get settled in.  I got ahold of Chris and he ran home, finished packing our half packed bags and brought them to the hospital.  My parents were scrambling 13 hours away to pack up the car and get here as soon as possible.   You can ask Chris how much of a scramble it was when he got to the hospital and realized that he had nothing to sleep in.  Thankfully, Chris' mom went out and got him some PJ pants.  He also realized that he grabbed 5 pairs of underwear and only 2 t-shirts.  Thanks, to my parents they brought him some more shirts. 
On Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. they started to induce me and by 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, I was 7 cm dialated.  I know this may sound crazy but I was never really in pain with the contractions, it was a little uncomfortable, but nothing major.  I do have a really high pain tolerance, but I never really thought it wouldn't hurt.  Finally, they told me that I had to have an epideral to regulate my blood pressure, I couldn't do it without it.  So, they gave me the epideral and we were well on our way to welcoming Kai into the world.  The nurse came and said I was 10 cm and would need to start pushing soon.  This was happening, I mean really happening!!!  I remembered that they paged my dr. he arrived at 3:42 p.m. and Kai was born at 3:53 p.m.  I swear I only pushed for like 20 minutes and that was it.  I heard Kai scream and cry and I was overjoyed and amazed.  He looked perfect, absolutely perfect.  I just kept asking about his breathing and they said it was going to be fine, Thank You LORD!! I said many times that the end of my pregnancy was such a struggle that God was gracious enough to let me have an quick and easy delivery, and He truly did.
Kai was 20 inches long and weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz.  He was born at 36 weeks and 6 days. (yes they say that 37 weeks is considered full term, but we found out that is just a number at 40 weeks is the most preferred.)

In all of my focus on Kai, I hadn't noticed how fast my doctor passed off Kai to the nurses and that he was working fast and furious to sew me up because I was losing too much blood way too fast. Evidently, when Kai came rushing out, he hit 2 arteries on his way out and I was bleeding out.  I lost 4 pints of blood and was close to having to get a transfusion.  At the time and even now I wasn't worried about me, I was just so worried about Kai and him being healthy. Thankfully, we both would recover, but it would be a little bit of a process.
For anyone that has had a pre-term baby, you know there will be challenges and we have had some of those, but nothing too major. Because Kai was early, he had to learn the ability to breath, suck and swallow all at the same time.  This usually happens in the later weeks of pregnancy, so since he was early he had to learn in the outside world.  This is a struggle for baby and for a breastfeeding mommy. I'm happy to say that after 2 weeks, we have finally overcome this problem, it's just been a process.  Also, because of my blood loss, my milk hasn't came in as fast as the average mommy, which is frustrating, but we are making it work and it seems to get better every day.  Kai's weight did go down to 6 lbs and that was scary but we are gaining weight now and mommy and daddy are happy with that.  Finally, I still have Bells Palsy.  It seems to be getting better each day with the help of steroids and facial massages, so hopefully it will go away sooner than later and I won't have any lasting effects from it.

No matter the struggles, I would do it over and over again to have this precious child in our lives.  He is so sweet and has brought us such great joy.  Being a parent is a love that you will never truly understand unless you have children and we feel so blessed to have the opportunity to raise such a precious gift.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital

His first days home from the Hospital.

My favorite New Yorker

Today I said my final farewell to one of the most amazing women I have ever met in my life, Toni Mugavin.  Toni bravely fought her battle with cancer but on Tuesday morning she lost her fight and went home to be with our Heavenly Father.  I was blessed to meet Toni when I moved down to Georgia from Ohio.  She was always up at Summer Waves Waterpark with her younger daughter Allie and her oldest daughter, Jackie worked as a lifeguard when I started working there.  I  was drawn to here because all of the summer lifeguards all seemed to know her and called her mama Toni.  I eventually became one of those kids and Toni quickly became my mom in Georgia.  She always said that her mother said that some kids brought home animals, but Toni brought home people.  Being that I moved so far away from home, I know that my parents were very relieved that I found a family down here that I could depend on whenever I needed anything since they were so far away.
I have so many memories of Toni that I don't know how I can even begin to pick which ones are my favorite.  Some of my best memories where going with Toni up to visit her daughters in college.  I can't tell you how many nights were spend laughing so much we almost peed are pants in hotels and walmarts in Statesboro and Valdosta.  On of my favorites is when Toni, Allie and I went up to Statesboro to visit Jacki and three of us went on a late night run to walmart.  It was right before Valentine's day and all of the Valentine's crap was everywhere.  I honestly don't remember how it happened but Allie and I ended up with small stuffed Rhinos and we carried them around Walmart laughing and calling each other Rhinos.  Were were loud and silly and Toni never seemed embarrassed, she just laughed with us and told us to throw the Rhinos in the cart because we weren't leaving the store without them!.  From that day on Allie was my little rhino and I was Allie's big rhino and Toni was our mama rhino.  Let's just say that we all ended up with many rhino things from that day on.  Another one of my funniest memories of Toni was when I was working at Summer Waves, I hurt my ankle for the first time.  Toni rushed me to the ER and held my hand while they took the most painful x-rays of my life.  I was so happy when that nurse stopped grabbing my ankle.  We were waiting to here the results when the x-ray nurse came in and said that she didn't get the right angles the first time and she need more x-rays.  I just sat there in shock and started to cry.  Toni told her no way she was going to let her touch me again to do x-rays, the nurse needed to figure it out.  I remember being so thankful to have her be my voice in that situation.  The hospital said it was a bad sprain (a few years later, we found out the real problem) and I was not allowed to be on my foot for a week, that meant no work for a week.  Let's just say in the waterpark business, a week off is virtually impossible, but Toni didn't care.  She took me to my apartment, packed up clothes for a week, and took me back to her house.  She took my car keys, so I couldn't sneak out (which I totally would have done) and I was officially on lock down.  She moved the recliner to the living room and made me rest there all week with my foot elevated and iced.  When I say lock down, I am serious, she would sometimes even yell at me when I got up to go to the bathroom.  She did take me on one field trip that week and it was to Publix to get groceries.  The deal was that I had to ride in the cart, and not the scooter cart, the carts that have the little kid seats that look like a car, yeah that's right a 20 something women riding in a cart pushed by Toni.  Looking back at it now, we probably looked so silly, but you listened to Mama Toni, just like your own mother and you did not argue.  I have great late night memories of making chocolate houses with her. Halloween was also a great time in the Mugavin house. Toni LOVED Halloween and I always had so much fun helping set up and act in all of her Halloween Haunted Houses.  Toni was also always in charge of taking care of my two cats Surf and Coral when I went up to visit my family in Ohio.  My cats loved her and I know she loved them.  One time when she was watching them, Toni and Jackie stopped by and Surf escaped out the front door.  Toni and Jackie chased Surf around and tried to catch him.  Jackie was not a whole lot of help since she is so allergic to cats and couldn't even grab Surf.  Toni finally caught him and then called and told me about their small adventure.  I remember when I found out that Surf had cancer and passed away.  Toni called me and we both cried over the phone with each other because our fury friend was gone.   She always had a great heart for people and for animals.  Some of my favorite memories were those when Toni was on a mission to help people.  I learned a lot from her about being a servant for people in need.  When Hurricane Katrina hit, I remember spending hours collecting items from all of Brunswick that she was sending to the effected areas and she did the same for Hurricane Sandy and any other disaster locally or far way.  She bought a bike for a little girl who's bike was stolen from the girl's yard.  She literally would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it.  Sadly, because she gave so much, people tended to take advantage of her and her generosity, but that never stopped her, she just kept giving and giving.   She always had the ability to throw together amazing fundraisers at the drop of a hat and everyone knew her and would donate whatever they could to help any cause that she supported.  I have so many memories of the great times I've had with Toni.  I remember sitting many a day and night on the Mugavin's front porch with Toni laughing, crying, venting, dreaming or scheming.  She always listened, said her opinion (even if I didn't like what she was saying), and always had a plan of action, always.  She was always wonderful with that. She was always there through the good, bad and crazy guys I dated here in the South and was over the moon excited when I started dating, got engaged, and married to Chris.  She of course at our reception asked about babies.  I was happy that I was able to tell Toni that I am pregnant and was going to finally have that baby she always asked about.



 

Toni Mugavin was such a wonderful woman and over the years I have learned so much from her.  There will never be a day that goes by that I will not think of her and miss her. I know that she is in a much better place and is having the time of her life laughing it up with God.  She is probably talking his ear off and telling some angels what to do. I loved her so much and  I just hope that when she looks down on all of us, we are making her proud by doing everything that we can for each other.  Goodbye my dear friend.



The Catfish Story

We have gotten a lot of questions about this whole catfish fiasco, so I figured that while I wait in the outpatient surgery waiting room, I would fill everyone in.  It all started last Friday when I was at work and I got a panicked call from Chris saying that he got hurt by a catfish and needed me to meet him at the hospital ER.  As most of you know, this is no my first go the the ER call that I have had since dating Chris (the jack hammer experience).  I, still a beginner fisher, have no idea what harm a catfish can do, but Chris sounded bad so I rush to the ER.  Thankfully Debbie, Chris' co-worker, decided to stay late and was able to drive him to the hospital.  Once I get to the hospital, Chris tells me the story of how this even happens.  Chris went with some of the guys from work to play mini-golf and on his way back, he noticed that the tide appeared to be perfect for cast netting.  So he grabs his net and a bucket and heads to the dock to get some shrimp.  This is the first time he has ever decided to cast on his own, since he just learned how to cast a cast net.  I had just taught him how to cast net and crab in the last few months, that right a yankee taught the southerner the art of cast netting.  He casted his net a few times and was "pulling in a lot of shrimp" and also so other small fishes.  In his net, he also caught a few small sea catfish.  He kicked a few off of the dock and then went on to collect the shrimp that he intended to be our dinner.  As he reached down to pick up a shrimp, he accidentally stepped on one catfish that he missed when he was kicking them off the dock.  As soon as he stepped on it, the catfish fin barb jabbed him in the side of the big toe.

Here is a picture of our not so fun friend the Sea Catfish

 

He was only on the dock with a bucket and a net and couldn't get the catfish off of him.  He had to wait until a boat came to the dock to borrow some pliers to cut the fin off of the fish, so he wouldn't have to take the whole catfish to the ER.  Sea Catfish barb are poisonous and very painful.  I would have never guessed this, but when your husband is that guy screaming in the ER room in pain, you know it has to be bad.  I was thankful that Debbie was able to get him to the hospital fast and that they nurses got him back to a room quickly (we quickly realized that they got him back to a room so quickly, because all of the ER staff thought it was "so cool"to have a catfish fin hanging out of the side of your toe...not so much for Chris.  In walks the ER doctor, which we will refer to him as Doogie Howser, because he was all of 20 year old and entered the room by saying (in a surfer/stoner voice) dude that's cool!!  It all went downhill from there.  Doogie dug and cut and dug some more to get the barb out but just ended up breaking it off deeper inside his toe.  He then said I don't think I got all of it, so you may want to go see a doctor on Monday. They cleaned the wound with some tap water and a washcloth and gave him an antibiotic and a few pain meds and sent us on our way.  Let's just say Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday were rough. Thankfully, we go to church with some amazing people and one of those people is Dr. Beth Fletcher, who agreed on Sunday, to take care of Chris at 7:00 a.m. Monday morning.  She was fantastic!!  She had spent Sunday evening doing research on sea catfish, their barbs, and how to treat for them.  She cleaned his wound out, tried to find and remove as much of the barb as she could, gave him stronger pain meds (since the hospital ones were not working), another antibiotic and wanted to see him back on Wednesday. So he spent the next few days laid up on the couch with me cleaning the area 3 times a day because catfish are seriously one of the most disgusting, dirty, and gross animals on the planet.  As most of you know, I hate feet and Chris will tell you that he knows I love him because I have cleaned his toe so many times in the last few days.  Honestly, I have to pretend it is a finger to make it happen, but I have made it happen.   On Wednesday, we went back to see Beth and thought this would be the end of our crazy catfish journey.  NO SO MUCH!  When she looked at the wound again, she noticed something really small and sent us for x-rays immediately.  She requested the results STAT!  Which I know they say STAT on all of those TV shows and it sounds cool, but when you are carrying doctor's instructions with STAT on it, you know it is not good.  A few hours later, the doctor's office called and said we needed to go to the foot orthopedics surgeons office immediately, they were waiting on us.  Thankfully, we know this orthopedic doctor pretty well since he had done my first surgery on my left ankle, he handled Chris' foot when he dropped the jack hammer on his foot, and now this.  He is a good doctor and after more x-rays we were scheduled for surgery on Friday to remove the barb.  So here I sit waiting for Chris to get out of surgery. 

It is really weird to be on this side of the surgery, since I've always been on the cutting side of things.  It's hard to believe that I could have married someone just as or more accident prone than myself, but it happened.  Chris swears that he became more accident prone since he met me, but I tend not to believe that.  I say that because if you have ever heard his mother talk about Chris' short lived Olympic diving career you would believe he has always been this way.  At the age of 2 or 3 he was watching the Olympic divers on TV and decided he was going to do become a diver and he was going to use the bathtub as his training pool.  Needless to say, all his training was going well until his head hit the faucet and he had to get stitches.  Diving career...over.

Just got called back to talk to the surgeon, Chris' surgery went well and he is in recovery.  The surgeon removed another inch of barb out of his foot.  That is crazy since the ER doctor removed about a half inch already.  The surgeon said he had to make a larger incision that he expected and Chris will be really sore, but he will make a full recovery.  Thank the Lord!!

The lesson of this story is that Catfish are no joke and very dangerous!  We will be staying away from them for a long time.



The Life and Times of Surf Owen Boomer

On Tuesday, March 6, 2012, I lost one of my very best friends and beloved cat, Surf Owen Boomer.  I got Surf in June of 2003.  I moved to Jekyll Island to work at Summer Waves and they had me staying at a house in the wood that had lots of bugs, lizards, and frogs.  Being from Ohio, I was not used to all of these animals outside, let alone inside.  I had never had a cat before in my life, but I knew that cats killed these things, so it seemed like a good idea.  Someone at Summer Waves told me about this adorable kitten that someone dropped off at their vet's office.  I called and went to see if this kitten was a good fit for me.  I fell in love with this little kitten that the vet's office called Marley Bob.  They said he was so friendly and loved to be social and active with all of their patients and families.  I left the vet with my very first cat, Marley Bob.  The first thing I wanted to do was change my new pets name.  I thought about it and asked everyone I knew what they thought would be a good name for my new furry baby.  I wanted something beachy, since I was living at the beach.  I decided on the name Surf Owen Boomer.  The name Owen came from when I was in college, I had a cybercat named Owen and Boomer came from friend that wanted me to name Surf after the football player.  Surf was not a baby kitten, he was a little older, he was gray with darker gray strips, and had huge ears.  Since all of my family and friends were in Ohio, Surf and I became incredibly close.  He had such a crazy personality. He loved when I would hold him like a baby and he would head butt me and purr.  He would also love to lay across my shoulders and hang out, needless to say, I learned how to do a lot of things with a cat laying on my shoulders. I swear I didn't get a full nights sleep that entire first summer of our lives together because every time I would move in my bed, he would attack my feet.  It was one of his favorite games.  I may have gotten a little more sleep when my parents came and visited that summer, because he had way more feet to attack that week.  He was not like any other cat I had ever heard of.  Surf loved water, absolutely LOVED water!  I found this out one afternoon when I was taking a shower and I was rinsing the shampoo out of my hair and I feel this wet furry thing rubbing up against my legs.  My eyes were closed and of course I freak out thinking it was a raccoon, but to my relief and surprise it was Surf just hanging out in the shower with me.  After the end of the summer we moved out of what I called The Jungle House.  We then moved onto a small horse farm with a friend of mine.  He had a gray cat named Athena.  Surf and Athena became fast friends.

Surf and Athena Wrestling

  They loved running free around the farm together and play fighting.  To be honest, I'm surprised that Surf didn't die when we lived there because he used to swim in the marsh right next to our house, which had alligators in it.  I really thought he was going to get eaten at some point.  We then moved into an apartment by ourselves.  Surf liked the high cabinets that he could watch everything from.  He always loved being in the highest place he could climb to.  It must have been the Abyssinian in him.  It was a tough adjustment for Surf because he had to stay inside all of the time and he had to leave his friend Athena.  After about a week, I decided that he was so miserable without Athena that I needed to get another cat. I went to animal control and found a small, gray, Russian Blue kitten that looked almost exactly like Athena.  I brought Coral Blue home that afternoon and after a little adjustment, they became best of friends. 

I realized that I had over the years become a cat lover, but only gray cats! While living in our apartment, I had to spend almost a month wearing hats or wraps to bed because Surf would sleep on top of my head on my pillow and lick and chew my hair off around my forehead.  Needless to say bangs were not my best look, but I didn't really have a choice.  Our other issue with apartment living was Surf trying to escape to go play outside every single time the door opened, so to avoid him getting ran over in my apartment parking lot, I taught Surf how to walk on a leash.  The kids at my apartment loved playing with him when he was on his leash.  I then got a job in Jacksonville Beach and we had to move.  Let's just say neither cat was happy about the move, but Surf made it known he didn't like the move.  I thought he would never go back to the sweet loving cat I remembered, but eventually he did. Surf loved spending time on the screened in porch, he had tones of bugs to tract and eat all from the comfort of his porch. Everyone loved Surf because he was so social and had such a great personality.  While in Jacksonville, I had to have my second ankle surgery and my parents came down to help me out.  My mom ended up staying with us for 6 weeks.  During that time, Surf was my constant babysitter.  Every night when I went to bed with my feet prop up, Surf would sleep on my chest while I slept and when my mom would come in to check on me and give me my medicine, Surf would get up and go to the bathroom and get a drink and when my mom went back to bed, Surf would climb back up on my chest and keep an eye on me.

 He was so sweet.  My mom had a fun time dealing with Surf during this time as well, he could be kind of wild and stubborn, so they sometimes butted heads, but that was just Surf.  After my surgery, I started dating Chris and even though Chris goofs around and says Surf didn't like him because he swatted him in the eye, Surf really did like him.  To be honest if Surf swatted you in the eye, he loved you.  Just ask my mom and Ava.  We then moved from our scary San Pablo apartment to Ponte Vedra Beach.  The new apartment had the most room and Surf and Coral loved all of the room.  We only stayed there a few months before we moved back to Brunswick.  We moved in with Chris and his 2 cats, Emma and Pepper.  Talk about a tough adjustment, it took forever, but everyone settled in.  Surf and Coral were still the closest and were always together either playing or snuggled up sleeping. Surf loved all of the room we had in the new house and all of the high cabinets he could watch from.  Chris and Surf worked out their differences and Surf would even head butt Chris and sleep in his laundry that came straight out the dryer.  Chris always said my cats were too spoiled and you know what, they were, but I loved them so it didn't matter to me. Chris and I then adopted a yellow lab puppy named Shells.  Surf was so not a fan of Shells.  Surf didn't like the fast pace of Shells or being chased by her.  Surf  was not going to let this puppy run the house, that was Surf's job.  After a few swats, Surf had made it clear that he was the alpha male in this house.  The funniest thing ever was when Surf was in the kitchen and Shells wouldn't go through the kitchen without me walking with her, as a buffer, because she was afraid of Surf.  Our 50 lb dog was afraid of our 9 lb cat, who would have ever thought.  On February 14, 2012 I took Surf to the vet because he seemed like he wasn't feeling well.  I had no idea that they would tell me he had cancer and they thought he would only have a couple more days to live.  I was devastated, but spent the next 3 weeks making Surf's live as wonderful and comfortable as I could.  I also tried to prepare Coral as much as possible for her best friend to not always be there. Sadly Surf lost his fight with cancer.  Since I had moved here with no family or friends around, he became my family and friend.  We had been through the good and bad together.  No matter what would happen, he could always make me smile and feel better.  Though my family situation has changed over the years, he has and always will hold a very special part of my heart.  I will always have many funny and wonderful memories of one of the best cats I could have asked for.  Surf I will miss you and love you always.

SURPRISE!!!

Yesterday, I got to do the coolest thing I think I've ever done!  Let me start at the beginning.  In July, my grandma was diagnosed with multiple myloma, a form of bone cancer.  Over the last few months she has endured surgery to put a rod in her leg to support her femur bone, intense rehab, learning to walk again, moving in with my parents, a round of radiation, and will be starting kemo therapy in the near future.  She has been a champ through all of it and is in great spirits.  Needless to say, when you live a thousand miles away it is gut wrenching to not be there to spend time with your grandma or be there to help out your family.  So, a few weeks ago I booked my flight and started planning my trip to Ohio, never telling my mom or my grandma that I was coming.  My dad, brothers and sister in law all knew, I mean someone had to pick me up from the airport and take me home.  So yesterday morning, September 12, 2011, my grandma's 90th birthday, at 6:30 a.m. I boarded the plane and landed in Ohio at 10:30 a.m., my brother picked me up from the airport and we headed to my parents house.  The drive seemed to take forever because I was so excited to pull of my surprise.  My brother parks in front of our house and I step out and walk up to the front door.  My mom sees me through the door and starts crying and saying you came, you came.  There was not a dry eye in the house, that is for sure.  It was AWESOME!!!!! So, I spent the day cheering and making my grandma laugh through her physical therapy.  Like telling her she does look a day over 75 and telling her if she keeps working on those leg kicks, she will be ready to join the Rockettes by Christmas, she just laughs at me, and probably thinks I'm a nut, but I believe laughter is the best medicine.  Then my mom, grandma and I spent the afternoon just sitting outside on the back porch catching up, then I helped my dad finish putting up the fence in the backyard, and then the entire family met up and went out for dinner and ice cream to celebrate the birthday girls big day!!  It was so amazing to share this once in a lifetime experience with my grandma, I mean 90, that is incredible and I feel so lucky and blessed that I got to spend it with her!!

  Grandma and Mom...SURPRISE!!!!!

Dr. H

I had the pleasure of adopting my very first cat, Surf, from the Golden Isles Animal Hospital in 2003.  Ever since then Dr. Hornbuckle and his wonderful staff have loved and cared for our pets.  Shells LOVES going to the vet.  She is the only pet in my whole history of pets that gets excited to go to the vet and will sit patiently on a bench in the waiting room, if you have spent any time with Shells, you know she wants to sit where you're sitting or sit on you.  Shells got to visit Dr. H and staff today and got a clean bill of health for the year!