Update! First surgery complete!

So after testing this morning and meeting with the Doctor, he decided to go ahead a do the surgery today on my right side! Hooray! I was worried I would have to wait til tomorrow and have one more day to worry and stew! Turns out I was anxious for nothing. It took all of 20 minutes. Plus, I was under the impression that I'd have bandages over my eyes for 24 hours, but turns out I don't qualify for that procedure. That's in addition to the vascular shunt procedure I had. I don't qualify because I had radial keratotomy and lasik (long before I knew I had RP). Anyway, right side is done! I'll probably have the left side done on Thursday.

So here's the thing that finally chilled me out. They don't even perform the surgery near your eye. It's done on the side of the head by the temporal artery. I have no idea how they do it, and the doctor said he couldn't explain because it's intellectual property.

Anyway, now I can chill. I woke up this morning freaking right out and now I found that all that worry was really not necessary.

Oh and I'm not noticing improvement. The other procedure (that I didn't qualify for) tends to render quicker results, I wa told I may not notice anything for weeks, if ever. It's okay as long as I maintain! I just don't want to lose the vision I have!

Feeling relieved and very blessed for all the prayers, support, and love!

Oh, I don't know if I mentioned that Carol (our liaison that speaks English) also speaks German so here I am in China sprechen Deutsch!

Don's heading out to Shenzhen this afternoon so I'm alone for the next week. I will miss him terribly as I'm already missing the girls, but now I'm really feeling so much more peace!

Tuesday Morning - Changchun

It's 5:55 am in Changchun. Don and I arrived in this morning at 12:25 am. 24 hours later than scheduled but we are here. I have tests today beginning at 7:30 but I'm a ball of nerves. I've been up since 4:00. There's a 14 hour time difference so I face timed the girls and that did wonders for me. I already miss them so much. 

I'll post later after the testing and meeting with the surgeon.  Still haven't seen much of China as we spent 9 hours in Beijing at the airport and flew in last night and it was dark.  

I'm grateful again for the prayers. I can feel them and the love of those offering them. It is helping me so much! Updates later!

In Beijing!

After our big delay in Seattle we finally arrived in Beijing, to find that our onward flights to Changchun had not stayed in the system so we spent about 2 hours dealing with that. It was okay, though, because we had a 9 hour layover! We arrive in Changchun exactly 24 hours late so everything is pushed back a day.

Although the delay in Seattle was a little frustrating and discouraging, it ended up giving us some good memories anyway. Don and I made friends with two amazing flight attendants and a couple of really nice passengers on our flight.

Now I'm just ready to get the ball rolling. We arrive in Changchun at 12:25am Tuesday morning so it will be a short night! I decided to update this blog because right now it's 4:20 am at home so I figure if I can keep myself awake I should be able to adjust better to the time.

I'm feeling great peace knowing that my awesome family and friends fasted and prayed for me. It's awe inspiring to have so many people exercising their faith and prayers in my behalf. Truly humbling. Love to all!

Off to an interesting start!

So Don and I left SLC for China today at 3:10 pm. It's now 10:30 pm and we are in Seattle still. Ugh! We got here, boarding our flight to Beijing, only to have our pilot come on and inform us that there was a mechanical problem with the plane.  So we sat on the tarmac for an hour only to push back, taxi out to the runway, have the pilot come on again to tell us the hydraulics went out.  So they had to fly a part in from ATL which won't be here until later tonight. So our flight leaves here at 9:00 in the morning. It messes us up - we get to Changchun 24 hours late! What do you do? Just ride it out!

So hopefully this doesn't throw too big of a wrench in everything. What with our passport/visa debacle, I'm learning patience.

Still so grateful for the thoughts and prayers being sent up in my behalf!

A dream come true!

I just wanted to post these pictures here for posterity. A couple of weeks ago I went to San Diego to see my acupuncturist there while Don and the girls were at Girl's Camp. It was my first time flying alone since my vision has gotten a little worse so I was a little nervous and noted on my reservation that I had a visual impairment. They let me board the plane first. As I was walking down the jetway the captain came up from the tarmac and I cracked a joke with him. I asked him how he'd like a person with no peripheral vision to help him fly the plane. He laughed then invited me up to the cockpit for a look around! I was as giddy as a 7 year old. As you may know, I love planes (almost as much as President Uchtdorf) so this was a real treat. He even let me sit in the left seat and I got to be up there for about 10 minutes. It was awesome. The copilot even let me wear his hat. Their kindness meant the world and I was so grateful for this tender mercy. Here are some pictures, forgive the cheesiness of my grin!

The cool thing was this was a 757, which is one of my favorite planes. I think they are so sleek and graceful! It was so awesome and I was so grateful to these two kind gentlemen for the opportunity. Go Delta! Forgive the giddiness, it is possible for a 45 year old to feel like a kid!

Tomorrow Don and I leave for China! I am nervous, anxious, excited! Maybe the pilots will let me help fly the bird across the Pacific! Ha!

China - Here we come!

So I decided to write about our upcoming trip to China! China? You might ask. Well, I'll try to make a long story short. Several months ago I was on an RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa) group on Facebook and saw a post come up about a place in China (the only place in the world as far as I can determine) that does a procedure to help slow the vision loss of people with RP. They perform a vascular shunt surgery in which they direct more blood flow to the retina. People with RP have narrowed vessels around the retina so they don't receive as much blood supply. Since the retinas are already compromised, the lower blood flow attributes to the vision loss associated with RP. They've been doing this procedure since 1995 and have said that the majority of their patients were able to stabilize their vision and not lose anymore. Some even had some improvement. As you can see from these visual field tests below, I've lost some vision just in the last year and a half, not to mention how much I've lost since I was diagnosed.

My apologies, this one is sideways.

So Don finds out there is a trade show in China and we had been toying with going and doing this procedure. His show is next week! I called the people in China and they were available that week. Don is going to come with me to Changchun, which is way north in China. It is the same latitude as Vladivostok, Russia! Looks like it shouldn't be too cold there, yet! He'll stay with me until the procedure is over then he flies to Shenzhen for his trade show and customer calls. He'll then fly back up to Changchun and be with me the last two days I am there. I have to be there for 2 weeks!

I'm quite nervous but excited at the same time. My biggest concern is leaving the girls right after school starts to fly halfway across the world. However, they are so supportive of me and they have already started praying that this can save my eyesight! I'm so grateful for their support and love. I'm also so grateful for Don's. He is going to have to do a lot of extra flying around but I will feel more confident just knowing he is on the same continent as me. 

Right now, what we are praying for is that our passports and visas arrive in time! We applied for a Chinese visa two and a half weeks ago, only to receive the visa, then have FedEx lose our passports and visas! Nowhere to be found! We had to cancel them and apply for new passports and visas. They tell us they are supposed to arrive tomorrow so fingers are crossed! We leave Saturday! I will post updates and experiences on this blog and would ask your faith and prayers in my behalf. I am already overwhelmed with those who are praying for me and looking after my girls while we are away. I really think one of the nicest things anyone can do is pray for others. This means so much to me and I am grateful we have this opportunity. 

I'll keep you posted!