Pre-op. visit at Riley

We left the house this morning about 10 a.m. to go to Riley for Whitney's pre-op visit. We returned home around 7pm tonight. Whitney was WONDERFUL considering what a long day we had and how off schedule we were with feeding her. She had a heart echo, a chest x-ray and, unfortunately, 2 blood draws because they were unable to get enough blood the first time they tried. We met Dr. Brown and he couldn't have been more friendly, reassuring, knowledgeable, etc... all of the nurses, techs, staff, basically everyone we came in contact with today were all GREAT.

*** the above info. is the important info about today's visit... the following is just some extra "small world" connections we would like to share...so do not feel you have to read my "book like" entry, sorry in advance!

When we went to have Whitney's heart echo done we walked in and Jenny, the tech, told us she felt like she knew us already. It is definitely a small world -( #1) it turns out that she had seen our blog before we came in today because her next-door-neighbor, Marissa, a friend of mine from IU, told her about us and gave her our blog address. We probably kept her too long because even after the echo was done we kept talking (we share a love of IU and Bloomington... Mike likes to refer to it as "God's country"... so we hit it off quickly!)
More "small world connections":
(#2)Mike went to elementary, middle, and high school with Dr. Brown's son Jason. Jason Brown, for those that went to college in Indiana, was the lead singer of the band "Push Down and Turn".
(#3) My Dad had a conference last week with an attorney from Indianapolis and somehow they ended up talking about family and things outside of their case and my Dad told this attorney about Whitney and it turns out that Jeff, the attorney, lives next door to Joe Meares, the founder of D.A.D.S. (Dads Appreciating Down Syndrome) http://www.dadsnational.org/
Joe was nice enough to take the time to email me and tell me a little about D.A.D.S. and to offer his support. In addition, he is putting in a good word for us with Dr. Richard Schreiner, Chairman of Pediatrics at Riley, who also has a daughter with Down Syndrome. One other connection with Joe Meares - he is good friends with one of Mike's friends from Valpo Law School. We are VERY happy to have this connection with Joe Meares and the D.A.D.S. group!
(#4) A friend of mine from IU, Alissa, is a pediatric physical therapist at Riley and is going to check in on Whitney next week while we are there for her surgery + she will be a WONDERFUL person to know with all of her expertise + people she knows from the Down Syndrome community here in Indy. Alissa also has another connection for us that we are excited about! Her mother is a speech therapist in town and 95% of her caseload are children/people with Down Syndrome.
(#5) We also have some friends and family who have connections to the nurses and some of the residents at Riley who are all looking out for us while we are there for Whitney's surgery. The nurses and residents are good people to have looking out for you!

Can you believe all of these connections? We feel so lucky!!!

We hope everyone has a VERY Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you so much to everyone for all of your comments on the blog, voicemails, emails, cards, meals, help with Anne, etc... I am sorry that I have been so slow about returning calls, emails, messages, replying to comments... I hope someday soon to "catch up"!!! Until then, please know how much it means to have so many people looking out for us and especially for little Whitney!