MRI complete

Well, we are back. We survived Vegas. More importantly, I survived 5 days without the kid. I left her at daycare Thursday morning. I felt like crying. I realized just how much I was going to miss her. But I held it together and came home to pack.

I drove to the Denver Airport and I had to pick up Tania on the way. Tania is Greg’s girlfriend. We got on the plane and on the way just fine. About half an hour into the flight the pilot let us know that due to severe thunderstorms the Las Vegas airport was currently closed. He said that we may have to circle a bit when we get there, but not to worry we had plenty of gas. He said it should be open by the time we get there though. We got closer and it was still shut down. The pilot came on and asked us to enjoy the view of Lake Powell while we circled again and again and again. Finally he came back on and said, “bad news folks, we have been diverted to Phoenix. We will refuel and wait for the Las Vegas airport to open”. Bummer. So, the plane got turned around and we started heading for Phoenix. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as we got turned around and started heading to Phoenix, the airport reopened. So, we turned around again, and headed back to Vegas. We finally landed and only 30 minutes late somehow!

The next few days were a LOT of walking. The conference center is HUGE and lucky me got to be the gopher. I did a LOT of walking. But Friday afternoon Hubby and I escaped after working that morning at the conference. First we went to the Star Trek experience at the Hilton. It’s where the group goes every year. But rumor has it that it’s going to be closing down soon. So, I had to go and experience it at least once. We did the full experience with the rides and all. It was pretty neat, but not worth the price we paid. Plus the Star Trek convention was in town, so we got to see lots of characters dressed up. No, I am not a Trekkie, but I hear a lot about the whole thing year after year, so I had to go and check it out.

Next we headed off to the Shops at Caesars Forum. I can barely afford anything there, but it’s my favorite place in the world to “Shop”. Okay, maybe more like window shop. Not sure what’s the most exciting, the way the sky (ceiling) goes back and forth from night to day, or all the BIG fancy stores you don’t really see anywhere else (like Tiffany’s, Dolce & Gabana, Cartier), or the overall atmosphere, but WOW do I love going there. The only thing we bought was lunch and dessert at the Cheesecake factory.

Day two we managed to escape again after work and went down to Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. I didn’t realize until this trip that they are AZA accredited! So is our local zoo, so that is pretty cool! We walked through their rain forest and pet a sting ray. Then you get to the large tank where all the large sharks are and a few large turtles and lots of fish. It was enjoyable as always. This is my second trip there.

That night we all got together and ate at Benihana’s, which is a hibachi type style restaurant. We had a good time there.

The next day we didn’t escape. Sunday is a shorter day for the conference as it is also the last day. So, we got off work at 12pm and we had to be back by 4pm to help with tear down. Then closing ceremonies were at 5pm. So, we just kind of hung out. I did finally get a little bit of gambling done, I played Roulette. I was up $5 when I quit. Not too shabby for sitting there for only about 15 minutes.

After closing ceremonies, we headed to the NASCAR experience at the Sahara. We met up with Greg and Tania, and we had Dana with us. We ate dinner there, and then after dinner, Hubby and Dana rode the rollercoaster. It was the shortest rollercoaster I have ever seen, maybe 10 seconds, but they both swore it was the best one they have ever ridden.

The next day it was time to come home. I was so ready to come home and see Courtney. We had been catching up with her daily on the phone, but I really missed her a lot. We had a smooth ride home and we picked her up from daycare just about 4:30pm.

She had a little bit of a rough night and I actually went in her room about 9pm to comfort her. I think she was scared we were going to leave her again. She insisted on seeing us both. It took about 30-45 minutes, but I finally got her back to sleep (or darn close). This wasn’t great, because we had to be up EARLY this morning.

We had to be at the hospital by 6am for her MRI. We made it, got checked in, and they put her to sleep about 7:20am. We both were with her, I was outside the room and Hubby was with her when they put her to sleep. I was worried this was going to be a repeat of the tubes saga while she was waking up. They came and got us just before 8:30am. I went to recovery (PACU) and she was just sitting there on the bed. She was a little whiny, but not too bad at all! No writhing, screaming, kicking, like last time. I was thankful. We got back to our room in radiology, and they wouldn’t release us until Courtney drank and swallowed. Courtney tried, but her throat hurt so much that all she could do is cry and she couldn’t swallow anything.

The anesthesiologist put a full tube in her throat so that she didn’t aspirate while she was under. This caused her to have a very sore throat and made her really not interested in drinking. So, we were stuck at the hospital. Finally around 9:45am we let her fall asleep for about an hour. When she woke up at 10:45 she was still irritable and didn’t want to drink much, but we could get her to eat a Popsicle. Finally they let us go.

She cried the whole way home. She was so irritable. We pulled in the garage and she threw up. Poor kid, what a miserable day. We got her inside, and cleaned up and wouldn’t you know she asked for breakfast! So, we gave her half a plain bagel. She ate almost the whole thing. She also finally started drinking. Within a matter of moments, she seemed back to normal. So, all of a sudden, we had our kid back! We got her put down for a nap and that was very restless for her, she did a lot of whining and crying out during her nap. But when she got up from nap, she seemed pretty normal still. But she went to bed pretty easy tonight.

She is so cute with all the things she says. Her full sentences are really coming along. It’s just amazing. I feel like she changed so much just in the 5 days I was gone. I can’t imagine how much she has changed to Hubby who had been gone for 11 days.

I am off to finally get some relaxing done!