*Days 1 and 2*

When flying with a 2 year old, you never really know what you're going to experience. Luckily for us, she was PERFECT. Like did-not-make-a-peep, sat-completely-still, is-she-breathing perfect. It made traveling so easy.

 

Right after boarding her first flight! She was so excited :)

  

It was stormy on the way to Chicago.... dark clouds the whole way there.

 

Perfect weather from Chicago to Minneapolis!

 Just too cute not to share!

We landed in Minneapolis and headed straight to Rochester. It took right at an hour, and our hotel was wonderful to let us check in two hours early. (Plug - if you are ever in Rochester, the Hampton Inn North is SO nice! It's clean, comfy, and they have such a friendly staff. We will definitely stay here again!)  After checking in, we hit the road to tour downtown Rochester. We were trying to figure out how to get to the clinic, but it is confusing!! Thankfully, our wonderful hotel offers a shuttle to and from the clinic.

Mayo Clinic - this is the main clinic, but there are MANY others around downtown. Mayo employs 40,000 people!

 

Nana taught Addy how to do a stink eye! It is pretty cute!

We went to bed early to get ready for a busy Tuesday, and we are thankful for that now. We had to be at the clinic at 11:15 for a chest x-ray. We got there early because we still felt lost, and they had us in and out before the appointment was scheduled. Seriously, love this place! Our next appointment was with Addy's primary pulmonologist here, Dr. Baughn. She is amazing. The appointment with her lasted almost 1 1/2 hours. We reviewed and discussed every aspect of Addy's health. 

She decided Addy needs to be seen by the Aerodigestive Clinic. This is a 5 day clinic that is done by 6 specialists. It starts on a Monday and you are done on Friday afternoon. There are lots of appointments, meetings, and Wednesday of that week is the OR day. She will be put to sleep for a few procedures, and she will be admitted overnight for observation for a couple other things. It is intense, and I am sure it will be exhausting. But it gives us hope - hope for an answer, a diagnosis, and hope for a healthy future for Addy. 

BUT - we are here on a Tuesday, the clinic started yesterday, and it is full for a few weeks. So, we are going home tomorrow! But we are coming back in a few weeks. We don't know exactly when yet. We will find out tomorrow for sure, but it looks like it will be in May. We will start the process then. We met with the nurse today and did the pre-admission for that. While it's not great that we flew here only to go home and then come back again, we are thankful because her doctor already got to see her healthy. She knows what she looks like on a good day. She was happy she got to see her, and the team will already begin looking at medical records and diagnostic images from her past. They will know every thing about her history when we come back. So it's all good. 

We are so thankful to each one of you that have covered Addy in your prayers. Please don't stop. There is still a ways to go. And now another trip to plan. And we cannot thank you enough to those who made this trip possible. It means so much, and we are sincerely blown away by you guys. We fly out (very) early tomorrow morning and land in Nashville when some people are still sleeping! 

See y'all soon!

Laura