WOW we just had THE quickest trip to CA ever! It was so great to get there, but it was so quick that it was over in the blink of an eye! We (me, my mom, Cali, & Brooklyn) left MT on Saturday, June 18th & drove to Billings, got on a plane, & flew DIRECTLY to LAX. Yeah, one of the newest things we Montanans have now are direct flights to Vegas, Phoenix, & LAX on Allegiant Air. It's sooo nice! They only fly once on certain days, so if you're flexible with your plans it's totally the way to go.
Little Cali B on her first flight in her own seat!!
(Because I'm actually writing this in August I don't remember every little detail of the trip, which is probably nice for you, so the details will be spared!) We had a pretty uneventful flight down. The 4 of us sat together, which was really nice. When we got there I had to leave pretty much right away cause I was meeting Angel, a nevus owner who I've never met, but have communictated with through text, phone, & Facebook. She works at my favorite place in the world (yes, Disneyland) & got us cheaper tickets. THANKS so much to her for doing that for us! So I was able to meet Angel & had a quick chat then went back to my grandma's house.
Two cute little Brookie pictures...such a goofball!
Sunday was Father's Day. Yes, I booked a trip over Father's Day. When I booked it I had no idea it was actually over that weekend...I just booked it & then realized...oops! But Dustin had a long weekend with no family & no work so he relaxed! We were able to go to church with my grandma & great-grandma, then went back to the house, ate, & got to see more family.
The whole point of going to CA was so that Brooklyn could see a dermatologist. We saw a dermatologist in September of last year in Denver but she has since resigned. (To read about why we needed to see a derm please
click here. To read about our first derm appt
click here.)Anyways, when I got the letter from Dr. Burch in Denver saying she was resigning, I was sad, cause she was so close, but I wasn't heart broken. It's ok...we'll just find another one!
Well finding another one was easier said than done. Derms that specialize in nevi's are few & far between. After asking lots of other nevus families (and my own family members who just so happen to be related to dermatologists that refer their patients to this guy) I finally decided on Dr. Lawrence Eichenfield at UCSD in CA. A few other nevus families go to him & love him. I picked him because we'd have to go out of state anyways to find such a specialized pediatric dermatologist. Why not Chicago, you may ask. While we will be going to Chicago a lot between now & when her surgeries are over, we won't be going there long-term. The only reason we'd go there is to see the derm. So I wanted a derm who was in a place that we visit a lot. Where do we go out of state a lot....California, of course! And what better place to find a dermatologist?! So I got an appt with him on Monday, June 20th.
We found his office fairly easily thanks to Bessy (my GPS lady) & were there with plenty of time to spare. Dr. Eichenfield is THE nicest man. He spent much more time than I'd thought he would with Brooklyn. He was so great with her, too. My mom stayed out with Cali, so my grandma came in with me....4 ears are a heck of a lot better than 2. He spoke to both of us & was just amazing. I'm so happy that I chose him. He said that he's actually worked with Dr. Bauer on numerous occasions & he's also worked with the top nevus dermatologist in the country, Dr. Ash Marghoob, who is in NY. They've done presentations & talks together, so he's quite knowledgable in the subject of nevi's!
He gave me a lot of reassurance. He said that we're doing everything 100% right, that he wouldn't be doing anything different. Most importantly to me though, he said that we have the best surgeon in the world...Dr. Bauer! That makes me so happy. There are 2 pediatric plastic surgeons who are colleagues of Dr. Eichenfield there at UCSD & he said that Dr. Bauer is STILL the absolute best...better than his colleagues. So that says something right there!
He told us about some scar laser removal options that we have, but to be completely honest I wasn't 100% FULLY paying attention, just cause we're not there yet. When her surgeries are done & over with...then I'll be all ears. But for now, I'm just focusing on surgeries to get this last 20% removed. Thanks to my grandma, we were able to give Dr. Eichenfield a business card of ours with the picture of Brooke on it so he could see how big her nevus was in the beginning.
So he checked her out, looked for satellites, told us how rare we were that she doesn't have any, & said that he wants to see her back about 6 months after her last surgery. Well that works out perfectly cause that'll be about August 2012 & we're already going to CA that month! So we'll see him again then, and THEN we can talk about the laser scar removal. One step at a time!
Monday night we were able to see a cousin of mine who we don't see all that often. Then Tuesday was Disneyland (see that blog post!!). Wednesday, unfortunately was come-home day. See what I mean by Quick & To The Point?!
Also on our quick 3-day agenda:
a haircut for Cali
a birthday party for Cali
And some quality Nanny/Brooklyn time (that's 5 generations right there!)
We had such a great time with our 5 generations, a great time at Disneyland, a great 3rd birthday party for Cali, and a great time getting back to California...which just doesn't happen as much as we'd like it to. Till next time!!
