Austin

Thought I'd do a quick post for those of you that don't FaceBook so you will know what all has been happening. First of all we made the trip without any problems. We stopped about every two hours to stretch and take a break. We arrived in the Austin area about 7:30, the outskirts, and arrived at our hotel about 8:30. It was really dark and I am so thankful for GPS. The only complaint is Lola (that's what I call the voice on GPS as it is a female voice) scares the beejeezes out of me. We will be driving along may in silence or maybe talking and she booms from the speakers, "TURN RIGHT IN A HALF A MILE." I mean I almost jump out of my skin. But thankfully she guided us straight to our hotel. Kevin and I have stayed in many a Hampton Inns, but this one is in a swanky new part of Austin called Lake Way by Lake Travis. It is really beautiful and the hotel fits right in. It is one of the nicest hotels I have stayed in. I asked for a handicapped room and it is huge! We both have our own bed and I love the goose down comforters and down pillows. They call them Heavenly Beds and they live up to their names. After we got checked in we went down the road a few miles and ate at a Chili's. The food was great and we had a wonderful time. We were exhausted so we came back to the room and called it a night.

Our day today started very early as J*nine's appointment was at 9:00 and not knowing where we were going or what the traffic would be like we wanted to leave by 8:30. I knew we were in the proximity, but not exactly where. The traffic was much worse than I had anticipated and we were pushing it to be on time. We pulled into the parking lot at the clinic at 8:59.Whew! We went in and since J*nine had already done her new patient pack before we arrived we were ready to see the experts. We waited about thirty minutes before they called her back and we met a lady from the Austin area that has developed a topical formula that heals herpes virus, whether oral, genital or shingles. We really enjoyed talking to her and definitely want to try to find her stuff to bring home to some of you. They finally called Janine back and she asked if I could come with her. They allowed me to go and the hardest part was watching in silence. I so wanted to help her, but knew that would defeat the purpose of the tests. They did a balance test first. The first test was on a solid surface, then they put a huge foam square down and did the test again with her standing on the foam. I told her I'm not sure I could do that without swaying. Then they did several eye tracking tests. One in particular was messing my with brain so I had to look away. They were scrolling black and green stripes vertically across the wall from left to right. She was supposed to choose a black stripe and track it across the wall, but that strobing effect was driving me crazy so I looked away. The next test she had to focus on a little red dot on the wall and turn her head left to right according to a beeping sound that progressively got faster and faster. Then they did the same test, but she had to move her head up and down.  There were a couple more tests but I can't remember. Then we went into a little room and she did a memory test. Again, it was SO hard to keep quiet! The first test was a list of words about ten words blinked on the screen for a second or two, then the computer displayed a word and she had to chose yes or no if it was a word from the preferred list. Oh I so wanted to tell her yes or no, but didn't. After the test I asked her if she was getting the telepathic signal from me. I was trying so hard to send it to her. She failed the test. The next part was an X and O test. The computer would show a screen shot sort of like this for about five seconds.

Then it would show the same screen shot, but all the X-O would be black but would turn yellow as you scrolled over them and you were supposed to choose the right shapes that were yellow in the previous screen. Does that make sense? I thought it was so hard and would be thinking to myself, "I'm going to remember this one." But then J*nine would scroll over the letters turning them yellow and I would immediately forget which ones were yellow before. She failed, but I would have too.

The next test was still on the computer and it would show a red dot and a blue square in rapid succession. If it was the red shape she was supposed to click the left mouse button and the right button for the blue square. The shapes were in random order and went pretty fast. I dont' think she passed this test either.

Then the next test looked like a bingo grid with numerals 1 to 25 in random scattering. She was supposed to click on the numbers counting backwards starting with 25 as fast as she could. It was a timed test. It would start and she would get to about 16 and then the grid would click off and and then the computer would ask her to type in three letters that had been flashed before the number grid appeared. It was so hard. You would be concentrating so hard on the numbers and then they would flash off and you were supposed to switch your brain to thinking about those three letters. The three letters were never the same and the number grid was never in the same order. J*nine failed this test as well.

The next test was a crazy shape test. They were single line drawings that looked liked scribbles. The computer flashed through them and there were about 10 to 12 shapes. Then the computer flashed back through them but they might be flipped or rotated and she was supposed to answer yes or no if it was one of the shapes in the test. I thought this was extremely hard as there was nothing to associate the shapes with to help you remember them and then if it was flipped or mirrored image your brain would say, "I think that was one."
The shapes looked something like these.

Then the next test had a grid something like this. It was on the screen for a few minutes. Then the computer would flash a shape and J*nine had to choose the number that corresponded with that shape. It was really hard and she was so frustrated. I think she failed this test too. I felt bad for her as she was trying so hard, but was really frustrated.

Then believe it or not it went back to the word test from the very beginning  and J*nine again had to choose yes or no if it was one of the words from the list. I dont' think she passed this one either. We were so glad it was over and were both sweating like we had run a marathon by the time it was over. It didn't help that the booth was about 3' X 4' wide with two people in there and the computer and then stressing our brains like that.

Then they took us to another room and they tested the pressure in her ears and finally a hearing test. She failed that too. Finally the testing was over and they took us back to the waiting room to wait to see the doctor. Finally we were called back. By this time we had been there for three hours. The doctor we saw was Dr. T*ylor. We both really like him and when he went over the test results with J*nine he told her how she had performed. He told her she had lots of nerve damage and explained why he thought that was happening. He feels that the shingles virus is still living in side her body and that her immune system is so compromised that it can't fight the shingles virus and all the inflammation. He made a lot of sense and prescribed her two prescriptions, one for an anti-viral and and RNA viral. The nurse gave her a steroid shot and he prescribed her B-12 lotion ( we bought 4 so we can share with other family members that have brain fog) a nutritional supplement and Super Greens (powder) to help with bowel problems. He  also ordered more blood work for when we get back to *. He agreed with the doctor in Am*rillo that her thyroid was not the root cause of anything, but would keep an eye on the nodule. We felt so hopeful when we left.  She has a follow up visit in three months. We found out they have a clinic in Dallas if we want to go there. That would cut two to three hours off the trip but we really liked everyone here in the Austin Clinic. They were so nice to us. We asked each one how long they had worked there and everyone said 8-9 years. That made us feel better too that they were consistent with everything.

By this time we had been there for four hours and were starving. We started looking for a place to eat lunch (at 2:45). We ended up at the Iguana Cafe on Lake Travis. It was so beautiful. The food wasn't that great, but we enjoyed sitting on the patio looking at the lake. We drove back towards our hotel and found a wonderful scrap booking shop so we just had to stop. Mimi you will be happy to know that J*nine spent every penny you gave her. She was like a kid in a candy shop! I bought a few things too. We were going to come back to the hotel to rest, but notice we were passing by the sign that said Hill Country Galleria. I had just discussed with one of my friends that I thought there was a Galleria in Austin and she didn't think so. We had to check it out. It was the coolest place. It is not the typical mall, but more like the main street of yesterday, but the shops were shops like Banana Republic, Chicos, JosABanks, Barnes and Noble's, and a lot of shops I had not heard of. We looked around and then noticed there was a movie theatre. I said, "Why don't we go to the movie tonight." We decided to see Life As We Know It. We both loved it. We laughed and cried through the whole thing. It is a very sweet movie and a perfect movie for girls night out. After the movie we decide to try to find someplace to eat a small dinner as it was almost 10:00. We found a place called Mimi's Cafe. It was great, but the best thing was since it was our first visit they gave us four giant muffins of our choice. We have had a great time but are ready to get home to our families and plan on leaving in the morning and heading North. We are going home by the way of Dublin if anyone wants Dr. Peppers call me on my cell in the morning. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I think we may be on to something here!