One year ago today, on my husband's 38th birthday, we had an appointment with Dr. McCue. Dr. McCue is the brain surgeon that works with Abbott Northwestern Hospital. I remember that visit clearly...
While we waited, Bruce filled out all my paperwork that they needed. He was so good about filling out the paperwork for me wherever we were. It was nice. I was so distanced from everything, it was just easier for me to let him do it.
I remember Dr. McCue himself walking out to the waiting room to get me for my appointment. He said "So, you're the famous Dawn Rxxxxxx...It's good to finally put a face to the name. I have spent more time looking at your file and tests than anyone else, and I've never even met you".
He took us back to his office. It seemed like the walk took forever. I was so nervous and scared, I had tunnel vision. So much so, I tried to sit in his chair behind his desk instead of the ones on the other side that I was supposed to sit in. Bruce did most of the talking, I was just kind of *there*. He told us that he couldn't do the kind of surgery that I needed. That's when Bruce brought up Dr. Steinberg at Stanford and Dr. Meyer at Mayo. Dr. McCue knew of both, and said that he had gone to a seminar recently that Dr. Steinberg had on Moyamoya. He also said he had a book by Dr. Meyer and handed it to Bruce to look at. It had his picture on the back of it.
Dr. McCue also took us down the hall to show us a scan of my brain. I don't recall if it was CT, MRI or what, but he showed us the Moyamoya vessels and pointed to a blood vessel on the outside of my skull and said "That one right there (as he followed it with his pen) is every Neurosurgeon's dream!" -- meaning it was a very good candidate for the donor procedure.
We left that appointment knowing full well that there was no one there that could help us. It was good because we had already committed to Dr. Steinberg in Stanford and the meeting very much reassured us that we'd made the right decision.
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