Georgian Woman

America's nice.  I've been enjoying it.

Here is an Armine update.


Before Armine flew to America she had never before been on an airplane.  Which is very normal for Georgian's.  Most of the people in her family have never been on airplanes, well at least not since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  During Soviet times people used to fly all the time, it was cheap, now it's too expensive (from everything I hear about it, Soviet Union was good times...).  She had been to an airport once or twice, but only to pick up or drop someone off.  I did everything I could to prep her and get her ready for how it would go down.  "You'll get to the ticket counter and give the lady your bags and she'll check them through all the way to San Antonio and tell you which concourse to go to and which gate is yours and then you can confirm your departure time...."  And there were at least 4 terms in that sentence that made absolutely no sense to her.  She had never before heard the english word "concourse".  She's a really smart girl and was learning all the terms quickly, but I think I just freaked her out more than anything.

She had to take a 24 hour bus ride to Istanbul to catch her flight.  She was with her father, who wouldn't dream of letting his 23 year old daughter travel through Turkey alone (she was hit on by multiple Turks, though I think she got a fat discount on some shoes because of it...).  They made arrangements with a taxi driver to take them to the airport.....and she showed up 4 hours before her flight.....the taxi driver hugely underestimated the amount of traffic on Istanbul's roads at 5 am.

She had no problems making her connections in London and Chicago.

This is how she described going through customs in Chicago:  I walked up to the man and I asked how long my visa would be valid for.  "Why are you coming to America?"  "I have to have surgery"  "Oh, we better give you a year.  Wait here."  "Um, my connection leaves very soon....."  Then the man walked to a different desk to talk to someone.  He walked more slowly than I've ever seen anyone walk.  I was so nervous about missing my connection.  Then he came and told me to go wait in a special room.  There was some random man in the room and he started talking to me.  He said that one time he had a passport stolen, so now he has problems every time he comes into America.  Then a woman called my name and I walked into her office.  She said "are you traveling with that man?"  "No, I'm traveling alone."  "Do you know that man?"  "No."  "But you were talking to him."  "Yeah, he just started talking to me."  "What's his name?"  "I don't know.  I don't know him."  "But you were talking to him...."  "He just started talking to me.  I have no idea who he is...."  "Why do you want to stay in America for one year?"  "I don't want to stay here for one year...."  "You told the customs officer you wanted to stay here for one year...."  "No, I never told him this...."  (remember, her connection time is very short and she is really scared of missing it) "That's why you are waiting here, because you told the officer you wanted to stay here for one year"  "I don't want to stay for a year....I'm having surgery and I don't know long it will take, but I don't want to be here for a year...."

She ended up getting a 6 month visa with the option to renew for another 6 months if she needs.

She made it to San Antonio without any problems and she is staying at the home of the Dr. who will be operating on her.  I don't know him or his family but Armine thinks they're the greatest people ever.  They're really and she feels really comfortable at their house.

She got to America on a Sunday night and went to the hospital on Monday morning.  They took some more MRI's and x-rays, injecting different liquids into her to highlight certain areas.  The quality of care and the way the doctors and nurses treat her is worlds away from how it is in Georgia.  She's is so relieved she gets her spinal surgery here.

Her tumor is shaped like the letter 'c' and an artery is running through the center and right up next to the tumor.  When the Dr. goes in to remove the tumor he will make a small incision on the front of her neck and a small one on the back of her neck. He then goes in microscopically to 'peel' away the tumor.  He's nervous that he'll hit the artery and she'll bleed too much.  So on Tuesday she went back to the hospital for a surgery where a radiologist inserted a catheter tube into an artery near her groin and snaked it up to the location of the tumor (on her spine, right below her brain).  She could feel the catheter as it ran through her shoulder and neck....She said it hurt....

The radiologist had a little balloon on the end of the catheter that he pumped up to temporarily block the artery, then left it sitting there for about 20 minutes, while monitoring her to make sure she received enough blood to her brain.  "How many fingers am I holding up" "Can you wiggle your toes?"  "Is Joseph Stalin a good guy or a bad guy?"  She said she would rather give birth to 1,000,000 babies then have that catheter running through her again.  Once they were certain that her body was effectively re-routing the blood to her brain, they inserted some platinum coils into the artery which permanently blocks it.  Apparently it's a little longer than a normal sized finger and will be inside her for the rest of her life.  The dr's were all happy that this worked, because the chances of them nicking the artery while removing the tumor are very high, so the risks associated with the tumor removal surgery are dramatically reduced.

This blocking of the artery surgery was very risky in its own right.  Things went perfect.

She's been on all sorts of pain pills ever since.  Sometimes I'll talk to her and she'll be up and feeling fine sometimes she'll be sleepy and feeling awful.  I think she feels awful more often than not, but I think a lot of it is from all the drugs she is taking.  She is taking a lot of aspirin to keep her blood thin, so her brain can adjust to not having an entire artery carrying blood to it...(I just don't really understand how they can cut off an artery to her brain....and then leave a piece of metal in it.....but I'm a better cycling tourist than I am a neurosurgeon....).  After a week of aspirin the Dr. wants her off aspirin for at least a week, before the surgery, to make sure her body can handle everything ok.

She will then have her tumor removed.

Everything is going good so far.  The family she is staying with let her take the laptop into her room, so she lays in bed and skypes with her family and friends back home.  Though she makes herself 'invisible' most of the time because otherwise she would get a call or someone chatting her up every 10 minutes....

Oh, and my ankle is doing fine....if anybody even cares.....I was getting all sorts of sympathy until Armine went and got a tumor on her spine and totally stole the attention.

Back in the U.S.A.

I'm back in the United States of America for a month.  My little sister is getting married.  Then I go back to Istanbul early December to ride through Turkey....probably in the rain....

This blog will probably be quiet for the next month.

Like a Flight With No Visa

I'm not sure why I didn't write about this earlier.  Maybe because it isn't my story.  Maybe because there was, at the time, a lot of uncertainty.  But I'm feeling a lot better about all of it now.

Armine.

She's not doing so good.  Ok she can walk and talk and she seems fine, but she's not doing so good.  When the drunk driver hit us and she flew onto his hood and then onto the ground, she hurt her neck.  The next day she kept complaining about neck soreness, and I, being the patient understanding person that I am, kept telling her it was just some type of whiplash and to quit whining....

The x-ray's of her neck looked funky, so she got an MRI.  Armine has a tumor the size of a ping pong ball in her neck at the 2nd vertabrae, right up against her spine.  The doctor's think it has been there for a few years, growing slowly.  The type of tumor, the shape, etc...make the doctors think that it is most likely benign.  But it needs to come out.  But it's right up against her spine, which means it doesn't just 'come out'.  It's not an emergency, it's been there for awhile, but getting hit by the car moved things around enough that it's hitting the nerves running through her spine and isn't very comfy.


I'm not really satisfied with the medical help I've been given in Georgia, and I have a sprained ankle.  When Armine gave birth 6 years ago she nearly died because the doctor left part of the placenta inside her.  Having this operation done in Georgia isn't even an option, it would be a paralysis or a death wish.  Going outside is too much money.  Her family gets by, but a flight and then spinal surgery?

There's a mormon missionary in Georgia, who is an older guy here on a mission with his wife.  This guy has a nephew in the US who just happens to be a world renowned neurosurgeon.  He travels the world giving lectures and instructing other surgeons on how to perform certain operations.  This older guy sent a picture of the MRI's to his nephew and his nephew confirmed everything the dr's in Georgia are saying, and added that this operation shouldn't be done in Georgia.  Of course.  The US, Japan, Europe, preferably Germany, are about the only places.  Then he said "I could probably get a group of surgeons here to do it gratis....and I could probably get a foundation to cover the hospital bills....".

Everything started feeling better when we heard that there was a possiblity to have the surgery done in a safe place.  The missionary in Georgia then offered up some frequent flier miles to get her to San Antonio and back.  All she needed was a visa.

The United States' policy is to assume that every foreigner (excluding the EU and a handful of other places) entering the US is doing so to immigrate.  So it is the responsibility of the applicant to prove otherwise.  Armine is a 23 year old single mother and works as a nanny.  She makes enough for what she needs, but it isn't like she has huge financial incentives to come back to Georgia.  Getting this visa was very stressful.  Her and I spent a week filling out forms, calling friends/employers, etc... asking for letters of reference and putting everything together.  She was a nervous wreck.  We had absolutely no Plan B if she were to be denied this visa.  Go to Russia maybe and look for a dr there....?  But the cost would have been too high anyway.

I wasn't allowed to go in to the interview with her.  It was on a Monday morning, first thing.  About 1 minute into the interview the US interviewer started reorganizing all the papers saying "I don't see any clear evidence that you'll come back...."  Armine was scared out of her mind, pulled out the MRI results and showed her the seriousness of what she has (I don't know anything about looking at MRI results, but I know that Armine's don't look right...) and then pulled out a letter from her boss, who happens to be the vice consul to the British Embassy.  And that did it.  That letter changed everything.  The interviewer said "ok, what does this guy look like?  Hmmm, ok, I'll be right back...."  She came back a couple of minutes later and was much warmer and processed the visa.  Armine gets to America on Nov. 7th.

This whole situation was strange.  I mean, she would have found this tumor eventually, it's growing in her neck.  But she found it at a time when there was a connection to a skilled surgeon in the States and this surgeon just happened to throw everything together, for free.  It's incredible to me how this all worked out.  I'm a religous person, and while I don't like to get all religousy on my blog, I see God's hand in this.  It's all been a very moving experience to see the generosity of these men and to see how everything was put  into place.

Armine is still nervous, the surgery is dangerous, but it will be done by someone who knows what he is doing and she will be very well taken care of.  And, she gets to spend her recovery time in Florida with her cousin, who is married to an American and has lived in the states for a few years.  Everything is working out.

So I got hit by a drunk driver.  My leg will be fine.  I'll easily replace the broken parts on my bike.  And Armine is getting the tumor taken out of her neck.....good luck Armine.