Hi ladies--I'm back and just voted--I chose late March-early April but really anytime is fine for me too.
Yesterday was a really long day at UCLA Medical Center-but the good news is my Mom is doing well. We got up at 4 a.m., had to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. and my Mom and I were taken down to pre-op at 6:30 a.m. (they would only let one person go with her so unfortunately her friend and caregiver--Ines-had to wait upstairs). They prepped her and had her sign consents, and then took her into the OR around 8:40 a.m. They estimated a 12-hour surgery. Ines and I went back to the hotel and napped until 1 p.m. and then I called and made our ADRs for November in the World! It took 40 MINUTES. I got right through (because I'm DVC I had an 800 number to call, thank goodness) but for an eight day trip making two reservations a day it took that long. The great news is that I think I got great ADRs, the most exciting being Cinderella's Royal Table at late breakfast on my Mom's birthday (Nov. 4th) and California Grill (hopefully during Wishes) on our last night there. I haven't decided yet about the dining plan--my current thought is to keep all the ADR's, but only get the basic dining plan. My Mom and I usually split meals, but at the ADR table meal we would each get our own and then for the other ADR we would pay OOP and split. We would still have counter service (which we would probably split too) and snacks. But I might decide to just go OOP for the whole thing before it's over (I definitely think the Deluxe Dining Plan will be too much food for us and not a good value.) If we go OOP I will probably get the DDE card--Shelly, Ruth and the others who have done a lot of WDW--have you used the DDE?
Anyway, back to Mom--for those that don't know, she has skin cancer on her face which had exploded all over her right face and neck--they basically removed all of the skin from the eyebrow to the neck on the right (if you think of the mask the Phantom of the Opera wears, that's about the area) and replaced it with skin and tissue from her thigh. The scar is pretty ugly currently, but I'm sure as it heals it will be less noticeable. She got out of surgery at 7 p.m. last night and was in recovery until 10 p.m. and then in ICU last night. We saw her about 11 p.m. last night. She was very swollen last night and less so today. She's been moved to a "mid-care" room--not quite ICU but not quite a regular room yet. She's also pretty grumpy today--which actually is a good sign I think! Very clear-headed--knows what she wants and how--so we have avoided the dreaded "general anesthesia brain fog" that you worry about with an elderly person. (If they have any leanings towards Alzheimer's or dementia general anesthesia can accelerate the process.) She didn't have any symptoms anyway--so we're good. She'll be in the hospital about a week.
So, hopefully that wasn't "TMI" but just wanted to give some of you who knew about this an update. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming . . . . . .
Not sure how he figured out my celeb crush. Must've been the drooling watching The Notebook. 
at the grumpy part. I hope her recovery is fast and smooth!
