Enjoying Alaska and a surgery date

All the lights were off downstairs the other night and I was about to go up to bed when I saw a mama and baby deer in our backyard.  We have been seeing lots of deer roaming around but I loved that I could quietly open the sliding door and take pictures from my kitchen!

 We were out for dinner the other night and this big guy was perched outside the window of the restaurant.  Eagles are all over the place up here!

 On Sunday a bunch of people were going to hike up Pyramid mountain.  Reese does this on a weekly basis.  He and his coworkers hike up and ski down.  Reese also takes Lane up there, about half way up for him to snowboard down.  So I am not much of an outdoorsy person or in that great of shape for that matter, but for whatever reason I decided to go up with them.  Three of our friends skied and me and two of the girls snow-shoed up.  I began doubting myself a few times, but I needed to get out of my head and just put one foot in front of the other.  I made it to the top and it was beautiful!

 Here is Reese and I at the top with Anton Larson Bay in the distance behind us.  Reese stayed with me the whole time.  I was the last one to the top but for having a "bad ticker" I still thought that was pretty good.

I had my consultation with my new cardiologist/electrophysiologist in Anchorage last week.  I flew up there for just the day on a Coast Guard C130 plane.  It was quite the experience.  They have a medical flight that goes there once a week which is awesome!  I was anxious to get a second opinion about the defibrillator and just have someone else's take on my situation all together.  Turns out this doctor is on the same page as my San Diego doctors.  He was a really great doctor, I could tell that from the beginning.  He was extremely easy to communicate with and explained things very well.  So I have an appointment to get my defibrillator placed on April 22nd.  I feel good about it.  I prayed that God would speak clearly to me one way or the other whether I should get it or not.  I felt like after my appointment with him, I knew that this was the right thing to do.  I have had doubts because I feel like I am healthy, I have never had any arrhythmia's.  The thing is that no one knows when they could start, I may never have one... or the first one I have could kill me.  After my mom died we always said, "If she would have had a defibrillator she would probably still be alive."  I don't want to have anyone say that about me.  I want to do all that I can.  Don't get me wrong, it's not easy for me to be getting this.  The thought of needing to have my "battery changed" every 10 years bothers me just a bit!  The fact that I will have a device implanted in my chest is weird.  But God's timing is perfect.  I found out that I needed this defibrillator on January 16th, and now almost 3 months later, I am ready.  I WAS NOT ready on January 16th or even a couple weeks ago.  I am now.  Its kind of like climbing that mountain on Sunday, I put one foot in front of the other and eventually I got to the top.  I tripped, I fell, my legs burned and I thought about quitting a couple of times.  But I didn't and I put one foot in front of the other and I got to the top.  It was fulfilling and a beautiful sight.  To some people that mountain wouldn't be that big of an accomplishment (like Reese who has been doing it once or twice a week) but to me it meant something bigger that just hiking up the mountain. It was a symbol of something more, I can do this.