Wordless Wednesday (It's Finally Warm)

I'M NOT DEAD

... but I did have a chest tube for about 6 days and a 4 day hospital stay!

Now sit back, because it's a pretty long story. Back in February, I was having some pain whenever I took a deep breath and it eventually got bad enough that I went to a doctor, well actually the Urgent Care. I RARELY go to the doctor unless I am pregnant so this was a big deal. I was diagnosed with pleurisy (which basically means that my lungs were swollen and inflamed) and given steroids to fix the problem. I started the magic medicine and felt better within 24 hours and didn't give my lungs a second thought .

Until a month later when I began to have a similar pain in my back again. This time I went to my regular doctor and he ordered a chest x-ray, and there began my real problems. On my chest x-ray were some nodules that my doctor decided needed further testing. He then ordered blood tests and a CT scan and referred me to a lung specialist and sent me home that afternoon saying "I'm not sure what it is on your lung, it could be nothing or it could be cancer, we just don't know." Needless to say I was more than a little anxious over this and totally began freaking out.

The next day I dropped my kids with my sister and went to the hospital for all my lab work (seriously I gave like 8 vials of blood) and my CT scan. I was naively hoping that this would be the end of this saga, that the CT scan would reveal that it was scar tissue and we would't need to do anything else. Well, I was wrong. The CT confirmed that 2 of my 3 nodules were indeed scar tissue but the third one wasn't quite calcified enough to be classified as scar tissue. It wasn't presenting as a cancerous mass, but it wasn't scar tissue, so what was it? On to the pulmonologist, lung doctor, to see what he thought.

The lung doctor told me that he was leaning towards a diagnosis of scar tissue from an old infection but ordered a PET scan just to be sure. Later I found out that PET scans leave you radioactive for 4 hours afterwards and you can't be around kids under 5 (a problem for a stay at home mom who has just had the scan done and has to go home and take care of a 2 and 1 year old - yes that happened to me) and that the test rarely comes back definitive. Had he told me those things to begin with I may have decided on a different plan. It took days for me to finally get the results of the scan, after much calling and arguing with receptionists who said I needed to make another appointment ($100 co-pay) to get my results, I finally received a call from the doctor. He said that the test was inconclusive and I needed a biopsy to be 100% certain about what was going on. I was highly disappointed with this doctor and will NOT be using him again. You don't send someone for a test that could tell them whether or not they have cancer and then not call them with the results!

So now it's the second to last week of April (remember I said this was long) and I am meeting with a surgeon to talk about biopsying this tiny mass in my lungs. Ryan came with me and within minutes of talking, I find out that no it's not a biopsy it's going to be surgery. Lung doctor failed to inform me of yet another thing. (Seriously don't like that guy.) Apparently I had some golf ball sized lymph nodes that needed to be looked at as well and it was a pretty basic surgery with a robot! The surgeon reassured us a bunch of times that it was a pretty routine surgery and that he didn't think it was cancer but it was probably best to get things out of there just in case.

So surgery came on the last day of April.

• Problem 1 I have a narrow rib cage, so the ports for the robot arms to enter in were bigger than the space between my ribs which meant that my nerves and ribs were going to be more bruised than originally thought. 
• Problem 2 The upper portion of my lung had adhered to the chest wall. Weird right? Apparently not unheard of but uncommon in someone my age. Basically what the think happened, was that somewhere along the line I had an infection that caused things to get super swollen and then my lung just kinda stuck to the chest wall. It didn't affect my lung's function but it made it difficult for the surgeon to reach the lymph nodes. So he had to spend 1/2 an hour in surgery peeling my lung off so he could access the lymph nodes. So then there's a bunch of tiny surface scratches in the lung and now I have a possible air leak meaning my lung could collapse without a chest tube. Which meant that my 1 day stay in the hospital then turned into 4 days!
• Problem 3 They pulled my chest tube too soon, my lung began to collapse, they put in a second smaller tube and then I had to live with that for two days after I left the hospital! NOT FUN AT ALL! So 6 days on the chest tube and then I finally had it pulled.

The surgery revealed that I do NOT have cancer and it was in fact infectious in nature and we are just waiting on cultures to see if it's an old or new infection. Between all the IV's, medications, physical therapy (yep they made me practice walking with a walker), chest tube drama, and occupational therapy (apparently lung surgery means you forget how to do basic things) I did have some quiet time to myself. Something I had been craving and talking about with a friend. Next time I'll be a bit more specific in HOW I would like to spend that quiet time.

So between all this medical drama and everyday life, I just haven't had the energy to blog. But now that this big hurdle and worry is gone I'm really hoping to get back to a more regular blogging schedule.

This Crazy Life

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Between Easter, Sarah's birthday, Sarah's party, and all the everyday errands in between; life has been going in super speed. But we've been enjoying it!

Finally we had a break in the cold weather and were able to enjoy some time outside. The kids LOVED being able to play with chalk, dirt and leaves. After months of being stuck inside, it was really refreshing to be outdoors.

Picnic on the porch

Sidewalk chalk

Then we had Easter which was tons of fun and full of family, good food, church services, and candy! My only regret is that we weren't able to get a picture of the kids together or a family photo. But hey life with toddlers doesn't mean you have an easy time with pictures. In fact we had to bribe Sarah with Sprite and candy to take most of the pictures at all! But Andrew had a ton of fun with his first real Easter egg hunt and Sarah had a blast "helping" him. (She picked up his eggs and put them in his basket. We color coded the plastic eggs and gave each toddler a color to hunt.) 

Then two days after Easter, was sweet Sarah's 3rd birthday. Last year I had such a hard time with her turning two. But this year it wasn't "sad" for me. I realized that we were leaving the baby phase behind, but that there was so much fun and discovery to be had in the toddler and preschool years. So we took her to Build-A-Bear to make a pony and she had a blast!

Family photo on her birthday!

The awesome cake that Daddy made for Sarah.

Present Time

Happy birthday! 

And then lastly, we finished out our crazy couple of weeks with Sarah's birthday party. Of course we had to do a My Little Pony theme. And lucky for me, Wal-Mart came out with a bunch of decorations, cards, and gift wraps, at the end of February. So I didn't have to look far when it came time to plan the party. We celebrated with friends and family and she really had a great time. So did we. It's always fun to see your kids being happy and laughing with their friends.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash cupcakes

opening gifts

After getting her dress up trunk gift, she insisted on changing clothes.

Cupcake tower

Letting baby Pinkie Pie look through the "eye a scope"

Birthday Princess

Finally getting a chance to use the play set in the backyard!

Brother swinging at the party

LOVE this picture. Childhood fun at its finest.

Not only were the last couple of weeks busy, but they have inspired some future blog posts as well. Like how I thought it would be a great and brilliant idea to try and do yard work (for the first time since we moved in) before Sarah's party. Yeah, it was way more work than I had envisioned and well, it will be a blog post all on its own. Or about Sarah's obsession with the "Funny Guys" AKA One Direction. Yep life sure has given me some fun and funny things to talk about lately, but for now I leave you with the pictures of our crazy life!

Sarah is 3!

My baby girl is officially three today. To be honest, I feel like the last year flew by so fast. It was full of growing, change, and new adventures. But it also had a lot of love and some challenges too.

When I look at Sarah's face now, it's harder to see the "baby" there. Sometimes when she makes certain facial expressions or turns her head a certain way, you can still see slight traces. But more often than not when I look at her, I can't help but think "When did she get so big?" The good thing is, I don't feel an overwhelming sense of sadness over leaving the baby years behind us. I am so excited to see what is waiting for us in the years to come.

This girl is definitely on her way to change the world, or at least to make a major difference somewhere. Her energy is boundless, and she constantly amazes me with how smart she is. Her passion for life and her sensitive nature are going to be huge assets to her when she finds what it is she wants to do as an adult.

And while she may be a "big girl" now, I know she still needs Mama for things. And I'm determined to live in the moment with her and soak up the last of her little years before she is too big to snuggle me or give me kisses whenever or wherever she is. 

So happy birthday sweet, sassy girl. And many more to come!

Family photo!

In her "funny guys" or One Direction night gown. She loves them thanks to Aunt Codie!

18 Months

As of February 20th Andrew is officially 18 months old and closer to 2 than 1. Let me break down into tears for a minute here. My baby isn't such a baby anymore!! He walks and talks and he's even beginning to lose that baby face I love so much! Pretty soon he'll be graduated and out the door. (Or maybe just two years old, whichever comes first.)

Andrew's 18 month check up was the 25th of February. We were lucky because his appointment fell right between the two HUGE snowstorms, so the roads were clear and offices were open. We didn't have to switch schedules around or try to find another time to get in to see the doctor, which I was incredibly grateful for. The week before the doctor's office closed for two days due to the bad weather and then it closed again the day after his visit because of snow!

Ryan took him to this check up, and despite losing a shoe somewhere between getting out of the car and getting back in, everything went fairly smoothly. Andrew lost his shoe, not Ryan. And it's become sort of a trend for the little man. He loses a shoe, only the right one, fairly often. But that's not the point of this post.


Our main concern going into Andrew's 18 month visit, was his head. From about 6 months old until this appointment, the doctor had been monitoring his head growth. When he was 6 months old his head jumped from average size to off the charts. We were told that he could have any number of conditions, or it could just be a big head. But since he was developing normally, it was just something we'd watch. There was talk of doing an MRI nearly every appointment just in case. But my family has a history of big heads, I was tested for all kinds of things as a kid, and it turns out I just have a big head. So does my dad, and his dad. So I wasn't too worried about all this talk of "big head" problems. Andrew is right on treack for all of his developmental milestones and I was not too keen on the idea of sedating him and putting him through an MRI when I knew the chances of him having something were slim. Luckily for us, his head seems to have leveled off and the doctors aren't "watching" it anymore. So he's just a big headed kid like the rest of us!


Everything else checked out just fine. He weighed 24 lbs 2 oz (48%) and was 32 1/4 inches tall. (26%) His head circumference was 20.1 inches (>95%) which was no big surprise.


Here's some of the things he's got going on at 18 months:

• Size 5 diapers
• 24 month shirts 18 month pants (although they seem to be getting a tad short on him lately)
• He can name most of his body parts
• He loves food, pretty much any food
• Blocks are one of his favorite toys. He builds towers and stacks them for a long time, either by himself or with some help.
• Brushing his teeth is one of his favorite activites as long as he can hold the toothbrush. He's not a fan of Mom or Dad brushing his teeth for him.
• He has proven that males must have some predisposition towards balls and cars because those are also on the favorite toy list. And he makes the cutest zoom noise when he has out the toy cars.
• He's a daredevil. He loves to jump off of or onto furniture. In fact he and Sarah have made a game of taking apart my wicker chairs and jumping from the chairs onto the scattering of cushions and pilows on the floor.
• Sarah is still his favorite person. He is always following her and asking where she is if she's not there.
• He loves animals and is in the process of learning animal names and noises. Some of my favorites are his cat noise and his monkey noise!
• He likes to be Mama's helper with chores. Give him a paper towel or a broom and he is so happy! He also enjoys doing laundry and loading the dishwasher. I hope that's something he still enjoys in a few years.
• His vocabulary is exploding!!! I think he has a least 2 new words a day, and heaven help me if I don't understand him. He'll just repeat it over and over and over.
• His new favorite toy is Buzz Lightyear. Not sure where he found this little toy, but he's attached himself to it and he'll say "Buzz Buzz Buzz" all the time. 

Andrew's a typical 18 month old. He's a toddler but he hasn't lost all of his baby tendacies just yet. He loves to run around like a crazy man and you get bonus points if he can run naked right after his bath. But he also loves to give hugs and kisses and snuggle up with you. He is incredibly sweet but can have a wicked tantrum if he wants to. But having this little guy in our lives is definitely a fun and exhausting ride!

February's Over?

How can it be the last day of February already? I know this month is shorter than the rest, but it seems to have flown by. I'm always amazed at how time seems to whiz by now that I have kids. It's almost like I blinked and February was over.

The first weekend, we had our housewarming party. I can't really explain how excited I was for that party. I was just so happy to finally have our own place and somewhere to have friends over. For me, the housewarming party was an opportunity to have our friends and family over and make one memory that would be the beginning of a long line of memories in our home. My mom was totally amazing and got all of the guests to bring a letter of the alphabet (decorated/bought/made however they chose) to hang on the wall in our playroom. So instead of getting a bunch of wine or candles, we got gifts that will remind us of those that came to our party. And the wall is almost finished. We just need to hang up the second half of the alphabet. I'll post pictures when we're done.

The next week was a crazy mix of home life and working and little bit of pleurisy thrown in for good measure. Yep, I was super lucky and got pleurisy (which kind of sounds like some disease from the 1800's or so), but really it meant that my lungs were swollen causing me a lot of pain when I breathed. A does of steroids, and all was well again!

For the last couple of weeks, we've been snowed in and forced to find indoor things to keep us occupied. I mean we got about 20 inches of snow dumped on us in the last 5 days, CRAZY! That meant a good deal of baking and listening to some original performances from sarah. (Her new favorite past time is standing on a chair, belting out some nonsensical song at the top of her lungs.) It's been a bit frustrating at times, but also a lot of fun. I love watching the kids use their imaginations and Sarah's songs are always good for a laugh. WE did go out and play in the snow a couple of times, but Andrew hated it and Sarah loved it. Sarah got to go out and "shovel" or make snow angels with Ryan while I stayed warm inside with Andrew.

So I'm hoping March brings some nicer weather so I can get these kids outside and let them enjoy our new backyard and swingset without 20 minutes of putting on snow gear. Or being outside for 5 minutes and having to come back in because someone hates being cold!

Wordless Wednesday