Berkeley is Four Months Old Today!

OK people. I am so in love with Berkeley. He is 4 months old today. He has such big beautiful blue eyes that melt my heart every time I look at him. The past 3 weeks have been so hard because I can't take care of him. I am finally am to the point where I can hold him for short periods of time, and oh how grateful I am for that. He is such a happy boy that smiles alot and is ticklish. He is SO STRONG! He always wants to stand up and I swear he is just going to take off walking soon. So here are some pictures for you to get a look at my beautiful boy.

Carlie Loves Berkeley

Carlie loves her brother. She is always saying he is "so cute"!

I Seriously Love My Chair!

Here is Carlie O modeling my new super fabulous chair.

Corey bought this for me a few weeks

ago to make my recovery more comfortable.

Corey ROCKS!

Daddy is Awesome!

Look at what Corey built all by himself! He has been working on it after work

and on Saturdays for several weeks and he is finally done.

What an awesome dad he is. Carlie loves it! Now for the rest of the yard......

I'm a Cancer Survivor

Well today was the big appointment with the oncologist. Things are good. It was a GIST tumor that was 25 x 20 x 18 cm large. Yes the metric system rules (inch is a bad word in my science classroom people)!! It was enormous or according to the surgical report - an extremely large tumor. The doctor told me that if this had happened ten years ago I would be dead within a year!! WOW! BUT, there is a guy in Portland (Go Oregon!) who developed a drug that has been used for the past five years that shrinks existing tumors and prevents new ones from appearing. They are saying he is going to win a noble prize for his work. So basically, he is referring me to a local medical oncologist (YEAH - no more long drives to Portland). He said I will have to take this drug everyday, get regular CT scans, and be monitored by an oncologist for the rest of my LONG life. I am not totally out of the woods yet, my new doctor will most likely do a full body workup to make sure there is no cancer anywhere in my body. BUT - for now this is SUPER AWESOME NEWS! I just need to recover from what my doctor called "seriously major surgery".

The only bad news is they have no pictures of my tumor!!

Carlie's Sleep Study

Carlie O has issues. She has allergies, asthma, & super huge tonsils. When she sleeps at night she tosses and turns, wakes up a ton, snores, and breathes so loud you can hear her outside her door with the door closed. So finally, at the insistence of her doctors we had them do a sleep study at our local hospital back in July. You go to the hospital at 6 PM and they put you in a room with a cozy bed for Carlie & and a not so cozy recliner for mommy. A sleep technician then proceeds to glue & attach a million probes and wires all over her head and body. This part took about an hour and a half!! Then Carlie is supposed to go to sleep, which she finally does after I read her a million books. So then they monitor her all night in the next room. It was the worst night of sleep I have ever had. Carlie was snoring the whole time and man was it loud. On top of that she woke up so many times that the sleep technician said she was one of the worst sleepers she had ever seen. There was even one time that she woke up and was talking to me (seriously - we were having a full-on conversation) and the technician came in a said she was asleep. CRAZY!

In the morning (5:30 AM!) they woke us up, detached Carlie, and sent us on our way. 2 weeks later the sleep study doctor called us to say Carlie has moderate sleep apnea and should absolutely get her tonsils and adenoids taken out. He said her sleep was so restless it was like she was getting about 4 HOURS OF SLEEP A NIGHT! YIKES! POOR CARLIE! So Carlie will be the third person in our family this year to rack up some major medical bills. It makes me think when is something going to happen to Corey???

My Big Fat Scar

Here is a picture of me in the hospital

trying to look as miserable as possible. Here is a picture of the awesome yeast infection

I have on my tongue from all the antibiotics I had.
And here is it is - the picture all of you have been waiting for. I know it is super attractive. Just be happy I didn't photograph the whole thing!!! That would have been a little too much information.

The Pathology Report is in!

Well, I talked to my doctor's nurse today and he read me the pathology report. The tumor on the colon and small intestine were benign (not cancer) and part of the watermelon tumor is benign. BUT, part of the watermelon is a GIST tumor (gastro intestinal stroma tumor - i think that is what it stands for). This is cancer, but it was the type of cancer that my oncologist was hoping it was because it is 100% treatable. Do I know what that treatment is or anything more - NOPE. I have a big consultation appointment with my oncologist on August 26th. This is when I will know details. But, the report is really good news and I feel very relieved. I have cancer, but I feel very lucky - it could be way worse.

If it isn't obvious I am home now. I came home Wednesday afternoon after 5 nights in the hospital. I just had my staples removed today. I am seriously thinking about posting pictures of my incision before and after staples - so watch out! It won't happen today because I am sooooooo tired, in pain, drugged up, and need to take a nap.

Update on Watermelon

Well, here it is Tuesday and NO pathology report. All I have learned since the last post is they took out 1/3 of my colon! Hello - that is a lot. Today was a really bad day, I felt really nauseous and yucky. My wonderful nurse gave me some fantastic nausea medicine through my IV and I feel much better now. I finally was able to eat something sort of resembling a meal. I had veggie broth, part of a small baked potato, chocolate pudding, and juice. It was like a small little miracle for me.
Well, the plan is to be released from the hospital sometime tomorrow, but it really does depend on how I feel.
I will let you all know when I know - good or bad. Let's just pray that it is good news :)

My Big Fat Abdominal Tumor!

Life is crazy. For about a week my stomach was a little painful - not too bad. I also was wondering why my belly was still so fat [I was pretty sure it was my lack of crunches or bad genetics (my dad always had a cute pot belly)] I wanted to go the doctor, but I was afraid he would just tell me I was a hypochondriac and should just exercise more. Finally, on Wednesday the pain increased enough where I was having a hard time picking Berkeley up and down and walking (again not that unusual for me considering all my arthritic pains), but it was different this time. I thought maybe I had appendicitis. So I called my sister-in-law Anne Marie who is the nurse for my primary care and she had just had a cancellation. So I immediately went in. The doctor examined me and said if he didn't know better he would say that I was pregnant. My belly was really distended. He called my Ob-GYN and he told me to come over immediately for an ultrasound. So as I watched my worried Dr. give me an ultrasound I could tell something was wrong by the look on his face. He told me that I had a huge tumor that was taking up the entire right side of my abdomen. WHAT!!!! I was in shock. He told me to get Corey down there right away. So I called Corey and cried a little and then we talked with the doctor. He called his mentor that he had trained under that was a gynecological oncologist in Portland. He was going to see me in the morning (Thursday 8/7) and they were trying to schedule surgery for Friday morning. It all happened so fast. My doctor was amazed. I had just had a c-section 3 months ago and there was NOTHING at that time. So my doctor sent me down to the hospital for a CT Scan and blood work. The CT scan showed a 21 cm x 18 cm tumor.
So here it is Thursday and I am at the oncologist. They think the tumor is my right ovary or my uterus. Surgery is scheduled for 9 AM the next day and I have to decide if I am going to have a complete hysterectomy. Yikes - things still do not seem real. But, I am not freaking out. I had a fantastic blessing Thursday night and I had said at least a million prayers - seriously.
So My kids are with their grandma at their Aunt Kimmy, Kimmy, Kimmy's house (yes three times according to the queen Carlie) and Corey and I stay at a hotel close to the hospital.
So Friday - surgery day. The surgery is supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour surgery. I pretty much remember nothing about that day. I was very DRUGGED.
But, here is what I know. The tumor was the size of a small watermelon (yes a watermelon). It was attached to my colon and small intestine not my ovary. They had to remove part of the right side of my colon and small intestine and appendix (it was wrapped all the way around my tumor). They also had to reattach the small intestine to the colon. The tumor was a solid mass. The pathology report will not be back until Monday or Tuesday to find out if it is benign or cancerous.
Due to the nature of my surgery I was not allowed to eat or drink anything for 3 - 5 days. But, because I am recovering quickly I was allowed to start having clear liquids today. My incision is huge and nasty. It goes from my pubic bone up to my belly button with some very attractive staples.
All I have to say is thank goodness I went to the doctor, for modern medicine, and for morphine.
I will blog some more when I know more. Hopefully this post makes sense - I am high drugged at the moment.