One Layer

My appointment was at 7:30am this morning (along with everyone else's!) I quickly learned that this clinic schedules everyone for the day at the same time in the morning and they take you based on who gets there first-I wish I would have know this!
So, I was probably the 8th or 9th patient taken back. It is quite a process that you go through. A nurse comes in to evaluate the area, the surgeon comes in to check it, another nurse comes in to give anesthesia and then the surgeon comes back to start the surgery. They take a layer of skin at a time, so they removed the first layer and then (in your hospital gown) you go back into the waiting room to wait for the lab to process it to see if they removed all of the cancer the first time around. After about an hour and a half in the waiting room, they called me back again and said that it looked clear they got it all in the first layer-HOORAY!
So, they re-numbed the area and attempted to start stitching it up...however because I am pregnant they were unable to use Epinephrine (controls bleeding) in the anesthetic and also had to use a different cauterization technique that obviously does not work as well because all of the sudden I saw a tiny fountain of blood squirting up and out of my neck (Andy would have passed out). I got really nervous thinking maybe he knicked my carotid (my imagination is very vivid)! They immediately covered my face and upper body with a draping since they were having trouble stopping the bleeding. Thankfully they were able to control it and stitched me up. I got two layers of stitches-one inside and one outside. I will get the outside layer taken out next week when I go for my area on my back.
After they were done, I got really hot and dizzy. My BP dropped to 70/50 and had to lay back and have OJ and cookies. After a few minutes I felt much better and was able to go. So, all in all I was there from 7:30 til 12:00pm. Would have been sooner if I did not have the dizziness episode.
I have to admit I am really not too excited to go do this all over again next week but am so thankful that with this procedure the success rate is 99% effective for removing all of the cancer cells, so I am not complaining!!!!
The site is a bit tender and I am having trouble turning my neck. It feels like the tissue is pulled really tight. Hopefully after a good nights sleep and a tylenol, I will be fine for work tomorrow!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been crazy busy lately! Seems like we have had something every single day. I actually went to bed at 9:30pm and slept for 12 hours because I was so exhausted!
Thankfully things will be calming down a bit this week. Please pray that all goes well tomorrow as I go in for surgery to remove the skin cancer on my neck. I am really hoping that I do not have to stay there all day, but it just depends on how much they have to remove.
I go back again next Monday to get the area on my back taken care of. Unfortunately they will not do both areas the same day since I am pregnant. They are worried about the bleeding. Bummer!

Scary Hair

Grandma Char...please help!!! Mason has a HUGE afro these days and is in desperate need of a haircut!!!

Bravery

Every year Andy, Mason and I go to Florida for 2 weeks in late April-early May. This year due to my pregnancy we are unfortunately not able to make it (all for good reason, but still sad we are not going). We always have such a great time. My sister and her family are usually down there at the same time and my parents are too most years. It is an annual vacation that my parents started with us when we were kids and now we have carried this on with our child(ren). Andy gives me a hard time because we always go to the same spot.
SO, I went online searching for vacation spots (other than Florida) and booked a one week getaway to Myrtle Beach in August. Yes, it will probably be very hot there in August...but I wanted to go while I am still off work for my Maternity leave. I don't think it would look too good if I went back and then a month or two later asked for the time off. The resort we are staying at has an indoor/outdoor water park and an indoor/outdoor pool, so if it is scorching we can always stay in the air conditioner and still have fun!
We are going to be driving (since we will have to pack the whole house)-it should take us 14 hours, so that will be very interesting! We will be packing our ear plugs to wear in the car! Our current plan of attack is to drive through the night to make it easier on Mason (or us depending on how you look at it).
So, this is going to be our 5 year anniversary trip, and birthday presents from each other (or at least that is how I am justifying it)!

Birthdays

Today is my sister's birthday! We are supposed to celebrate both of our birthdays this coming Sunday, but Mason and I could not resist taking her a beautiful bouquet of flowers this morning.
Our birthdays are only 9 days apart, so needless to say we have always celebrated our birthdays together. I remember having to always "share" our birthday cake. So if she wanted a Cabbage Patch cake, I got talked into what a good idea it was (the power of influence of an older sister is pretty strong!) Now, I love celebrating together...it makes it more fun especially with all of the kids.
Happy Birthday Stac! You are an amazing sister! Love you!

Appointment

I had another OB appointment this past Wednesday. I had to do my 1 hour Glucose test, hopefully it will come back clear.
My midwife said I was measuring about a week smaller than I should be (I am 29 1/2 weeks and was measuring at 28 weeks). I have also been having the ongoing pressure, so she decided with a combination of these two things that she wanted to send me for an ultrasound just to make sure everything was OK.
So, off I went to get another ultrasound. Thankfully the baby is measuring just fine (and actually measuring at 30 weeks), even though my stomach is not. The ultrasound tech also said everything else looked great, no need to worry about the pressure!! Praise God!
It is hard to believe that I only have just over 9 weeks to go! I am already at the point where I now go every 2 weeks for appointments. It's getting close and I am so excited to meet our little girl.

WalMart Run

I braved a WalMart run tonight WITH Mason. I have been couponing at CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and even Kroger for a while now, but decided that tonight I was going to try WalMart.
So, off I headed with my $95 worth of cut coupons. I did get a little nervous while I was checking out because it is hard to pay attention to make sure that things ring up on sale that are supposed to be on sale while trying to keep Mason quiet and occupied. The only bummer was there were about 10 items that were not on the same sale as what the Internet sales indicated (regional differences). However, my total was $91 before coupons and $4o after!!! I used $51 in coupons (and WalMart does not double them, so that was a lot for me). I ended up with 22 FREE items.
So for all of the stuff pictured above I only paid $40.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It still amazes me that people don't use coupons or "do not have time" for it. I don't NOT have time for it. It only takes a few hours of my week and saves our family a ton of money.

A Sunny Day at the Zoo

Almost as tall as the bear ;)
Loving the seal swimming by.
Mason telling Ellie what is next and Ellie looking for confirmation!
Spotting the Gorilla.
SO sweet...holding hands as Mason asks Ellie if she wants to go see the penguins as they stroll along :) It's an official date!


Mason and I headed to the zoo today, it was such a nice day for it (a bit chilly when we started, but it warmed up fast). We ended up getting an annual membership for our family since my hopes are to go a lot this year.
Jen, Ellie and Shay met us there. They too have an annual pass so we made a commitment to meet there as much as possible. I am going to need something to get me back in shape after Kailee is here!
Mason loved seeing all of the animals, but by far the seals were his favorite. We were a bit disappointed that the polar bears had to move out of their exhibit today and were not swimming around, but we can always catch them next time. Other than the bears, all of the other animals were out and pretty active compared to when we usually go see them, which is usually on a hot summer day.
Mason's other favorite thing to do was running around with Ellie just enjoying the freedom and spring weather. They have been cooped up for too long!

Fun Weekend!

We had a great weekend!
Friday we headed to our church for a Family Fun Night. They showed 2 Disney movies, had a ton of crafts, bounce houses, slides, balloons, and good (unhealthy) food! Honestly, it was so packed in there that it was hard to move, but it was a lot of fun and Mason had a great time. We saw a lot of friends there and my sister even came with 3 of her girls which was fun. Saturday I was able to leave for a couple hours and spend the afternoon with my friend Becky getting a pedicure, going shopping and even fit in some lunch. Saturday night Mason and I went to church since Andy was already there directing service and afterward we headed to Red Robin since I was craving a turkey burger.
This afternoon we headed to Berkley to hang out with Brian, Jenni, Ellie and Shay. We walked to dinner and even ate outside since it was so nice out and then even walked to get an ice cream. I love that the weather is starting to change :) I do not however like the fact that it is hard to walk with all of my ligaments being stretched and my sciatic bothering me. I feel so out of shape!
Tomorrow we are going to go to the Zoo since the weather is supposed to be even nicer!!! Spring is in the air.

Bounce U

Today Mason and I went to Bounce U for a morning of fun! We met Carrie, Noah and Luke there along with Rachael, Lucas and her little guy Mason.
Mason absolutely loved it. He was running around, bouncing everywhere and after the first little while he was even going through the obstacle courses and down the BIG slide all by himself. He also enjoyed the baseball game and was surprisingly good at it (better doing it by himself than with me helping-LOL).
We will definitely go back, it was a great way for him to play and expend a ton of energy as we wait patiently for nice weather to get here.


Ok-so they are not bouncing here, but both boys LOVE Thomas!! A definite highlight!
Obstacle course...
Mid-bounce, before getting knocked in the head with these pillars which he thought was hilarious!

March 30th

I scheduled my surgery today for March 30th. I will have to get to Henry Ford at 7:30am and the nurse said it could be an "all day event". Apparently they remove the skin layer by layer, but with each layer that is taken off, it goes to the lab and they freeze it (which takes 2 hours per layer) and then check to see if the cancer is still present, if it is then they come back and take another layer-if not then they stitch me up and I get to go. I requested to have both spots done at the same time, but they said they usually only schedule one at a time. I would love to get both out of the way ASAP.
Thankfully the surgeon who is doing it is also a plastic surgeon so hopefully both spots will look OK once they are all healed up.

Dreaded Call

I got a much dreaded call from my Dermatologist this morning telling me that the two spots that were removed a couple weeks ago are indeed both Basal Cell Carcinoma. I had a feeling that they would come back abnormal, they always seemed irritated. The good news is that once I go back in for more treatment they should be fine. These do not spread nor do they grow deep into the skin to affect the lymph nodes. There is a good chance that I will have more spots in my lifetime however. I have had way too many sunburns.
The bad news is that I need to have further treatment to remove more skin around both areas (my neck and back) as soon as possible, but they are not sure if I should do it now because I am pregnant. I have a call into my OB to see what they recommend.

$aving Money!!

I just love saving money!!!
Mason and I went out first thing this morning to make our Walgreens run. We definitely got some awesome deals!!
To give you a summary, We left with a huge cart full of stuff (one lady even commented if I put one more thing in there, Mason was going to have to get out and walk!) I spent $59.00 and saved $102.00 PLUS I will be getting another $11 back in Mail In Rebates and have $27 to spend on my next trip in register rewards. WHOO HOO! I ended up getting 6 packs of diapers for $14.00 and I will get another $4.50 off once I submit my receipts-making it $9.50 for 6 pks of diapers :)
I just love saving money, it has now become a game for me :)

A Week Later

It has now officially been 1 week since Mason got rid of his pacifier. I am so proud of him he has not asked for it at bedtime, but he has been waking up crying in the middle of the night. I am hoping now that we have hit the one week mark it will get easier for him. It is taking him longer to fall asleep, he is getting up earlier in the morning and his naps have not been good at all :( So needless to say, we will all be excited when there are no more memories of "buddy".
It will be interesting to see how he reacts when he sees his sister with one (if she is anything like Mason was, she will want it from day one at the hospital!) Hopefully he will not regress at all.

Sneak Peek

Today I headed to Care Net in Berkley to get an ultrasound, my 4th ultrasound this pregnancy. When I heard that they needed pregnant volunteers to come in to get an ultrasound, I was definitely willing and of course very excited to have another look at our little girl. Care Net's hope and prayer in getting this new equipment is to help change the minds of women who are in a situation of an unplanned pregnancy and are considering abortion. This new machine will hopefully give the mothers a meaningful glimpse of human life so that they can see the realness of their unborn baby inside of them. Their prayer is that once the mom can see the baby that she may not even be able to feel yet inside of her she will reconsider her decision and choose life!
My ultrasound today was different from my other ultrasounds in that there was an "instructor" and then 2 other ladies who were learning from her and becoming familiar with everything. I felt like I too was also learning at the same time. In my other ultrasounds, they would just zip through so fast and tell you that everything looks good, but I felt like I didn't really get a good, SLOW glimpse of everything until today.
It was also fun to see an ultrasound of our baby at 27 weeks instead of 17 weeks. What a difference! We could see her opening and closing her eyes, smiling and could even tell that she has chubby cheeks already :) Pretty amazing for being only about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds at this point.
Getting the ultrasound today makes me that much more excited to have her here!

Transitions

Transitions are always tough...
Mason did great the first night without his pacifier and then last night he was up quite a bit crying. He never asked for his buddy, but he was inconsolable. His naps also usually run about 2-3 hours but yesterday and today they have been less than an hour :(
I am praying that he adjusts quickly without it! As much as I want to get sleep, I also want to tough this out so that we are done with it before the baby gets here.