Cardiologist

I just got back from seeing the cardiologist, Dr. Hernandez, at the AZ Heart Institute. He was very nice and thorough (although a bit hard to understand). He said he doesn't think there's anything major going on with my heart, but just to be sure, I am having an echo cardiogram done on Tuesday. After the echo, they will hook me up to a cardiac event monitor, that I will carry around with me for 30 days. It will record fluctuations of my heart rate and I will also be able to push an alert button when I start to feel the palpitations or shortness of breath.

I will update after Tuesday's appt...

Birthday...Ice Cream... and Balloon Release

These bee-utiful flowers were delivered to my door step,

along with a spa gift certificate from two of my best buds back home in Nauvoo!

My birthday cake from Erica.....mmmmm!!

Patiently waiting for Pops to light the candles...

The "old woman"...according to that kid sitting next to me :)

Thanks to Ashlie for taking such a flattering picture of me!

-------------------------------------------------
Ice Cream & Balloon Release

Jake's chocolate goatee

We had a good turn out! Thanks to everyone who came!

It was very humbling to see so many people there to support Charles, Jon, and I.

Everyone waiting for the countdown to let our balloons go!

If you look really close, you can see the balloons!

Luke's message on his balloon...

"Thanks for my mommy"

There it goes!

Catch Up

Let's play catch up, shall we??

• So, as far as the formerly infected left breast goes, I have been feeling great! My surgeon took out the stitches last week. I have an open area again/still, but it is S.L.O.W.L.Y. starting to close! I see the surgeon again in a couple of weeks. Maybe if I'm lucky, it will be totally closed by then :)

• I survived the 8 days without my baby. I was SOOO happy to have him home and couldn't stop myself from constantly kissing his chubby cheeks!

• Curt took the two older boys to the cabin to meet up with Jake and Grandma and Grandpa. This was during General Conference weekend so I had a lot of quiet time to reflect on words from our prophet and the other general authorities. For the last several weeks, I had been feeling some uneasiness about finding a new babysitter for my kids while I'm at work. The sitter we had was going to be adding a newborn to the 4 kids she was already watching....and she decided that it would be too much for her to continue watching my kids, too. So during my quiet weekend, my family was constantly in my thoughts. My kids. My work. My priorities. My life. Do my kids need me home full time? Do I need to take more time to allow my body to heal? Will Curt feel more burdened with finances if I don't work? All of these questions were running through my mind. Fastforward to when Curt and the boys came home that Sunday afternoon. I hadn't mentioned ANY of my misgivings/thoughts to Curt before. As we were sitting on the couch, he started telling me that over the weekend, he kept having the feeling that I needed to quit working. It was the confirmation that I needed! We discussed it and both decided that I needed to stop working....for now. Maybe in the future I can work a Saturday here and there. Maybe I will wait until all of my kids are in school full time. Who knows. I DO know that I have not regretted my decision to quit. I miss the family that I got to know and love...especially the sweet little girl that I loved taking care of. We'll be able to keep in touch, though, just like I have with Lily bug's family (who I miss so much, too!!). I am definitely NOT saying that moms who do go to work are any less of a mother to their children. But for my family, in our situation, and with what the boys have been through, this is the right decision for us. I don't want to have any regrets when I look back on my life years from now.
  

• On Wednesday, the 15th, I turned 31!! So much has happened since last April.....I finished chemo and radiation...I grew hair again (!!!)...I had some surgeries...I've had great results with scans/bloodwork...Curt and I went on two cruises...and I'm feeling "normal" again! I am extremely grateful that my Heavenly Father has given me another year on this Earth to be with my family.

• Today was supposed to be my LAST Herceptin treatment! I saw Dr. Kellogg (oncologist) before my treatment. He examined me...blah blah blah....and then I started telling him about my heart palpitations, my low pulse rate, and how my Muga Scan (heart scan) results, although they're still in the "normal" range, have decreased quite a bit in the past few months. He looked through my chart and saw that in November, my heart was functioning at 71%. My most recent scan showed my heart was functioning at 50-something-%. Dr. Kellogg then said it might be best to not do my treatment today and to have me see a cardiologist just to make sure my heart is ok. He also said we might decide to just skip my last treatment altogether!! YES PLEASE!! I am relieved to know that I will be seeing a heart specialist because I have been concerned about my heart for the past few months, and my fatigue seems to have worsened over the past week or so. No one else seemed concerned about it until today. I guess it pays to be persistant!

• Dr. Kellogg is also ordering an ultrasound of an area on one of my breasts. I don't really know which one, nor am I concerned about it. I'm more concerned about the heart. I only have ONE of those!

• Our ward is having an Ice Cream Social tonight to honor me and some of the other members of our ward who have battled cancer. All are invited!! I continue to be overwhelmed at the love shown to my family and I. I will post pictures from that later!

• I will also post my bday pictures soon!

Staph

Dr. Boll pulled out the drain this afternoon and I didn't pass out this time! I asked her how far the infection had spread and she basically said it had surrounded the breast. It ended up being a staph infection, but came back negative for MRSA. I have 2 days left of my antibiotics and will continue to put Bacitracin on my stitches...hopefully this will keep the infection A.W.A.Y.

She wants to keep my stitches in for a while. Most of it looks like it's closing up well. There's just one spot that looks like it's trying to open up, but I am HOPING it won't give us any trouble (please! please! pretty please!). She suggested I take another week off of work, just to give me a little more time to heal. I'm ok with that, especially since I'll be able to spend the week with my baby who has been gone for almost a week!! I can't wait to see him on Sunday!

The Drain is Coming OUT!

I go in to see my surgeon this afternoon to have my drain taken out. I am so glad to get it taken out...although a bit nervous. Last time, I passed out when she was removing my drain!! I'm not really in any pain this time, so hopefully that will make a difference. Curt is coming home from work so that he can drive me to my appt....just in case I'm not feeling too swell afterwards :) Ty gets to ride along too and is always a big helper, especially when it comes to taking care of Mommy.

I am so excited to be rid of the pain, pressure, swelling, drainage, etc. that I had been having to deal with for around 3 months! I have quite a few stitches now, but the skin around them isn't even sore and that is a HUGE improvement. I am feeling good, just tired and the body is still a bit stiff/sore. I have to give myself props for making myself take is easy these past few days. Usually I let my OCD take over and I'm up cleaning, vacuuming, doing laundry, etc. BUT not this time. I am trying to enjoy being lazy :)