Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas,
From our Family to yours!

Catching Up

So, here it is again, another catching up post. I've been woefully bad at keeping this blog up to date, but I'm going to try to do a better job. A few things in my life have necessitated that I drop some things that were taking up precious moments that I needed freed up.
However, some big changes are on the horizon. The biggest, is that my work schedule is about to be changed significantly. For the last 6.5 years, I've been work 4 nights a week, Monday through Thursday, many semesters from 5 until 9. During the summer, my classes run from 6 to 11 pm, 4 days a week. However, starting at the beginning of spring 2012, I'll be working on Mondays and Wednesdays only. My class load is the same, it's just all crammed onto those two days which means that I'll be teaching from 4 until 9. Most of the time when I mention this to folks, they comment that it will make for a long day, but what they aren't considering is that I'll be off the other 5 days of the week.
A lot of the reasoning for this was so that I would be home with the kids at night more nights per week. Since Jes started his new job back in October, we've been employing babysitters 4 nights per week so that I could get to work on time. Aside from the financial implications of this, the kids were having a really hard time not having one of us with them at night.
Secondly, Caleb's school is taking up a lot of our time during the day. We have MOPS on 3 out of 4 Mondays of the month and Piper takes dance on Wednesday mornings. Caleb really needs to do school work in the morning to be able to even attempt a level of attentiveness, so unless we get up and do school, we are struggling through the afternoon before I have to frantically pick up around the house, make dinner, go get our babysitter (half the time), and get to work. (Sorry about the run on sentence. My life is like a constant run on...)
The last reasoning behind this is somewhat selfish, I'm just tired. Six and a half years of working all day with the kids and then having to go to work after that makes a girl tired, so hopefully this change will remedy these situations.
I've thought about updating here and have been pretty quiet on facebook but I've been keeping a secret and am not good at not saying anything, so I just didn't post at all.



Here's our secret. We got a kitten, but not for us, he is for my parents.

We took him to their house on Sunday and they named him Maverick, which is fitting considering my dad's love for all things related to the basketball team. He is just the sweetest, snuggly kitty and I was afraid that we would have trouble leaving him. Piper has had the hardest time with him not being at our house. Every time we talk about Christmas (we are going to my parents'), she asks about Maverick. I think she may be just a smidge more excited about seeing him than she is all the presents!

Conversations with Caleb - Syllable Edition

Today, during school, I was teaching Caleb about syllables. Part of this process was practicing counting the syllables in words appointed by our curriculum.
We had made it through lists with 1 and 2 syllables and I presented a list of words that were mixed up (1 would have 1 syllable and the next would have 2, etc).
Me: Caleb, what is this word?
Caleb: baby (clapping two syllables)
Me: How many syllables does baby have?
Caleb: 2
Me: Good. What is this next word?
Caleb: buh-y
Me: What?
Caleb: buh-y
Me: by?
Caleb: Yes, buh-y. It has 2, Mama.
Me: *sigh*
He's a Texan, for sure...

It Finally Happened

The kids have been fascinated for quite some time about my pregnancies and births with each of them. Both of them have just wanted to know how they got out of me, but never the other way around. They know that I had a c-section with both of them because they've seen photos of their births and we've briefly talked about the other way of having babies (without too much detail, of course). But no questions about the other.
Until today.
Caleb just randomly asked me today how he got into my tummy.
Now, I have been thinking about this conversation for a long time and how I would appropriately answer this question without going into specifics. I do not believe that a 6 year old boy needs to know all the particulars, so I've carefully considered what I should say, but still really had no idea what would actually come out of my mouth.
So, when the question came out of nowhere today, all I said was, "God put you there."
He seemed fine with that answer and went about his business, so we're going to leave it at that for now.
Whew.

Hearing Test - Take 2

This past Tuesday, I took Caleb and Piper back to our beloved ENT for Piper's post-op check up and Caleb's 6 month follow up for another hearing test.
Piper came back completely fine and looking good. Her tubes were still in place and in good position, just in time for ear infection season to start. We are all hoping and confident that she will be spared this year. We all feel like she should be, seeing as she has had countless ear and sinus infections in her short 3 years of life!
Caleb was scheduled to take another hearing test. You'll remember that 6 months ago, he failed a basic one at his pediatrician's office and then was found to have a documented hearing loss in his left ear. The theory was that if it stayed the same, then it was likely a variety of events that caused the loss. However, if it worsened over that time period, it would be attributed to a genetic, degenerative condition that would result in a hearing aide for Caleb.
Basically, the test results came back that his hearing loss is static, has not changed significantly. Our doctor just recommended that he sit in the front of the classroom at school (not a problem) and that we retest in 1 year.
I've asked a variety of times what could have caused this and no one really knows. What they do know is that Caleb was exposed to some treatments in the NICU that causes hearing loss, that he did have some middle ear fluid at various times his first few years of life, and that it could be totally spontaneous.
Caleb has always had trouble with hearing tests, failing the first time in the NICU, but they had always been able to retest and get a satisfactory reading. So, we don't really know where this is going or if it will ever get worse, so we will just watch and see. I have to say, that we are really in the best hands, if it were to get worse and he needed further treatment!

Surgery Results

Friday was Piper's adenoid removal and tube insertion.
Both went well, but she did not handle the anesthesia as easily as hoped. Her brother never had any issues from being sedated, so we were hoping that she would follow in his footsteps. It just wasn't meant to be.
Piper was very difficult to wake up, had some GI issues, acquired some "junk" in her lungs, and has been cranky, irritable, emotional and clingy since. She is better during the day, but spent last night crying out in her sleep, tossing and turning and not sleeping well in general.
I know all this will pass, so that makes this all easier, but boy is this mama tired!
Our doctor did tell me that her adenoids were a mess and likely the cause of all her issues these past years. One of the first things he said to me was that it was the right decision to take those right out since they were so "soupy" (his word, not mine).
Anyway, I'm glad it's all over. She didn't freak out too much but she did melt down a bit in the OR. I'm just glad they didn't have to rip her from my arms, screaming and crying. She was very brave, but certainly not in a rush to go back and do it all again! Neither am I.

Surgery for Piper

Since birth, Piper has been struggling with, first sinus infections and, now, ear infections. In fact, we have reached the point that if she were to have another ear infection, we would have to go the route of giving her a series of antibiotic shots (Rocephin), that are super painful and, frankly, don't really work.
Our nurse practitioner is also a bit concerned about her ending up with a bacterial infection that is resistant to all antibiotics. I also do not like the idea of my 3 year old being on antibiotics so much and have tried just about every homeopathic treatment, etc that is out there and she still keeps having ear infections.
So, I went ahead and made an appointment with our fabulous ENT, the same ENT who did my surgery last year. This also the same doctor, if you don't remember, who treated Caleb in the NICU 6 years ago and was the only doctor who was able to figure out what was going on with him. Needless to say, I trust him implicitly!
Our doctor agreed that something needed to be done to help Piper get through this developmental speed bump, but was adamant that she was ahead of where most 3 years olds are with regard to intellect and speech. This means that whatever issues she may have with her ears, it hasn't affected her speech or ability to recall information, so it's just getting rid of the fluid.
So, tomorrow, at 5:00 in the morning, I'll be pulling both kids out of bed and putting them into the car. We will drive down to the very same surgical center where I had my surgery (super nice facility!) and Piper will have her adenoids taken out and tubes put in her ears. I'm nervous, but so glad that this will be taken care of and she'll have no more ear issues. I'm a little nervous, but so ready for my baby girl to be healthy!

Job Changes

For nearly 4 years, Jes has been employed at the same company. We've become comfortable there, but Jes hasn't been happy. He's had some negative experiences with someone that he works with, so he's been looking for a new position for months.
Early on in our marriage and his career (they both began simutaneously), he moved around between companies quite a lot. Most of this happened because of one event, September 11th. Since he makes his living in the aircraft industry, we were a casualty of war, so to speak.
Because of all this moving around, Jes was able to gain a huge amount of experience on a huge number of aircraft. So, when his resume ends up on a website, he will literally have many offers from companies without them even meeting him.
The past few months, in his looking for a new job, he's been offered quite a few positions but none of them were what he was looking for, didn't have insurance (a must for us), or would be a huge pay cut.
Last year, nearly exactly a year ago, Jes began the process of interviewing for a job that was government driven and would take him to Afghanistan for a year. The money would have been good, but the living without him for 365 days would have been very difficult.
Then, he found what we thought would be a marvelous opportunity with a man who owns a company about an hour north of us, but part of his year would have been spent in New Zealand. Due to the nature of business he works in, we thought that it would be inevitable that he spend part of his time in another country.
With this last job, he was offered a position and then the stock market crashed. All the investors backed out and we were again playing the waiting game.
The owner of this company new that Jes was just dying to get out of the company he was in and it seems knew that his opportunities were taking a significant amount of time, time we really didn't have or want to wait out, so he heard of another opportunity. He called Jes two Fridays ago and let him know about it and gave him a phone number to call.
Jes called the owner of this new company and the owner was very interested in seeing his resume. Jes got all that together and sent it to him 11pm Saturday night, got a call at 11am Sunday, had an interview on Monday and was offered a position on the spot.
This job is local, pays very well (it will give us a raise!), will have insurance shortly and is management.
This whole job change makes me super nervous, but looking back at all the events that have led us to this point have been clear pointers that those other jobs are not the ones for us. All the events of this job have fallen into place and seem to be a good fit for our family.

First Day of School 2011

We decided to wait and start school at our house this past Thursday. Last year, I started on the day that all the schools around here start, which is always around the 2nd or 3rd Monday in August. That has always seemed so early to me, but it was my first year, so we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants. Since we started so early last year, and even with 1 full week of during Sweet Repeats (a kids consignment sale that I coordinate), most of Thanksgiving week off and 2 weeks off at Christmas, we were done with Caleb's curriculum by late February.
I ended up spending the last couple of months trying to piece together work for Caleb to do so that he wouldn't get out of the habit of working on school, which was a stressor for me.
This time around, I felt more confident and our curriculum dictated that it would best to start on a Thursday. So, I picked this past Thursday, the 1st, to start school, even though both kids were begging me for weeks beforehand.

This isn't the best quality photo, but it's the cutest. These two look so big this year. It's hard to believe...
When I was a kid, my mom always made it a point to take me to breakfast on my first day of school. Last year, we just went for donuts at the place down the street, but Caleb and Piper have developed a fascination for the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), so that's where we went. Both kids wanted those super bad for you, sugary Funny Face pancakes, so that's what they both ate. The pancakes are around twice the size of my kids' heads, and you better believe that they both ate every single bit of them. It's such a treat for them and me!


This year, like last, we are using My Father's World for Caleb's curriculum. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily Caleb took to working on school work again, as the beginning of last year's school year was a huge battle. He just sat down, started his work and went about his business, all with a smile on his face. Love that boy!

Piper's been begging to work on school with us as well. I tried to get some curriculum for her together, but she's not too keen on all of it yet. So basically, what she's been working on is coloring and gluing shapes to paper. I figure, she's having fun and learning a little, so it's totally fine. Caleb and I are sure to include Piper when we are reading or doing some sort of art project, but she's doing great working for a bit on her own.
All in all, I'm super excited about this school year and it seems that the kids are too!

Getting Back In the Swing Of Things

I've been remiss in updating this site as much as I should, and really it's not for lack of things to post, but just that I haven't had a moment to breathe, much less type.
I worked all summer from 6-11pm, add in VBS, swim lessons, many playdates and just everyday life things that have to be done and there was barely enough time in the day to sleep.
Tomorrow, we start school here so I'll be back with a first day of school post.
Get ready for all the cuteness!

Story Time With Caleb - The Three Little Pigs

As told by the boy wonder:

Once upon a time there was a little pig and his 2 brothers.
They all lived in a cardboard house together.
Then, the big,, bad wolf came to their house and knocked on the door.
The 3 little pigs said, "Whose there?"
The big bad wolf said, "Me! I'm here to blow down your house!"
The 3 little pigs said, "But we aren't done with our house! Go away!"
And so the big, bad wolf gave up and went home.
The end.

That kid cracks me up.

Three

Today, Piper turned 3. This girl of mine is quite a character and, to me, quite amazing. She pretty much rolls with the punches and is just happy to reside in someones lap. Piper is still super into all things pink, princess, and girly. She loves wearing bows, flowers, and having her toes painted.
However, she sees a certain benefit to getting dirty at any point in the day. If there is a puddle of any kind, you can be certain that Piper will be streaking toward it if you blink.
Piper is super active, but she is also a kid who loves to do any kind of craft. She currently owns around 25 coloring books, every possible art and craft supply (and yet I'm surprised daily when I discover she doesn't have an item) and loves to "read". She, of course, cannot read the written word yet, but she loves to look at books and must have one in her hand each time she lays down to rest or sits still.
Another thing that Piper is really into is music, which is absolutely no surprise to me. Jes and I both have musical backgrounds and Caleb also has had a significant ear and love for music as well. You will often find Piper listening to and singing along with any song that she's heard more than once. She is very intent, often concentrating really hard, while we are in the car and constantly asking us to "turn it up".
If I had to pick a future profession, however, for my girl, I would say that it has to be something to do with animals. The girl just can't get enough of any type of animal. She even has an appreciation for bugs, something that most of her counterparts run from.
Piper is 33.2 pounds (73 %tile) and just over 3 ft (97cm, 68 %tile) tall. Piper has always fallen within the 50th to 75th percentiles for height and weight, which is SO different after her brother who consistently landed around the 99th.
I had a good discussion with our NP about Piper's diet, something that concerns me greatly. She is super picky, which seems to be the norm for 3 year olds, but it's just strange to me and hard to deal with. Her brother is not picky and will, literally, eat anything I put in front of him so to have her turn her nose up at mostly everything is a bit frustrating. I was told that if her nutrition was affecting her negatively, then she wouldn't have grown much and would be much, much smaller. Also, Caleb has entered that phase of life where he is ALWAYS hungry, so he often gets the lunch/dinner she won't eat.
Speaking of Caleb, I have to include in this post about Piper that they are still the best of friends. Piper has started attending an every other Friday Mother's Day Out program that my friend is running and the first person she hugs and tells she missed them is her brother. She then will proceed to tell Caleb every single event that happened in her day and just hang with him. She loves being with him and the feeling is totally mutual. They do still fight, but it does my heart good to see how close they are. Since I didn't grow up with a sibling in the house, I didn't have anyone my age to share much of my childhood with. I wanted to ensure that my child(ren) had someone with which to share the sad/difficult/happy/exciting moments.
Piper is super sweet, loving, happy, and fun and we are so blessed to have her in our family. She is the perfect 4th and makes our family complete!
We love you Piper and are so excited for all the fun that is in store!!!

1 Year Ago

Exactly one year ago today, I was lying on a table in an operating room in a hospital in Plano, Texas while my fabulous surgeon excised all the cancer that had invaded my body.
Two weeks ago, the 9th of this month, was the 1 year anniversary of my diagnosis. I chose to not make a big deal out of that day for a few reasons. The main reason being that while the actual diagnosis changed my life, my outlook, and my reason for living, the surgery saved my life, my outlook and my reason for living.
This day is so vivid in my mind. I was a complete and total wreck and had a couple of major breakdowns before being wheeled into that room, the last one in the presence of my anesthesiologist who, mercifully, gave me some Versed to calm me down.
I remember begging my surgeon and my anesthesiologist to promise me that I would wake up, but my biggest fear was that they would open me up and have to close because it was too progressed.
That, of course, did not happen and I woke up 7 hours later, vomiting, without the use of my left arm, and without the ability to swallow anything more than a liquid, but I woke up.
My first thought was of my children, husband and parents, the people I most did not want to leave but was even more elated to know that I was returning to.
One year ago I feel as if my life was handed back to me, albeit with some restrictions and with some difficulties, but it's mine again. Cancer can't have me and won't have me.

Dogs

I posted way back in April about the newest members of our family, Bebi and Sadie. I've been kind of in and out of here for some time since then and part of that is because of the issues that these puppies have been having.
There are many situations in which I post to facebook, deferring to a short 2 sentence update to get the statement out there to the world, and choosing to not put it on here. However, this is something that I've not posted anywhere.
So, the long and short of it is that the dogs were diagnosed with sarcoptic mange about a month ago. Just google that if you want to know alllllll about it. Basically, the long and short of it is that it is a treatable form of mange, but can be contagious to humans. Fantastic.
If you know me at all, you know that since college, I've been somewhat of a germaphobe. This issue started with me way back in college when I took a class called microbiology. This class basically taught me all about microbes, etc, and what they can do to the body and how they get into the body.
My germaphobia got worse when I started working in one of the only hospitals left in Texas that had a dedicated TB ward and it was impressed upon myself and my grad student that we were to be VERY careful.
Another escalation occurred when Caleb was in the NICU and yet another set of medical professionals ensured that not a moment passed by that I wasn't regaled on the detriment that I could be doing to my kid if I had not washed correctly.
I'm not one to wash constantly or not touch anything, my kids do get dirty, as do I, but I do have some non-negotiables when it comes to hand washing.
So, imagine my horror as I stood in that vet office, the vet refusing to even enter the room after the diagnosis, realizing that both of my kids had loved all over and carried these dogs all around for weeks. Not to mention the fact that they were both well beloved by the neighborhood kids and had come into contact with other pets on our street as well. I was sick to my stomach and wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.
From what we know now, the dogs came to us infected with the mites that cause this type of mange. Their mom was found wandering in the environment, who knows how long she had been there, so it stands to reason that she would have something that her puppies would likely get as well.
Anyway, after the diagnosis, we had to literally wash everything that we owned with bleach and clean everything that couldn't be washed, again with bleach. I spent the morning after the diagnosis washing down my walls, floors and hard surfaces, vacuuming (literally 9 times in one day) and bagging up all the stuffed animals and plush items that couldn't withstand a trip through the washing machine on hot. Those stuffed animals had to remain in a sealed trash bag for 2 weeks. For my girl, who is so totally attached to her "guys", as she calls them, this was heartbreaking for all of us.
I can still hear my washing machine and dryer groan as I approach them with a load, but I can say that we are in the clear now. Today, both Bebi and Sadie had an appointment with our vet and he feels that they are in the clear. However, we are continuing with their medication for another 2 weeks just to be sure. No one that is in or outside of our house that came into contact with them have had any symptoms and Sadie's hair has grown back (she had lost much of it from her hind legs and belly).
Both of our new furry babies are doing well, growing and are happy in their new home. We are thankful to have them and the kiddos are now able to love on them again without worry of getting something! Hooray!

Results

I juuuuuust realized that I never posted about my more recent medical drama.
Boy, this blog is all medical all the time. I really need to stop this.
Anywho, I recently turned tail and fled from my old endocrinologist due to his fact that he was just inept, uncaring, rude, lied to me on a regular basis, and had staff that couldn't read medical reports any better than I could. My new endo did a good overview of my health and decided that I needed to have my TH (thyroid hormone; would tell if I'm on the adequate dosage of synthetic hormone) and thyroglobulin (cancer marker) levels checked.
As a side note, I'm fairly certain that I have post traumatic stress disorder after this whole cancer thing went down last summer because I got the orders on a Wednesday and waited nearly a month before I got my blood drawn. Every tremor, increase in heart rate, hair lost and drop of sweat I developed over the past year had me "convinced" that the cancer had returned. Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck.
Well, Dr. L called me while I was at work on a Tuesday night. I was in the middle of class and assumed that I could call him back the next day and talk with someone, until I heard the message he left. Basically he said something along the lines of the following, "We have your blood work back and now we need to talk about our next step." In my mind that meant the following: YOUR CANCER IS BACK AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE AND LEAVE YOUR FAMILY ALL ALONE AND YOUR CHILDREN MOTHERLESS!!!!!
PTSD anyone?
After phone tag for the next 3 days (and a little stress related hair loss) I finally called his nurse and told her to tell him to call me anytime and I would stop my life to answer his call.
He called me on a Thursday night, right smack in the middle of my class, so I stopped and answered. Basically, my TH levels are right on the dot where they are supposed to be and my thyroglobulin was undetectable.
The best part is that my blood has always had antibodies in it, an indication that my immune system was trying to fight off the cancer and, essentially, kill my thyroid, and this time they were undetectable! The bad thing about any antibodies is that any blood test with them present is null and void because those antibodies skew the results. There was a long shot procedure that could have been done on a blood sample that involved some subjective analysis and a lengthy process involving sending it off to a California lab. Since the antibodies came back, essentially, negative, that was one expense we didn't have to worry about.
So, all in all, everything looks good. As soon as I talked to Dr L, all of my so-called symptoms were gone, another indication that this was all psychosomatic. In other words, I'm crazy...

Hearing

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned about the very basic, rudimentary, test that Caleb underwent during his 6 year well check that he failed. Today was our trip to the audiologist and our beloved ENT to have all this investigated.
The first step when we arrived was the actual hearing screen with the audiologist. Now, if you've been around this blog for a long time, then you will remember a very ill-fated 3-4 month span where we had at least 3 hearing tests with 3 different audiologists, with each one returning as inconclusive. We finally found a pediatric audiologist who could handle a crazy 3 year old boy and get a good test, which he passed with flying colors. So, I was a bit nervous about this go around but Caleb, as he is known to do, surprised me and cooperated and did great!
The long and short of the hearing test is that his right ear is just great, but his left has a measurable, but mild, hearing impairment.
The ENT did a very thorough exam of both his ears, looking for issues that he felt could be the cause, but found nothing. So, there are 2 options as to what is causing this. Either he has some calcification of the bones in his middle ear or he has a degenerative, genetic condition. With the first, Caleb could potentially have surgery at some point to have the calcification removed and restore his hearing. That issue is not progressive and he shouldn't have more hearing loss. The second, genetic, progressive condition will worsen with time and there is nothing to do about that short of fitting him with a hearing aid when it gets to the point at which he can't hear any longer from that ear.
We will go back in 6 months and will know pretty quickly which issue this is. Jes has always had issues with hearing, having trouble when we are in loud, busy places, which we've seen in Caleb. Jes's hearing hasn't worsened over the years, so I'm hoping that this is what this issue turns out to be like. The ENT and I discussed getting Jes in to be tested as well, which will give us another piece of the puzzle, so I'm working on him on that too.
So, that's the long and short of it all. Not great news, but not the absolute worst either.

The Newest Mathis Family Members

Saturday was Caleb's birthday party and including the festivities that we had planned, we also had a huge surprise for him and Piper.
Basically, a friend of my cousin's took in a dog who was abandoned near her home on the coldest day of the year back in February. Little did she know, this dog was very pregnant and gave birth to a litter of 8 puppies. Seven of those puppies were black with white accents, like mom, but another was blonde.
Susan, my cousin, started linking to photos of these puppies on facebook and I did my dead level best to try to stay away from them, but the pull was just too strong. The kids had been asking for a dog for just over a year now, so I started thinking about these dogs, especially the blonde one.
After a couple of conversations with Jes, we decided that we would go out and get Bebi, the blonde puppy as a surprise for the kids. So, after the party, we packed everything up and hopped in the car and made the trek. When we got there we were welcomed by the family who had taken in the dogs and we set up shop in the back yard to meet he puppies. Caleb was super cute because he thought we were just there to pet them and visit.
This picture I took just as we told Caleb that we were going to take one home! He was SO thrilled!



As we observed the puppies, we quickly discovered that Bebi was quite timid, but super sweet so Jes was concerned that she would be very lonely. He decided that we would take one of Bebi's sisters as well. This came as a total surprise to me, so I guess we were all surprised all the way around.

Here are the kids with the puppies. Bebi is being held by Piper and Caleb is holding Sadie in the above photo. Needless to say, we are thrilled with our new family members. They are super sweet and surprisingly smart, now if I can just stop them from peeing on my carpet...

Caleb's 6 Year Appointment

Bright and early this morning, I packed up the kids and drove to our beloved pediatrician for Caleb's 6 year well appointment.
I came armed with a few questions and some expectations of what our appointment would be like and, true to form, it was a great experience, for the most part.
Basically, this is what we found out:

• Caleb is growing and developing as he should. He is in the 73rd percentile for weight (a decrease from last year), but in the 99th percentile for height. This did not come as any sort of surprise to me as all his clothes are not getting tighter, just shorter. And really, his gene pool pretty much guaranteed his tall-ness.
• This visit, they did the hearing test where they put the probe in his ears to measure the movement of his eardrum. If you've been around here at all then you will remember that we went through a series of these tests a few years ago where he failed each and every one. Our NP and I decided that instead of wasting more money for him to fail another of these tests, I am going to try to get him in right away to see the audiologist. I do not think that he has any hearing loss, but we need to be sure and get it checked out.
• Caleb is right on where he needs to be developmentally, even ahead, for his age. As always, they were very impressed by how intelligent he is, which is always good for a Mama's heart!
  
• The last thing that we got today was an unofficial diagnosis of ADHD. This does not come as a surprise to me at all as this is something that we have thought was in play for many years now. Since Caleb is not in the school setting, we are able to be much more flexible in treatments and working with him. He does not have any disruptions in his everyday life (eating, sleeping, etc) like many kids, so his is deemed mild and we are able to monitor everything for now. One thing that I really appreciate about our doctors is that they are not over-medicators and don't jump right to that, so we are going to wait, watch and work with him as we have been.

So, all in all it was a good visit, other than having to literally lay on top of him during his one vaccination that was missed at his 4 year appointment, it was an easy appointment. It really is a joy to visit our pediatrician who care so much, not only for our kids but also the rest of the family!

Seriously?!? What Is Wrong With me???

For the last 2+ years, I've been totally open about the fact that I don't ever want to be pregnant or have another baby ever again. Ever.
Then I got cancer.
That changes/changed everything. Last summer, as soon as I got my diagnosis, I immediately started wanting to have another baby. I totally thought I was out of my mind and just reacting to this major life issue and thought it would pass.
It never did.
It, in fact, has gotten much, much worse. To the point where I have had a gut wrenching, visceral reaction when friends recently announced that they were pregnant.
I have 2 kids who are pretty much in the age where they are fairly easy to go and do things with, so why in the world would I want to start over?
What in the world is wrong with me?

Eye Update

For the last year, Caleb has been wearing glasses. Last February, we took him in for his 6 month visit, something we had been doing for a year previous to that. It was determined at that time that he needed some sort of corrective lens, but only for one eye that had an astigmatism.
The other treatment that we were working with was that he was wearing a patch for 3 hours a day.
Now I know that sounds like SO much fun, but believe me when I tell you that it was a battle every single day.
This morning we went back to visit our family eye doctor to see where he was. His last visit occurred while I was in the hospital in August during my radiation treatment. During that visit, he did not see his regular doctor and Jes took him, all of which threw him totally off and he was less than cooperative. So, to say that we didn't have the best picture of where he stood.
I'm thinking that he was starting to have difficulty seeing at this point, but just wasn't able to articulate that. He's been telling me the past few months that he can't see certain things, usually small print, so I had an idea that this time around would be different.
Caleb is a typical first born and would rather not do something or try to fix a situation if it isn't working out just the way he wants it to. This is also true when it comes to his vision. He often would refuse to complete a task when he was having trouble seeing it, so I knew that we were going to have to have a good screening this time to ensure that we got his prescription correct.
So, before we went to see the doctor this morning, I had a talk with Caleb and let him know that all he had to do was say that he couldn't see something if he couldn't see it. This seemed to be exactly what he needed to hear and probably was what he needed to hear last year too.
Being a mother makes me feel so dumb sometimes. It was just so simple and I made it so hard.
Anyway, his last glasses only had one corrective lens, the left one, because his right eye was just barely outside of normal, not enough for a corrective lens.
However, this time around, his left eye was worse and his astigmatism in the same eye was worse, as was his right eye that was barely out last time.
So, Caleb got new glasses today. They are blue and he loves them.
The best news is that he doesn't have to wear his patch anymore! That's the benefit, I supposed, of his eyes both getting worse.

Feb 9-16, 2011

I take an inordinate amount of photos with my iphone. Mainly because it's usually in my hand when there is a cute moment or we are out somewhere. So, because of this, I've decided to do a weekly post with just the photos from my iphone from the week before.
iPhone Photos Feb 9-16 2011:



Last Wednesday, the 9th, we went to a playdate with some of our moms from our MOPS group to exchange Valentines and let the kids play.

Mostly, it was Piper's age and younger, but Caleb had a good time teaching those younger kiddos a thing or two...

On Wednesday, a friend of ours mentioned that she had a dollhouse that she was going to donate to our kid's consignment sale and asked if we would want it. I, of course, said yes because we had looked and looked for one for Piper at Christmas time. The one house I wanted was sold out before I got to go buy it, and it just so happened that this was the very one that our friend gave us! We were so excited and Piper loves it!!

After all of our snow and ice the last couple of weeks, my car was just filthy. I had taken the kids to Dairy Queen the night before and we got a free car wash, so we decided to just go through and knock the dirt off. Both of the kids are terrified of car washes, Piper in particular. Jes had to get her out of her car seat and she sat with me the whole time we went through.

Caleb is still a bit afraid of them too but not as much as his sister, so he decided to hide under a blanket that we keep in the backseat. It was a good thing that we were only in the car wash for a max of 3 minutes because they probably would have both had a nervous breakdown had we been in there for longer.

We love to go to Cabela's in Forth Worth to look around and the kids love their huge fish tanks! We happened to hit it at just the right time this go around to watch feeding time of all the fish.

The director of the aquarium actually donned a wetsuit and got into the tank with all these fish. The feed for the majority of the fish in the tank are other smaller fish, so I was a bit concerned that the kids would be bothered by this but they seemed to be unfazed and were just in awe!

This may seem like a strange photo, and is, really, quite bad, but I wanted to record this for the future. This, my friends, is my non-milk drinking girl drinking milk from a cup that she requested. Piper hasn't had any milk to drink since we gave up the bottles, so I've had to be extra diligent about ensuring that she gets plenty of calcium from other sources. So, when she requested milk in the middle of school yesterday, I jumped up and accommodated her request. She drank around half of what I put in the cup, something that I deem a huge success!

Piper, like most girls, is fascinated by my hair products and makeup. She has one of my brushes just for herself to play with while I'm getting ready to go somewhere. Yesterday, while I was getting ready to go to work, she wanted to play with my eyelash curler so I got my phone ready and handed it to her. I've tried to catch her doing this in the past and she will say she doesn't want me to take her picture, but I was faster this time!

Caleb is coming along in his school work. This week, we crossed over into lesser than/greater than in his math lessons. This is a concept that was very difficult, for many reasons, for me to learn as a student, so I was sort of dreading it. All I had to do was explain it to him once and he got it. He really does have a knack for math, something he definitely got from his dad!

We have missed the last 2 dance classes because of the weather, so this morning when I informed Piper that we were going to dance, she promptly gathered up her "people" and off we went. In her left hand is Puppy, the little stuffed dog that Jes gave her for Valentine's Day. She hasn't let that dog out of her sight since she got it. In her right hand is Birdy. This stuffed bird was Jes's grandmother's and Piper just latched onto it at first sight. She has slept with, cried with, carried around, loved on Birdy for as long as we can remember! He's like another member of the family!

Snow

So, there's been an inordinate amount of the above here in Texas.

Texas, people! This, we don't know how to deal with. Give us 45, 100+ days in a row and we can deal, but we haven't a clue how to do this!

That photo was taken at the beginning of a major weather event (imagine your most animated, panicked, weather man voice when you read that) that lasted most of last week and it's snowing now as I type this.

Needless to say, we're all super tired of all the white stuff and are ready for it to go back from whence it came!

We haven't really had any issues in the Mathis casa from all this cold weather, however I know quite a few people who have had to deal with frozen pipes, busted pipes, loss of heat and loss of electricity. So, the fun has worn off.

Schools were closed last week, 4 out of the 5 possible days. This meant that the college was closed as well. Couple that with the fact that I missed the Thursday the week before (terrible, horrible, nearly death causing GI bug that my family and I fell victim to) that and you can imagine the mess that our class schedules have become. Missing today is going to be a big problem as will tomorrow, if they decide to close school again.

So, I'm off to try to manipulate my syllabus, once again, to add some time in that doesn't exist. Anyone have any idea how I can increase the hours in the day, just for a little bit?

Neglect

I had no idea that it's been nearly a month since I posted here...
I've got some posts swirling around in my head, one in particular, that I'll have done and up in the next week or so.
In the meantime, we've been recovering from a particularly nasty GI bug, nearly a week long confinement due to major amounts of ice and snow and are looking toward, but not forward to, more to come this week.
I've been in a near panic, trying to figure out just how I'm going to catch up on all the days we've missed due to weather, but my coworkers and I are about to come to a consensus on those issues. After we're clear on those things, I think I'll be able to breathe easy.
More to come. Stay tuned!

Dance

Sometime ago, I met a nice lady who owns a dance studio. After we talked for a bit, she mentioned to me that she had a 2 year old dance class that was a Mommy and Me class. This dance class sounded right up our alley and something that Piper would really enjoy, so I signed us up.
When I talked with Piper about it, she got super excited and acted like she would really love it. Piper and I took some time out, left the boys at home and we went to a darling little dance shop in downtown McKinney to purchase her leotard, tights and shoes. She was so excited and danced around and had so much fun!
Our class is on Wednesday mornings and this past Wednesday was our first class. I didn't get a whole bunch of photos since it is a Mommy and Me class.



Here's my little dancer before we left for class on our first day! She was SO excited just to put on her new dance outfit and got more and more excited as we went along.

We got to the studio a bit early, since it was our first day and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there (it's in a neighboring town). This actually worked to our favor because by the time that class started, Piper was totally comfortable in her new surroundings.

Caleb even had his own area to hang out in that has a window that opens up into the studio that Piper and I were in.

I was a bit worried that Piper wouldn't do what was asked of her because she's never been in school or taken any kind of class and she tends to be super shy and distrusting of strangers. However, she surprised me and paid close attention to the teacher, trying and sometimes mastering what was requested of her. The dance teacher asked me a couple of times if Piper was in gymnastics and was surprised when I told her no.

At the end of the class, all the girls got a butterfly stamp and she hasn't stopped talking about that since last week! We can hardly wait to go back this week!

2 and a half

Dearest Piper,

Today, you are officially 2 and a half. This means that in exactly 6 months, you will be 3, the big girl that you proclaim yourself to be every single day.

You are right at 3 feet tall and 32 pounds, but you still are my pocket sized diva. You love all things girly, but are such an enigma, equally loving to play in the dirt and mud. You love to do anything that requires running, jumping, swinging, climbing and just being physical. We have caught you on top of various pieces of furniture without knowing how you go there. Your Daddy and I have to watch you like a hawk, lest you break your neck completing one of these daring adventures of yours.

You are still not potty trained yet, but you are working on it. You love to sit on said potty and have me read you books, but the actual act, on a regular basis, eludes you. I'm really in no hurry to get this task accomplished and you are pretty laid back about the whole thing too, so we'll just wait until you are possessed with the spirit of determination on this front.

Just a few months ago, we decided that you needed to give up your crib and move to a big girl bed. We set out to purchase a daybed that would grow with you, but you had other ideas. You, my dear, sweet, bold girl were afraid of the big beds, but managed to crawl into and cover yourself up in a toddler bed. You can probably guess what we left the store with and you sleep in now. You alternately love and hate that bed all at once and are still adjusting to the idea of not having your walls that they crib provided you. We're working on this.

You have the most fun, sweet and equally frustrating personality, all at the same time. You are most definitely a 2 year old, wanting to constantly do it yourself, but also wanting help and love when you try and fail. You love to run around in your high heels, princess dress and boa, while wielding your brother's Light Saber, trying to rid the universe of the bad guys.

Your most favorite color is pink and everything in your world has to be some version of this color. You know all your shapes, numbers up to 20 and then 10's, most of your letters and all your colors. You are well educated in all things girl and boy. I suppose that is the benefit of having a big brother to teach you.

Caleb and your Daddy are two of your most favorite people, but, truth be told, you are a Mama's girl. I cannot tell you the joy that that gives my heart. One of my dreams was to have a little girl and to have the same kind of relationship with her that I do with my Mama. We have that, little one.

I love you, my Pster! You are and always will be my most favorite girl in all the world!

Love,

Mama

Half Way Through

I've posted here many different times about our choice to homeschool, but it dawned on me this morning that I've not updated with Caleb's progress in the whole process.
One of the less academic, but needed things, that I was hoping for Caleb to learn during school, whether it was in a building or in my dining room, is that of self control. He is a very typical boy, busy, active, and yet super smart, but needed that ability to excel. During the past few months, we have watched our boy go from a kid who can't sit still for even a few moments or control his impulses to a boy who can sit through a whole church service quietly entertaining himself. I also just witnessed on Saturday Caleb holding a present in his lap upon my instructions to wait until we got all of them. He then opened one and waited me for my instructions to move on. This is a different, self-assured, controlled boy with an appropriate amount of confidence.
We are using My Father's World curriculum for K and supplementing with various other things based on his need and interest. The main curriculum provides 5 days worth of worksheets, with each week concentrating on a certain letter and topic. For example, last weeks letter was E and the study is over elephants, with the next few weeks contributing to this so that the whole month is study in non-farm animals (elephants, penguins, etc). It's really well organized and the work is very much on target for what it is written for (a kindergartner), so all in all we've been happy with it.
We only do school 3 (sometimes 4, at most) days a week and it only really takes us, at most, 2 hours to get through all the work that is assigned to him. At the beginning of the year I was pretty surprised at how fast we moved through his work, but we were able to ascertain that Caleb is quite ahead in some areas and we aren't dealing with 30 students here, so we can get done in a timely manner. I am firmly convinced that learning isn't all about sitting in the classroom at a desk, so we get out and make even ho-hum trips to Target a learning experience.
I usually combine Days 1 and 2 worksheets. Day 1 is introducing the letter and exploring the topic. The worksheet has the letters printed in both upper and lower case, prepping him for his handwriting lessons to come, as well as giving him some examples of other things that start with the letter of the week. These pictures are meant to be cut out, which gives him the practice he needs to master this task. When we first started, this was a big issue for us. Part of this was my fault because I wouldn't let him near scissors. Ever. Heh.
Day 2 worksheet is a handwriting practice on one side and a phonics practice on the other. Honestly, handwriting was one of the biggest things that I was worried about. Caleb wasn't even able to hold his pencil correctly before we started. After many frustrated mornings, many tears shed and me second guessing our choice, Caleb finally got it and is able to hold his pencil correctly and print well. Of all the things that he has accomplished thus far, this is the one that I'm the most happy about.
Phonics was a real issue, in my mind, as well when we started this whole process. Caleb started reading, by sight recognition, when he was 2 and would remember any word we told him from then on out. So, because of this, I was concerned that he would get a point where phonics would be lost on him. We've worked really hard just introducing the concepts of phonics that he needed to put it all together. It seems that he may have had a lot of the concepts needed for this all along, just needing someone to show him how to put it all together.
Day 3 and 5 worksheets are drawing, counting, and handwriting practice, while Day 4 is reading practice. All things he was doing well in (with the exception of handwriting) when we started this whole thing.
I have added some extra phonics and handwriting from Abeka that seems to be right up his alley. His most favorite, though, is math. I recently acquired a workbook from a friend of some 1st grade math concepts and we've been slowly working our way through that, ensuring that we don't get so far ahead that he's actually behind. As of now, we've made it all the way through addition and just started some simple subtraction.
This year, so I've been told, is more an exercise in learning what he needs and how he learns. I have to say that this is more true than I thought it would be. Caleb is doing really well and is enjoying the process, and I'm so happy and looking forward to the rest of the year.

Conversations with Caleb- Disturbed Edition

For the past couple of days, I have been fighting off some sort of mutant allergy attack that hit in full force last night. This morning, I made it very clear to the kids that we needed to take it easy today because mama didn't feel well.
We did venture out to grab lunch at Sonic because, really, what is better when you are sick but a bit of Sonic... After we got home, Caleb and I were talking during lunch and had the following coversation:

Caleb: Mama? Are you still sick?
Me: Yes
Caleb: *crying*
Me: Caleb! What is wrong?
Caleb: *still crying* I'm sad because you're sick. Are you going to have surgery again and go to the hospital again?

Hm. Maybe the events of this past summer affected him more than I thought.
I'm thinking we may need a therapist here...

The Boy Wonder (and his Mother) Needs Your Prayers **Updated**

UPDATED: So our visit with the doctor was this afternoon and he did a very (and I mean very) thorough exam on Caleb. With all our visits with medical practitioners through the years, Caleb has never had an exam where everything was looked at, all at once, with regard to his overall health, so this was refreshing and calming to a mama's nervous heart. It also gave the doctor the opportunity to evaluate Caleb in all aspects of his life, not just his basic health.
The overall result was that, yes, there seems to be some issues with the fact that Caleb's joints, most all of them, are overly flexible, but he has no other issues that would really form the diagnosis of anything super serious.
What we do have, for now, is a diagnosis of hyperflexibility. Basically, what this means is that his joints can dislocate much easier and he may have some real pain during growth. Frankly, I had significant pain during my formative years, especially those when I was growing large amounts at a time. One summer, I added 4-6 inches to my height and I remember that summer well because of the unrelenting pain that never seemed to end. I'm thinking that this was something, once again, that he got from me. Poor kid.
While I hate this for Caleb and I certainly don't want him to suffer at all, at least this way we will know what is going on. Since he has a diagnosis on the books too, we will have a fabulous doctor who will be evaluating him at every visit for problems and issues so that we can head them off at the pass.
Our doctor is going to consult with an orthopedist, just to make sure, but he was very confident that this was the issue.
I'll update if there is anything different that comes up in the coming days.
Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers.


About a year ago, I noticed Caleb had a popping sound coming from, what I thought, was his hip area. When he was in the NICU, one of his more minor issues that we were watching was the fact that one of his hip joints was "loose". It wasn't a huge issue, completely overshadowed by the more serious things, and seemed to resolve on its own. That's why when I heard that, I intially didn't think much of it.
Back in August, I realized that the popping noise was actually coming from his knee, and seemed to be getting louder. Now, I have one knee that has been looked at by more than one orthopedist and they all said that my ligaments are loose, so I was thinking that the same thing would be said of his. I took him to the doctor last week, partially to get it looked at before the end of the year and also because my mommy gut kept telling me to do it.
Well, during the work up, our wonderful nurse practitioner noticed that Caleb is super flexible and wondered outloud if this could be something more. Needless to say, knowing what I know about the human body and what can go wrong, my mind has since jumped from bad to worse.
The NP told me that she would discuss with our normal doc and call me back and he wants to see him.
We are going today.
I'm a nervous wreck.
This could be nothing or something completely life changing and life threatening. I'm seriously praying for the former.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

I am well known in my family and close, close friends as being good at many things, but baking is something that I, historically, have been terrible at. Jes makes fun of me and calls me his cardboard queen. He also will just shake his head when the kids ask me to make cookies and run to the freezer to pull out the break apart cookie dough.
This Thanksgiving, however, I was aiming high and decided to try my hand at 2 different pie recipes and a batch of cake balls. Other than opening too many cans of pumpkin, it all went off without a hitch and each of my desserts was a huge hit! My mom even remarked that I should be in charge of desserts every year and my dad is already putting in orders for the next batch of cake balls.
Needless to say, I have had a huge confidence boost and decided to use up said opened cans of pumpkin and make pumpkin bread.
I'm recording this here, partially to share with all you guys, but more so to have to written in one place before I forget it. Please note that this recipe was taken from allrecipes.com, but altered to my liking. So, without further ado, pumpkin bread:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (can use margarine, but I'm against the stuff)- which is 2 sticks, softened
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin

Feel free to add in all types of things. I had chocolate chips, so I put a small amount of that in there (my kids will eat anything with chocolate in it). I also had part of a medium sized bag of pecans left from one of my pies, so I put those in there too!

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Combine dry ingredients and stir into creamed mixture until moistened (I call this step my bicep workout!) Stir in can of pumpkin (I had a whole can and another 1/3 of one, so I just added it all). Pour in 2 greased 9 X 5 X 3 in loaf pans and bake at 350 for one hour. I wanted to have serving sizes for the kids and myself, so I baked mine in cupcake form, filling up the cupcake papers to almost full. If you are making the cupcake version, you will need to bake them for 25-30 minutes, or until cooked through. I had a yield of just under 3 dozen, so we had plenty to freeze for a quick, healthy breakfast!
The kids tried these out as their sweet with lunch and they just loved them! Next time, I'll put in a bit of flax seed too to boost the omega-3s! I hope you all enjoy!

Cancer and Competition

Have you guys ever noticed how competitive some folks are?
I'm pretty sure that everyone knows someone who when you engage in conversation with them they always have a come back about how they know someone or are better than your experiences.
I'm not naive and think that my experiences are far and away better than others or that they make me anywhere close to an expert on anything, but I do, however, feel like some of those competitive types of conversations should be taboo.
Obviously the title of my post being one of them.
A couple of weeks ago, I reached out to an acquaintance on a social networking website who had suffered from another type of cancer that, to look at her now, you would never know. Basically, she made me to feel, stopping short of actually saying, that my issue was far and away the most minor issue as compared to hers.
Here's the thing, how would she know when she's never walked the path that I have?
She bears no outward physical (we all have emotional) scars from her cancer. I have a huge one.
No, I didn't have to partake of months and months of chemo, but I did lose a large amount of my hair and eyelashes, much like her.
Do I even think that I can understand or empathize with her? Absolutely not.
I guess my whole point is that until we walk anothers path and know what the experience is to go through what they are going through, we should never assume that we know.
It doesn't matter who you are, you won't ever know.

Yearly Photos with The Boy Wonder and his Trusty Side Kick

Every summer, I try to schedule an outdoor photo shoot for the kids to not only capture their adorable faces and antics, but also to capture them in their natural state. While I think there is a time and place for posed, studio type photos, I much prefer my kids to be in their natural state, running, laughing, jumping and having a great time. Just a few weeks ago, a former student of mine, who is trying to build her portfolio, offered to take their pictures. For. F-R-E-E! Yes, please.
Anyway, I wanted to share a few of my favorites, although it was so hard to narrow them down to just these few!

My sweet 2 year old. I'm not sure how we ended up at this point where my sweet little baby is a big 2 year old girl, but we are. She is super fun and loves all things girly. Love, love, love her!

I have mentioned many times how much Caleb loves his sister. The above is just photographic evidence. He is her biggest cheerleader, favorite playmate, and often the one she runs to when she's sad/hurt/scared etc. If you were to split to the two of them up and take them separate places, they are lost. As an only child (with much step siblings, most of them MUCH older), I had no real idea what the idea of having a sibling to grow up with meant. Now that I have a pair of kids, I am so thankful that we were blessed with the two of them!

Can I just tell you how scary it is to have a walking, talking clone of yourself? We have compared photos of myself, my mom and Piper and it is very difficult to differentiate between all of us. She does have some of the more distinctive Mathis characteristics (her AMAZING eyelashes!), but she is mostly an exact replica of myself.

A bunch of people commented on this photo on facebook that is was so pretty and that it looked like a greeting card, but if you could read her mind you would hear that she was plotting taking a swim. What you can't see in this photo is me right behind her lunging toward her to catch her before she leapt into this pond! My girl is super sweet and so fun, but she has NO fear!

My boy! I love this boy more than words can say. We have gone to our highest highs and lowest lows with this little boy of ours and are so blessed that we have him for this short time.

I think that this is probably one of my most favorite photos of the kids. Ever. A good friend of our family once commented to me that Caleb always had a smile on his face, regardless of how gloomy the day was and I have to say that is so true! Piper always has hair in her face and is always laughing with her brother, while they move on to their next, newest adventure.

My sweet, curious baby (don't tell her) girl!

So, here's the thing about my kids, Caleb is 5 and can do SO much more than Piper, and Piper, being 2 and, in her mind, indestructible, will try to do everything her brother does. But, most of the time what you will see is Caleb coming down to a level where his sister can keep up and participate in his activities too. Yet another example of just how wondrous my boy wonder is and how blessed we are to have him!

3 Month Post Op Visits

The past two weeks have included many fun activities, but listed among them was my 3 month post-op visits with both my surgeon and my endocrinologist.
First up, I saw my surgeon. Let me just reiterate how much my family and I love my surgeon. The morning of my visit, Caleb was full of questions and curiosity (more than normal) and Piper peed on me (she's potty training and in Pull-ups, but that's another story for another day). My doctor didn't even bat and eye and we were able to carry on a conversation and get a physical exam in during all the chaos.
During my exam, my doctor was checking my incision and also checking for other swollen lymph nodes or lumps. He found none and felt that my prognosis was very, very good.
The next week I visited my endocrinologist and this visit I had the opportunity to see the nurse practitioner, whom I just love. In fact, I have opted to see just her from now on, with the exception of my once yearly visit with the "head" doctor. The last time I saw this NP, I had made an emergency appointment for a racing heart rate and the inability to write or hold a scalpel due to a severe tremor. During that visit, she put me on a beta blocker, a potent heart and blood pressure medication. So, needless to say, this visit was vastly different from the last.
Basically, she went through a long laundry list of symptoms, asking severity and if I was experiencing any of them. Mostly, these symptoms are negative, indicative of disease.
I explained to her that I have felt so terribly bad for so, so long that I wasn't even aware of how bad I was feeling or how sick I was and that now I felt like a totally different, well, whole person. Seriously guys, I haven't felt this well and good since I was probably a young teenager. Anyway, she took a look at all my blood work from August, the day of my whole body scan after my in-patient radiation treatment, during my appointment. Based on that bloodwork, it appears that the cancer is gone. I will have the blood work again in January at approximately 6 months. The only other thing that we had to do was the monitoring of my hormone levels to ensure that I have the correct amount from the synthetic hormone that I will take for the rest of my life. Right now, I am in suppressive mode, meaning that I'm taking a bit more hormone than the average hypothyroid patient. This type of therapy, for at least one year, decreases, dramatically, the ability and chance of any more cancer cells to grown and multiply. From what I gather, after a year on this type of treatment I will be retested, maybe by scan, and my medication will gradually be decreased to normal levels. I just had to up my dosage by a half a pill on Sundays and that's it.
So, that is the long and short of it all. Essentially, I'm well and healthy and waiting for my appointment in January. All in all, I'm super happy and forever thankful that I'm as well as I am!

Homecoming 2010

About a week and a half ago, the family and I packed up the car and headed out to East Texas for my college homecoming weekend. It also, just so happened to be the 10 year anniversary of our graduation from said college.
Friday night, we drove to Tyler, about 2 hours east of our place in McKinney. For some reason we thought that driving half way there on Friday night and staying in a hotel would be easier on us and the kids than just getting up super early and driving all the way out to Marshall, about 4 hours from our home. Let's just say that we won't be trying a visit to a hotel again for awhile. Caleb, being the kid that he is and super laid back about sleeping somewhere other than home, did just fine. Piper, on the other hand, was a holy terror both Friday night and most of the day on Saturday due to sleep deprivation. Eventually, around 11pm Friday night, 4 hours after her normal bedtime, Jes put Piper in the car and drove her around until she fell asleep. He then had to hold her most of the night and then she was up super early.
Just suffice it to say that she was a real joy the next day. Can we say tantrums 'r us?!?

Here is the boy wonder and his spit fire side kick in front of the sign at my alma mater, ETBU. I had forgotten how homey and comforting the campus was. When my parents and I were looking for a college, while I still in high school, we visited numerous schools, none of them feeling quite right. As soon as we pulled onto campus and got out of the car I knew that ETBU was where I was supposed to be. As it so happened, my future husband was a short 30 minutes down the road in Longview at LeTourneau, so it all worked out! :)



Here are the kids in front of the student center. This building holds the bookstore, the cafeteria and the mail room and boxes. I spent many a late night in this building studying, eating many and memorable (not necessarily in a good way) meals, and burning myself out on Chick fil A, our only on campus food choice that wasn't cafeteria food. The place smelled exactly the same and took me back!


We took the kids to the bookstore, thinking we would emerge with t-shirts for both, but both wanted some sort of stuffed animal. Caleb also got a cool camo ETBU hat and I got Piper a hooded sweatshirt that she'll be able to wear for a couple of years, so everyone was happy! Here they are with their new friends, Beary and Ribbet.

Caleb got to hang out with his friend Dallas,

and I got to see some college friends that I don't get to talk to near or see often enough.
Even with the sleep deprivation it was a super fun weekend.

Thinking

I know that I've not been updating this here blog as often as I should/have been, but, in the interest of full disclosure, there are some reasons for that.
First and foremost, this place that I started to post photos of my adorable children has kind of turned into my medical drama. However, I have come the conclusion that that is an issue that I can change and will.
Second, I have been inadvertently, on my part, been drug into some family business that really have no business being in. To top it all off, this family member has made me swear to secrecy all the while putting me in between a rock and a hard place and in between this person and another close family member, who happen to be warring on a regular basis on the topic of choice. It's hard for me to write here when one of these family members could potentially read about it and then I would be drug into the issue even more. So, I'm keeping my mouth shut and trying to censor myself, but the by product of that is I feel censored in my writing too.
Lastly, Jes and I have some pretty big decisions to make. He has an opportunity that would be huge and in some ways fabulous and in others potentially disastrous. So all in all, another thing that I can't really talk about. If you are inclined, just pray for us and for clarity of mind and peace about whatever decision we come to about this particular issue.
I'll be back soon with some uber cute photos of the kiddos soon! We are going to my 10 year college reunion Saturday, as well as a quaint little festival dubbed The Fireant Festival. It's a whole level of craziness that many of you have never experienced, but is deeply beloved by my college friends. I'll have lots of fun photos of all the fun and craziness for y'all when I get back here!

Birthday

Have y'all seen that American Cancer Society commercial? It's the one with Justin Bieber (did I spell that right?) singing happy birthday. The next screen is the statistic that 11 million cancer survivors will celebrate a birthday this year. Mine comes in 16 days. I can say that this year I will appreciate that day more than I think I ever have!

Catching Up - Health Edition

So, it seems that it's been nearly a month since I posted anything here. I guess I should back up and fill everyone in on what has been happening the past few weeks with my health mess.
I left all of you on the day before my radiation was to happen. The next morning, Jes and the kids too me to the hospital and dropped me off. I was then ushered to my plastic covered room
Yes, you read that right. Everything that I could possibly come into contact with was covered in plastic. There was even plastic sheeting underneath my sheet on my bed. Nice and homey, huh?
I was told to be at the hospital at 9am, but when I got there I was informed that I was not going to be given my treatment until 1pm. Fun times. So I waited around, ate a bit of lunch, ala Presbyterian Hospital (yum) and watched a bit of bad daytime tv.
Around 11, I was consulted by the head of radiology on what could potentially happen during the treatment. Basically, what we were hoping for was that the radioactive iodine would go to all the thyroid cells, wherever they may be, and kill them. In the body, the thyroid cells are the only ones who take up iodine, be it radioactive or not, so this type of iodine would just zap them and kill them.
After I took the radioactive iodine pills, everyone rushed (practically running) out of my room and that was the last contact that I had with an actual person for nearly 48 hours. I would see a nurse crack the door open and peek her head in to make sure that I was ok and they would bring me my meals. This process was somewhat comical with the nurse peeking her head in and me walking to the door to grab the tray from her as she ran off down the hall.
As for the symptoms that I had, let's just say that nothing that I was warned of was what I experienced. I was very sick to my stomach and could not eat most of what was sent to me (remember that I went from eating a diet of mainly fruits and vegetables to anything I wanted). It was all just too heavy. In fact, there was a very unfortunate evening in which a perfectly lovely lasagna was involved and I will probably never be able to eat it again. Let's just leave it at that.
I knew, from my personal research, that I would be exhausted, but boy was that an understatement! I am normally a go, go, go kind of girl, constantly going and doing things that need to be done, but this literally made me feel as if someone had hit me with a truck. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even sleep. I also was super swollen from the treatment, to the point that my eyes were just slits and my jaws had the appearance of having mumps. It was super attractive. Lastly, I did, and still do, experience pain where the remaining thyroid tissue remained. I experienced pain only where my incision is, so that told me that maybe, just maybe the cancer hadn't spread.
Monday, I was left alone all day and night. Tuesday afternoon the physicist at the hospital donned her protective gear and came into my room briefly to check my radiation level to determine if I was ready to go home. My levels had to be 4.9 or below before I could leave the hospital and Tuesday it was 6. So, I was to stay another day. By Wednesday I was just miserable and begged for them to call the physicist before lunch time to check me out again. She came around 10ish and we discovered that my levels dropped to 2.7, low enough to leave and go to my parent's house. I could not be in the house with the kids as the high radiation levels could destroy their bone marrow and their developing reproductive systems. So, my parents graciously let me me hang out at their house.
Meanwhile, Jes was home with the kids all day long and going a bit crazy, so I was ready to get the show on the road and get out of there so that I could rest up for the day I was able to go back to my home, Sunday.
I spent Wednesday afternoon and Thursday hanging out with my dad and resting up.
Friday morning, I went back to my endocrinologist's office for my body scan. This was the scan that would tell us for sure if the cancer had spread, along with a blood test to be drawn the same day. The nuclear medicine tech performed the scan and it was discovered that all the cancer had been contained within my neck area. She also mentioned that my surgeon must have been amazing because she could see the bony part of my jawline, something that she rarely sees because surgeons do not do a good enough job of removing all the thyroid tissue. I just smiled at her because I knew the truth, that I had the best surgeon around!
My blood test came back about a week after my scan and it revealed that the number that needed to be low was nearly undetectable. This is very good news because it reveals that there are no thyroid cells left, which means there is no more cancer left.
It seems, for now, this mess is done. I will go back every few months and have the same blood test done and the further out from my original treatment we get the longer between blood test it will be. Eventually, I will just go back once a year for the blood test as well as monitoring of the thyroid medication that I will be on for the rest of my life.
Whew! That was a lot to type. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes and interest in my story! I just pray that it can be used to benefit others.

Tomorrow Is The Day

I haven't written for a number of days, for a variety of reasons. Some of them include, but are not limited to, I'm just tired (10+days of no thyroid hormone will do that to you), we had finals last week, I've been grading like a mad woman, I've been on a horrible, horrendous, no good diet that takes all that I've got just to find something to eat, and lastly, I'm just in a bad mood.
Tomorrow I go into the hospital, provided that all goes well, and I'll take my radiation and hopefully this whole ordeal will be behind us. I'm not really nervous at all about the actual procedure, but am nervous about the full body scan that I'll have on Friday. Friday will be the day when we will know if this has gone anywhere else, however, provided that the dose is high enough, we can be pretty confident that the radioactive iodine will clear it from my body.
I've been following a low to no iodine diet for 11 days now that seriously limits what I can eat. Basically I can have no dairy, soy, iodized salt, commercially prepared meat, and limited pasta. This seems like it would be pretty easy, but there is salt in EVERYTHING! Just go look in your pantry at even your cereal boxes and salt will be listed, which means that I can't have it at all. So, I'm hungry and can't eat anything. That makes me an unhappy person to be around.
Anyway, tomorrow is the day, well I hope anyway. I had about 10 years shaved off my life on Friday afternoon after a very negative and upsetting encounter with my insurance company whereby I went back and forth between them and the hospital and the doctor, all claiming that the codes either didn't come from them or that they didn't have the right ones and the insurance co wasn't going to pay. Needless to say, I wouldn't be able to do this on Monday, but after calling, directly, my patient advocate, Yulanda, I was told that it was straightened out and I am expected to appear tomorrow. I'm hoping and praying that it all goes off without a hitch as the insurance company has/had no sympathy for me whatsoever and was not interested in helping me straighten this out. We shall see.
So, if you don't hear from me, then I'm in and doing what needs to be done. Let's just hope for that and no other setbacks.