Surgery and Recovery

I had my surgery yesterday at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. The recovery is going well, though I have been rather ill from the anesthetic. This is a photo taken about 10 hours post op. They were able to remove the two fibroadenomas and leave the rest. The photo is a bit misleading-my breasts are still there :)I'm off for the rest of the week and Dave is here babysitting. All in all, I'm doing pretty well.

Some health stuff-post 1

Here are two posts that I posted on Facebook. The first went up April 7 and the second on May 3.

I'll start off by saying that my health continues to be fabsolutely groovy. That said, today's appointment with the surgeon didn't go the way I planned for it to (and man was I glad that I had a friend there with me). I expected that the surgeon would say that the fibroma in my driver's side breast was the same size as it was 8 months ago and that she was still fine with me opting not to have surgery and that we would follow up in 6 months. That is what she said last time. Instead she told me that there are actually two of them and that they are both slightly bigger than before and that she wants to remove them surgically this summer. I reminded her that in October, she was fine if I waited. She said that she was okay with that last time, but that she is getting less and less okay with that now. She said that I can continue to delay it, but that she will continue to monitor me and encourage me to have them removed. The only reason that she would stop doing that is if they got smaller, which she suspects is not happening.

She explained that she would suggest to remove any fibroma that is more than 2 cm. The small one is around 2.3 cm and the large one is between 2.9-3.2 cm. They are attached to each other apparently and are now visible through my skin.

So now I am left to think about what to do. 8 months ago I was fine with leaving things alone-largely because she seemed okay with that. Now that she is less okay I am feeling less okay.

I do not want to surgically invade an area of my body that could contain precancerous cells and expose them to the tender tissues that surround them. My mother is an 8 year breast cancer survivor, so this is a very real fear for me. It is one of the main reasons that I am tempted to leave well enough alone.

Oh yeah, some triggers that will make them grow that she warned me about:

*birth control pills=not applicable

*soy products=not applicable

*a large Tim Hortons hot chocolate with a splash of coffee=arrrrrggggggg (she actually said coffee or chocolate, but you know what I heard).

So now she is waiting to hear from me. I have no idea yet what I'm gonna decide.

**Some notes: the fibromas were found by mammogram. I elected to start getting mammograms at the age of 30 because of my mother's history. My fibromas are apparently not worth biopsying as they do not contain anything worth looking at. They will never, ever become cancer. The worst thing that they could do is get bigger, more painful and leave a bigger departure scar when they do get surgically removed.

Some health stuff-post 2

This is the post that went up on Facebook on May 3. My surgery is tomorrow morning at 9:45.

First off, thank you to everyone who has been so awesome in lending thoughts/supports/prayers/questions and so much more. My friends rock!!

Since my last booby update a bunch of stuff has happened, all of it is good and I am still super healthy-no worries : )

1-I met with my GP and got a referral for a second opinion. That should take about 3-5 months to get. As you will see as I go on, the surgery will actually happen long before that second opinion ever happens. I'm okay with that.

2-I've done a lot of research, asked a lot of questions and done a lot of asking God for the best answer.

3-I met with my surgeon along with Steph and Nuyanne and we sat around a conference table and asked a lot of questions and got a lot of answers and some new information. I wont bore you with the details, but the main points are as follows:

*the fibroadenomas are encapsulated and removing them does not involve exposing the rest of my breast to nasty tissues.

*the reason that the surgeon wants to take them out is that the larger of the two masses is more than 3 cm. At this size it is difficult to confirm that there is no presence of tumor. There is a 5% chance that there could be a tumor present. THAT SAID, there is only a 10% chance that if there is tumor present that it could be pre-cancerous. So that is a really small chance, but it is still there. For my non math friends, that is a less than 1% chance that what is there is pre-cancerous.

*they need to come out a some point, everyone agrees on that.

*They will not shrink, they will not go away.

*They continue to be very painful and to get more painful.

I like my surgeon. She has taken a lot of time to explain this whole process to me and my support people. I trust her. I am comfortable with her. I honestly don't think that I want to hear another opinion at this point. I think that it would muddy the waters for me. My doctor's information makes sense and is consistent with my research.

So, in conclusion, I will be having surgery on May 17, 18 or 24 at the Queensway Carleton. The actual date will be confirmed in the next couple of days.

*I will need to take a week off of work.

*I will need adult supervision for 24 hours after I get home and Dave is 99% sure that he will be able to take that time off of work. Frankly I probably need adult supervision in general, but that is a discussion for another day ; )

*I would love loans of movies and TV series' on DVD and Blu Ray. We don't have cable and I plan to sit/lay on the couch!!

*On the day of the surgery we may need someone else to pick the boys up at day care if we are tied up at the hospital.

I couldn't be more at peace with this decision. I am looking forward to having this whole thing behind me really, really soon :)

The hair

The doodle seems to have moved past his "I want to be a girl" phase. He is now very sure that he is, and wants to be, a boy.
That said, he still wants to grow his hair long. Down to his feet is the current goal. His hair is long enough now for pony tails. So one day last week, we sent him in with one pony tail. Apparently the kids were rather nasty about it. They called him a girl, they teased him. He held his ground and told them that he is a boy and he likes his hair.
It also happened to be class photo day. Not individual photo day, class photo day. So the school called me, at work, to ask me if I knew about the pony tail on class photo day. In between two meeting and breathless because it was the school number on the call display, I told them that I put the pony tail in and that I knew that it was class photo day.
The next day he was not deterred at all and one ponytail became three pony tails all a different colour. The kids apparently didn't tease him on day two :)

Maxi the foster dog

Maxi is a foster dog from Sudbury. Her owner passed away and her other owner couldn't care for her on their own. So Maxi ended up at the animal shelter.
Now Maxi lives with us. In theory she is meant to be looking for a new home. She is also trying to loose some weight and get over a terrible case of kennel cough. Maxi is thoroughly loved by the boys already. They camped out by the window for the last hour of her journey here. When she finally showed up they raced out to greet her.
Now the doodle is "reading" Maxi stories about Clifford the Big Red Dog and Monkey is writing a school assignment about dog fostering.

*We've explained to the doodle that he needs to stay out of Maxi's bed : )

Hog's Back

Grandma C stole the boys and had some fun at Hog's Back Park. The rushing water is at its best right now and the boys were quite fascinated with the water's force. They had no trouble understanding why it was necessary to build this part of the Rideau Canal. We then walked to Mooney's Bay and tried out the exercise stations and the training hill.

Mother's Day 2011

The boys woke me up with lots of hugs and snuggles this morning. This has to be the best part about being a mom!! I got some homemade cards, some random seedlings and a coupon for breakfast in bed from the doodle. The doodle is 5, for those of you not keeping score, and daddy was out this morning. The doodle sees the coupon and disappears. I hardly notice since Monkey is with me and the doodle does often wander. I could hear him on the main level so I wasn't worried.

He comes back up with a Tupperware container full of cut mango that he found in the fridge :"here is your breakfast in bed mommy" he says proudly. He then goes on to explain that he tried to make me a peanut butter and jam sandwich, but he couldn't find the bread. Then he tried to make me cheese and crackers, but we were out of crackers-so this is what he found.

What an absolute sweetheart!!

The Great Friday Picnic 2011

This year the Good Friday picnic took place about as late in the year as it may ever have been. The weather forecast certainly looked upon us in favour as the weather called for rain all week until Friday, then sun, then rain through the rest of the weekend.
We certainly lucked out to start the weekend and prepared ourselves for sunshine, warmth, the Easter bunny, the creek and the barbecues. We were greeted with an absolutely beautiful day.
Here are some of the lads cooking up a storm at the picnic tables.


(Though I'm not sure that Ross did any actual cooking.)
The boys went for their usual climb up a tree and then a walk to the cliff side. Apparently they got quite close to the edge, but we have yet to see the photo evidence of that.
After enjoying some good food,
Dave snuck Saje away for a quite moment on Spy Rock, where just less than 10 years we exchanged our wedding vows. Here we are...goofy as ever and loving each other more each passing year.
Soon thereafter we were off to the creek.
It was particularly muddy this year, as evidenced by the three puppies that got absolutely filthy on their trip with us. (photo evidence being withheld for future ransom demands ;)
While we were gone, the Easter bunny visited. Here are the boys searching for their 'loot'

and Big C finding his Kinder eggs!

and mommy being quite pleased with her little treasure that made the trip here from Jamaica. It seems that the Easter bunny likes to spoil her as much as her loving husband.



All too soon we were taking the family photo and starting to pack up. Here's the gang from this year:

Ahhhh, if only we could have participated

We'd have so been in for this one.
Nice to see people trying to make a change in the world around them.

Easter 2011 Outdoor Easter Egg Hunt

For the second year in a row we were invited to a community Easter egg hunt that is held in someone's backyard. They "hide" more than 2000 eggs and set the kids loose. What a blast!
This year was a particularly wet year and we were grateful for our rain boots. Matt Rainstra was less wise as was Peter Puddlers and the two had to stand back on dry land and watch the fun from afar. Monkey was here, but no where near me so there are no photos of him to be found :(
Doodle had a blast collecting eggs and playing in the puddles.
The event raises money for First Place Pregnancy Centre.
For the second year in a row we brought cinnamon buns and they were quickly decimated.

Jamaica Day 8 - We've had a great visit, hope to come back again

Jamaica was simply awesome.
The white sand beaches.

The glorious sunshine.


The warmth.

We had a true vacation and came back refreshed and blissed out.

Jamaica Day 7 - Just Chillin'

On our seventh day we rested. It was glorious to just sit back and take it easy.
The boys hit the kids club and the waterslides.
The grownups hit the poolside and the bar that opens at 10 am.
Daddy was somewhat congested and seemed to pick up a bit of a cold, but it in no way was going to hold him back from enjoying the sunshine.
Here is a shot of the ocean, as seen from my favourite view - looking at the ends of my feet.
Here's daddy and Big C sharing some 'happy drink' (daddy's having his new favourite called a hummingbird which did indeed have a little extra in it).
And here's Monkey just relaxing and enjoying the warmth.
Jamaica rocked.
Monkey even said that it was better than Disney, except for Splash Mountain that is.

The new blanket-sort of

Monkey recently complained to his g-maw that his blanket had recently gotten smaller and no longer covered his feet. G-maw, being familiar with the common extention of 7 year olds feet agreed to add to the ends of the blanket for him.

He requested orange yarn. It doesn't match at all, but hey, it is his blanket, so she complied. She

We be Jammin' - Day Six

On the sixth day in Jamaica we had patterns pretty well established.
There was Clinton the omelette guy who made everyone super yummy breakfasts.Here are Doodle and his buddy Ry-ry enjoying some of it:
Marsha, the sandwich lady, set us up for lunch after we'd taken in the waterslides in the morning or gone snorkelling or played chess on the big chess board.
Berriss, the bartender, served up Monkey his happy drinks (strawberry daquiris) on a regular basis, though thankfully wouldn't give him one for daddy that included rum.
We lazed our days away at the beachside or poolside and the boys would happily come down the slides, stay in the current until they made it to the shallow section, and the hustle back up for another ride. They must have gone on as much as 300 times a day. Here's daddy taking Ry-ry for a go since he wasn't quite a good enough swimmer to make it on his own
We also took in the little kids area, where all of them could touch the bottom all of the time - which meant that we could totally relax in the sun and enjoy each other's company.
As supper approached we'd have a little down time, then feed the boys at the buffet. After dropping them off at the Kids Club, such as tonight when it was pirate night, we'd meet up with Ry-ry's parents for a grown-up supper. Thursday night featured the Carribean restaurant and pitcher's of 'Rock Steady Baby's. They were awesome! Some rum, lime juice and pineapple juice....mmmmmm.
We had another fabulous day in the sun and warmth.
May it never end :)