Hmmm, looks like I’m at an every 6month blog schedule.  With the amount of time I’ve been stuck on my tush these past 2 weeks, I really should have been on before.  If anyone remembers, my wee ones, Kyra (Kear-ah) and Spencer are now 6 and 4!  My princess is now in 1st grade!!  When I look back at my first entries here, Spencer was months from being born (like 9 of ‘em).  I was thinking back to some of the blogs that I read, and I know that some of those kiddos are now in college, and probably even beyond by now.  How does that happen?!? 

I’m now officially a Physician Assistant!  I work essentially as a pediatrician and definitely love my job.  I can honestly say that I have never made that statement before.  It was worth the headache of school, commuting and stress to get where I am now.  I do have to learn Spanish now….the majority of the patients in the practice I work at are Hispanic.  Thankfully all of our techs and nurses speak Spanish…just takes a little long for us to get through all the questions and answers.  I totally love the newborn baby visits!!!  =)  I get to snuggle and give ‘em back to their sleep-deprived parents.  heh heh

Well, my entertainment has arrived (my kiddos)

Hmmm, I have absolutely nothing to say.    But when has that every stopped me?  I have a busy week planned.  I’m heading out to Willow Creek in Illinois (a HUGE church) for a conference on children’s ministry.  Pretty cool and I’m excited, but sad that I’m going to be away from the kiddos for the week.  My hubby has been soo busy at work writing a huge 500 some odd page proposal for the gov’t to puruse (along with 12 others), that I’ve barely seen him in the past couple weeks.  Just when he’s going to be finished, I’m jetting off to Chicago.  *sigh*

Should be interesting in this house while I’m gone.  Kyra has hair down to her waist…guess she’ll be looking a tad scraggly this week as I don’t see daddy all of a sudden figuring out the whole barrette/pony tail bit.  I also forsee some interesting outfits picked by the young princess.  I’m shaking my head, but I will put some together as, er, road maps.  uh yeah, that’s gonna work.  Spence is always a challenge in the AM.  He’d prefer running around in his underwear, chasing his sister or being chased to actually getting dressed.  I have a popped vein in my forehead as proof.  Then, there’s the lunch decision….is Kyra going to bring or buy.  (Kindergarten is all day here.)  Her decisions are usually based on what she thinks her best buddy Noah, a sweet little girl, would do.  Of course Spencer needs a lunch too.  He’d eat ham and cheese forever if possible.  I think a 1/2 pound should last till I get home, I hope.

And, if the in-laws come to “help” while I’m gone…I’m going to have to clean the whole daggone house.  Crap.  It still won’t matter.  Eh, atleast I won’t be here to hear the complaints.    Plus, there’s leaving the reminders to help Kyra with her homework packet for the week.  Gymnastics on thursday…don’t forget the outfit, plus the massive quantity of food/drink/entertainment needed for both kiddos.  And, don’t forget dinner…I may go easy on the guy and set some meals up for him.  He certainly deserves it for letting me go on this trip at the last minute.  I found out Friday. 

Alrighty, that’s about it.  Hope y’all are doing well.

Wow, it has been super long since I was last here.  Lots has happened…but here’s a summary if anyone is still out there. 

• I graduated from my physician assistant program, passed my boards and am officially licensed to practice medicine in Maryland. 
  
• My cancer is gone!  Although I will still have to undergo testing for basically ever, things look great right now.
  
• My daughter is in kindergarten.  *gasp*  Yeah, the little peanut is a big girl now.
  
• My son is now 3.5 yrs old…I started writing here when I was preggers with him.  Man how time flies!
  
• I’m seriously considering taking a position at my church as the Nursery/Preschool Director.  Yes, that would mean all that time and education to becoming a PA would be, er, not used.
  
• I’m probably happier now than I have been in a very long time.  My husband is a big part of that, along with my kiddos.  Our church is also a huge reason, I finally feel like I’m a part of something bigger than me.  It’s a great feeling!

I hope all is well with everyone.  I’m going to try and go and do my ’rounds. 

A semi-recent picture of the fam

Yipes, I hadn’t realized it had been soo long since my last post.  Things have certainly been crazy and I think my head has finally stopped spinning.  For atleast the time being, that is.  So, on the 20th of December they took the remaining lobe of my thyroid out and that surgery was sooooooo much better than the first one.  I went to Georgetown the 2nd time and would recommend it without hesitation.  There was thankfully no cancer in that tissue, yeah, so I was all ready to get things going.  I guess it was about 7 weeks after that that I did the radio-iodine treatment.  I was in the hospital for about 1 day, I had to stay overnight ’cause I was too “hot” to be out in public.  heh heh  Seriously, they measured me by geiger counter!! 

The follow-up scan did show “uptake” in my lymph nodes and possibly in the esophagus and stomach.  But, as I found out, nuclear medicine is called UnClear Medicine for a reason, they don’t know what that uptake means.  uh, yeah.  I’m supposed to go for follow-up (was supposed to 3 weeks ago and missed that appt thanks to a screw-up with the referral) to determine what we do next.

As you can see, I’m not too freaked about this.  God’s been watching out for me and my family…in many ways.  I do thank you all for your kind words and prayers.  They mean a lot to me. 

You know how when you start at this blogging thing, you think that you will always write about certain things in your life.  You develop a style and that’s how you think things will stay?  I know when I started this blog in 2001, I was stunned, as was the nation, from the terrorist attacks.  Then I became pregnant with our second child.  So, it was natural that I went from writing about how those acts of terror changed me, to how this second child was going to change me.  Then, it became about how school was changing me.  Well, the latest change was something I never thought I would have to write about.  I’ve read a number of blogs that focused on the subject and was always empathetic, but always extremely grateful I never had to write about “that”.  So, now I will.

Turns out I am in that 20%, and I have thyroid cancer.  There is nothing worse in this world than having to tell your husband, friends and family that you have cancer.  Fortunately for me, thyroid cancer is THE most curable of cancers.  (If you have the type I do, and not Rhenquist, that is.)  So, there it is.  I have cancer, and I’m extremely optomistic that I will be writing a blog in one year that says, “I no longer have cancer.” 

I anxiously await that blog, and I will keep you all posted about what is going on with me.  I wrote up a document about thyroid cancer, the type I have, and the treatment that lies ahead.  If anyone would like a copy, let me know and I’ll email it to you.

Have a blessed day!

Hey all, just wanted to give an update about my thyroid surgery.  It was last Thursday and I’m recovering nicely.  The preliminary report from the pathology lab is that the nodule was a follicular neoplasm…that’s good and bad news.  About 20% of them are cancerous, but I’m praying that I’m in the majority and it’s not cancer.    I’m supposed to get my stitches out on Friday…and I’m truly not looking forward to that ordeal…there are a LOT of stitches and my doctor is not exactly brimming over with compassion and empathy.  (I chose her simply because she gave the most thorough explanation about the nodule and what surgery would entail.)

Anyhoo, I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I know I am counting my blessings this year.

Ok, ignore the messy house…aren’t these kiddos adorable?  Yeah, so I’m biased, so what.    Spence insisted on the Elmo hat at the last minute…who knew Spiderman wore an Elmo hat??  Kyra was a princess ballerina, again.  She wore the outfit, minus tiara and sparkles, to dance class earlier that day and insisted on keeping it on.  Silly girl.

Y’all have a super week.

Seems like I’m just going to be posting once a month.  *sheesh*  School is purty much kicking my tail.  I accidently missed a quiz for my on-line portion of my master’s program…effectively blew off 15 points of my grade.  Dangit.  Brilliant, eh?  Sometimes, I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with myself. 

I’m now in my “medicine” rotation…I think all of the rotations are medical, but maybe I’m just silly.    I’m in the ICU at a local medical center that is also a trauma center.  So, I have patients who have been involved in some horrific accidents – car accidents, motorcycle accidents, shootings, jumpings, botched suicide attempts.  Not to mention the strokes, heart surgery, terminal cancers…  It is pretty tough to see soo much suffering, and most of that is in the families. 

I’ve decided that my children will never ride a motorcycle, ever.  Even if you do wear a helmet, there are soo many things that can go wrong.  Scares the crap outta me that they will also one day drive a car.  I know that I can’t keep them in a bubble, but I hope that I will be able to instill in them the proper ideals. 

As a Christian, it’s also very difficult to understand whether a person should be allowed to die when there is no hope for recovery, or should the family really and truly have us do everything in our power to keep them alive – and when I say alive, I mean on a ventilator, with feeding tubes, and IVs, and tubes from other areas of the body to allow for waste collection.  That person is never going to recover…but how do I know that God won’t choose that person for a miracle?  Is it right for that family to foster false hopes, or are they even false?  Argh, this really is tough, you know?

Alright, I’ve been enough of a downer.  I’m going to go read some of y’all to cheer me up!  Y’all stay cool, y’hear?

Well, my surgery is scheduled for Nov. 18th…pending approval of my professors.  Laughable that I can’t even schedule surgery when I want but have to ok it with them.  Royce wants it done NOW, and frankly so do I, but I know if I had it done during my next rotation, I would miss soo much time that I would end up repeating the entire thing.  Not a good idea.

Things around here are the same as always.  The kiddos are awesome, a bit sad at how little I’m getting to see them on certain days of the week, but we’re doing ok.  Kyra started dance class at church last week and it was sooo darn cute!  Can’t beat free when it comes to activities like that.  Plus, she looked adorable in her little leotard and ballet slippers. 

Well, got bunches of work to do now that the master’s portion of my program has kicked in.  Take care!

So far so good, the biopsy revealed that the nodule is not cancer.  There is still a slim chance that it could be, but that won’t be definite until they do the surgery to remove the nodule and that half of my thyroid.  I’m putting off the surgery until Nov/Dec so it doesn’t interfere with my schoolwork/rotations.

God is truly awesome!