Post Surgery Update

** this is a disclaimer to those with weak stomachs, if you have one I highly suggest not reading this post **


Its been almost a month since my surgery. Good news is it was cancer free! YEA!!! Bad news, its got infected or so the Doc thinks (I'll get to this part). They had to reopen the incision, put me on antibiotics and I (really its Bret) get to pack it until it heals from the inside out. Awesome... well kinda.

Two days after the stitches were removed I woke up to this....

And no that is not a goiter or a second chin, its the infected area. So I called the Doc and he said come in asap. I got there and he felt it, said we have to open it up. (what?) He numbed me up and where he poked me liquid almost immediately started leaking from the area. I waited in the room for about 5 minutes (long enough to go numb) when he came back in handed me a metal bowl and asked me to hold it under my neck just in case... good thing he handed me that bowl because as soon as he cut me open the bowl started filling up with this mixture of infection residue and an oil looking substance. (Perfect) As the bowl continued to fill he began saying how unusual this was and that he had never seen anything like it (oh even better) He then started in on what I needed to do to hopefully get it taken care of. (hopefully?... okay) Packing it daily with medicated gauze and covering it up with a massive piece of gauze for the leakage that would be coming from the wound. But to also keep in mind that since he had never seen the type of liquid that came out that it could be part of the cyst still producing fluid. (awesome)

not the best picture, but you can see the HUGE piece of gauze that is attached to my neck

I have been going in 2 times a week since and yesterday when I was there my hole is smaller (yea!) But when he was cleaning it before repacking, he removed what looked like a really long clear elastic unbreakable spaghetti noodle. He said he needed to ask another doc about whether this was a normal thing to be coming out of the area and that after talking to him he would let me know whether or not they need to go back in and see if there is still part of the cyst that is producing this strange substance. (Great) He then thanked me for being such a good sport about the whole thing (HELLO what else can I do?) And said he would call me by Friday to let me know what the new plan was.

So tomorrow I find out my fate.. to be honest I dont really care what he says as long as I dont have to wear these the rest of my life!!

McKinley Baby is 3!!

I cannot believe that 3 years ago my life forever changed. This beautiful little girl was brought into this world and I now see the world completely different.

For her birthday we celebrated by going to Chucky Cheese and then had a few friends over for a little party on Saturday.

Happy Birthday Kin Kin!!! Mom loves you!

Happy Love Day

For Valentines Day we decided it would be fun (and to hopefully avoid the crowds) to take the kids out. Since it landed on a Sunday this year we went out on Saturday night to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

They both seemed to enjoy it and McKinley was very afraid of all the BIG BIG 'Roars' as she called them. Tait loved being able to run around and see the fish and next time Bret and I go we will leave the kids home so we can read all about the different animals.

McKinley's First Day of School!

I can hardly believe that McKinley is going to school. Most parents usually have preschool before real school. But because of McKinley's speech therapy which she had graduated from (the Speech Therapist that comes to our home) She is now in actual public school Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We met her teacher on Tuesday and she invited McKinley to start today. She handed me a packet with all sorts of papers to fill out and a calendar with what the class has planned for the rest of the month. I was a bit overwhelmed and had a hard time believing that this was happening so soon.
I was excited to take her picture on our front porch with her backpack on. (which she absolutely LOVES) But mother nature had different plans and snowed on us so we took the picture inside. Here she is ready for her first day!!

Over all she seemed to enjoy it. For her first day they passed out Valentines and it was also spring picture day. I enjoyed some one on one time with Tait too. Tait on the other hand cried when we left without McKinley and now all they have done is fought since she's been home.

She's a Big Girl Now!!

Yup she's toilet trained!!! WAHOOO!!!!
She was more excited for her Mermaid doll that FINALLY came off the fridge!

Miss McKinley

Little Miss McKinley loves to get all dressed up. As her mom I have to say I love the dresses and bows, flowers, boots, etc. that make her look so dang cute.
So here is my ode' to cute little girls!!!

Pink Eye

This morning our kids woke up with Pink Eye. It was very sad to see them with all the green goop that pink eye brings. We took them in to the Dr. and she quickly gave us a prescription and told us to get the heck out of there.
When we got home my family was there disinfecting and cleaning our house and they even cooked us lunch.

We were pretty sad that we were able to go to the Super Bowl party we had planned. But instead we made 7 layer dip, homemade chocolate chip cookies and watched it just the 4 of us.

The Cyst

Tuesday I went in for surgery to have a cyst that was in my neck removed.

I thought I would take a minute and write the story behind the cyst. When I was in high school I was in choir.. not just one choir, a lot of choirs. I also performed out side of high school, not including the extras that high school choirs brought (ensembles, solos, special choirs, etc.) When I was a senior I was selected to be a member of All-State Choir. I cant even begin to tell you how excited I was to be a part of this amazing choir with other students from around the state that were selected to go. We went to early Saturday morning 6am practices at Alta High School with other students from our district to learn our parts. On top of all state I was a member of the A Capella and Madrigal Choirs. I also had a vocal coach who I met with weekly and performed with him and my 'class' after school every other week. It was in the middle of doing all of this.. which at the time I did not think was all that much since I seemed to manage my time and still hang out with friends on the weekends and get good grades... that I had a swelling in my throat. It was HUGE... I would easily say that it was the size of a golf ball if not a Clementine. I went to an ENT where he told me that my vocal cords were swollen due to "excessive use" He put me on steroids for my vocal cords and I was not allowed to talk louder or softer than my regular voice or sing for 3? weeks, until further follow up with him. The steroids seemed to work magic and cutting back on singing... I was after all a complete choir nerd and couldn't imagine not singing for weeks... seemed to do the trick. I never thought about the bump again until...

I was pregnant with Tait. I walked in the mornings with a neighbor friend, even on red burn days. I figured it was swelling again because of things like singing in the ward choir, a solo I had just done a few weeks before, and the smog. Either way Bret told me to go see a doctor to get it taken care of. I tried to find the doctor I had originally gone too so he could pull my records and see. After seeing about 4 doctors and speaking to many not so patient secretaries in attempt to find him. I found out he had since retired and his son had taken over the practice. So I went to him. None of these crazy doctors could tell me what was wrong. They never gave me any medication, any treatment, no tests to do, nothing. I gave one final attempt to see and found Dr. Bradly. He figured it was because of heart burn, due to pregnancy, but just to be safe wanted to run a CT scan. But since I was pregnant the techs wouldn't do the test.

I gave up and it never went away.

After losing weight last year the bump became more noticeable, at least to me. In some pictures I could see it and it really began bothering me. After mentioning it to my dad.. who has had tumor in his salivary gland.. he told me I really needed to go get it checked out. I went back to Dr. Bradly and he said instead of running test after test to see what it is, if I really hate it to just take it out and then run the tests. That way if it was something serious it would be gone and if it wasn't serious it wouldnt bother me again.

So here I sit with a huge bandage over my throat, with a 4 inch incision, part of my hyoid bone now gone (since the cyst had attached itself to it) and I couldn't be happier that in a few weeks I wont even be thinking about this silly cyst that has been with me for the last 8 years of my life. Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed that it is cancer free.