It's been awhile...

It's been while since I've updated this old blog.  

Probably because nothing is new, we are all stuck inside because of the snow that never ends.  

It was warmer in Alaska than it was in Michigan this week.  No lie.  

Everyone keeps saying our girls our twins...I don't think so!

Elise on the left, Charlotte on right.  Same jammies.  :-)

Now that Charlotte can sit up they can take a bath together.  Elise was so excited.  She likes to "help" wash her sister.  It's so cute. 

Oh hi guys. 

We've entered the world of baby food.  We have yet to master the spoon.  

They have the same TV face.  

My neck is healing.  It's rarely painful anymore. 

And snuggly sleeping babies are the just the best thing ever.  

Mmmm Panera. 

Elise likes to climb in Charlotte's crib after naps.  Little Sis kinda likes it. 

Not a huge fan of bananas.  

Another Sunday afternoon success.  She was snoring.  

This baby is smothered in kisses daily. 

Life lately...

Last week was "bring someone you love" day at preschool.  

She picked her daddy.  Good pick, Elise.  He's pretty awesome.  He calls all the doctors and makes charts to make sure I take all the right pills at the right time.  He does all the paperwork will all the bills and insurance stuff.  He googles everything and tells me all the important stuff. Our Valentines day will probably consist of me taking some pain pills and heading to bed early, but I have everything I could ever ask for.  

Sorry.  I'm all emotional these days.  

Charlotte can sit up like a big girl now!  

Okay baby girl, stop growing up now. 

The state of the scar.  Slowly getting better.  Slowly feeling better.  Sometimes you just have to snuggle your baby extra long before putting them in bed at night.  This baby, you guys....perfection.  

Also she has graduated to a new bath seat.  

She was super excited about that.  

Yesterday my mom took Elise to her house to play for the day so It was just me and Charlotte all day.  She thinks I'm funny.  

Home again.

Figured it was about time for an update.  

We got home Saturday afternoon - and since then I've spent a lot of time snuggling my girls and taking it easy.

 I had the drain removed from my neck which made me like ten times more comfortable.  I'm pretty stiff and sore, and the lovely incision on my neck goes from the front left side to below my right ear.  Shouldn't be too noticeable once it's healed up.  Everyday gets a little better.  I'm so happy to be home again. 

Elise is around too.  She just doesn't stay still long enough for me take pictures.  :)

This little honey is still the sweetest babe around.  She graduated to the big girl bath seat tonight. 

Mayo - Day 3

It's Rach again.  Feeling much more coherent today. The eight inch long incision on my neck looks pretty gruesome, but the pain is under control.  Today was just a rest and heal day.  Very boring.  We took a few walks around the floor and tried some kale chips at lunch.  Not very delicious. 

We met with the doctor again tonight. Final pathology came back and confirmed everything we were told yesterday.   The lovely drain in my neck still is draining more than 35 ml's in a 24 hour period so I will be staying overnight.  I will be discharged tomorrow and will likely go home with the drain in place and have it removed in Grand Rapids.  

We are meeting with the Endriconologist at 1:30 tomorrow and will start our drive home after that.  The plan is to go halfway and then finish up on Saturday.  

We got to FaceTime both our girls today!   Charlotte definitely recognized us and gave some big smiles - to daddy especially! Just the cutest thing.  Elise is having a blast too - she even got to visit kindergarten with grandma. 

Huge thanks to my mom and the Gootes for taking such good care of my girls.   We love you! 

Surgery Update

Post by Brian while Rachel is recovering...

Surgery this morning went well.  We checked into the hospital at 5:45 am this morning for all the prep work.  Surgery began a little after 8:30 am and was over about three hours later.   The report from the doctor was that everything went as planned; they were able to do everything they wanted to do.   While the left half of the thyroid showed no indication of cancer, they still remove that as a standard part of treatment.   They also took out 25-30 lymph nodes, all from either the center or right of her neck.   The good news was that there was no indication of anything on the left side and there are hundreds of lymph nodes in the neck so these won't be missed.  They did tests on some of the lymph nodes they removed and confirmed the diagnosis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma rather than Medullary.

Six hours after surgery Rachel is still a little groggy and has some pain which is expected.   Fortunately, they are being generous with the pain meds which should allow her to sleep tonight.   We meet with the surgeons tomorrow morning and then with the endocrinologist on Friday morning.   The expectation is that she will have two nights in the hospital and then we will head home in Friday.   We still have a lot to learn about next steps and follow-up.

Thank you for all your notes, thoughts and prayers.

It was a good day.

Mayo is huge.  And Busy.  We've said multiple times we feel like we're in an airport. 

I kind of wish everyone would wear a sign around their neck with the reason they're here. There are a LOT of people here.  And I'm guessing that no one is just vacationing in Rochester, Minnesota in February. 

Our first appointment this morning was bright and early at 8am.  After we parked in the completely wrong ramp and had to walk through a maze of buildings and tunnels we made it to the 12th floor of the Gonda Bullding at Mayo.  

The first doctor pretty much shocked us right off the bat: I do not have the rare and weird medullary thyroid cancer, I have regular old papillary thyroid cancer, stage ONE.  The pathologists at Mayo re-did all of the pathology from my surgery at Spectrum, double and triple checked, and concluded that my original diagnosis was wrong.  That's a really really good thing.  

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is likely a result of the radiation I had three years ago, but he also said this type of cancer takes 2-5 years to get to the current state its at now, and some people never even know they have it.  Basically - no one dies from PTC.  

I had a blood draw and an ultrasound of my neck, followed by a 1.5 hour long meeting with an endocrinologist with a Scottish accent.  He said things like "it's bloody cold" and "bollocks" and randomly swore at the people in Grand Rapids who, according to him, had no idea what they were doing.  It made the conversation that much more interesting.  He comfirmed that we have the top surgeon for the type of surgery we are doing, like the very best in the whole country. There will be some drugs required to fill in for my missing thyroid, but overall this is, once again, one of the better cancers to be have to deal with.  So now I have had two of the "best kinds of cancer to get".  Points for me. 

Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow sometime.  We are anticipating two nights of recovery and discharge on Friday.    Thanks for all of your support, thoughts and prayers as we deal with this.

We will update again tomorrow!

charlotte {5 months}

Back to some regularly scheduled programming...

I'm working on this post on the road about three hours away from Mayo.  I'm pretty sure we're in Wisconsin...there are a lot of signs for cheese.  

Also I just learned that even numbered highways run east/west and odd numbered highways run north/south.  How did I not know this? My dad is still a fountain of mostly useful information.  Also the app iExit is amazing. We found an exit with a gas station, Dairy Queen (for the boys), and Starbucks (for me) all in the same parking lot. 

(Sidenote: Man I love my iPhone.)

Our sweet Charlotte is five months old!

This month she found her piggy toes, worked on her impressive thigh rolls, and mastered rolling from her tummy to back. 

 

She loves open mouth kisses and slobbering on your face.  She soaks multiple bibs a day with drool.   

When she's tired I can put her in the magic position and her eyes will close like a baby doll.  She has recently decided she doesn't like car rides anymore, despite the fact she is now high rolling in a super sweet minivan.  

And we think she's pretty much the cutest baby ever. 

We just love this little peanut to pieces.