On a More Serious Note

I know some you you already know what is going on with me medically, either by word of mouth or following my facebook, but I wanted to fill in those of you that don't.

Back in May, out of nowhere my blood pressure skyrocketed for two weeks straight. I went to the nurse practitioner and she put me on a diuretic temporarily to bring it down. While I was there I had her check the lymph node below the right side of my right jaw because it was still enlarged after the fine needle biopsy done on it eight months earlier. After examining my neck, I was surprised to hear her say that she wanted to have my thyroid checked. Though I was sure this wasn't the problem, I went to the lab and had the blood work done.The results were sent to my physician and I made an appointment to see him. I met with him and got my numbers back from the blood tests. Everything was normal. He, however, was still not convinced and ordered an ultrasound to be done both on the thyroid and the lymph area. And this is where we finally started to figure things out. It turned out there was a mass measuring 1cm on the right side of my thyroid. The lymph was also enlarged, but otherwise showed no signs of abnormalities. I then had the biopsy w/ ultrasound done on my thyroid and on the lymph area. All my results were sent to an ENT (ear, nose, throat doc) that I was then referred to. Justin and I met with him and he told me that while the lymph still checked out fine, the mass on the thyroid was a follicular neoplasm, meaning it was a suspicious growth and in order to find out if it is cancer, we would need to remove it along with the right side of my thyroid. Though we were relieved to finally have some answers, the thought of surgery was not appealing. So we got two more opinions, one from an Endocrinologist in Denver, and another ENT in the Springs. Everyone said the same thing: we needed the surgery. In the meantime, had an MRI done on my neck to make sure nothing else was wrong. So here we are now four months later...I have surgery scheduled for September 24th (Happy Birthday to me!) @ 7:30am. They will remove the right side of my thyroid, and while I am under, have it sent up to Pathology to have it tested for cancer. If it is not cancerous, they will close me up and I will be finished. If it is, they will remove the other side. I will then have to follow up with one treatment of a radiation iodine and have a thyroid scan of my body to check for any spreading. I will also have to be on medication the rest of my life. Everything looks very promising though, and even if it is cancer, we are pretty sure we caught it early enough that this should the end of it. We will continue to keep everyone posted. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we get closer to that day. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
A side note: My blood pressure has never been high before or since, even after stopping the medication. Wierd, huh?

Summer Fun

Another summer has come and gone, and we had a great one this year! I wanted to share some random moments along with a great little video of Erica falling asleep while eating.

Going fishing at Quail Lake down the street.

A visit to John Bishop Castle.

Looking cute

One of Erica's favorite hiding spots.

Ahh...the laundry basket--more fun than any toy.

Playing at the Julie Penrose Fountain

What a great (free) place for kids in the summer.

Jade's first day of Kindergarten. She's getting so big!

Father's Day Video

With the help of my brother-in-law Sean, I was able to create a video for Justin for Father's Day. Hope you enjoy--we sure did!

Note: It's 11 minutes long.

Denver Botanic Gardens

This summer, the Botanic Gardens featured Jurassic Gardens. Jade loved hunting for all the hidden dinosaur bones and statues throughout the park.

All the rain we have had this year just made everything that much greener. It was absolutely beautiful!

The dragonflies were amazing (If you like that sort of thing)

Times like this I wish I were a professional photographer with one of those fancy cameras. It was impossible to capture all the beauty.

It was nice to cool off by the water. It was an extremely hot day. Worst of all, I didn't think to bring water or snacks. It's a good thing Aunt Karen was prepared!

Aunt Karen with Erica and Joseph. What a fun day! Always good to catch events like this on a free day.