Ready, Set, Prep!

In less than 3 weeks I am undergoing a major surgery to improve my quality of life. I am so tired of the pain, constant discomfort and embarrassment that comes along with having large breasts and can't wait to change that! I am looking forward to holding my family closer. Now is the time for preparation. The advantage of knowing ahead of time of when the surgery is and how long the recovery time is that I can prepare my house and my family for this transition.

This week I have been cleaning and trying to organize the house too. If someone asks me where something is, I wanted to be able to tell them. I also cleaned out my fridge so that it is ready to stock up with the foods that my husband and I are going to prepare ahead of time and groceries I will need to have on hand for my never completely full babies. I need to work on the kids rooms and make their clothes easy to find and tell my husband and my kids the system so they can also find what ever they are looking for.

Though it sometimes seems like a short time, I will be out of commission for 2-4 weeks. With the 1st week being completely out of commission for myself, but more importantly, my family. I am very nervous about how all the pieces need to come together for this so that I can heal properly and yet also not have my family, or my children without meals, transportation and general care. It will be hard not to hold them, pick them up and care for them as I have. Sophia will have the hardest time with it, but we are working on preparing her more and more each week as it gets closer. In the grand scheme of things, I have been waiting a really long time to have this done and now we all just have to suffer through 2-4 short weeks and it will all be better. That is what I keep telling myself anyway!

Luckily, I have an awesome church and friends that are willing to help me get back on my feet and fully functional. I am so thankful for them and would not be able to do this without them!  I am also planning on using that same group from church and friends to pray for my surgery, my recover and ease my fears of anything tragic happening that end my life instead of improving it. Unfortunately it is a risk and one I worry about alot. But I am trying to improve my life, my health and keep up with my kids and since the risk is small, I am praying for a successful outcome!

With this surgery is a lot of other changes I am making. I am aware that my breasts are not the only trouble spot on my body and I have already started many changes to transform the rest of me too, but most of that work will start after surgery and recovery. I have been working out for a couple years, I started making major changes in my diet since this summer and plan on stepping all of these things up a few notches after I am recovered. Well, the eating the right things can start right away, but the working out will be a gradual process to get to the level that changes start taking place in my stomach, arms and legs. I am going to take a picture of myself tomorrow and will have some progress by June, but hoping for even more progress one year from today.

2013 is my year for improving me and my family at the same time. Brian is on board with me for our new healthy eating and we are researching new ways to make it easier. Hopefully I can get  my kids to eat healthier and luckily they already love to exercise! If you have any ideas, we are considering all options at this point! Four days prior to my surgery

I still have a lot more preparation to do with meals, chaildcare and planinng, but now that Christmas is over, preparation is my number one priority! 

Happy New Year to all of you!

Sea World

 

We were so excited to go to Sea World with my parents and the kids. Brian had to go to Orlando for a week for work so we tagged along with him and then invited my parents up from Port St Lucie to join us! We tried to keep it a secret from the kids, but as soon as James heard we were going to Florida, he knew Grammie and Poppy would be there!

We had an awesome time seeing all the Orcas, turtles and dolphins. All 3 kids love all animals so much it was really neat for them to see them up close! I would do this trip again in a minute!

death defying!

Well, after a very stressful week of thinking I was dying, I found out I have a hemagioma. See definition below. So I went to the ER with stomach pains and the ER said they thought it was either Apendicitis or Kidney stones. After some tests they said itwas not either of those and sent me home, but right before I left they said there is a spot of some sort on your liver, tell your doctor about it and get it checked out. So I worried at first and went to the doctor right away, but she said, it could be anything from nothing to something serious so lets just wait and see what the radiologist says and we will get back to you. So after a couple days of not hearing anything I kind of started to relax a bit until Monday morning when a nurse called first thing and said I needed to go to Northside and get an MRI of my liver ASAP. I was disappointed that my doctor was not in so I could not ask the million questions going thru my mind, but she said that they were faxing over the order to northside and I needed to go there as soon as I could make an appointment. THAT made me really worried. I called my husband and booked the appointment for the next morning. In the past when I have needed an MRI or any other test I either picked up the doctors order or they mailed it then I made the appointment and the fact that they were faxing it and not allowing enough time for me to pick it up or for it to be mailed made me worry even more!

So all week after the MRI my mind was racing with all these thoughts and of course I researched the internet and decided I was dying. I started making a list of all the things I needed to do before I died and none of them involved like skydiving or trip around the world, they were all to get thigns in order for my kids and my husband. I went into a huge panic depression over maybe not seeing important events in my kids lives to maybe not evening seeing any of my kids hit double digits. And my poor husband, working his tail off at work to race home and figure out 3 kids, he would be so stressed all the time and all alone. So I was thinking of joining eharmony and finding him a new wife, or at least getting the process started. Maybe I should have just looked into mail order brides- something!

I had all these ideas of recordings I wanted to leave the kids and when was I going to have time for that in between treatments and actually spending time with them. I wanted to make sure I got caught up on their photobooks and keepsakes. I, at this time, am not dying and I am so thankful, more than ever because there is so much to do in such a short time. If I would have had liver cancer, they usually barely make it 6 months, and if you are lucky barely make it 5 years and that was just so overwhelming. The sad thing is, there are people out there who have to think about these things and my heart goes out to them and their families. I am so thankful that I dont have to do all of these things right now and can just spend time loving my kids and my husband and not taking them forgranted and pray for those who have this burden.

So after several days of all this huge stress, they call and say it is hemangioma- it is not cancerous! I was so excited. Beyond excited. THANK YOU GOD!

According to the Mayo Clinic is ---A liver hemangioma is made up of a tangle of blood vessels. Most cases of liver hemangioma are discovered during a test or procedure for some other condition. Most people who have a liver hemangioma never experience signs and symptoms and never need treatment.
So there you have it, NON CANCEROUS! Yeah. But of course they scare the crap out of you before you know this outcome and it is very stressful!