State of the House ~ September

Its almost November so I'm determined to wrap up September and October very soon. Its always pretty eventful around here, we just never know what flavor of crazy it will be. Right in the middle of the three kids playing on six different sports teams, I had pain. Even though I sought help within 24 hours, it still ended up being what felt like a very drawn-out process. I'll save most of the tedious details but thought I should share just a bit since it consumed us for half of September and most of October.

On a Friday night I went to bed feeling fine but woke up around 1 AM in severe pain and unable to go back to sleep. That Saturday I drove a car full of kids to a Junior Bible Quiz meet and coached and then went home and straight to bed. Again I woke about midnight and asked Shaun to bring me to the ER. They got us right in and started on all the tests (blood, CT Scan, Ultrasound). It was so odd to be back in the scene that is so familiar, while at the same time it felt like we'd never left.

By 5:30 AM they still didn't have all the results back, so we told them we were going home to sleep and would call later in the day. We went home to sleep for three hours and when we got up we saw we'd missed several calls from the ER doctor, who insisted we get right back to the hospital.

When we arrived, they whisked us into pre-surgery mode, still completely unsure what was wrong. The surgeon on call came in to speak with us. He had a suspicion it was an ovarian torsion, but was hesitant to operate because he said it is usually accompanied by the doubled-over, unable-to-talk kind of pain. Doctors and nurses kept asking me what my pain was on the 0-10 scale. What I've learned over the years is, by God's grace, I have a very high pain tolerance, such that I only have two rankings on the scale. Either: its not bad, I will deal with it until it goes away. Or: it woke me up in the middle of the night, something a tornado tearing off the wall in my bedroom couldn't do and I'm here at the ER/doctor seeking help that is a hassle and I'll have to pay out-of-pocket for,

We were sent home and told to followup with my doctor on Monday. That began a series of tests and appointments and waiting and wondering and pain. For the sake of each other we all tried to play it cool but we've done the mom's-in-life-altering-pain thing before and it didn't turn out well. Sweet little Aiden would ask me everyday how I was feeling, but he'd work it into conversation and ask, almost as an after-thought. It was so sweet and also broke my heart that the kids had to be facing this again.

Because the blood work came back with elevated tumor markers and surgery was being discussed, we opted to go back to Sloan. Three weeks after first experiencing pain I had surgery in NYC. A result of a surgery I had before radiation four years ago, one ovary had twisted long enough to cut off blood supply. Additionally, an infection was growing causing my appendix to get involved. Post-surgery I'm down a couple organs, but all the pathology came back clear! The first words I could hear and understand as I was waking from anesthesia was "no cancer!" from my nurse. Cause for rejoicing!!

The rest of September was getting back in the swing of school and figuring out six different sports schedules. Grateful for active kids!

On surgery day I wore this shirt in honor of my friend who has been battling for more than four years. It was my little way of showing her she is thought of and not forgotten.

Love. It looks like rides and meals and childcare and texting and sending flowers and praying.