The LAST c-word update!!

After being pricked and prodded and tested all over, I am happy to say that I am DONE with all of my doctors appointments and I've been declared cancer-free!!! I am so very grateful for all of the calls, cards, texts, and emails... and of course all of the prayers! I feel so thankful that this was caught early and therefore easy to take care of! All praise and honor to the Lord- who made me and knows me completely, and gave me a sense of peace and protection throughout the past 2 months.

Update on the C-word

I know many of you have been praying for me regarding the C-word (original post about it HERE... at the end)  I'm so thankful for all of the prayers, and emails and texts, and I've been promising an update.  There's not much new to report right now, but I did have an appointment with my GI doctor this week... the first time I've talked to him since that awful phone call.  He was very reassuring.  He said that the pathology report showed that the cancer "appears to be non-invasive" and that the cells originated in the colon where they were found, therefore they didn't travel from another place in my body.  He kept reiterating how fortunate we were to have found it when we did because if I had waited another year, "it would be a death sentence."  Scary stuff.  He's ordering some genetic testing on the sample so they can see what caused the cancer and give us an idea of how much our children and my sisters are at risk.  He says our kids will need colonoscopies every 3 years starting at age 22!  Sounds awful but colon cancer is hereditary, and at least we can use the knowledge we have to try to protect them.

So next up is a round of testing: blood work and a CT scan are scheduled for next week.  The good news is that if those come back clear then there's no need for me to see an oncologist.  I'll just need to have a colonoscopy every year.  I'm also scheduled for a sigmoidoscopy in a few weeks, which is similar to a colonoscopy.  The doctor will double check to make sure he removed every trace of the polyp from the colon wall and probably "cut more out."

I never really talked about what lead to all of this and I know that for some people this might be too much information.  The fact is that anything having to do with colon cancer is too much information!  There are a lot of "potty" words involved and usually I'm the one telling my kids not to say potty words and "don't be gross!" but I really feel like if I don't share everything, then I'm not doing my part in preventing this from happening to someone else.  Who knows, maybe you or someone you know could use this info.  So.  I went in to a have a regular check-up with a general doctor a couple of months ago. This was the first time in probably 6 years that I've been to a "regular" doctor because I've basically lived at the OB/GYN office through all of my pregnancies!  I mentioned to the doctor that I had noticed a little bit of blood after bowel movements.  Nothing major and not every time.  But it's been on and off for the last few years.  I did bring it up to my OB once or twice and they waved it off as hemorrhoids  which are very common during and after pregnancy, especially with twins!  But my twins are a year and a half old and it was still going on.  The doctor did a quick check for hemorrhoids and didn't find anything.  She said not to be alarmed, but that I should meet with a GI doctor.  So I set up an appointment, told him about my issue and his reply was, "I'm 99% sure it's just internal hemorrhoids.  We don't have to do a colonoscopy, but if you want to, we can.  No rush."  I put it off a few months but finally got it scheduled.  Oh how I wish I had done all of this sooner!  He said I did in fact have internal hemorrhoids, but of course I had this cancerous polyp also.  He also said it could've been the hemorrhoids that were causing the bleeding all along and how fortunate that it caused me to go in for a colonoscopy!  I didn't have any other symptoms.  So the moral of the story is, if there's anything strange going on, just go have it checked out.  Talk to a doctor about it and don't put it off.  Okay, getting off my soapbox and going to hug my kids.

Please pray next week that everything would go well with all of my tests!  I'm ready to have all of this over and done with.

Everyday when I wake up and feel this huge burden on my back, I remember to turn it over to God. He has offered to carry our heaviest burdens and our biggest worries. I am not weighed down by the "what-ifs", but I am covered by His peace.

November

To be honest I'm completely appalled that I didn't write a single blog post for the month of November. This may be the longest I've gone without posting since I started blogging about 6 years ago. I have a good excuse since I can truthfully say that November was one of the craziest months of my life, however I am still not pleased with myself since I use this blog to chronicle events in the life of our family so we can read back later. Anyways, I will give a short update on what all happened, along with a few pics. Right now I am sitting in South Africa and I have all the time in the world (will definitely write about that later) so I'm going to take the chance to write and then publish it later (no wi-fi at the moment).

At the beginning to November I was just starting work with Noonday Collection, which I am totally loving, and I was fortunate enough to have 4 trunk shows, along with a vendor fair, scheduled in the span of 7 days! It was pretty intense but I loved every minute! Then on the 8th we drove up to Clemson, South Carolina to meet up with my family and go to the Clemson homecoming game! Going to Clemson always feels like going home. It was so much fun to stay up in the mountains and spend time with my family, and then to meet up with friends that live in the area. Any time spent in Clemson is never enough!

"Who wants to drive to Clemson today?"  "MEEEEEEE"

My dear friend Emily and I... along with all of our kids!  Well, minus Lyla because she was sick.  :(

Clemson friends (the best kind) and our kiddos!  Wow!!

Our cabin... and the view!

Siena with the Tiger Cub

At the game!

the twinkies.

my folks.  Mom, if you're reading this, could you send me your pics?  All of mine (other than what was on my phone) got erased from our computer.  I'm sad that this is all I have!

The downside of that 6 day trip was that all 4 of the kids got sick (and their cousins too). I think they all had the flu and fortunately it wasn't too bad while we were there, but it carried over to the whole next week that we were home. So instead of returning to school, chase and Siena were home all week. Chase ended up getting strep throat as well. It was a terrible week of being stuck indoors with fevers and runny noses! It broke my heart to see them all so miserable!

The good news is that I somehow managed to escape catching anything and I was able to run in my half marathon the next weekend! It was my first time officially running a half. Even though I've been a runner my whole life, I just never had much desire to run that distance. 5k's and sprint triathlons are more my speed. But I've been running with a group of friends at the YMCA here in our neighborhood and they were all signing up so I jumped on board! It is so nice to have that group- we meet 3 mornings a week and the Y provides childcare while we go run. I've sort of felt like I had my old cross country team back... It's been a long time since I've had other girls to train with and I've missed it. Race weekend was lots of fun- a couple of us went over to St. Petersburg the night before and ate dinner and stayed the night. The race course was beautiful and included a run through Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play! I thought about Chase during that part since he loves the Rays so much. It was a great race and I finished in 1:50. I think that's good, although I don't have anything to compare it to! ;) but I was happy with how I ran. The only bad part of the whole race is that my good friend and running buddy Nicole hurt her hip and couldn't finish with me. :(



The next week was thanksgiving week and the kids were out of school (so they really didn't go much that month)! On Monday Eric stayed home from work because he was sick (may have been flu leftover!) and it was a good thing he did! Early that morning Lyla was climbing Chase's bunk bed ladder and fell and broke her leg! So the day was filled with doctors appointments! Poor little Lyla! She is always climbing and being adventurous, I guess it was bound to happen sometime!
We celebrated thanksgiving with our friends Jackie, John, Ava, JJ, and their friends and family from New York!

They were so sweet to have us over and I admit that I was happy not to have to cook a big meal! We brought a turkey and our fryer and a big crockpot full of Mac and cheese! The kids all had a blast playing together and we had fun hanging out with our friends and watching football. On Black Friday I hit the outlets with my good friend Laci! We had so much fun shopping and trying on clothes all morning!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we bought a Christmas tree and decorated the house!

And then the next Monday I had my colonoscopy (sigh). I could go into the whole reason for why I had this procedure, but everything to do with this subject seems like a little but too much information. So I will just say that everything went fine that day (I even had a trunk show that night!), but then a few days later I had a call from the doctor with some scary news: they removed a "good size growth" during the procedure and it tested positive for cancer. I was shocked to say the least. The good news is that the doctor says that he got it all out (although he does want to re-check) and he says this is "barely" stage 1 colon cancer and that we caught it early. It doesn't appear to be invasive. The bad news is that I have quite a few doctors appointments ahead of me with both my GI doctor , an oncologist, X-rays, cat scans, etc. I'm not sure I will feel completely at ease about this whole thing until all of those are done and they tell me I'm all clear. But I can say with confidence that I do feel an overwhelming sense of peace. I have been in constant prayer, I am surrounded with friends and family who are praying for me, and I wholeheartedly trust in God. He created my body and He knows the number of hairs on my head! I'm in good hands.

So on that note, you can imagine how those last few days of November were for me with that news and trying to pack and prepare for this epic trip we are on! But in the end we got everything done and here we are! More on that when we return! :)