Thoughts

After listening to the Cure Kid's Cancer phone-a-thon for three days, I was thinking how blessed I am.

I know what it feels like to have a cancer scare, especially with your child. They kept saying on the radio that they had 41 kids diagnosed with cancer in the past year, and all I could think about was how fortunate we were that Macyn didn't have cancer. Instead, she had a different infection that is even more rare than cancer. 5 people last year had the same thing as Macyn. 8x more kids have cancer at the hospital, than what Macyn had.

Its so, so, so, very scary to hear doctors talk about your child having, "the bad stuff" and requiring a biopsy so "they could decide if we would need to start treatments immediately."

So I cannot help to think, wow, that could have been my child....but it wasn't. God has given my child something more rare....and curable. So blessed.

Having said that, I found a new growth on Macyn's neck today. Its about the size of a pea, and about .5" away from where her other one was. The thing is, if they didn't get all the infected tissue, it could grow back, which we were in the clear for. The other thing I am concerned about is what if she has gotten it again? The pediatric doctor said its rare to get it one time, and extremely rare to get it two times.

Needless to say, I am pretty worried again. Her pediatric doctor is getting a call first thing in the morning on Monday. I have cried a couple times today worrying about the new lump with eerily similar characteristics. Trying to breathe these next couple of days until we get more answers. 

I can't help but wonder if the ATB could be throughout her body. I know I shouldn't think like that, but I am truly scared again. Scared just like the day she had a biopsy. This is like deja vu again. Prayers that we find more answers and that this will turn out to be nothing would be appreciated. I will try and keep updated posts as soon as we find out more information.

As for right now...I'm praying, and hoping for the best...and trying to get through these couple of days

Fun in the Sun

We had to drive to another town today to pick up some rain boots I bought off a local swap site, and decided on the way home to check out the campground. We were pleasantly surprised to see a whole bunch of geese and ducks. We also let Macyn try out her new boots in the water. Since we picked them up today she has constantly told us, "I want it to rain to wear my boots." She was pretty proud of them, that's for sure. Here are some pictures:

We might even go camping there this summer. It also has a nice bike trail, golf course nearby, and a playground.

First Egg Hunt

We took Macyn to her first Easter Egg hunt today. We weren't sure quite what to expect, but I all I know is this is a lot of Easter grass:

They had a two and under group go first, so DH helped Macyn find eggs. There were 3 or so "golden eggs" and if you found one of those, you got a bigger prize. Once you filled your basket with eggs, they gave you a ticket and could exchange it for a bag of goodies. Included was candy, stickers, small toys, jelly beans, a pencil, and other little prizes. Macyn didn't find a golden egg, but she was happy with the prizes she got.

Also at the egg hunt was a craft station where they could color a bookmark. Macyn wasn't too impressed, but we took one home anyways.

She also received her first face painting, and told the girl specifically she wanted a pink bunny. She was pretty proud of it!

After the face painting she wanted to go see the Easter bunny. We went and saw him and tonight I asked her, "did you see the Easter bunny today?" and Macyn responds, "He dressed up like a bunny."

Wow. Nothing gets past her!

Spring Snapshots

We decided to take a few pictures of Macyn before her very first Easter egg hunt. She sure does love to pose for the camera!

Macyn's Masterpiece

 Macyn really wanted to paint tonight, so we decided to give up on making home made finger paints and went and bought her some REAL paints. We bought one set of watercolors and one set of 18 different colors of poster paint....and a 15 pack of little brushes. She was pretty excited to paint and it kept her (and mommy and daddy) entertained for quite some time.

She started off making circles of every color on her paper. Then towards the end she decided to mix them all together and begin finger painting herself! Shortly after that we said, "all done!" and I ended up with a one of a kind masterpiece for my cubicle at work.

First Flowers

We bought Macyn a little green house with some marigold seeds at Walmart for $1. She is pretty proud of planting her flowers and takes good care of them. We put them in the window sill and we let her water them too. We already have about 8-10 sprouts! Now lets hope Mommy's "black thumb" doesn't kill them all ;)

Parks!

We have made it a goal to try and do something as a family every night, whether it be walking or riding bike to get exercise. We have been doing pretty well so far and we have hit up four different parks already! We have definitely taken advantage of the nice 70º+ weather. Macyn loves going to all the different parks and will usually choose to bike or walk. She is doing a lot better of staying in her stroller and she enjoys riding in her bike carrier as well. Here are some pictures at the park!

2 Years 5 Months

 Its hard to believe our little peanut is another month older. Here are some things that have been happening:

• Still continues to grow and a ridiculous speed. All I can say is thank goodness for spring right around the corner - it doesn't matter if the capris are too short! I had to bring her to the doctor the other day and they measured her at 30 lbs and 39.5" tall (with shoes on)! She is literally taller than all the girls at daycare - and they are all three already.

• Macyn enjoys dressing herself, and gets very upset if you tell her that something doesn't look good....such as black church shoes with leggings and socks. Some days you just have to pick your battles. She also asks to wear dresses every day and usually wants a bow in her hair. Other fashion issues with her is thinking something is too small when it really isn't. She refuses to wear her Nike tennis shoes because she insists, "too small, don't fit."

• She has also become very independent and wants to do things her way. We no longer watch her in the bathtub, and when she is done she will drain the tub, crawl out, and run around to come and find us.

• She has a pretty big sweet tooth and asks for candy pretty much every day. This is one of those battles I usually let her win. If having a piece of chocolate will get her calmed down and content after work, more power to ya. Some days the trade off is better than a temper tantrum.

• For some reason she hasn't been sleeping well lately. I'm not sure if its the time change or if she just doesn't need as much sleep in general. She always goes to bed at 8:30 and has lately been up for a couple hours at a time during the night, and the past 5 days she has woken up at 4:00 am. Not sure what is going on but I really hope its just a phase.

Even though she can be a handful (the majority of the time), we do enjoy (mostly) every minute with her - especially when she's happy and not being a drama queen :)

Poor Buddy

So a couple of weeks ago our dog has been yelping and not using his leg like she should be. He doesn't jump, or even squat to go to the bathroom. We decided to bring him to the vet and they said he either had a broken toe or a sprained ACL. Either way, they would have to heal on their own. So they gave us some pain meds to give Buddy thinking it would get better.

A few days after the vet visit, he was being groomed and we told the groomer that he probably broke a toe. When DH picked him up, she thought it wasn't anything wrong with his toe, but rather possibly a disc in his back. A few days later he wasn't getting any better. He even lost his bladder control and was going over everything. We decided to bring him back in.

The vet thought he either had a hairline fracture in his leg, or tore or sprained his ACL. They wanted to rule out the broken/fractured leg, so we decided to go ahead and get an xray done. Everything came back good, however, it meant that he either severely sprained or tore his ACL. Since he couldn't hold his bladder anymore, they were more concerned that there may be some bigger underlying issue.

There are two ways to fix his ACL: Surgery which would cost $1400 or keep him in the hospital for 3 days and get a steroid drip to try and heal the ACL quicker. However, the ACL would eventually fuse back together, but he couldn't go on long walks and may get arthritis later in life.

What did we do? Option 3 - since Buddy had a UTI they couldn't give him a steroid because it would make it worse. They gave us strict instructions to give him UTI medicine, pain medicine, and keep in him his kennel for two weeks - 24/7 to get his leg to heal. Two weeks will be this coming Wednesday.

Since he has been on the meds for 1.5 weeks now, he no longer has bladder issues and acts pretty much normal, despite him being in his kennel all day. I think he is feeling pretty good and its kinda antsy to get out. I just hope he doesn't hurt his leg again!

Also, just going to throw this out there - we have somewhat thrown around the idea of trying to find a family who has more time for Buddy. So....if anyone wants a well trained Cockapoo, let me know. Its not that we don't like Buddy, he really is a good dog, we just feel we don't give him the attention he needs.

Anyways, he is pretty much back to his old self already....and I'm sure he will be even better once he no longer has to be couped up on Wednesday!