Just in time

This is what happened yesterday.

I woke up. Kids woke up. All three had pooped. You're welcome.Got everybody dressed. Got Ty's lunch packed. Plain wheat spaghetti, crackers, and vanilla wafers. Don't judge me. Loaded car with Ty's school stuff, leaving his nap mat out since my plan was to pick him up early to meet a delivery truck-delivering nothing too exciting-at home. Told Ty to go get in the car and then Charlie, (garage door still shut, so don't worry about their safety) and went to get Joy upstairs, who was crying because she was waiting for her turn to be nurtured. Third child. Bless her heart.

Walked out to the garage to find the big kids had-alas-OBEYED-and gotten in the car. Man I'm a good parent. As I got closer to the car, however, I saw what was really happening.

Charlie was sitting in her seat eating a day-old sucker. It was 8:30 am. Ty was shoving quarters into the CD player. Rapid-fire. Looking at me with one eye and watching his experiment with the other one.

We were right on time to leave for school after some disciplinary action on my part and we dropped Ty off. I was not sad to send him if you were wondering. Got home and put Joy down for a nap which never actually happened.

Called Best Buy. "Can you help me?" "No ma'am we can't fix that." Hmmm. Called the dealership. "Can you help me?" "Sure. We would have to totally replace it." "How much would that cost?" "Around a thousand."

Excuse me what?

I said that too by the way.

Said "No thank you," and hung up.

Fed Charlie. Fed Joy. Again. Third bottle for the day and it was, by this time, 11:00. What is her deal? Oh yeah, she did just have surgery and if a bottle calms her down then great. Phone rang. It was the delivery guys. They said they would now be there at noon instead of one.

Lumped plan A and left immediately to pick Ty up. Ran down all hallways at school and blurted out, "Happy Thanksgiving!" to his teacher. I think.

Drove home very fast, (by now it was 12:04 pm) and my phone rang. It was Sean--who was aware of the mornings' events. "Are you close? The guys are there." "I'm on it. Sitting at the last light," I said. Heard Ty choke on his lunch that I'd thrown to him in the back for the ride home.

"You know what would be perfect-(still talking to Sean)-"For Ty to throw up right now."
And then he did.

As I came to a stop in front of my house.

Wow. It really happened. What are the odds? No time to stop, the delivery guys were standing there on their phones with their boss making plans to leave so I jumped out and let them in. All three kids started crying. "MOOOMMMMMMYYY!"

Once the guys left and I had cleaned the car, Ty, and myself, I put them all to bed and went to get the mail.

Right on top was my Parenting magazine. Just in time.

And now I'm sure it was a cold

Last week leading up to Joy's surgery I tried to keep everyone from getting sick. I failed. Charlie was on three breathing treatments a day all last week, (and still...) but seems to be over it. Ty's nose was runny yesterday so I tried giving him Claritin to see if it was allergies and it helped but didn't totally eliminate my need for a constant Kleenex supply in my pocket. And to confirm my suspicians that it was, in fact, a cold that Charlie had-I woke up during the night with a sore throat and ear ache.

It's all good being a parent. Since I've had dried snot on my shirts since last Monday it's really a mystery how I caught it.

Before you worry that Charlie was down and out last week, check out this picture Mom sent me.



Apparently she did this all by herself and came to Mom for the obligatory "cute" comment. She wasn't feeling too terrible.

Joy has a new trick if you can call it a trick.


She is proud of that tongue. I have to believe she is teething though my other kids have both gone through the drool phase for months before an actual tooth appears. I'm telling myself and anyone who will listen that she is teething because if she's not then she has totally abandoned her nap schedule for no reason.


We kept Phoebe for Emmy last weekend so to keep the gross factor high I thought I'd show you one days' worth of Phoebe hair. I'm not kidding.

Emmy, believe me it wasn't hard to keep her. So what if we swept about four times more than usual. Your babysitting has earned you lots of labor on our part.

The end. I need more Sudafed.

Prepare to be grossed out

Weak stomachs look out. Here are pictures of Joy's surgery. I'll do my best to explain things. Good luck.

Looking like them as you would read a book, starting with top left. First picture is of the inside of her chest cavity. There is her heart, her deflated left lung, and the Sequestration. The Sequestration is on the top on the right. PS I have no idea if sequestration should be capitalized. Anyway. The next three pictures the doctor is showing the vessels and where he will cut them. Now really, don't look at the next ones unless you are secretly wanting to join the cast of Grey's Anatomy.
Top left is starting to cut the vessels and stop the blood supply. When we first talked with the doctor about what he thought the surgery would entail, (right after the CT scan a few months ago,) he said he wasn't sure he could finish the surgery with the scope if there was a significant blood supply because opening her up would be safer. When he saw that there were two large blood vessels he decided he could do it without opening her up, (which I'm sure is why we are home and she is acting like nothing ever happened!) So the next few pictures are of the actual removal process. The last one, (bottom right,) you can see what looks like a Ziploc baggie and while I'm not sure about the brand, (thinking NOT Ziploc,) it is in fact a plastic bag.
He said that to pull something like the mass out of a smaller hole they use the bag to make it smoother, and I think he said once they pull the air out of the bag it can actually squeeze/compress the mass so it comes out easier. I'm very medical as you can tell.

"Get that bag thingy and push this and ew what the heck is that oh yeah that's her heart don't touch that!"

The picture on the top right is of the sequestration (you can call it a mass/tumor/nasty uninvited guest) once it was removed. The last picture is music to my ears: Nothing that doesn't belong there, her re-inflated (very medical term,) lung and her heart. Everything is as it should be again.

And we are very thankful. And very grossed out. And I'm sure now you are too.

You're welcome.

Home in every sense of the word

Before my update from my computer instead of my phone, here are some pictures from the hospital.

And one of the kiddos with their Popeye watching a normal occurrence outside Nattie's house.

Words may not be able to describe the level of relief felt around here but since Joy is asleep and the big kids aren't here I have a little time to write.

First, thank you so much for taking time and energy out of what you do to pray for Joy throughout her life. It is overwhelming at times to know that she has been so covered in prayer and she's benefiting from it, (and so are we.) Emotions have been all over the place as you can imagine. Normally I'm an open processor, talking about things as they happen and keeping nothing to myself but God is being near and listening and has given me the clarity that I need. So if you have worried that I'm hanging by a thread and hiding, know that I am doing well. Sean and I both sobbed as we sat with Joy in the "holding" room before she went into surgery. I was doing okay listening to the nurse explain everything until I looked back at Sean, (who was holding Joy,) and tears were just running down his cheeks.

Well, that was it for me.

And it was just fine for that to be it.

By the time the surgeon came over to talk to us I was a blundering idiot asking him if he'd slept well last night, (which I know not to do because I know how stupid that sounds,) but he was so sweet to just say, "Yes I sure did and I will take care of her like she is my own."

Then I really cried.

But again, that was just fine.

Sometimes we work to keep it all together, don't we? For our kids, for our husbands, for our own selves. I found it so refreshing to see how no one really cared--not in a bad way, in a good way--if we needed to cry or ask stupid questions.

It's been almost as year since we found out about Joy's lung and now the chapter is almost closed. (Pending a post-op visit in two weeks and another scan in the future,) her lung is considered totally normal now. No high-risk pregnancy anymore, no high-risk for infection, no high-risk for anything. We asked her surgeon what the chance was for the thing to come back and he said extremely rare in research and in 20 years he has never heard of it coming back. No more high-risk fears. Nothing to fear.

Except the things that we will encounter as part of a fallen world. Things that will no doubt "pull the rug out from under us," as we say. Things that we will question and fight and wrestle with that God will walk through with us just as He has up until now. And He will always prove faithful.

Sometimes being so afraid that you mumble and sob and ask stupid questions is really good for you I guess. Sometimes giving up and resting on your daddy's shoulder, as she did when she was so hungry that morning, is what you need to do. So for the next few hours before the big kids come home, that's what we're doing. Thanking God that Joy is doing really well and her only issue has been resolved. I'll spare you the details but it had to do with the constipating effects of pain meds. I'd like to take this moment to kick a shout out to Jamie for her late-night help with Joy's issue and a huge shout out to Nattie and Popeye, who have been slaving away so that Ty and Charlie have not a care in the world.

In fact, I'm guessing they'll be a little depressed when they have to come home.

Joy has something she wants to tell you

I took this late yesterday and after looking at it again just now I'm crying. I'll post more later today!

Hi

We went from this yesterday morning





To this last night





To this this morning...walking around the halls in the wagon.





She is smiling a little today and recovering from the long night we had last night. Trying to wean her off Morphine last night wasn't pretty. She is back on it now and much more comfortable. Apparently weaning her from it gets us a huge step closer to going home so it's looking like at least another day here.

Thanks for praying for her! Keep it up!

First update

Update: In recovery with her. It was a pulmonary sequestration, and the surgeon said she did great. It was a little bigger than a golf ball-and he did get it out using the scope only. Three incisions. Well here, here she is.







They just called from the OR and said tumor is out and she is doing well...waiting for them to stitch her up then we will get to see her :)