Father & Son go Golfing

As the weather in ABQ has started to warm up, Brian has been thinking of a way to take Jaxon golfing with him ( I think this is his way of "getting permission" to golf whenever he wants). Finally he figured it out! He would strap Jax's car seat to the golf cart and off they would go. Apparently my idea of just letting Jax crawl around the fairway and greens was not a good one. Yesterday the weather was finally good enough (warm, sunny & no wind) for a boys day out!

The boys are ready!

Bye bye Mama!

Fortunately, we live in a golf course community (are you shocked?) and if Jaxon were to start acting up it would be easy enough for Brian to drop him off and go back out by himself. We were thinking he would last maybe half an hour. Well, to our pleasant surprise, he lasted 6 holes! Brian seems to think he can go 9, but they got stuck behind some slow players. I think we might me on to something here. I am all for it, that means some Mama Time!

Golfing Buddies

Lucy chasing the golf cart. She wanted to go too!

No, we do not own a golf cart. Brian made a quick stop at home because he forgot something (again, are you surprised?).

I Mean Really? What is Wrong with Lucy?

Ok seriously there is something wrong with Lucy! We have always known that she is obsessive, but she has taken it to a whole new level. Lucy is now obsessed with showers! You have all seen the picture of her in the tub with Jaxon. Well, that was just the beginning.

The other day, Brian and I were getting ready for bed and Lucy was sitting in front of our shower whining. Whine, whine, whine. That's all she did. There was no getting her to stop or even to move away it. So I decided to open the shower door to see what she would do (yes, I give in to all of her whims as well as Jaxon's, I'm a good mom). Yup, she walked right in and stayed put!

Tonight, my mom and I were giving him a bath and as always, there was Lucy. Once we put Jaxon down, Mom went back to the bathroom and this is what she found:

She would not come out! We went ahead and lined up all of Jaxon's bath toys so that she could pick the one she had been after:

She literally went toy by toy, sniffing each one until BINGO! she found the one.... the crab.

She was beyond happy to finally have her paws on the crab. I would like to say that there will be peace in our house, but I now better. She will find a new bath toy to obsess over and I am sure she will take over that one too.

Easter Weekend

I know this blog entry is a little late, but better late than never right? The Pearsons headed off to Tucson to celebrate Grammy Sue Sue's birthday and Easter. Yup, we had not had enough of flying with an 11 month old so we decided to do it just 4 days later!

One of the main reasons we went to Tucson is because Brian's brother, J was also going to Tucson with his family, so we thought it would be fun to have a Pearson Family Gathering. We met up with the Colorado Pearsons at the ABQ airport and then the 6 of us headed down to the Old Pueblo.

J and Marianne have a 3 year old little girl, Avery. Before the trip all she talked about was holding Jaxon and feeding him. The minute we all got settled on the plane Avery asks, "Can I hold Jaxon?" Well, who could say no? She was so cute and Jaxon just sat on her lap as happy as can be.

Jaxon & Avery on the plane. Notice the pink blanket? Avery thought the baby was getting cold. Too cute!

As soon as we arrived in Tucson I went to UMC to visit my favorite triplets (and to check out my future daughter-in-law :) )

Ethan Bradley

Hunter Olivia. I think she will make a fine wife! Colton SamuelI must admit that holding these little babies gave me the baby itch again! But, only if I am guaranteed another healthy preemie.


After visiting the triplets it was time to celebrate Sue's birthday... the only way Pearsons can, with fireworks!

Sue blowing out her candles. Avery shared her headbands and barrettes with all of us.

Yes, that is a giant sparkler! And, no, we are not outside.







Saturday was dyeing Easter egg day. Jaxon had fun, until I dipped his hand into the dye! Oops, let the screaming begin!

Thanks Bunch Babies for letting me borrow your bunny ears!

Ok, so I admit, that with the ears on he does look a little like a girl! But still as cute as can be!

The Easter bunny made a stop at Abuela's house. He left a gift for Jaxon in the living room and when we went to feed him all he could do was look at the truck! He was so excited to pull everything out and put it in his mouth.
Discovering what the Easter Bunny left.

Thanks Tia Kate for the Easter bib!

After breakfast we headed back to the Pearson's for an Easter Egg hunt and a day at the zoo.

Jaxon found a green egg and a pink golf ball. Of course Brian's son finds the only golf ball around!

Kory found the last egg!

The Pearson brothers. J, Brian, and Mike

At the Reid Park Zoo.

I LOVE this picture! Jax is totally posing. He must also watch a lot of modeling shows!

My only goal this weekend was to get a good picture of the cousins and this is the only one I got!

Jaxon, Avery, & Kory

Grammy Sue has a chocolate lab, Phoebe, who has become the sweetest dog! She was so patient with Jaxon and Avery entire weekend. At one point she is lying on the floor and Avery sits in front of her and says, "Phoebe, you wanna play?" How cute?!

Jaxon was fascinated by Phoebe, she is probably the first dog that hasn't run away from him when he crawls over to her! These pictures are priceless.

You are a BIG dog!

Jaxon was fascinated by her paws!

Sadly our trip had to come to an end :( We will be back at the end of May to drop Jax off with my mom for a week or so. Then I will return to pick him up as soon as I am radioactive free. I will see you all then!

Here is Jax at the airport walking the length of the chairs.

I Didn't Wake Up!

I did it! I survived the surgery and best of all I didn't wake up!

Brian and I got to the hospital at 6:00 am, boy the hospital was busy at that time! Unlike Ami, I was unable to wear make up, lotion or anything else that would make me look pretty! Thankfully I was surrounded by older people that didn't care what I looked like! Plus when I asked Brian to take a picture he said we would look "fruitcakey", so no need for makeup.

\

After about an hour and lots of paperwork I was taken prep room. This is when I REALLY wanted to throw up and cry. I changed into the fashionable hospital gown and waited for the nurses. Waiting in that little "room" with the curtains surrounding me was so nerve wrecking. all I wanted to do was cry and run back home. But, I did not cry (not yet). The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me (very nice man and very calming) and gave me this wonderful little anti-nausea patch! That was the best gift ever. Then the nurses came in to do my IV. Ugh! Apparently I have bad veins that have valves. She poked me THREE times in the left arm and once in the hand trying to put in the IV. No luck. I could tell she was panicking a bit because not only was the IV not going in, but I was bleeding... alot. Plus she whispered something under her breath and said, "This is a big surgery, the IV has to be good." Not very comforting! At this point I was in complete denial about how "big" this surgery was. Another nurse came in and tried on my right arm. This was not fantastic, but she was successful. Whew!

My bruised arm from so many IV attempts and blood drawing.

After my IV was in, Brian came in and this is when I became a cry baby! I felt like a idiot, but what can I do now. They wheeled me to the OR and that is all I remember! The next thing I know I am in recovery, very sore and unable to talk. Once Brian came in the nurse gave us a few tips about how I would feel and told me I shouldn't talk. i think this was the best news Brian had gotten all day! A silent wife :)

After awhile, Dr. Coffman (i.e. Brad Pitt) comes in to check on me.
Apparently when I woke up the first thing I said was, "I was dreaming about school." Really! I can't escape.

Dr. Coffman did find another nodule on one of my lymphnodes, but removed the entire thing. He's not sure if it was cancerous or not. He did reassure us that even if it was, once I take my radioactive capsule anything left in my body will be zapped.

So you probably think I am exaggerating about how handsome Dr. Coffman is, well, let me tell you about ALL of my nurses! My first nurse, Tanya, looks at my wristband and says, "OOO Dr. Coffman is your doctor? He is so nice! He's our McDreamy." Another nurse who came in to give me my 2nd IV (yes, more IVs! One was hard enough, now I needed 2!") noticed that Dr. Coffman had written his phone number on a piece of paper for me. She says, "Oh, Dr. Coffman gave you his number?" Me, "Yeah, I can't remember why, but there was a reason." Nurse, "OOO maybe he wants to ask you on a date! He is sooo cute." And on and on they went!

I had to have calcium running continuously because my calcium levels were very low. I almost had to stay another night due to such low calcium levels. Thankfully they went up (from 7.6 to 7.7 Normal level is 8.4 - 10) so Dr. Coffman said as soon as these 2 bags were empty I could go home. Yeah, the last bag finished at 11:00 pm! They should have just kept me, but it was nice to be in my own bed and shower though.

This is me with my 2 IVs. One was giving me calcium the other magnesium. This was pretty miserable. Going to the bathroom was really tricky and I had to go ALOT!

Thankfully my mom was here. She was quite the trooper in the hospital, unplugging my IV each time I had to go potty (even at 3:45 am), putting my slippers on my feet, even feeding me lunch while 2 nurses were poking and prodding at each arm and "sleeping" in the most uncomfortable chair known to man.

Here I am looking like Frankenstein. Notice the nice orange color on my face?

A close up of my incision. Not quite sure what the arrow is for...

This is my "breathing" machine. I had to inhale in the straw and my goal was to make the big blue thing on the left move up to the small blue arrow all the while keeping the small blue thing on the right in between the dark blue arrows. (did that make sense?) anyway, it was VERY hard! But it was supposed to exercise my diaphram so that I wouldn't get pneumonia. Brian of course thought is looked like something very inappropriate!
I came home with 6 different prescriptions! I have 2 different calcium pills to take, 1 magnesium, a thyroid med, pain killers and doculace (sp?). I am such a fan of pills... Yeah right! Especially now that it hurts to swallow.

These are all of my prescriptions. The pile of pills is what I have to take in ONE day! Thankfully it is only for a week or so.
I have to have more blood tests done tomorrow, don't know where they are going to get blood from since my veins are shot. So that should be interesting.

I will be on the thyroid med for 4 weeks, then on my diet for 2 weeks and finally the radioactive capsule. This should all be over by June 8.

The hardest thing so far has been being home with Jaxon. I can't hold him, pick him up or even give him his bottle for fear that he will whack me in the throat. The poor little guy just doesn't understand and he crawls over to me, stands up and starts whining. It makes me so sad. At least he loves my mom and she gives him as much love, if not more, than I would. Like she says, "There's nothing like a grandma."

Very Quick Thyroid Update

I was just checking a few of my friend's blogs and noticed it had been 2 weeks since I had updated mine! And in my neurotic fashion, I could not got to bed until I updated it. I thought that I would give everyone an update on my thyroidectomy.

I am going into surgery on Monday, April 20 at 7:30 am.

My mom arrives on Saturday, April 18. She will be here until Saturday, May 9. She originally just wanted to be here 2 weeks, but that meant she would go home right before Jaxon's 1st birthday so we thought maybe she should stay a few more days. (I can't believe he will be one in less than a month!!! YIKES!)

I have an appointment scheduled with Dr. Edwards, the endocrinologist, on May 11. This is when he will give me more info on the rest of my treatment. I am expecting that the soonest I will go on the low-iodine diet & hypo thyroid, will be May 12. This means all I can eat is pretty much rabbit food and WINE! for 2 weeks. I am hoping to postpone the diet until Memorial Day weekend because school will be over by then and I would like to finish out the school year.

After those 2 weeks I will send Jax off to Tucson and I will take the radioactive iodine capsule and be in isolation for a week. That should be the end of it! I will be cancer free, God willing! Hopefully by the 4th of July I will be as good as new and maybe 10-15 lbs lighter after only eating veggies for a month :)

To be perfectly honest I am starting to get VERY nervous and scared about having surgery. My biggest fear is that I will be one of those people we have seen on 20/20 who wake up in the middle of surgery and feel every cut, but can't talk. Other than that, I am anxious to start the healing process so that I can say I am a cancer survivor and not a cancer patient. (who ever thought I would be either? Not I!) Do you think they have one of those colored plastic bracelets for Thyroid Cancer? I feel like I can finally get behind one of those. IF they don't have one then I will invent one. Maybe it should be green and glow-in-the-dark (for the radioactive treatment).

Keep those prayers and positive thoughts coming. I truly appreciate it.