Catching Up

I know it's been awhile and alot has happened in the last 2 months. I'm going to try to update as much as possible. Also, if you didn't scroll down, I posted some pictures in Flickr (links below).

First of all, work is going really well. I finally got my promotion and am officially an Assistant Vice President. I think I may soon be getting a functional promotion too. My office head has sat down with me and talked about restructuring our department and I will be one of the senior people in our department and will have some management responsibility. I haven't got the nerve up to ask what kind of raise comes with this promotion, but I plan on it.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was having a follow-up ultrasound of my cyst. The ultrasound was on Friday, March 30th and I didn't think anything of it. However, on Tuesday afternoon I got a call from Dr. B's office telling me that the cyst hadn't really changed in size, but now had "septations" and they wanted me to come in the following morning to do some blood work for "tumor markers" and to talk to Dr. B about removal. So, the next morning Eric and I went to visit Dr. B and she told me that basically they would expect a cyst to change over the course of a month if it were cyclical. She said that mine hadn't really gotten larger or smaller, but now was building walls inside itself and compartmentalizing. That gave them cause for concern, so they took some blood to look for elevated tumor markers and then Dr. B said they wanted to remove the cyst. If my levels were ok, Dr. B would do the surgery and try to remove the cyst, but if necessary she might have to remove my ovary also. She told me that they would schedule the surgery for after my vacation. However, if my levels were elevated, we would have to consult with a Gynecological Oncologist and they would do the surgery. A few days later, my blood test results came in and thankfully, my levels were normal, so we had a good feeling that this cyst wasn't cancer.

Friday April 13th we left for our vacation in the Dominican Republic. The whole family drove over to Bloomington, IN to drop Grace off. Eric's mom stayed at Kyle's with Ashton, Logan, and Grace for the whole week. After Donna arrived and Kyle and Leslie finished their packing, we rode with them up to Chicago to Leslie's mom's house (Sue and Rick). We ordered the biggest pizza I'd ever seen and tried to head to bed early. Saturday morning a limo picked us up at the house at 4 a.m. We had a 6 a.m. flight to Punta Cana. The travel agency had booked direct charter flights from O'Hare. We arrived in Punta Cana just before noon and then had to take an hour bus-ride to our resort. We checked in and the place was awesome. However, when we first arrived at the hotel and started unpacking we could hear the family next door. They had a 20 month old little girl with them and she was crying. The walls were thin and we decided we didn't travel that far to listen to a crying 2 year old, so we asked for a room change. Since I didn't write out all the details a month ago, I'll just sum it up to say that it was the most awesome vacation. I got a free pool-side massage, we took a free scuba lesson in the pool, participated in water arobics, and generally just hung out in the pool. We had a spa credit, so I used it to get a real massage one day and I also got my hair braided (which believe it or not, I really liked). We played in the waves in the ocean and did an excursion where we took a catamaran out in the ocean and snorkeled both in the open ocean and then in a corral with nurse sharks and sting rays. I missed Grace, but by the end of the week, I was truely relaxed and hadn't been that relaxed in a really long time.

Once we got back from the Dominican, I had a flurry of doctor's appointments. Dr. B ordered another repeat ultrasound to be sure my cyst was still there, I had to do pre-admission testing, and then finally my surgery was on Friday, April 27. While I was under, they biopsied my cysts and thankfully, we found out that they were benign. However, it wasn't clear before the biopsy if they were benign, so Dr. B removed my right ovary. She thought it was too big a risk to try to remove the cysts without spilling any fluid. My fallopian tube was in great shape, so they left it (apparently even with one ovary, you can get pregnant in either tube!). I was told that my fertility shouldn't be effected by only having one ovary, so I basically just lost my spare.

I've also got to see my parents a couple of times. My Mom came and stayed for a long weekend after my surgery. Then the weekend of May 18th, I took Grace and went to Grandma's house to deliver on her Christmas present. My parents, brother, and I did an "Extreme Makeover" to Grandma's sewing room. Dad and Jeremy tore out the carpet and put down a wood floor, replaced the ceiling fan with a huge light, build a counter extension to the sewing machine table, assembled 2 shelving units, and a bookcase. Mom and I with Grandma's assistance went through everything in the room and organized it. Grandma did part with some items, but everything that she kept is labled and organized, so she can now use her space and hopefully find everything. Unless you'd seen the room before and after, you can't begin to comprehend what a huge project this was. I think she was really happy with the finished project.

After that weekend, Mom and Dad drove on over to Columbus to stay with us for the week. Grace got to stay home all week and Grandpa gave her lots of presents from his recent trip to China. Grace loves presents! Grace also got one of her Christmas presents of a swingset and sandbox. She loves swinging especially.

Last weekend we just chilled at home, with the only excitement being Ava's 2nd Birthday party. I just love that our little girls are friends. Grace loves going to see Ava and they are so cute together.

I promise to try to do better at updating (as always!). It takes too long to do these super long updates! My next big event is GWO in Chicago next weekend. Also, I have my quarterly appointment with Dr. Y on 6/11, so I should have an update about that. Hopefully, this is my last Dr.'s appointment before the September appointments where I should get the go ahead to continue our family!