Update on Kurt: Today we are 11 weeks out from the first episode and he has been home from the hospital for 8 weeks. Time is a very funny thing lately. We can’t believe it has been that much time since everything happened. He is doing good. No major changes. He still tires easily and doesn’t have his strength back yet. We feel like he should be stronger and have more energy than he does but he is a lot better than when he came home from the hospital so he is improving. The part that concerns us is that he still gets discomfort / pain / pressure in his abdomen / chest periodically, especially if he pushes himself. At first we would panic and worry when this would happen but now we have kind of become use to it and just watch to see if it gets worse. It is just very unsettling always worrying if something is going to happen. He goes in in about 2 weeks for another CT scan and check up to see how things are looking. We are very interested in knowing what is going on in there. I guess in 2 weeks we will know.
Update on me: I have been having my own little health issue. Apparently I didn’t want Kurt to have all the fun! Ha! I was randomly having pains in my lower abdomen. Just a jolt of pain here and there, nothing consistent. It would come and go very suddenly and then I wouldn't feel it for awhile. With everything going on with Kurt, I honestly don’t even know when it started. Was I having them while in the hospital? I have no idea. Before the hospital? I don’t remember. That whole hospital stay really threw me for a loop and I can’t remember but on March 27th the pains were really bothering me. They were happening a lot that day and I remember thinking “just call the doctor and make an appointment before you talk yourself out of it.” I have my annual pap appointment scheduled in May so I thought I would just talk to my doctor about it then but something told me to call right away and so I did. I got in to see my primary the next day on Friday. I told my doctor how the pains start from my left side and shoot out and that they were very sudden and lasted about a second. She ordered an ultrasound which was scheduled for the following Wednesday, April 2nd. Within 2 hours of leaving the ultrasound place, my doctor called me and told me the radiologist called with a preliminary report and they had found a “mass or tumor” on my left ovary. She immediately ordered lab work looking at tumor markers in my blood and a MRI. We were freaked out. Ovarian cancer is related to breast cancer and so we were terrified that this was ovarian cancer. I did the blood work that day but the MRI had to be approved through our insurance company so we had to wait to schedule that. Once it was approved we got the MRI scheduled for Monday, April 7th. I had never had a MRI before and was nervous about being in the tube but it wasn’t too bad. The worst part was that the contrast they gave me made me throw up. Always a pleasant thing when you are strapped to a table! Then we had to wait for my doctor appt which was for Thursday, the 10th. Honestly, for 8 days I was terrified that I had cancer. It was a horrible 8 days. Kurt was freaked out. I was freaked out. My anxiety level shot through the roof! We weren’t going to tell the kids anything until we knew exactly what we were dealing with but they immediately knew something was up. Their radar is set to super sensitive since everything that happened with Kurt and they just knew that something was going on. After they all cornered either myself or Kurt asking if everything was ok, we knew we had to tell them so we told them the truth: the doctors found something, we don’t know what it is but they are doing tests to try to figure it out. They all handled it really well. I guess they have learned to roll with the punches around here. My doctors appointment went good on the 10th. My tumor markers are nice and low in the normal range so they don’t think that it is cancer. It is about 2” round and will need to be removed so I see a surgeon on Thursday of this week to schedule that. I am doing ok. The pains come and go and so does the nausea. The nausea hasn’t been bad, just a little here and there. I am exhausted though. Completely exhausted, which can be caused by this. Between Kurt and me, we are loads of fun lately. One of us is always tired and not up to doing something. See? Loads of fun! So that is where I am at - just waiting to see the surgeon and figure out where we go from here.
Our camping buddies, Marty and Lorraine, had time they had to take off in March so at Kurt's last appointment (at the beginning of March) we asked for permission to take a camping trip. The doctor agreed only if Kurt promised not to do anything. So Marty told Kurt "just drive your truck and trailer down there and I will do all the set up and take down." So off we went to our favorite place, Dillon Beach.
We love the dunes right out the back of the trailer where the kids just play and play and we can see them right from our campsite. Another family camping there had brought sleds so the kids took turns playing with those.
And of course, digging holes.
And burying themselves.
Buddies at the beach.
Little T at the beach.
This was about 30 seconds before he took off running and fell into a hole that was around a rock and went under water.
Then he spent some time in mommy's sweatshirt warming back up.
Once he was ready to play again, he wore Hailey's sweatshirt since it wasn't as big. Although, it was pink. Oh well.
Kurt even got down and played in the sand.
Evan wanted his picture taken on this rock.
He was photo bombed!
Kurt said he needed a foot rest. So we did what we had to do.
No children or wives were injured in the making of the foot rest. =-)
I love this picture of T. Too bad he is wearing pink.
On Saturday, our friend Eric came down with his 2 girls to spend the day with us. This was our very creative and very handy table for the little kids. We just pulled their little camping chairs right up to the bench of a picnic table. It worked great!
Kurt is the Uno champion. He will challenge anyone, anytime and he will beat them . . . usually. This night the stars were not aligned for him though and he was beat down by Eric, several times. Poor Kurt. We needed to pay up and all we had to offer were pillow pets. Eric was so excited and gladly accepted his reward. Oh man, we had some good laughs over the pillow pets. Good times! Eric, being a dad, also knew the drama that would follow if said pillow pets went home with a new family so he nicely left them with us.
We have camped at Dillon's for years and always caught rock and dungeness crab but this time we caught a spider crab. This thing just looked creepy. Yikes!
And we couldn't leave without our annual family photo on the beach. Don't be surprised when this shows up on our Christmas card this year!
Our camping buddies.
Another photo bomb!
Evan loved this stick/log sticking out of the ground. He swung around like a monkey.
Oh man, I love this boy!
Trevor helped Kurt bring up the supports on the trailer.
We did it! We survived our first camping trip post-injury. It wasn't easy. There was a lot of me telling him to go sit down and a lot of him telling me that he could do things but overall, we did good and he would sit down and rest. It was nice to get out of the house and away from everything for a few days.
Just one more - he is just so cute. I love this picture!
