hiatus and a surgery

well, I guess the reason for the hiatus WAS the surgery! well, and the chaos of starting 2 kids in school and getting used to a new routine this year. i attempted to keep this quiet, just didn't want to make a big deal, but there was a bunch of cryptic messages and such on facebook so i've decided to put it out there.

so, let's start with the SURGERY. I have never had surgery. only had IVs when I had my littles, never broken a bone, had stitches, nada. perhaps I had better start at the beginning...

in high school (almost 20 years now!), my doctor noticed that I had an "enlarged" thyroid. blood tests resulted in a normal functioning thyroid, so no further tests were ever conducted. over the years, various doctors noticed my big neck, sent me for blood work, and everything was always normal. about 5-6 years ago, my internist suggested that we look into it a bit further and have an ultrasound done. this resulted in the discovery of many nodules/goiters/cysts, both simple and complex and varying sizes, in my thyroid. due to the complex nature of some of them, I was then sent to a specialist (endocrinologist) and sent for a biopsy of the largest. this came back benign (though i've often wondered if a good enough sample was taken...), so I was advised to follow up every year just to track growth.

well, I haven't been the best follow-up-er the past few years. aloha airlines going belly up resulted in a missed appointment, then lack of insurance, then being just plain busy, ended up being 2+ years between appointments. I finally followed up a few months ago and the ultrasound showed significant growth, which resulted in yet another biopsy, which came back as "atypical," meaning not necessarily cancer, but the only way to be sure was s•u•r•g•e•r•y. bummer.

surgery was scheduled, delayed, and the re-scheduled. i had a great surgeon. great nurses (pre, during and post op), and a really cute anesthesiologist, who ended up being quite good as well. a partial thyroidectomy was scheduled to remove the questionable 1/2 of the thyroid, with the possibility of a total thyroid removal should that 1/2 be cancerous (they biopsy while you're still knocked out on the table...isn't that cool?). 2 hour surgery, unless it turned out to be cancer, then it would be 4. and i would have no thyroid. i went into the OR at 11:45am, and woke up in recovery about 4:15pm. yup, cancer.

the good news: stage 1 papillary thyroid cancer. the most common of thyroid cancers, and the most curable. in fact, probably one of the most curable cancers there is. essentially, the removal is the cure, with a little radioactive iodine treatment 5-6 weeks post surgery. given my age and the stage of cancer, there is very little chance of recurrence.

the bad news: well, there really isn't any bad news really. good, right? i have a pretty good looking scar at the moment (see photos below), but that will fade eventually. the 3 days in the hospital and week i was out of commission weren't all that fun, but it's over now. really, my biggest worry was the girls, and whether or not they would be able to "survive" without me, and they did. thanks to my super-duper noa for taking emergency leave from his new job (when surgery ended up being more than anticipated), and to my parents for taking time off to come and help with the girls.

and now for the pictures...

day 1: post surgery. swollen & bruised.

week 1: glue removed, still have to wear steri-strips for a week, still pretty bruised.

week 2: no more steri-strips! shiny from tamanu oil, thanks Lependus!

week 3: swelling much better (hard to tell, but it is!)

a smile & love from cousin holly. makes for great scar distraction (at least for me!)

summer vacation - part 2 (camping!)

no family reunion (in nor cal at least) with noa's family is complete without a trip to the very special and beautiful wood's lake. noa's family has been coming here since his dad and aunts were young. about 20 of us camped for 2 nights. the campground had just opened that week due to late snowfall (yes, there was still quite a bit of snow on the mountains in JULY). the days were gorgeous, but we froze our booties off at night. in the 30s/40s! in the beginning, our little princess nanea was not so thrilled at the thought of no bathrooms and showers, but by the end of the first day she was peeing in the bushes with the best of 'em!

the second generation of cousins (3rd generation of the allen clan)!

from back row, 1-r: justin, jaimie, makena, nanea, cole, sophie, mili, tess, jorja

the beautiful wood's lake

our last night in sac, the day we returned from camping. WARM and TIRED!

summer vacation - part 1

we were lucky to spend the last two weeks before school started in northern california with family. LOTS of family! our trip began with a quick visit with poppy and rose marie in benicia. the girls love, love, love poppy and rose marie (and i do too!) we had a really nice visit and i took the girls to the jelly belly factory in fairfield on the way back to sacramento. i wasn't willing to wait in the hour + line for the factory tour, but we did manage to purchase $50 worth of jelly bellies. we also got to go to trader joes and chipotle, which of course was my own selfish agenda.

makena and poppy

after returning to sacramento, we made our way northeast for a few days. we spent a great day at pinecrest lake with friends and cousins. the lake was F R E E Z I N G, like ice cold freezing, but it didn't stop the kids from jumping right in. especially our little fish nanea, who of course i managed to not get any pictures of. blue lips and shaking, but she wouldn't get out! holly bought a boat for the kids to paddle around in. since joseph was the oldest (9), he was volunteered to paddle the little kids around. he took his job quite seriously and literally toured the kids around for about 5 hours. everyone had a great time!

joseph rowing sophie and makena; makena preferred to play in the "sand," which was really more like a very thin layer of dirt.

what's a trip to the lake without a soft serve ice cream cone?

back in sac, a trip to the zoo and fairy tale land was in order. the zoo was really nice and fairy tale land is basically a really big playground, fairy tale themed. huge slides and things to climb in, from mother goose to winnie the pooh. the kids had a blast. and the morning ended with lunch at chipotle. this was also the day that baby was "lost," only to be found later that night (see previous post).

nanea as a zoo keeper; tess and nanea making friends with the tiger

makena getting a lift from justin; nanea and her friend the orangutan

woo hoo, woo hoo, i'm driving cinderella's coach!

obsession

those of you that know makena know that she loves her baby. OBSESSED with her baby is actually more accurate. nanea has never had something like this that she so needed all of the time, so it's been a new experience for me. we've "lost" baby before, but in the way that we knew she was somewhere and just had to look or go back (scour the house, go back to the baby sitter, or recently return to the osh kosh store to retrieve her from under a clothes rack that she had been left under while playing when she knew it was a no-no), but, we've never truly LOST her. until today.

we've been in northern ca for about a week, staying with family and having a great time. needless to say, the kids and their lack of sleep has been driving the moms bonkers (dads don't arrive for the family camping trip until tomorrow night). we had a super busy day, taking the kids to the zoo and then fairy tale town, dropping them off and then heading to costco and safeway to buy all the food we will need for 20 people camping for 3 days. not to mention coming home and then cooking the 2 dinners we'll eat while there (though that was all holly and i mainly poured wine and offered moral support) and cooking the 5 kiddos dinner.

upon arriving home from the store(s), makena began asking for baby. well, we'd been gone at least an hour and a half, so i had no idea where she was. the hunt began. it was not in earnest at first, but we had all 3 adults and 4 of the 5 kids a-hunting. we searched everywhere. in dressers, closets, behind doors, under pillows, washing machine and dryer, even the fridge and freezer. nada. hours. nada. we finally called the restaurant that we ate at for lunch, thinking that perhaps it was left there. no luck. in spite of that, we (holly, makena, tess and i) headed there to see for ourselves. at 9pm. all the while an exhausted makena whispering, "baby? baby?" in her car seat next to me. disappointment once we arrived and i got back in to the car to an expectant little makena only to tell her it wasn't there and we'd keep looking. she just nodded her head and then lay her head to the side of her car seat and went to sleep. no thumb and no baby-hat-rubbing/flicking. just about broke my heart. we got home, i put her to bed, put nanea to bed and started to look a bit more. finally gave up. shortly after, everyone started getting ready for bed and yaya turned down her bed. lo and behold, she found baby. tucked under the pillows. the same pillows we had looked under 2, 3, probably a dozen times between all of us looking for her. sweet justin even texted his mom to see if she had seen baby before she left for dinner. so, crisis averted for now. baby has been tucked into makena's sleeping arms where she will happily wake up to her in the morning.

so, in tribute to makena's baby obsession, here are some photos i just discovered that makena took of her. there is no substitute:

rainbow nails

the only way we paint 'um...and also the only way she will let me cut her nails!

goosie, always the performer...

and yes, she is lounging in her little sister's stroller. she would always prefer to "ride" over walking. she often complains "my legs HUUUURT."

makena's 3rd birthday!

the cousins posing with their handy-work

strike a pose! the beautiful sophie.

dora-riffic! ordered fondant dora fondant circles from etsy, of all places. actually tasted quite good, and although were originally for cupcake toppers, worked beautifully on the strawberry shortcake from diamond head bakery . best cakes on the island, and our birthday tradition!

master cake decorator/fondant placement supervisor, tess.

kenken all decked out in her birthday finery (thanks to aunty holly for the dress and aunty celia/uncle rico for the "fascinator" - (shout out to aunty mikie and uncle mark all the way over in jolly old england!)

cousins and best buds

uncle liko getting into the spirit with the help of a red bull and vodka (how'd YOU get the fascinator??)

getting ready to blow out the candles!

all of the cousins partaking in fondant circles!