Sicknesses Abound

What started as a cold New Year's weekend, ended in a bad sinus infection this week. This past Wednesday, I woke up to my throat closing up and my ears feeling as though they were filled with fluid. Thursday found me in my doctor's office getting scripts for a sinus infection and the beginning of an ear infection. To top it all off?? Last Saturday I had a pedicure for the first time in two months -- which led to me getting a badly infected ingrown toenail by Thursday. I began soaking it in warm Epsom salt water two to three times a day. Today it's feeling a tad bit better, but looks horrible! I'm afraid I may have to call in a favor to Michael's uncle (who is a surgeon) to look at and drain for me before the weekend is over with. Ouch!!

Oh yeah, there's more --

Michael began saying last night that one of his ears was beginning to bother him. I put some ear drops in his ear, but told him he would probably need to get on an antibiotic to clear it up. He went to his men's breakfast this morning, so he must be feeling somewhat better. Time will only tell, I guess.

There is some good news that I can share in this post as well:

Michael's sister Robbie had major surgery Friday before last. To give you some background on it...

The cancer that started in her colon (she had a resection done in June) spread to her liver. Two masses were found back in August/September time frame. The goal for the doctors was to treat her with agressive chemo strong enough so that those tumors would either disappear or would shrink enough that they could surgically remove them. After an MRI showed one mass disappearing altogether (thank GOD!), the other one was now small enough for surgical intervention. They began doing other tests to ensure that the disease hadn't spread elsewhere when they found a suspicious spot on her lung. They told her that if this spot was malignant, they couldn't and wouldn't do anything else for her. The "suspicious" spot on her lung turned out to be nothing else but scar tissue from several bouts of bronchitis over the last few years (thank GOD that was all it was!). We found out the good news the day before she was to host our entire family at her house for Christmas dinner. Fast forward to January 4, she underwent the liver surgery. They ended up removing 50% of her liver as well as the mass. The surgery went wonderfully, much better even than the doctor had hoped. He was able to do everything laparoscopically, but because of liver involvement in the cutting, it will take her months to fully recover. Did you know that the liver is the only human organ that eventually regenerates itself? I didn't either! That's just amazing to me! It will take close to a year to full regenerate. She was released from the hospital this past Thursday, where she is currently recovering with family in Jacksonville, who lives very close to the Mayo hospital there. Her goal is to be back home for her son's birthday, which is January 25. Shortly after that she will go through three more months of chemo to ensure that all the cancer is gone from her body. She is worried though about full recovery. Because the liver had already been attacked with cancer, then the removal of half of it, and now the chemo given to attack more (good as well as the bad) cells in her body, she is rightfully concerned that she won't bounce back to a healthy person. She is a very social, vivacious, loving person who I'm glad to call my sister. She loves her family with every fiber of her being. Her son graduates from high school the end of May. I'm sure she must be thinking a lot about the future right now. I would appreciate any prayers for her.

Then my sister, who lives in Alabama, had a benign tumor removed from her adrenal gland this past Tuesday. Although benign, it was causing her to have uncontrolled, dangerous blood pressure levels. I'm happy to report that she is back home recovering after a very scary few weeks for all of us.

Michael's recovery is going grand! He's beginning to walk with a cane now. He's been on a walker and/or wheelchair since the accident over five (!!) months ago. This is a huge step forward (pun not intended) for him. His hopes are to be back at work in 4 to 6 weeks. I pray that this happens, but I know that several things in the past have put this on hold. One being him having a staph infection on a place on his arm that he had to have surgically drained. It's definitely time for some good things to happen to us, no doubt!!

That brings me to this current paragraph. Our Christmas day was fabulous - and now the boys are back in school. Our life is beginning to turn to semi-normal, I guess. Zack's junior year is flying by -- and doing great. He has won first place trophies in debate tournaments more than once this school year. His grades are outstanding -- 2 AP classes this year have kept him to 2 B's and 4 A's for the first semester, with a current solid 3.75 overall GPA. We just received his PSAT scores that was taken back in October. His freshman year his score was a 1740 out of 2400, his sophomore year an 1850, and this year a 1960. If this trend continues, he'll have well over 2000 for his SAT scores to be taken in May this year. Hopefully, this will have schools from all over knocking on our door. ;) Aaron is doing well in school this year, too. 2 A's and 2 B's overall.

That just about catches you all up in what's going on in our life. I hope that 2008 brings each of you health and happiness!

Until next time -- take care of yourself. It is still flu season afterall! :)