Battle Wounds n All.

Long story short.
I found a knot on my side while pregnant with Escher.
When he was about 6 months, I finally went to the doctor to have it checked out.
After a cat scan, MRI, and biopsy, it was diagnosed as a Desmoid tumor on my abdominal wall.

Here is a link that talks about them. This place is one of the best centers for treating them.

desmoid tumor

I decided to go with a local general surgeon and plastic surgeon team since they felt confident with the surgery.
I didn't want to have to travel and make it even harder on my family.

I had the surgery last Tuesday on 11/27.
The surgeons said it went really well.
In a nutshell, they removed about a 5 inch chunk of my stomach muscle (on the right side) including the part that holds in your insides, put a piece of biological mesh there, pulled down a flap of muscle from above, chipped off a chunk of my hip bone, and sewed me back up.
Pathology did come back clear, so, that really lowers my chance for recurrence which is good.
They even gave me a spinal block after surgery cause they were worried about pain.
Coming out of anesthesia was the worst. I stayed in the hospital for two days, and then came home.
All in all, recovery is going well.
I cannot lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for 6 weeks. And I have a nine month old. :(
My family had been amazing! My mom has been non-stop. She does everything. Escher loves her so much that he didn't have one hiccup during the transition. I am going to have to work really hard on getting him back.
Eric has been sick, working like crazy, and managing home life.
My dad has taken me to appointments and had to handle all the hectic ness.
My brother and sis n law keep coming to see me.
My sister already came down for several days to help.
And now Eric's parents are on their way down to help for the weekend and give my mom a break.
Without family, I would be incredibly sad, and this would be impossible.

I am still nursing, and I want to thank Eric for helping me with all the pumping and drama at the hospital. He even went mama bear on some nurse that wasn't going to let him put the milk in the fridge for the patients on our floor. He said she was wearing black scrubs, had dark hair and thought she was all Johny Cash and shit. haha... she met her match! I already had approval. He caused such a stink, she was made to come and apologize to us. Even the nurse's manager came and apologized, and said they had never dealt with this. So, it was a learning lesson for all. You are welcome Indian River Medical Center.

So, here I am. Not only am I recovering, but I am sharing our bed with a toddler with the flu. And he just had the fiercest nose bleed.

Damn, we had a good run while it lasted. I'm ready for the roller coaster to start going back up, thank you. :)

Round 2- swim lessons

This is a quickie update just to post Ryden's accomplishments from his second session of swim lessons. When we showed up to family and friends day, he was so much more at ease this time. No sad face to speak of.



Here are three quick videos showing off his skills.
The titles say it all.

So proud of him!
And I will continue to fine tune his abilities at home.











Love him!

Summertime Fun time

Today, was Ryden's big day completing his swim class.






He is not a swimmer, but he is much closer to being one, and far more aware of himself in the pool.
Up until now, he has always gone swimming with some type of floating device. Usually, a swim vest.
But no more.
So we only go forward, and never backwards, he is to only go in the pool without any assistance. Except, for floating things in the pool to climb on to.
He was not a huge fan of swim class. But unlike most, it wasn't a fear of water, it's that he doesn't like water on his face. He still isn't a fan, but is much better.

The teachers are serious about teaching swimming. And I'm not one for making my son do things he seems to be a bit afraid of or makes him cry, but this case was different. We have a pool, and he NEEDS to know water safety, in my opinion.
Eric and I weighed all the options, and really thought about what was most important.
Some tears for a few minutes a day for several weeks, or the worst case scenario.... falling in the pool with no clue what to do.

That alone answered our question.
If we didn't have a pool, maybe we would have skipped it.

So, here we are. Going to watch him today was great. He did really good, and is only going to get better.
He starts another session in two weeks. I think that session is really going to turn him into a little fish.

Today, we got to see him jump in the pool, and swim for a couple of seconds under water.

Go under water and retrieve a ring.


And finally, jump in and turn around and go back to the wall. A safety technique to get himself out.

Now, he wasn't perfect, but he's got the bones down.


Other than his little sad face (I think he saved it just for us), he made me so happy!



love,
little fishies