Denver trip postponed

Due to the lovely weather we're having, in addition to some other factors, we've decided to postpone our trip to Denver for a few weeks.

We're going to have a few tests done before we go so we have a much more accurate and clear picture of what we're dealing with.

Good morning

Wow, it's been a while. With getting home and being a lazy bum I haven't felt much desire to blog in a long time. And there has been so much to blog about, so I guess I better get on it now before there's too much to go over in the future.

So, lung stuff; we don't know what I've got growing in my lungs, but we know what it isn't. The biopsy has ruled out all the nasty things that we originally thought were the issue, which is great. Spike has encourage the smoking cessation, but also says that the intermittent cigarette won't kill me, so I'm going to play it safe. Quitting smoking completely is not really that hard, but it helps that I haven't been a hard core smoker for some time.

Now on to the new stuff; I have something in my left eye. I'm told it's a tumor, even more specifically, a lymphoma, and I will be making another trek to Denver this month to see a specialist. I don't know for sure how much stock I put in dime store diagnosis', because they told me about 50 different things my lung stuff could be, and it turns out not to be any of them. I see my oncologist here on Monday, and I'm going to request a PET scan. If this is cancer, more specifically lymphoma, it could be the result of another lymphoma growing inside me elsewhere. Since I've already had Hodgkin's lymphoma this is not great news, but hopefully we should get more info about all of it soon.


Elora is almost 1, she'll turn 1 on 1/19. I can't believe it's been a full year, but oh what a year! She's been walking since we got back in December, and that has been amazing to watch. What a little ham, dancing and running around. The dancing really kills me, she's been shaking her little booty, and now she's beginning to dip side to side, bending her little knees and shaking her butt. Daddy and Mommy make her laugh by tickling her and kissing her under her chin, which she will throw her body back for to give us extra access. We're waiting on some more teeth to make their way in, and the waiting is pretty painful as she is a cranky pants when she's cutting a tooth.

I returned to work on 1/5, and I have been plugging away trying to get a lot of stuff done before I have to leave for another Denver trek. Hopefully this trip to Denver will be just for a few days to meet the doctor and assemble a game plan for radiation treatment, so I shouldn't be there longer than a few day.

We appreciate everyone that has been praying for our family for the previous leg of this medical debacle, and hope everyone has some more thoughts and prayers ready for us for the next leg. We're keeping ourselves positive, and I know that this will all get worked out well.

Back at home

We're home, and all is well. Thad spent the weekend cleaning like a madman, and he did an amazing job. All our floors are clean (thanks in part to my birthday present, a Hoover FloorMate, which vacuums and scrubs your floors for you), and let me tell you, they were FILTHY. Ugh, it grosses us both out to know how bad they were. He also cleaned out our closets, organized our storage area downstairs, and vacuumed. I cleaned (in a fit of sheer craziness) the bathroom, did a little lite laundry, and kept the monkey out from under his feet.

Speaking of the monkey, we were so happy to get her back on Saturday. Thad's mom was kind enough to bring her up so we could skip the Colstrip leg of our journey and just get home. She's pretty happy to be home with her mama and her daddy. So happy that she hardly lets us out of her sight.

My mom is staying the week with us. I'm on a weight restriction so I'm not supposed to pick Elora up for 4 weeks. Talk about hard, it's horrible. If she wants to be picked up I'll get down and hug her or hold her, but it's a little easier now that she's walking a little more. That's right, WALKING, FOLKS. She will stand right up in the middle of the room, and take a few woozy steps towards whatever catches her fancy. She's taken up to 5-6 steps at a time. Pretty soon there won't be any falling down, it will be all walking, all the time.

Well, it's nap-time at Casa Swan. We're all going to lay down and enjoy some much needed rest. I am making some phone calls today to get various things taken care of that I had been putting off before now, and I'm waiting beside the phone for the doctor to call with my biopsy results. I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes. I'm debating cleaning up work email, but hesitate because I don't want to read any work email that I may need to address when I get back, I just want to clear out a bunch of the CRAP. *sigh* such a tough choice to make.

Hope everyone has a good day!

All by myself

So, I'm sitting in my hospital room on night 3 of this long hospital stay. My chest tube is out, which is great, and I'm feeling better, which is great, but my 02 saturation is kind of low (really not bad at all, especially since we are at a higher elevation and I just had SURGERY). So I'm going to periodically get up, walk around my room and the floor I'm on, and use my cool little breathing apparatus to increase my intake.

Yes, I'm still hurting, thank god for percocet, but the pain is much more tolerable now that the stupid tube is out of me. Now I can sleep much more comfortably on my bed, even though my ass is asleep. I made Thad go stay with our friends tonight because the couch he was sleeping on was not very comfortable AT ALL, and I want to go home tomorrow. So I needed him well rested and comfy and ready to go tomorrow.

So we should hopefully get home tomorrow. Then I think my fabulous, wonderful, terrific in-laws will bring our baby to us, rather than make us make that 4 hour leg of the trip to go get her. And I'm so excited to see her. I can not wait to smooch her, smell her, hug her, hold her, and just cuddle the bejesus out of her. I miss her so much. How could you not miss this face:



Sink bath with Gammy and Papa:



A little breakfast-face:

Magical Denver

So, it's snowing in Denver. Not just snowing, SNOWING. Heavy duty style. Ugh, I'm glad we brought the Mountaineer instead of my car, but still, it's pretty redick-ulus.

I go in tonight for my surgery. I can't eat past 9, and have to stop drinking at 3. I'm a whiny bitch when I don't get to eat or drink, so I'm considering sending Thad out (or going with him, I'm not that much of a jerk) to Sonic for one of their breakfast burritos. Sonic rocks my socks, it's soooooo good. I want one in MT, so much so that we are going to look into opening our own franchise of it. Well, we'll think about looking into it, close enough.

Yesterday we made it out to Golden to visit the Coors Brewery, aka Mecca or the Holy Land. It was pretty cool. Apparently people from town can just come for a "short tour" every day and get 3 free beers. There were tons of college kids sitting around drinking beer and talking, or playing cards. It's was like Starbucks, but with the sweet manna beer! Mary Rose ended up getting her buzz on a bit from Full Moon, Blue Moon, and a Zima (what!? Can't a girl drink a little Zima every now and then?).

We're once again staying with our friends Cody and Lori, and they have been the coolest host and hostess ever. We played a throw-down match of Name That Tune: 80s edition last night (no one was really declared a winner), and had some awesome pizza. They are great friends, letting us barge in here and take over for a few days, but they don't mind because apparently Thad and I are pretty funny and cool.

So, on the agenda today, besides Sonic, is some shopping. If Thad decides that driving to Loveland isn't a good idea with the snow, we may end up just doing our shopping online, but that isn't that bad. At least we can stay warm.

Well, we're braving the cold and snow and heading out to Loveland, wish us luck! I'll let everyone know how surgery goes!

I'm a horrible blogger, I know

So we head down to Denver tomorrow for my lung biopsy. I will try to update when I'm feeling better, it may not be until I get home.
Thoughts and prayers are welcomed and appreciated.

All Adrienned Out

Soooo, as many of you know, my friend Adrienne was coming up this weekend to spend the weekend with me while Thad was hunting and her POS was out of town (and no, it doesn't stand for "Probation Officer's Supervisor"). Well, wouldn't you know it, after we make plans for a month for the great fun that we will have her POS decides to return home on said weekend.

So I thought maybe this meant that fun would not be had..... oh no. Boy, oh boy, was I ever wrong. We started the night at my house, enjoying "Shaun of the Dead" before making Thad drive us across town to Enzo's. We enjoyed a beautiful bottle of wine with a Ahi Tuna appetizer, and we each had a Caesar with anchovies (mine were on the side). Main course consisted of some pasta concoction for Adriennit featuring tiger shrimp and scallops, while I had Kobe beef in a mushroom sauce with squash puree. No room for dessert, we had one of the Enzo's staff call us a taxi and we headed downtown.

We popped into Hooligan's and called Adrienne's POS to come take us to the Crystal for some karaoke. Crystal was packed, so we decided to head on over to the Railyard. Railyard had a cover, so we walked to the Rainbow, and had a couple (stiff) drinks there before moseying on up to the Circle to cap off the night.

All night long we were surrounded by profound realizations and confirmations of our strong womanhood. These usually came in the form of kick ass karaoke songs, like "Just a Girl" and.... well, for some reason I must be blacking out the remainder of the songs that were sung, but they were all really, really deep.

We played "The Hills" while we were at dinner, asking each other really deep questions, then staring blankly at each other for 15 minutes while trying to look as though we're really, really, really thinking of an answer.

I think one of my favorite parts of the night came in the form of a trick I performed. I placed an empty beer bottle on my forhead and proceeded to balance it for about 10 seconds before it plummeted off my head and shattered on the dance floor at the Circle. I don't even think I had enough sobriety in me to lift my hands to try to stop it from falling. At that point I stood up, picked up my purse, and we checked out.

Adrienne, thanks for coming up and making me laugh hysterically, for ditching out on POS on Saturday to come spend a couple hours showering my baby with love and enjoying a fine mini-feast of shrimp and olives and blue cheese and baked chickpeas. I love you! Enjoy these pictures of us (oh, and of our new BFF!)!