New year, time to write a blog post!

So lets get this out of the way first, so I can talk about me :) Our Christmas was lovely. We spent it with Grandma and her husband Jim. We all ate ourselves into oblivion and had a wonderful time together. New Years Eve was a blast!! We spent time with our surrogate family, the Clarks, playing games and once again eating ourselves into oblivion. And now sad day, the kids have to go back to school and the "break" is over. At least for them. I go back to school January 25th so technically I still have a few weeks off. HOORAY!!

So what has been going on in between the time I wrote last, besides the holidays...well lots of stuff, but the main thing on my mind is my surgery. What surgery you ask? Of course there is a back story so here goes...

I found a weird growth/bump in my left upper thigh/groin area in the early spring of 2009. It seemed to keep getting bigger and more painful. I would notice it especially when I would exercise ie riding my bike or running. Finally around the end of September (my last blog post) I went to see my OBGYN. He was very kind and after examining me said "Well, normally I would say lets see how this plays out. I think this is an enlarged lymph node. But given your previous history of cancer I would like you to see and Oncologist". I immediately went into panic mode. I DON'T WANT TO!! That is what I thought anyway. I really don't like the not knowing and waiting that always goes along with this stuff. My imagination can really get carried away. I made the appointment and met with the Oncologist who was while very nice not very comforting. He didn't really have any clue what he was dealing with and due to the size and depth of the bump wanted me to get a PET scan or CT scan. So the scheduling was set, and I was supposed to know if this was cancerous in about five days or less. Well the day before my PET scan (now mid October) I was informed my insurance wouldn't cover it and I would have to wait another week and a half to get the CT. At last the day of the CT came and my very kind friend and person I have deemed my adopted sister, Martie went with me so Shae could get the kids up and off to school. It was at 5am. It took seven days for them to get back to me with the results of the scan telling me that there were no unusual or what looked like cancerous cells in the area. I was now passed to a non cancer doctor, hooray, to discuss my "options". Lets just say this growth was now causing pain that I could have cared less what it was, I wanted it out. So the date was set to get it surgically removed on December 18th a week before Christmas and about four days after my finals at school.
We had to be at the surgery center at 5am. So my Dad, who was visiting made sure to get the kids up and off to school. The surgery went well, but the recovery didn't. I had a bad reaction to the pain medication and ended up stuck at the hospital all day. But hooray the growth was gone and I could start to heal, or so I thought. On Christmas day when we got home, I was in a lot of pain. It had now been a week since my surgery and things didn't seem to be healing well. The next day I was in the ER getting a prescription for an infected surgical site and being told "try not to have anything on the area until you can follow up with your doctor." I asked how I should do that and the doctor suggested skirts. I asked if she realized it was winter and she said yes, that will be cold.
You aren't kidding it is cold. I have taken even more seriously my recovery. I took all my antibiotics and have not worn anything on that area since my er visit. This means I have had to get very creative about staying warm. I managed to find a jean skirt in my closet and thankfully have a few boots. But as you may know wearing the same skirt day in and out can get old, so I found a sweater dress at Target that I can wear different shirts with, knee socks and I am sort of warm. Lets just say if there is a good cold breeze the right direction my behind is very very cold. I will also never judge anyone for wearing a dress or skirt in the winter (not that I did anyway)/ But now I know they might have a really good reason, like trying to let a surgical wound heal.
I have my follow up with the doctor tomorrow and I am hoping to get the all clear to wear pants and exercise. I have not been able to wear pants for two weeks and not been able to seriously exercise since the end of summer.
The other good yet weird news was this. When I called to set up my follow up I asked for my pathology results of the lymph node they removed. I was told "congratulations, it was benign." What do you mean benign I asked, it was just a lymph node. "no, it was actually a cyst and good for you it wasn't cancerous." All I can say is I am glad that I listen to my body. When it tells me it hurts and something is wrong I do something about it.
So if I have seemed disconnected, and not much for blogging or anything else since September, now you know why. On top of school for me and the kids, their busy schedules and dealing with this I had a hard time wanting to communicate to the entire blog world my life. Now that it is out there and almost done I hope to blog about more things on a regular basis. I can't promise, but I will try.