Checking In

Just a quick hello.  I am feeling okay.  My shoulder is still a bit more sore than I anticipated.  And since they had to move some nerves around, I lost some feeling along the top of my shoulder, next to the incision. That's fine, you don't "need" to have feeling there to have a functional life. ;)  But it is weird.  My dad says the feeling should come back, so we'll see.  Today Claire and I were sitting on my bed pointing out different colors of things around the room.  She pointed to my scar (which is affectionately named Stella) and said, "Purple."

We are just about ready for Christmas.  Nate is just about done with the semester, which I think has been the toughest one of his entire schooling.  I assumed he'd want to sit around and relax for a few weeks, but no.  He rocks and ended up picking up an extra 16 hours a week at work during the break.  That will be so helpful to us.  He works so hard for us.

I am so excited to give gifts this year.  Nothing is more exciting than thinking of the perfect gift that you know that person will love.  I feel like I have had that "aha" gift moment with my kids, my family members and friends this year.  It is going to be really fun!

I miss running.  :(  There is a group of about 40 of us doing a big Christmas Run this Saturday down Provo Canyon, and I don't know if I'll be able to do it.

Cameron is a brown belt now, have I told you that?  I'm so proud of him.  We also went and watched his dance performance at school this morning.  It was so cute.  It has been a blessing living in such a nice part of Salt Lake City because the schools up here are phenomenal.  A big emphasis is placed on art and music in all of their forms.  I'm grateful Cam has been able to get such a wonderful early education.

That's about it.  Happy Holidays!

Surgery!

WARNING:  Graphic photos are at the bottom of this post.  Do not view if it will make you sick!

About a month ago, I felt a weird lump along the top of my shoulder.  It was pretty large.  I showed Nate, and he was immediately pretty worried.  It felt more like a muscle mass, so I wondered if I had strained it or something.  A few days later, I had a member of my Stake presidency, who is a surgeon, look at it after Church, and he immediately wanted an MRI.  That freaked me out!  I'm not going to lie!

The next morning, I went to see my family doctor, Dr. Clark.  He didn't seem AS urgent and ordered an ultrasound instead.  He, too, thought it might be some sort of inflamed muscle.  That calmed my nerves quite a bit.  Well, the ultrasound ended up showing a lipoma, which is nothing more than a fatty tumor or mass.  NOT dangerous!  I was sooo relieved, and so was my family!  Dr. Clark wanted me to sit on it for a month and then re-evaluate, but I just wanted it gone!  

So I showed it to my dad, and he agreed.  He hooked me up with Dr. Brian Gill, a general surgeon in Provo.  I met with him last week, and he was absolutely WONDERFUL.  Very kind and comforting!  Surgery was scheduled for yesterday morning at 7:30 am.  It went perfectly!

We left here at 5 am and drove down.  A big thank you to Robyn for coming over that early to be with the kids!!  When we got there, they did blood work and vital signs and got my IV started.  My gown is called a "Bair Paw" system, where you hook it up to a hose, and it blows warm air all over you, like you're sitting in a big warm bag.  It was SO awesome, haha!  I want one!  Much better than a heated blanket.

The nurse had Nate draw a red circle around the lump, just to be safe.  That would be awful if they did the wrong shoulder! :)  I said goodbye to him then, and was taken to the "holding room".  This is where you go to meet your anesthetist and go to surgery.  That room sort of freaked me out.  It was full of patients, and some of them were already out of it from the Versed drug (the knock you out med that calms you way down).  I don't know, I just didn't like it in there!   But luckily my dad came in to visit me there!  

I was actually having the surgery done in HIS operating room, where he does all of his surgeries every Tuesday.  It was SO SO comforting having him with me the whole time.  He was the last person I saw before I was OUT.

When I woke up, I was obviously out of it for awhile.  I just sipped apple juice and tried to have coherent conversations with Nate.  My dad and Dr. Gill both said the surgery went perfectly!  Yay!  The lipoma measured about 5 cm, so it was a good size.  I immediately felt that getting it removed and not waiting had been the right decision.  My dad took some photos during the procedure, which I had asked him to!  I'm sort of morbid, but I wanted to see!  

First of all though, my friend, Josh, had named my tumor.  'Timmy the Tumor'.  He came up with it while we were running the Thankful 13.  Hilarious.  He even drew this, and we got quite the laugh out of it!

HAHA!

Anyway, so here are a few pictures from yesterday.  

My doctor's name is Brian Gill.  When he met me in the holding room, he wrote a B on the tumor, and it made me laugh.  He said it was for "Brian", but I'll pretend it was for "Becca".  :)  This is such an unflattering picture of me....ha!

STOP HERE if you don't want to see the gory stuff!!!

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So there you have it!  So long, Timmy! 

I'm so grateful that it didn't end up being anything worse.  They are still going to send Timmy to the lab to be tested, but it's pretty much been confirmed by ultrasound that he's just a fatty blob.

So glad that's over.  Time to recover and enjoy the Holidays!  Another big thank you to Robyn, Nate, Noelle and the several others for helping out and letting me rest!