So today was Mr. Murphy's big day! We were scheduled for surgery this morning at 8 am. Murphy didn't want any part of waking up so we simply wrapped him in his blanket, put some socks on and out the door we went. We left early due to the roads being horrendous from last nights storm. It was a good idea because they were just big sheets of ice.
We arrived... carried Murphy in asleep.... still no interest in waking up from the little guy. They did his pre-op... we met with the anesthesiologist and then waited... and waited... and waited... and waited for the doc. He FINALLY arrived at 9:50. At first I was totally fine and I knew the roads were awful but after that hour and a half hit I was just ticked BECAUSE....
When Murphy first work up around 8:30 he was sooo happy and in great spirits. They gave him his Buzz Lightyear mask (the thing that goes over your nose to give you the gas) and he played with it and breathed heavy in it like Darth Vador.... the more time that passed, the more Murphy wanted something to eat... he started getting grouchy and by the time the doc did arrive he REALLY wanted to go home. At one point he said, "Mom... I want to go home. I'm better... I not sick any mo so I don't need sugry (Murphy language)." I told him we had to stay until he had surgery and he kept telling me no. So at that point I just said, "well then go out and tell the nurse you want to go home." I thought he would be shy and just come snuggle but not Murphy... he marched right out that door and found the first nurse he could and let her know he was ready to go home!
The doc showed up and talked to us a bit. He explained it would take appx an hour. So then we have to go one way and Murphy has to go the other. This is the part I am not good at... especially when my baby is screaming and crying and saying.... "I want you mommy... I need you mommy." Eric saw the tears coming to my eyes and wasn't super sympathetic. He said, "Come on Jess... it's a simple procedure... he will be fine."
I don't care it it's this, tonsils, appendectomy! I hate sending my kids off to go under the knife and I'm pretty sure I will forever!!! So we then go to the waiting room and wait... and wait... and wait... after about an hour fifteen the receptionist said, "is anyone in here with Murphy?" I told her I was and proceeded to gather all the stuff. After I had everything in my hands she said, "oh... he's not done but the Dr. did want me to come and assure you that things are fine but it is taking longer than expected."
It took about 2 hours and unlike my other children he came of the anesthesia VERY well. And since that time I have been BEGGING him to sit on the couch and quit jumping around and quit bouncing off the walls.
They had said he would be groggy most of the day and would want to just lay there which was ok and actually really good for him. Pretty sure Murphy had the opposite effect. He finally closed his eyes at 11 tonight for the first time since he got out of surgery and that was a fight to get him to lay down. If it weren't for the big gauze pad on the side of his face you would have never known anything happened to him.
The doctor did explain the the cyst had been sent off for the biopsy and we would get results early next week. He was super positive. He had tried making a small incision to drain the cyst but due it being on his peroda gland (?) he did have to cut a bit more to remove. But that was good news because they didn't have to make the big cut like they had originally thought. He said it was the size of a large marble?????
So anyway things are great. We truly appreciate all the offers for help with the kids. Thanks to everyone who has taken my kids the last couple days to help out. I love my friends and family!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Surgery was a Success
Merry Christmas
Bad IDEA! I'm not going to complain because hey... we were in Disneyland for Christmas right? What I will say is that I would highly recommend that you DON"T do it! Dec 23rd was the first day in 7 days it hadn't poured rain in Anaheim... therefore.. the people were out! Super busy!
Dec 24th wasn't as bad as the 23rd. The park closed early that night due to Christmas Eve so I think many people didn't want to spend the money when the park closed 3 hours early (that's actually what someone at Disney told me... lol). Christmas day..... ZOOO!!!! It was like a bunch of little ants walking around trying to get from point A to point B.
On a positive note... It was Murphy's first trip to Disney and he LLLLLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEDDDD it!
We have always been all about the Characters at Disneyland. We purchase the autograph book right when we get there and we try and get those puppies full before we leave! We have a collection of years in our bookcase and it is seriously my kiddos FAVORITE things to look at and show to family! The funniest thing about that is you need to notice Murphy in most of these pics. He didn't "not like" the characters... he just wasn't so sure about them. I had to constantly tell him to look at mom rather than crank his neck and make sure the character wasn't going to take him. It was great!
We left for our trip on Tues the 21st and stayed in Vegas that night. It's always nice to break up that 9 hour drive. The weather was a bit rainy for us but it was heartbreaking driving through St. George and southern California. They had just experienced tumultuous rain and I cannot tell you the amounts of water... flooding... mud slides... road closures that we saw. What an awful time to go through something like that.
Which meant each child only had 1 sweatshirt... we knew this wouldn't work and of course I love an excuse to stop at the outlets so we took a little break there and then went on our way. We arrived in Anaheim fairly early and checked into our hotel.
It was awesome. We had a family suite with 2 rooms so in one room there were 2 Queen beds but in the kiddos room they had bunk beds, full on bottom, twin on top... a desk area and then a small kids table with chairs. It was their own little playroom! We did love the room!
This pic was Christmas Eve. The 4 little guys got matching Mickey and Friends PJ's along with their stuffed animal friends.
Oh... and then their is our rebel Mays. On his list to Santa was a Red Sox hat. How could I possibly bring myself to fulfill that wish? I will admit, I did it behind his fathers back and figured this was one of those situations it would be easier to ask forgiveness rather than permission. He sported that hat around the rest of the week like he was the coolest cat on the planet!
We surprised the kids again and did the Character Breakfast Christmas morning. We had originally told them that we wouldn't be able to do it this year due to cost but had done so well budget wise that we had enough the last day to do this. I am so glad we took the extra time to sit and have a good breakfast on Christmas! That's the hardest thing about this trip. I was talking with Eric after and we both felt like we missed out on the whole "Christmas Magic." I know that probably sounds corny but there wasn't a tree... the kids did wake up to stockings and a few small things to open but there was no time to sit and play or talk about our Saviour as we normally would... it was just hurry off to the park early before it gets packed.
we would go early.... go home for naps and then go back late. We figured we could wear the kids out so they would sleep well on the ride home the next day.
Bugs Life... this is always one of our favorites because we love going in and taking goofy pictures with our "BUG EYES." Murphy LOVED the 3D movie... Mays had just woke up and was a bit grumpy... and McGwire, who was not afraid to go on any ride and is my daredevil, started crying and refused to put on his glasses because he thought it was sooooooo scary! Kind of comical. You can tell that Maddogs thing right now is the rabbit finger ears behind the head. There is a picture of Macee somewhere here he is doing the same thing!
Murphy in his cute Santa hat and glasses. He didn't want to return the glasses.
We made it down to Toon Town the last night and got to hang with Mickey for a bit! When we were leaving Murphy turned around and ran and hugged Mickey. He said, "Mickey... thank you for letting us see your house."
I look at this picture and think... Holy Cow... that's alot of people!
So that did make it a little difficult because whoever wasn't riding was with Murphy and Mays and with it being so busy it was a bit stressful to make sure you had a grasp on both. I've never been a fan of those little backpacks with leashes that people put on kids but there were a few times I wished I had one for a few minutes. We were also able to let Mick, Macee and Maddux go fast pass a ride while Eric and I took the boys to do something else. The kids love Tower of Terror so the little boys and I (or Eric) did Monsters Inc probably 20 times!
This was Murphy waiting for our shuttle after a long day playing at the park!
Here it is... Maddux at work! We tried another fun project with Macees hair the first night we got there and this is pretty much the "do" for the week. We didn't have to do anything with her hair the entire trip except for fix the messy bun daily... which I am a professional at because a messy bun is my hairstyle of preference! I'm so lazy right?
We had originally thought we would wake up early Sunday (the 26th) and drive the entire way home. Well... we missed the entire wake up early but still figured we were fine to go all the way home.
That was until we went 10 miles and couldn't get out of California. It literally took us 9 hours to get from Anaheim to St. George. This is a 5 hr drive max. I had noted at one point we had driven 120 miles in 4 hours. I know ridiculous. The crazy part about it was that there were no accidents. I think that the entire world that was at Disney decided to drive home the same time we did! If we would have known that we would drive this slow in the entire time (20 - 30 mph) we probably would have done something different.
We just kept thinking that eventually it would pick up... Oh no... we were very.... very.... wrong. So by the time we hit Mesquite we decided we would surprise the kids and stay in St. George. We called and booked a room and then decided to break the news. The response was, "No... I want to get home" and "Ahhhhhhh we can make it... let's just drive home" and "Mom... I already made plans tonight." Seriously... I was shocked.
Eric and I just laughed and decided oh well... we are the drivers and we were very done after 10 hours in the car. Murphy had been screaming from Vegas to Mesquite... he was very done! So we stayed in St George anyway!
We woke up the next morning and got on the road early. It was an easy drive and we returned home safely.
(McGwire hiding in the BIG ornaments)
So as much as I didn't LOVE the trip.... the kids had fun... we made some memories. We've done it once so we don't ever need to worry about doing it again LOL!!!Oveson Christmas Party
In this game Gwy and Mick had to put Vaseline on their nose and without using their hands they had to get the cotton ball on their nose like Rudolph. Therefore, they had to jump around and try to flip that thing onto their nose... HILARIOUS!!!
This is Mayser and my cute nephew Grady. Mays loves him and tried to carry the poor little man around the entire party.
And then their is Mays and Quayd. I am just going to take a guess that these two little men are going to cause big trouble throughout their lifetimes!
Maddog and Nya. They are the same age and have been best buddies since they were old enough to play. Maddux is a couple months older than Nya but when Nya called to tell Maddux she lost her first tooth it was the funniest thing.... he had lost his first tooth... the exact SAME tooth... that same day. They love to share that story!
And then their is all the cousins in their PJ.s! Aren't they cute?
Nutcracker and School Christmas Sing
This was Macee's little party girl whom she ADORED. This little 2 year old is so stinking cute and ridiculously smart! 
And then there was Murphy. I ended up taking him one night on a fluke. I thought for sure it would end up bad and he would get restless and be loud. This kid sat on my lap watching the entire 2 hours of the Nutcracker intensely. He woke up every morning for the next 2 weeks and the first thing he said was, "do we get to go see Macee's Nutcracker today." He was obsessed!
Online they used a headband... we used Christmas Ribbon! We have tried it with the headband and amazingly we can now get a headband to stay on Macee's head!
And then there is Mr. GQ - Maddog!!! They were suppose to dress in their Sunday best but many of the kids don't dress up at all and I hate sending Maddux in a full suit because I know he will still play football at recess regardless of what he wears! So a suitcoat and shoes were put on in the morning before the "SING....."
And then a sweatshirt and tennis shoes were put in his backpack to change into for recess. He looked so stinking cute!
Of course Macee will strike a pose!
This is Macee and several of her classmates singing somthing about Aliens for Christmas???
And here's cute Gwy and his class singing Feliz Navidad! You could tell how excited he was about me taking his picture.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Good News!
Thank you... Thank you... Thank you.... for all the prayers. We received a call from the doctor today and he THINKS that it appears it's not in his lymph nodes. He told us CT's aren't 100% but doesn't see anything around the area that would suggest that.
He is leaning toward it being a cyst which like I had mentioned, has to be removed due to the placement. 80% of the time these are removed they are benign so we have GREAT percentages! He said we could get a biopsy but if it were him he wouldn't put a little guy through that. He said that it was going to be removed regardless so we could find out at that time if it were malignant or benign.
I feel so much better about it today. After going through all the emotions and worst case scenario thoughts and crying the majority of the day I was in bed and Eric said to me, "Jess... you've already decided it's cancer... and if it is, which I have a good feeling about, do you not have Faith in your Father in Heaven?"
So then we started talking and I put all the bad thoughts out of my head (a little) and it was better. I'm not going to lie and say I slept well or much but at least I wasn't crying! When the phone call came in and I spoke with the doc I felt so much better. So even if we aren't totally out of the woods... I know that all the prayers and kind words have totally given me a little bit of peace.
Another positive note is that the facial nerve runs through the prada gland. They were thinking that the placement of the cyst was in the gland but it looks like it may be more on top so he said that he would first try a small incision and see if it can be removed the more common way which means no big cut down the face! GOOD POSITIVE STUFF!!! He wasn't sure it would work but said he would definitely try that first! So today I feel like doing little cheers!
I don't have much time but definitely knew there were concerns and appreciate all of you amazing people and your prayers!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Murphy Update
So first of all... Thank you all so much for all your texts, calls, messages... I honestly started out the morning in tears due to the fact that I had so many texts from friends wishing me good luck and letting me know that their thoughts were with us. Overwhelming how I have surrounded myself with such awesome, compassionate friends.
So to start things out... Murphy had a rough cough last week so I scheduled him a doc appt. While we were there I had questioned Dr. Pete about a bump that we had noticed a couple months ago in the front of his ear. So I have taken a couple of my kids before with bumps behind their ears or down their chin line and they are always pockets of infection that go away with time. After this wasn't going away we thought we should ask about it.
The doctor referred me to an ENT which we saw today. There were a few different scenarios and the doctor is not sure what it is and cannot be sure until he runs a few tests. He was leaning toward a lump in his lymph-node. He followed that statement with, "this is most commonly a from of lymphomo." He also stated that over 70% of the time these are benign.
Our options were to get a CT scan to see if there were more lymph-node (which would be a bigger sign of lymphomo). The good news is that he couldn't actually feel anything so he said that was a good sign. Our other option would be to biopsy it which would mean put a needle into the side of his head and pull out stuff from the "bump." The doctor said he would hate that.
Regardless of whatever it is or whether it is cancerous it HAS to be removed. It is in his salivatory gland which affects a few things that shouldn't be affected. So normally it's an easy procedure that they cut a little hole and remove it. Unfortunately it is right on the "face nerve" which controls the function of the left side of his face. So they will have to cut from the top of his ear down to under his chin bone. They then peel back his skin and remove it carefully without bumping or heaven forbid, cutting, the nerve. The doctor assured me he has done several of these surgeries and only had a few paralyzed faces!!
HaHa... totally just kidding! Never paralyzed anyone before. So.. due to the fact that it will be removed regardless of what it is the surgery has been scheduled for December 30th.
I asked the doc what he would do if it were his child. He told me to do the CT scan so we could have a better idea of what he was dealing with. When we called the hospital they weren't able to schedule him until Thur morning. The doc called the CT people in his building and tried talking them into doing the CT immediately. They told us that they never do CT scans on 2 year olds without sedation and they were concerned because if there were any movement at all the CT wouldn't work. Our doc told the CT tech that he wasn't a normal 2 year old and he thought he would do it.
He is so mellow and good that Eric and I were also confident that it would work. Besides that, we couldn't wait another 2 days to know anything. So... they go to do his IV and he totally freaks out and pulls it out. I was ready to throw in the towel and didn't want to see him go through that again. He was frantic and scared and mad and bawling uncontrollably. Eric suggested we try the other arm. We both knew how tired he was and knew if we could get the IV in he would hopefully fall asleep which would make the actually scan simple! So after both of us and 2 nurses holding him down we did get the IV into the other arm.
He was so not happy with us. I held on to him and snuggled him to sleep after he tried catching his breath for 5 minutes from crying so hard. He would almost get asleep and say, "I want to get out of here mom." We told him they had a Buzz Lightyear ride that we had to go on first and then we could "get out of here." He wasn't convinced. After 30 minutes he fell asleep and I laid him down on the CT bed. He woke a bit but went back to sleep shortly after. She started doing the CT and his eyes popped open. I was dying. I thought for sure we had just wasted the last hour... knowing if he moved it would have been for nothing. When he opened his eyes he saw the lights flashing and said, "mom... is this the Buzz ride." I assured him it was and told him to tell me what color the lights where. They then shot the dye, or liquid, into his IV which isn't comfortable and gives you a bad taste in your mouth. He didn't like that much and started to move a bit... He said, "Mom... I'm melting (its warm liquid)... mom I'm melting... my blood is melting". It made me smile and he was not liking it until he saw my sexy x-ray jacket. He said, "Mom, you have a buzz lightyear shield on." After that he laid perfectly still for the next 5 minutes and had a perfect CT.
So now we wait... They said we should hear from the Dr. first thing in the morning with the results of the CT. It took all I had not to break down in the office but I did it. For the next couple hours I couldn't think about it without breaking down. So I'm a big, fat, cry-baby and can't talk about it. I apologize for not calling everyone concerned and it was definitely too long to text. Everything will be okay. Regardless of anything... it will be ok (Eric has assured me this all afternoon). I'm sorry I'm such a wuss but if I start talking I cry and then I feel like a big dork because it could possibly be nothing!
But until I know... I will just be a baby! I love you all and appreciate your kind words and prayers. I will update as soon as I hear anything!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Happy 4th Birthday Mayser
1. His gorgeous blonde curls! He wore a hat most of the summer and Eric wouldn't let me cut his hair. It was cute when he had his ballcap on and it curled up around the brim!
2. The sparkle in his eyes! And yes... it has converted a little more from a devil sparkle to a nice sparkle.
3. I love that Mays has decided that Murphy isn't a baby and can now be his Best Friend. These two are the only ones home every day for a few hours and they would be lost without each other. 
4. I love his cheesy smile! When we ask Mays to smile he smiles so big he can't keep his eyes open!
5. I love that in 50% of the pictures that I take of Mays he is biting his nails. Not only his nail, but his MIDDLE finger nail. Mick's buddies get a kick out of his pictures thinking he is being naughty. Oops. that was 5! And I could keep going...
I love this little man so much! He has grown out of his naughty stage and is such a sweet boy. Don't get me wrong... he does revert back to that mean, naughty Mays sometimes but most of the time... he is just a sweetie! Mays' 4 favorite things are:
