More Lily

God is Amazing

The pictures speak for themselves.

Light Out of Darkness and other Minor Miracles

So.......Lily and I have had one heck of a year between the two of us, medically speaking. I have said it before and I will say it again, I can not wait for this year to be over!!! However, we do have tons of things to be thankful for. Like no cancer - that's a biggie! Getting to see some of our China family this summer - amazing time! Mike starting his business - scary but good! Lily having 2 seizures - yes you read right - thank you God for the seizures!!!

Now before I explain why Lily's seizures are a good thing I would very forcefully like to drive home this core of my belief, not because I want to proselytize or evangelize, but because it is the only way I survived this summer. I clung to these words because they were the only hope I had.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

It doesn't say that God works some things for the good of those who love him, it says ALL. That means that absolutely everything that happens to me (or all things) God is working for the good. Even the things that I think are bad and horrible.

2 Samuel 22:31
As for God, his way perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless.

So here is how God worked Lily's seizures for good - this is long so get comfortable.

A few weeks back we conferred with Lily's pediatrician and we all agreed to seek a second opinion in the neurology department regarding Lily's seizures. The original neurologist, upon a 2nd abnormal EEG reading, simply said "Well her readings are abnormal, increase her meds, see you in 9 months." No explanation what so ever as to the what or why of her abnormal readings.
So we met the new doctor on Monday. Dr. Hsu happens to be the sweetest, most humble, and excellent doctor I have had the opportunity to deal with. He spent over an hour with us going over Lily's records and history and was very helpful and patient answering all of our questions. He had an immediate suspicion just from her initial EEG of what her condition is. We have another EEG scheduled for next week and hopefully we will be able to confirm his diagnosis. He believes she has a very rare type of epilepsy found in fewer that .5% of all epilepsy patients. It is called ESES or Electrical Status Epilepticus of Sleep - yeah, it's a mouthful.
This type of epilepsy does not present with visible seizures. It is an electrical malfunction only and does not include motor malfunction which is what you see with the twitching or flailing in a typical seizure. It is basically a hidden epilepsy that occurs as an electrical disruption during sleep. No outward signs what so ever. Instead of Lily's brain quieting down and going into a normal sleep pattern she instead experiences increased repetitious brain activity. From what I understand she never gets REM sleep. If left untreated this causes extreme developmental, cognitive, speech, and motor delays and eventually permanent impairment, all basically from severe sleep deprivation. This will also cause difficulty with growth.
If Lily hadn't had the two regular seizures this summer (which are entirely unrelated) we NEVER would have found this. We would have had no reason in the world to suspect something like this and no doctor would have recommended having and EEG without those 2 seizures. Thank you God for lighting our way!!
This type of epilepsy normally shows up in children between 3-5 years of age and presents itself as a sudden regression in abilities. The child will develop normally all along and suddenly they start losing speech, fine and gross motor skills, etc. Many of these kids are misdiagnosed as autistic or pervasive development delay (PDD or failure to thrive). Lily had them both as possible diagnosis. The epilepsy is not discovered in many of these children until too late when the damage has become mostly permanent. Once a diagnosis is made there is treatment but it seems to be a very difficult thing to get under control, no one drug or combination of drugs works all the time in every kid.
Dr. Hsu is very hopeful for Lily, however. We have no way of pinpointing when she began having these seizures, but we have seen nothing but forward progress from her in the two years she has been with us. Normally these kids go backwards pretty dramatically. Since she has been on the anti-seizure meds her progress has even accelerated if you can believe that!! She is starting to put on pounds, not just ounces, and her enthusiasm and drive are out of this world. Her motor skills are coming together all around and she is making more noise and meaningful vocalization every day. Dr. Hsu is hopeful that her current med is doing the trick and keeping these abnormal brain spikes at bay. The EEG next week will show how well it is working.
If we can maintain control over these episodes there is a very high likelihood that Lily will regain all of the ground she has lost and move on the catch her peers. This type of epilepsy normally disappears when a child reaches adolescents.

So now you know the scoop. We are thankful to God for everything he has done in our lives whether we have understood what he is doing or not. At times it is very difficult to hang on to any shred of faith but hang on we must. Then along come days like this when we want to sing from the mountain tops our praises to our faithful God.

2 Samuel 22:29
You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light.

Busybody

This may seem like a boring video of a blabbing child but you will understand the significance when I have a chance to explain all of the updates I have on Lily. Trust me when I say that it will take me a while to write them all down. In the mean time, until I get a chance to do that, enjoy watching Lily be Lily:-)

More to Come

So I realized that it has been a while since many of you have seen an recent, updated picture of Lily so here you go:-) This was a couple of weeks ago. Commanding attention at the dinner table - no one has to teach this girl leaderships skills - lol!
I do have a ton of updates on Miss Lily but at the moment I am spent so they will have to wait for another day. Just know that we are all doing very, very well.

2 Years

There are no words to describe how this day makes me feel. Two years ago today, on the other side of the earth, we were handed a delicate, scared, fragile stranger. Today we have, while still delicate in build, a strong, fierce, determined powerhouse of joy and love. To witness the unfolding of such a beautiful flower is truly amazing.

Everyone loves a Parade!

Lily got to spend last weekend getting lots of Grandpa time in. Mike's dad came down to visit for a few days. It was the weekend of our city's fall festival and the parade goes right past the front of our building, we couldn't miss it if we wanted to! Lily was pretty oblivious to all the goings on when we went last year, but this year was a different story! The marching bands were like Christmas in October! This girl sure loves her music:-) And her Grandpa, of course!

One Step at a time!

It has been almost two years since Lily-an came in to our lives. At first we were only concerned with the most basic elements of survival for her. Just giving her the most and very best food we could to allow her body to recover and strengthen. Rolling over and sitting up were huge accomplishments for her. The light of life brightened in her eyes and she began to reach out to the world around her and want more.

Well watch out world, here comes Lily!! We got her new braces (called KAFO's) last Wednesday but we haven't had much of a chance to try them. It takes a while to brake them in so she only wears them an hour or so at a time right now. We had some time tonight to try them out.

Bear in mind that this is the very end of the day and she had nearly fallen asleep not even 10 minutes before this - we were trying to wait for Mike to get home to take the video. We had already spent 20-30 minutes working on standing and walking so she was tuckered out! I had made the red carry sling back when we were working on trying to help her crawl and it occurred to me that it might be helpful to assist her walking. I wish Mike had been home to get video of her right after we tried it the first time, she was so excited, and so, so proud of herself:-) Mama and Baba are pretty proud of her too!

Strong and Determined

The Chinese attributes for the Morningstar Lily, which our Lily is named after, are strength and determination. Lily may not be able to talk, she may not be able to walk, she may be months and months behind her peers in her development, but this little girl has so much inner strength and determination, she blows me away.
Today we started out very early with appointments. First we went and picked up her new braces - yeah! We are very happy with them, we are looking forward to working with her in them.
Then we went to get fitted for the take home EEG. Basically they took goop and band aids, stuck 25+ electrodes to her head, and mummy wrapped her head with gauze. With a big cord coming out the top of her head attached to a little computer pack we were supposed to go happily on our way and proceed normally through the next 72 hours - haha - real funny!
We actually did pretty good at first. Lily even had an awesome therapy session. We came home and had dinner, but come time for bed the S & D kicked in to overdrive. Lily was bound and determined that she was not going to go to sleep with those things on her head.
Mike had his hands full while I was at my EMS refresher class. By the time I got home it was after 9:30 and she was still wide awake, but taking a break from her attempts to dislodge the electrodes. I wish he could have taken video of her because I know some of you will just think that maybe Daddy didn't know how to put her to sleep, but that is only because you have never seen this girl when she is on a mission. When I did get home she had already managed to get all of the gauze and tape off and was working on the electrodes themselves. Imagine a writhing baby crocodile, a very, very mad baby crocodile. She refused to let Mike change her clothes or even touch her head, except for when he told her he was just going to take some of the gauze off. Hmmmm......this girl knows what she wants.
Mike had managed to call the clinic's help line by this time and they said just take everything off because if the electrodes are moved or not seated properly the test won't work. So we took all of the stuff off. Washed Lily's hair to get all the goop off and she went right to sleep.
Defeated by the strong and determined one. We are declaring a temporary vacation from all doctors and all doctor's tests. Mike and I pretty much feel the same way Lily does right now. We're going to bed.

Big Day

This picture about sums up Lily's attitude through out her first day of pre-school! She was quite the happy and excited little student. I was a little worried that she would get overwhelmed by the noise and craziness because she has, from time to time, been overwhelmed in the Sunday school preschool. There was no need for me to worry. I stayed for the 2 1/2 hour session, mostly just to observe her for signs of stress, and she did great. She jumped right in and actively engaged anyone who came with in her reach and charmed her classmates and teachers alike with her very best smiles. She even brought out a couple of kisses for the coordinator. Hmmm...I think somebody knows exactly who to butter up too!!!

Knit One Purl Two?

Now I am not a knitter, I am a crocheter, so forgive me if I have the terminology incorrect, but I understand the basic principles:-) One or two needles are used with yarn to create a series of knots. In both knitting and crocheting a pattern of "knots" is generally followed to produce an expected outcome (a hat, scarf, socks, etc.).

King David claimed God to be a knitter.

Psalm 139:13
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

There is something very comforting to me about imagining God sitting in His big God rocking chair knitting me together. It also will help me explain, I think, what we found out today from Lily's test results.

We got back several test results all at once today. Lily had a genetics consult back on the 1st of August at which time they evaluated her to see if she fit the criteria for genetic testing, which she did. Basically she has had ongoing delays with an unknown cause so they can legitimately ask for an analysis of her DNA to look for genetic syndromes or other issues with her DNA. Genetics were also concerned that she may have misshapen vertebrae in her spine so they also wanted x-rays. Due to the seizures that started last month she also had an MRI of her brain done last week (genetics wanted one as well).

MRI came back as unremarkable. That means perfectly normal!! Yeah God! There has been an off chance all along that Lily could have mild cerebral palsy or some other type of brain abnormality. The more and more we have come to know our daughter the less and less we believed those possibilities, but the doctors needed proof and now they have it:-)

The spinal x-rays, as well, came back completely normal.

Now to explain what they found in genetics. First what they did was comb through all of Lily's chromosomes to make sure she wasn't missing any or that she didn't have any extra. Then they look even closer to see if any of the chromosomes are formed differently than what they believe to be standard. There are variations within standard so sometimes it is hard to tell what is actually enough of a deviation to cause problems.

Lily has the perfect 46 chromosomes, 23 pairs. However, on chromosome #2, she has a tiny add on. When a chromosome has extra material or is missing material it is described as positive, negative, or undetermined. Lily's addition is classified as "undetermined" because it is such a small amount of additional material that it may be standard. Another reason that it is classified as undetermined is because so few people have been discovered to have this deviation. One way we would have been able to establish if her deviation was standard would have been through family history, which of course we do not have.

From the limited research that had been done on this chromosomal difference three traits have come up fairly frequently (geneticists are only just beginning to understand what each chromosome does). The three traits are delayed gross motor development, delayed intellectual development, and febrile seizures. The other trait, common to many children with any type of chromosomal issues, is difficulty "growing". In Lily's case, gaining weight.

So what does this all mean and what do we do now? First off it means we praise God!! We are so thankful that we have answers and good answers at that. I know some of you might be thinking that this is horrible news, but really it is truly amazing and wonderful news to us. Lily does not have some horrible disease or syndrome. Her brain is completely intact, functional, and perfect. Her body is strong and healthy and growing stronger and healthier every day.

There is no ceiling on what Lily can achieve in this life. She may have to work a little harder and a little longer to get the same results as her peers, but there is nothing standing in her way to physically stop her from doing anything she is determined to do. God had meaning and purpose when He had us name her after the Morningstar Lily, which stands for strength and determination. God, and the strength and determination He has gifted her with are all she needs to succeed in this life. We will throw a lot of love in there for good measure:-)

A master knitter doesn't use a pattern - they create the pattern. There is also no such thing as a mistake to the Master either. The Master makes all things beautiful. God gave Lily an extra stitch because He wanted her to be an extra special girl.

Summer

This picture just about sums up the summer:-)

God is Good, and Weird, Apparently

Finally! I can officially report that I do NOT have thyroid cancer!!! After thinking that I had the all clear after surgery two weeks ago we got some unexpected bad news last Friday at my check up. The complete pathology had come back with the discovery of some "weird" (doctor's words) looking cells. Their pathologists didn't know what they were so my samples had been sent out to the Mayo Clinic for further diagnosis. Talk about bummed out!! If the cells were determined to be cancerous that would mean that I would have to have the surgery all over again to have the remaining thyroid half removed.
I got the official word this afternoon that after FOUR Mayo clinic pathologists reviewed my samples they were determined to be benign. The nurse said my samples were very popular due to their weirdness:-/
I guess this falls under the category of "fearfully and wonderfully made" in God's creation department, lol!

Nothing to report on Miss Lily yet. She has not had any more seizures for which we are thankful. She had her MRI yesterday and has an EEG on the 7th. We will just have to wait and see what all of the test results say and go from there. She just keeps forging ahead with her typical good natured determination.

I am just glad and thankful that God is allowing me to focus my full attention back on my little girl:-)

Weekend Round Up

Wow! What a crazy week last week. Dad had major surgery to repair a herniated diaphragm on Wednesday, I had my thyroid surgery on Thursday, and Lily had another seizure while I was in the hospital. I think we have had enough medical drama to last us for say, another 30 years or so:-p
So - Dad is doing pretty good. The surgery was pretty extensive so he has been in ICU, but they are hoping he will be out tomorrow. My surgery went perfectly. The doctor was very pleased and told me I had a beautiful neck for operating on (gee thanks doc:-/). The biopsy showed no signs of cancer. They will still be doing a more thorough pathology that I will get the results of next week, but at this point it looks highly unlikely that they will find anything. I have much less pain than I was expecting and I feel remarkably good. Praise God!
Now Miss Lily. Lily had recovered very well from what we thought was a fever induced seizure (febrile seizures) back on July 30th. She obviously had some kind of virus because she continued to fight the fever for several days after the initial onset the day she had the seizure. She was back to her normal self and we didn't think too much of it. Febrile seizures are very common in little kids.
Thursday, the day of my surgery, she was her regular happy self up until about an hour after they took me off to surgery. At that point Mike said she went into major meltdown mode. He assumed that she was upset that she hadn't had her snack yet. Eventually he got her calmed down and was able to feed her and then she fell asleep. I was coming out of surgery by this point and it was as they were wheeling me into my room that Lily started seizing in her sleep. I was with it enough to know what was going on, but out of it enough not to care too much. I just told Mike to go and not worry about me because I was falling back to sleep anyway:-/ Mike immediately got her down to the ER and the docs took it from there. No fever this time and since it was her 2nd seizure in less than two weeks they automatically did a CT scan. Everything came back normal.
But now we are in a new realm of medical concern because we need to figure out why Lily is having seizures if they are not being caused by a fever. She will be seeing a neurologist this week and getting a complete MRI of her brain next week that will be looking for any abnormalities that could be triggering the seizures. Aside from epilepsy there are a whole host of medical conditions that can trigger seizures so we may be playing medical detective for a while. In the mean time, until we find out exactly what is going on, the doctors have put her on a low dose anti seizure med to make sure she doesn't have any more seizures.
Mike and I have a very, very strong hunch that Lily is experiencing what is called a Psychogenic Non-epileptic Seizure (PNES). It is basically a stress induced seizure. Even before Lily had her first seizure we had read a lot about internationally adopted children, who have come from hard beginnings, who have experienced these type of seizures. Many times they will be misdiagnosed with epilepsy, but eventually the doctors figure out there is nothing wrong with the brains of these children, it is the emotional and psychological trauma that is manifesting itself in the form of a seizure. It is especially common in children who do not have effective communication skills, and more common in girls than in boys. We will go through all of the testing just to make double sure, though.
To say that our little family has been stressed out for the past couple of months is certainly an understatement. We have done a lot of traveling, Lily's therapies have changed from in home to at facility, Lily has been experiencing tremendous physical and developmental growth, my health issues, Mike's new business, my busy work schedule, and it just goes on and on. It is amazing that we all haven't been having seizures!
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. It means so much to us to know that we are not alone and that so many of you care so deeply.
Anyway - that is the gist of what is going on with us at the moment. I think you will all understand that we are taking some major steps back from a lot of our commitments in the coming weeks and just focusing on one another.

Diva Alert

This girl has been practicing her diva! Does she look like she means business or what?! As you can see she has made a full and complete recovery from her little virus last week. In fact, I think she has come back supercharged!

Feeling Better

Well we were supposed to be leaving for Minnesota this morning but things just did not work out this time around. With Lily's rough weekend and my impending surgery we just decided that a 9 hour car ride was not in our best interest at the moment. Lily's fever seems to have subsided and she finally got a good night's sleep last night (hopefully that means mom and dad can get a good night's sleep tonight).
I heard from my sister that Lily's cousins got to go on pony rides at the fair this past weekend so I thought I would share a picture of Lily on her "pony ride" while we were camping. I am thinking she might have been a little more enthusiastic about the real deal - lol! The wooden pony just isn't cutting it for her.

Wow, what a day it is has been.

Hmmmmm... where to start. Let's start with the good. Enjoy the video posted. It is from a few days ago at one of Lily-an therapy sessions. She has amazed quite a few people lately especially the therapists she sees. They are amazed at times I think. Lily has been getting stronger by the day. Her muscles are developing and you can see them now when she uses them. You can see her determination in the video. We are seeing this everyday with what she is doing. She is grabbing onto things and holding on. Her grip is very strong. She is bringing both hands together and grabbing things. This is a huge developmental stage for her. Means that both sides of the brain are communicating with each other. She is getting more vocal with situations around her. She is more attentive to what is going on around her and turning her head to see what is going on. You say her name and she looks at you. It just keeps getting better. She so bad wants to move and determined to do it. She isn't content with sitting on the floor now. She doesn't like crawling all that much. We go over to her or come near her and she reaches for us. She wants to stand up. So, we position her legs on the floor and have her stand. She stands from sitting now. She comes up on her knees from the floor. She initiates all of it. We are here to guide and help her but let her do it all. She wants to do this at home as well as at therapy. It is getting really interesting really fast. She is growing up right before us now. What a change in a short period of time. I can't wait to see what happens over the next 6 months. We are both excited for this and amazed at the change before our eyes. We will keep posting all the good stuff so everyone can keep up. Words really can't express everything. There are changes coming our direction. We have been getting this feeling for the past few months and Jennifer and I have been talking about it more and more now. Especially after today - will explain later. We have both been realizing the importance of our family, the 3 of us and what our responsibility is as parents to Lily-an. We both feel God is working in our lives and He is giving us a feeling of change coming. We trust in this feeling because it has happened before, how do you think we ended up here in Wisconsin, along with other things. I know not all of you are believers so you may not understand what I am saying. But, it is where Jennifer and I are at in our faith journey. We try our best to put our trust in the Lord for guidance through life that we are living out his will for us. We do make mistakes, quite often, but we always try to listen to he is trying to say to us. We do this through prayer, fellowship, reading the bible and more. The way things are looking is Jennifer will be scaling back considerably on her work in the sewing world. She has worked extremely hard the last 8 years and now things are about to change. My business is doing ok and the way things are going, I am picking up more work. We have felt that our family has been a little out of sync since we adopted Lily-an and more so lately. With the fact the Jennifer is facing surgery in a few weeks is the perfect opportunity to re-evaluate things and start a new direction. She is starting to not take on work. Only what she wants to and if time allows. Her main responsibility will be to take care of Lily-an now with sometime spent in the shop. Not the other way around like it has been. These are important times for Lily-an and her development. We feel it is necessary to help her progress and develop as much as possible. We need to do our part now more than ever. We can't the way we are doing things. Things have to change. I will pick up the hole that will be left by Jennifer. We both know it will not be easy but with God guiding us, we can do. We know He will provide all that we need. We may not get rich doing it but we will have our family and it will be a strong family which is what is so needed now in these times we live. Our emphasis will be on family and the time we spend together. I will work at my shop restoring and repairing cars as much as I can. I have work through the end of the year for sure and with smaller side projects coming in, I will keep busy. We ask that you keep us in your prayers as we adjust to this change and that God provides exactly what we need to do it. This is a huge adjustment for us but we know it is the right thing to do. Now, a little note about today. Our morning started at 4am with Lily waking up crying. This has happened before but not for a while. Jennifer got up, gave her some juice and Lily didn't want to go back to sleep. Jennifer brought her to bed with us so she could at least rest with her. I noticed Lily was extremely warm, almost hot. Confusing since we have a/c and it is on. Soon, Jennifer says she is taking Lily-an on an early morning walk and off she goes. Things are good, right. She returns and soon wakes me up about 7:30am, something isn't right. Lily-an is having a seizure. She was warm. Thank goodness we are emt's and have some training to understand what is going on. Off to the ER by ambulance. Her temp was 103. Kind of low for febrile seizure. After a few minor tests and some Tylenol, her temp comes down to under 100 and she perks up sits up and is starting to look like herself. She is very tired and exhausted which is completely normal after this. Oh, she is also a little ticked off. Things look good, tests come back negative and the only thing the Dr can come up with is a virus spiked her fever and caused it. Makes sense as talk about it and we leave feeling comfortable with what he said. We have monitor her temp now. If it is a virus, there is nothing really that can be done, just need to run its course and give her ibuprofen and tylenol to keep the fever at bay. Normal thing to do. We called the on call pediatrician at Lily-ans dr's clinic and he agreed with what the er doc said. Just what kind of virus is it is the question. The ped. Dr. is thinking foot/mouth virus. It isn't flu season here and what happened is characteristic of foot/mouth virus. And this makes even more sense because Lily-an is in the stage of putting her mouth on everything she can and putting everything to her mouth she can. Like parents haven't seen their children do that. The seizure/fever is usually the first signs to show up with this virus. The physical signs (blister, red spots) show up a few days later. This afternoon, Lily-an was her normal self and we are doing great. Her temp is great, she is eating like she always does, bathroom as normal and is very playful and active like normal. We are going to monitor her temp over night and give her meds if we have to. That is about all we can do within our ability. We are praying God will heal her, correct her body, take care of the virus, no more seizures and that he gives us wisdom, peace and understanding through this process. Today was a day that we couldn't fix anything. Lily-an was in the palm of God's hand and he was taking care of her. We could only pray. Talk about helpless and useless. This is one thing, we couldn't fix or do anything about. Making a few decisions was about it. We believe God answered our prayers but we are not giving up, we are going keep praying for Lily-ans health(maybe our sanity also). Today really made us look hard at our situation here and it confirms more and more that we are on the right track. Most people would think we are out of our minds, yeah, maybe we are but with God, it will all be ok. We believe that, we have faith in that and it will. Pray for Lily-an that she is healed. No parent wants to be in our shoes and today I stood in someone elses. I have a greater understanding for the little patients I see and their parents. I can relate now where I could never before. Now I know. What a lesson today was. My heart breaks over what happened today. I was helpless........but I knew Lily-an was in good hands.

Little Rocky!

If I were computer savvy enough I would edit the theme song from Rocky into this video, but I'm not so you are just going to have to imagine it:-)

Lily-an went crazy in therapy yesterday! We have started working on moving from sitting to standing the past couple of weeks because she has seemed interested. Well no question now, that is all she wants to do. Her therapy session in 45 minutes long and that is all she did the entire time - sit, stand, sit, stand. And not just easy, tentative, beginner sitting and standing! She was using her arms to pull herself up (it took a few tries to get the message to her glutes to help out, but they got it) and then we moved her to the mini trampoline where she practiced more pulling up and the therapist helped her stand upright and bounce, and bounce, and bounce!

Of course she got to finish the session on the swing - her favorite. She has that figured out:-) She knows the therapist won't move the swing if she isn't holding on with both hands (doing anything using both hands has been difficult for her) but she put both hands on the ropes immediately and was very insistent that the swing move, even turning to swat at Kelly to make the swing move.

She was so excited and proud of herself! She was absolutely beaming through her exhaustion - and she really was exhausted by the time we got done. She had a quick snack between PT and speech but she still only made it partway through speech before she needed more food. And then she zonked out hard on the way home.

I am so proud of her and it is so amazing to see the desire and determination just steam rolling out of her. This little girl is going for the knockout!

Awakening the Beast

The dark haired little girl sat perfectly still in her chair as a small river of golden nectar trickled down her chin. Still silently, her large black eyes got even larger and blacker as she sunk her teeth in the juicy flesh of the innocent peach. Warm on the outside and cold on the inside from being freshly blanched and skinned, explosions of new, intense, and wild flavors burst forth with every bite.

There was no turning back.

Transformed from a small, quiet, docile girl into a peach crazed, wild eyed beast! Screeching, clawing, flailing, anything to bring the delicious peach back with in her reach. Formerly nearly mute, the child let loose a cacophony of growling, gawing, mmmming, and yeahhhing.

Now she rests in her lair, gorged and full of juicy peach flesh, mmmming herself into an afternoon reprieve. Every once in a while she will lick her lips and growl.

Run little peaches, run while there is still time! I know a soft little pastry shell where you can hide;-)

Update

Got the results of my biopsy today. Not good and not bad. The cells they were able to remove showed the presence of a suspicious lesion. They cannot confirm whether or not it is cancer, not enough of the right type of cells were harvested. So that means surgery to remove this nodule at the very least. I haven't talked to the surgeon or my doctor yet(she is on vacation until Tuesday) but from what the nurse was able to explain to me they will remove the nodule and, while I am still under anesthesia, biopsy the whole nodule to determine if it is cancerous. If it is cancerous they will then remove the entire thyroid. If not, I will be good to go.

I am sure I will find out more after I talk with my doctor and surgeon. I am just glad (and relieved) to have at least some useful information. Now I can start doing useful things like getting my schedule in order to prepare for surgery (now there's something to worry about!!). I will try to get the surgery done as soon as possible because then I am that much closer to recovery.

On a funnier note, I kind of felt bad for the nurse when she called me back (I had called and she had originally told me I wouldn't be able to get my test results until the dr. came back on Tuesday). Just the fact that she was calling me back so quickly gave it away for me - lol. Poor lady was more upset trying to break it to me that I was going to need surgery and that I might have cancer than I was. I am sure she is used to dealing with slightly more emotional and hysterical women. She kept asking me if I was o.k. I probably sounded abnormally upbeat to her, but I was! I was glad not to have to wait until next week and the news wasn't terrible. I almost feel like I need to call her back and make sure she's o.k. - lol!

That's all for now, folks!