Keeping Busy

We went to the 24th of July celebration at church....

Modern day wagon

We hung out in the desert recently. We love hanging with cousin Irene. :)

We left Linda out there for a week. She had fun.

Claire finished up soccer.

Linda and I went to Wicked!!

Bruce and Robert and friends went to the Real Madrid/LA Galaxy game. They got free sunglasses. Here he is with his soccer buddies.

Jane got to go to a riding lesson!

Surgery Is Over With

Claire had her surgery yesterday. They removed the cyst from her neck. She was a champ about the whole thing. We're glad it's behind us.

She got her hospital bracelet which was her ticket to a Popsicle at the end of the surgery. She kept saying she wanted a purple one...her favorite color.

 Three cheers for cartoons which she watched while we waited for her turn. She was happy they had a purple gown for her.

 Nurse Ashley promised to take good care of her. They said I could come in if I thought she'd have a total meltdown but they'd rather I didn't. I knew she would be alright. The staff was amazing and made her feel very comfortable.

 Off to surgery. She was so brave. Not one tear, and she was aware of what was going to happen. I was nervous waiting for my pager to go off that would tell me she was out of surgery. Robert was totally calm.

The surgery only took about 45min. The pager went off and we met with the surgeon first. He said that the tissue in the cyst looked like healthy tissue, which is a very good sign. He said she did great and there were no problems. We will get official results on the 17th. They removed the cyst and some surrounding tissue.

About 10min. later we got to go back to see our sweet girl.

 Her comments,
"The mask they put on me wasn't silly, mom."
"I was coughing with the mask on."
"I kept trying to open my eyes but they just kept closing."

 As luck would have it, they did have purple Popsicles!! This was her tired, groggy moments before her uncomfortable, I want to go home moment.

She was very uncomfortable yesterday after we came home, but with Tylenol she felt great. She took a good 5hr. nap which I woke her up from to eat and take Tylenol. Today she wants the bandage off but is doing really well. She will have a scar. I'm interested to see how big or little the incision is.
Today's comments from her.
"I can't believe I got my bump out mom."
"It hurt when they took my bump out."

Surgery Date Set

Claire goes in for surgery to have the growth in her neck removed on the morning of Wednesday, August 1st  at 9:20am.

She's so funny. I explained in pretty good detail to her what was going to happen. I told her that they would poke her arm and it would only hurt for a second and that they would give her medicine to go to sleep, etc. I finish this long explanation and then Robert asks her what is going to happen and she says, "I get a bandaid!!"   :)   We love this girl.

Claire is 4!!

Today is Claire's 4th birthday. We love this little girl so much. She bring us such joy and we've never had a dull moment since she was born. She keeps us on our toes! She is full of energy, love, and personality.

For her birthday we celebrated at Sea World on Friday

Then last night we had cake and presents.

her new cleats, soccer ball, and shin gaurds. :)

Claire's Lump

About a month ago I discovered a small lump on Claire's neck. It's right on the edge of her clavicle bone near the center of her neck. I thought it felt funny. A week or so later, it was still there. I took her to the Pediatrician to get it checked out. He basically told me that it could be nothing, or it could be something as bad as cancer. Thanks alot, Dr. BIG help.(yes, I'm being sarcastic) He told me to watch it for two weeks and see if it grew or changed in size. I noticed that some days it looked bigger and some days it looked smaller. So, I took her back in, but to a different Pediatrician this time. She wasn't sure what it was either so she sent me to get an ultra sound of it. The ultra sound showed a soft tissue mass(I think that's what they said). I was sent to get a surgical consult to see if the surgeon thought it was something that he thought we should remove and biopsy or if he thought it was no big deal. I met with the surgeon yesterday. He thought it wise to remove it, just in case. I really like the surgeon and trust his judgment. He said that it's better to get it out of her body. If it's nothing, then great and the lump is gone. If it happens to be something then we avoid a lot of tests that would eventually lead us to this point anyway.

She will have it surgically removed at Rady's Childrens hospital. It's probably going to be a few weeks out because they have to wait for insurance approval. I'm feeling alright about everything. Of course, it's hard to put your child in someone elses hands but I know she'll be just fine. Mostly I hate that they have to intubate her in the operating room. They do this for almost all surgeries, I just happen to know about it.

So, we'll see how it goes. I look forward to this being over and done with and getting a call from the surgeon telling me that they got the biopsy results and it's nothing to worry about.

Catching Up

Here are a few pictures that haven't made it to the blog yet...

My niece, Irene, turned 1yrs. old. We were there for her party the day after my mom's graduation. She was so cute eating her cake.

Robert and Bruce went to the Father/Son outing. They had a great time. Next year they're going to have to graduate from a mattress in the back of our car, to a real tent. :)

The girls and I stayed home and watched movies, decorated hats, and had treats.

A little while back the girls rode the Coronado Island ferry. Got this picture of the sisters.