Yet Another Hospital Visit

Remember last week when I said "when it rains, it pours?" Little did I know, the week would only get worse.  

On Friday morning, I woke up to a panicked call from my Mamaw saying that Pawpaw was in the hospital. He had gone to the ER in the middle of the night and left a note that he was okay and didn't want her to worry. Between me, my mom, and Mamaw, I'm the only one that can drive right now so I picked up Mamaw and we headed to the hospital. We were having a chair delivered to our house that day so my mom had to stay there until it came, which ended up being a good thing since she wouldn't have had the energy to stay at the hospital all day.

We found out that Pawpaw had a mini stroke, which means he had the symptoms of a stroke but they are only temporary. By the time we saw him, he was pretty much back to normal, which was a huge relief. The problem is, a mini stroke, or TIA (transient ischemic attack), is usually a warning that a true stroke is coming, especially in the next 72 hours. 

Later in the afternoon, I went back to get my mom and pack a bag for Pawpaw's overnight stay. Our hospital is gigantic and requires a ton of walking to get to the room, and my mom ended up getting sick from the walk, so when we left, I wheel-chaired both my mom and Mamaw, one at a time, down to the car. At least I'm getting some exercise while I'm here :)

The other big shock was that during all of the tests they ran on Pawpaw, they found a nodule on his thyroid. As y'all know, my mom is going through thyroid cancer treatment right now so finding this out really felt like a kick in the stomach to all of us.

I feel ridiculous and, honestly, embarrassed to be asking y'all again for prayers. I realize that this blog has been so down and depressing lately, but it is a blog about my life, and well, that's been my life for the past few weeks. I shouldn't say that- we have actually managed to have some fun, too! 

If you aren't sick and tired of hearing me complain (I don't blame you if you are), I would love for y'all to keep the prayers coming. My mom is doing better than we expected right now and I absolutely believe it's a God thing. So many people are lifting her up in prayer and we can feel it. During all of this chaos, I sometimes felt like falling apart and just losing it, but I had an overwhelming sense of peace when I needed it most. Plus, I was the driver/bag packer/cook/wheelchair-pusher so I really had no choice but to stay sane :)

The Hills: Is It All a LIE!?

My mom and I have been watching all of the seasons of The Hills (and Laguna Beach) on Instant Netflix. We had never seen an episode of Laguna and only a few of The Hills here or there. 

It has been SO fun to watch them all in order, and I now have a slight obsession with LC. But, after googling a few things, we found out that IT'S NOT REAL! You're probably laughing right now that I didn't know this sooner, but we are very disappointed! 

So how much is real and how much is scripted? Did they really date any of these guys or is it all for the show!? I saw that Heidi didn't really work at Bolthouse (I had a hard time believing this anyway) but did Lauren and Whitney really work at Teen Vogue and People's Revolution?

Any info y'all can provide would be much appreciated :)

Cancer Sucks

I've been meaning to write this post for a couple weeks now. Every time I've started, I wrote about 6 words then quit. I don't even know how to begin or where to start....what's going on is very complicated and confusing, but I'll do my best to explain! 

I came home 3 weeks ago when my mom was really sick. We're not sure exactly what was going on, but she ended up in the hospital. After she got home, it took a few days to see any improvement but she did eventually get better and (almost) back to her usual self. Two days after I came home, we found out that my Pawpaw had to have a pacemaker put in. When it rains, it pours, right? A few days later, Pawpaw had his surgery and it was a success! 

So here's the next part of the story. I decided to stay here until my mom found out what she had to do for her next round of treatment. She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a year ago and was coming up on her 1st year scan. About two months ago, her doctor told her that there are 2 different ways to prepare for her scan/treatment and she may have to do the more difficult path. (I'm trying to explain this as simple as possible, but it's so complicated!)

Basically, here's the whole story. Last year when she was diagnosed, she had her thyroid removed and also part of her lymph node, which the cancer had spread to. She went on a low-iodine diet (no dairy, soy, wheat, etc.) for 2 weeks then had radiation (radioactive iodine) to kill the remaining cancer cells. During the radiation, she had to be isolated from everyone for days and had to throw away everything she touched during that time. 

Now that a year has passed, it's time to see if the radiation killed all of the cancer cells. There are two ways to prepare for this, getting a Thyrogen shot (like she did last year) or the "old-fashioned" way where you go off all thyroid supplements and become hypothyroid (commonly referred to as hypo hell). We found out that my mom has thyroglobulin antibodies (Are y'all completely lost now??) and because of this, her doctor felt it was best if she went the hypo hell route. I cried a lot the night we found this out, but we knew it was the best thing to do. 

So here's the timeline for the next month: 

-she has been on the low-iodine diet for 5 weeks now and will remain on it until the end of treatment

-they put her on a lower-dose supplement (Cytomel) for 10 days to reduce the amount of time she would feel all of the symptoms

-this past Sunday was her first day off of everything and she has definitely started to feel the side effects

-she goes in Thursday for her first blood test. Her TSH levels have to reach a certain number, and it usually takes a few blood tests until it does

-Once it reaches that number, she has a low-dose of radioactive iodine, more blood work, and an ultrasound

-Two days later, she has a whole body scan (the iodine makes the cancer light up)

-If there is no remaining cancer, she is DONE for a year!

-If there is still cancer cells, she has a higher dose of radioactive iodine and then will be isolated for (I think) 5 days

So many of you have texted/emailed me to see how we're doing and to let us know that you're praying for us. You have no idea how much that has meant to me. My mom's friends have also been incredible...she seriously gets at least 2 cards a day. We really look forward to the mailman coming now! And Doug has been SO supportive throughout all of this. I've been here for 3 weeks now and he has completely stepped up and taken care of everything at home. As you can imagine, it's killing me to be away from him and my babies for this long, but at least they have such a good dad to look after them! It's hard to be gone for this long, but I know without a doubt that I'm supposed to be here right now.

If you are one of those wonderful people who have been praying for us, I'm going to ask that you please keep it up! We need it now more than ever, especially for these next few weeks of hypo hell to go quickly with minimal pain and for the CANCER TO BE GONE!