16 Months Later . . .

These were not posed! I just happened to take pictures earlier in the month that are an awful lot like the ones I took on Addison's first trip to Iowa! Look how much she has grown!!





MISSING PICTURE TO POST SOON

True Love

Camera Clutz

We also visited my other Great Grandmother while in Iowa. The bummer was that, as with most of this trip (like when Addison met her second Cousin, Jersey, for the first time), I kept forgetting my camera. Luckily we were able to get these few pics the day we drove back to Minnesota.

The Shortest Long Wait Ever

We had a bit of a wait until we received my test results back. The Doc had advised that we say in 'The Neighborhood' while we waited. We decided that met we could head to Iowa to visit my Grandparents & family. Afterall, in Alaska, a four and a half hour drive IS in the neighborhood . . . sorta . . . well almost . . . heck! We drive five hours just to get to our nearest mall or movie theater - so what is a few hour drive in the states?? Right? Anyhow, seeing everyone was definitely the highlight of our trip!

Addison and Tudie wasted no time getting caught up on the past 7 months! Addison has always taken right to her Great Grandmother - she just KNOWS that Tudie is someone important!


Addison also helped Papa Roy work on his numbers for an up-coming job.


That's our grandpa right there . . . and I do mean OUR. My Grandparents have adopted Sean as one of their own grandkids and we all love that!


While we were visiting, Addison and Tudie pulled out the MANY pictures we've sent to Tudie over the past two years . . . Addison loved it. The probably took those pictures out three or four times each day and Addison was so excited that she was ALLOWED to touch the pictures! One afternoon Grandpa pulled out some old pictures of his golf courses and showed them off to Sean. It was so cute watching both pairs check out their photos!


The love affair with Abby Cadabby continues . . . And the only thing that makes playing with her Abby doll more fun is playing with the doll and Tudie!


Look at those faces! It's hard to tell who's having a better time!


The day we left Addison put on one more singing/drumming/piano/dancing concert for Tudie.


She had so much fun!


Just loved watching these two together.


Lots and lots of love here!


It was sad to leave - but we'll be back in a few months for another concert (or 50). Meanwhile, Addison is rehearsing.

Ever Wonder . . .

. . . . How they just know??



One morning, while in Rochester, I came back to the hotel from a very scary/invasive procedure. When I got to our room I listened through the door and couldn't hear a thing. I decided to wait out in the hall for Addison & Sean to get up before going in. Plus, anyone who has a one year old knows that there is nothing more beautiful than a one-year old who is SLEEPING IN!!

Anyhow, I used those 15-20 minutes to sit in the hall, sip on my Dr Pepper (ahh, sweet, sweet Dr Pepper . . .) and pulled myself together. As soon as I heard Addison and Sean get up I went into the room.

Expecting the normal morning request, "MOMMY!! Yoda Yo" (Addison Speak for Yogurt). . . I instead got a sweet little girl in pink pajamas to reach out for me and wrap her little arms around my neck. She rested her head on my shoulder and just whispered, "Mommy." Ahh, my sweet girl . . . she snuggled with me for about 10 minutes giving me exactly the peace, love and comfort I needed. How'd she know??!!

Extra Mayo

So we made it to Rochester, Minnesota took the tests and they WIPED. ME. OUT.


The three-hour time change actually worked in our favor . . . I was at the Mayo at 3:00am Alaska time and back at the hotel by 11:00am Minnesota time. Which means Addison slept the entire time I was gone and never knew I was away. The only bummer was that meant I had to keep up with her after 4-5 (and less depending on what I had to face the next day) hours of sleep. But with Sean's help and motivation we made it with no meltdowns (on Addison's or my part).



Addison really seemed to enjoy being at the hotel. She slept like a champ, got quite accustomed to eating out (she'll never eat my 'cooking' again) and loved the attention she received from strangers (hotel employees and guests).


Rochester and Minnesota in general may be home to the friendliest people in the world. I loved it! The hotel employees did their very best to make the hotel feel like home and help us in anyway they could. The Guests at the hotel were also great. The atmosphere was more like dorm-living. Most everyone who was there was there for the same reason as I and you immediately formed a bond with those people. That said please include a super special couple, Yvonne and Tom in your prayers. I'm not going to go into any detail, but they sure could use a little extra help these days.

As far as my tests go I also don't want to bore or even gross anyone out with them - but they were NOT pleasant. I did find out that I do have PVNS, along with three other issues with my hip. The Doctor said I have "massive amounts of PVNS" and I just like to throw that in to make me sound tough!

Best News: My Main Doc is not concerned about cancer. He explained that they'll still do a biopsy - but at this time he is not worried. YEA!!

Next step: One month to six weeks in Minnesota and a pretty crazy surgery. One doctor to remove the tumors and my "Main Doc" to fix the other stuff and rebuild my hip. There is also a chance that a second surgery will be done one month after the main surgery. I'll be down and out for quite awhile with a year for recovery. Not sure how I'm going to handle being laid up. I'm used to being with Addison ALL. OF. THE. TIME. So I'm not sure how I'm going to handle a few days in the hospital and weeks of laying around. That part scares me way more than any of the actual surgery and procedures.

On the bright side, the Mayo Clinic was amazing!! It is HUGE, yet you feel like you're the only patient they're taking care of. There were hundreds of patients at the clinic and probably 30 people behind the scenes working for each one. It was just unreal. They've got the system down, which of course, only increases my confidence in them and in my surgeons. I know that they'll do everything they can to get me back on my feet and playing with my favorite little girl!

A Side of Mayo Please!!

The past two weeks have been bizarre, scary, fun and just plain exhausting.

In a way those two weeks began about 14 years ago . . . I was told when I was in high school that I had juvenile arthritis in my left hip. Every so often my hip would ‘lock-up’ and hurt BAD! I never had much for range of motion, but it didn’t slow me down too often. So I learned to deal with it and remained pretty dang active.

Since then my hip has locked up so many times and I just ignored the pain and kept moving. But after so many years it wasn’t a big deal – just a painful one. Sean had been asking me for years to get it checked on - but I just told him it would pass and to quit worrying .

Well, fast forward to last October when my hip locked up the same way it always does. It bugged me for days and at night I would cry when I had to roll over. It wasn’t a big deal at the time – I had literally dealt with this hundreds of times over the past decade. The final straw was one morning during this October episode and I could barely get myself out of bed to retrieve Addison from her crib.

I could hear the little gal babbling away over the baby monitor and occasionally asking “Mommy?” Thank goodness, she wasn’t in a hurry to get out of bed that morning. But the whole time I struggled to get up, I thought to myself, “Wonder if there was a fire or some sort of emergency that I need to get her quick?” I wouldn’t have been able to do it. It took me about five minutes to get from the bed to my bedroom door. In an emergency I would have most likely been too late. THIS WAS MY WAKE-UP CALL. I needed to get this fixed.

So a few days later I was at our local clinic in hopes to meet with a doctor to see if I could be referred to someone who specialized in hips or arthritis. The doctor checked on my range of motion and discussed my pain with me, but he wasn’t convinced that there was too much wrong. I told him that I wasn’t looking for surgery or anything invasive . . . maybe just a magic little pill that would help my joint work a bit better. He kind of laughed and said that most hip problems are repaired with hip replacement surgery and that he wasn’t aware of that kind of pill.

By now, I got the feeling that he wasn’t willing to give me a referral. He sent me off for x-rays and when reading them he didn’t see too much wrong. Maybe a little irregularity in my joint, but nothing to be concerned about. We talked more about the size and shape of my pelvis than we did about my hip, because he was impressed that I was able to deliver such a big baby – which, let me tell you, made me feel like one tough Mama!! ☺

But back to the hip . . . The Doc said he had to send the X-Rays off to another location where they would be read – it was just their standard procedure. And he wasn’t convinced that I needed a referral to a hip specialist since I wasn’t interested in surgery. So, I left the clinic a bit less than impressed.

Two days later I get a phone call from the clinic asking me to come in the next day to meet with the doctor. I went in not expecting much. Afterall I hadn’t gotten anything I had expected during the last visit. The Doc explains to me that the Imaging Lab did see some issues and a few days later I was in Anchorage having a MR.

Halloween morning I received a phone call from our local clinic asking if I could come in and see the doctor. It was his day off and he was willing to meet me there whenever I could make it over. WHAT??!! I had never been so accommodated by a doctor before. . . It was weird.

I dropped Addison off at my Mom’s a few hours later and met the Doc at the clinic. He read the results (which were done by the Docs in Anchorage) saying that I had pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS). The Doc was fantastic. He had looked up as much information as he could find on this disease for me and was straightforward with me. He didn’t know much about this disease and he had already contacted a few doctors about my condition and was waiting to hear from them. I am just going to say it: I don’t like it when a Doctor claims to know EVERYTHING. And I appreciate the fact that he was candid and laid it out there. I also appreciate that he gave up part of his day off to talk to me. He eplained PVNS to me as best as he could.

PVNS: Basically tumors growing in the joint which can impact and sometimes invade your bone. The synovial lining in my hip has somehow decided that it wants to make tumors rather than lining. Rarely are these tumors cancerous. It’s not genetic but they do not know what causes it. 1.8 per million people have PVNS and there doesn’t seem to be anyone who claims to know much about it.

The local Doc told me that he hadn’t heard or thought of PVNS since medical school – so I was kind of a refresher for him. And I am pretty sure that he likes the idea that he’s in on something weird . . . which is great because he was helpful through this process – even though I never got that dang referral to a hip specialist like I had originally wanted!! Hehehe

Halloween night, a few hours after my last visit with the doctor I came home to a message on my voicmail from the doctor saying that the only doctor in AK that he’d recommend to me, wouldn’t take my case. Apparently he hasn’t had any experience with PVNS either. The other docs (University of Washington and a Boston Doc) wouldn’t touch it either. BUT the Mayo Clinic has the guy for me and he has actually had enough experience with PVNS that he’s written several articles about it for medical journals and is high in the food chain in the Orthopedics department of the Mayo Clinic The local doc also continued on that I could call anytime with questions and he’d do what he could to help. WOW – never had these services offered up from our local clinic before. Pretty nice!

Ad that brings us to the beginning of the crazy past two weeks . . . Which began on February 28th when Addison, Sean & I boarded a plane headed for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to meet PVNS’ National Expert.

The other day at the Post Office . . .

An ape in a tuxedo. "Nuff said.

Headshots

It is all about those big brown eyes in these pictures . . . Oh, how they can make me melt . . .

1st Haircut . . . Sorta

Poor Addison, her 'bangs' have been growing. They were so long that they were beginnig to poke her litte eyes; but too short to fit back in her ponytails. I've always been a fan of bangs especially on little girls. I had planned to get her bangs cut by a Pro; but one night I couldn't take it anymore. Her hair kept getting in her eyes at dinner, so when she finished eating I took matters - actually the scissors - into my own hands . . .


It's just another therapist bill she cand send to Sean & I when she's grown . . .


I can hear it now, "My MOM cut MY hair. She destroyed my hair and is responsibe for every Bad-Hair-Day I've EVER had!"


Addson was an excellent 'Client.' Of course, I have no one to really compare her to. People usally run from me when I have scissors in my hand . . .


Well, except for Clint . . . but to be fair, he was only two years old and he really didn't know any better. But I have to say, Addison's hair turned out MUCH BETTER than Clint's!!!

Stuck

A funny lil game . . .


There's our girl!


Lets see that again!!


But just like anything . . . It's all fun and games until someone's head gets stuck


REALLY stuck!


Don't worry, Mommy broke her free! And of course, Miss A asked for MORE!

Mommy & Addison

Just pictures of and with my favorite girl on Valentines Day.