New Chapter: Chapter One

Well, Here I am posting after a very long and intense hiatus.
Our lives have been a bit of a whirlwind and as much as I really felt like blogging was an outlet for me, I never thought I'd return - due to the business of life. But Surprise!!

I've decided that I need to document what is going on, not only for our sake, particularly for Indie to see in the future, but also for others who will potentially go through what we are going through and need some information and encouragement!

So let me begin August last year (2014)....

I found a lump on my not-yet-three year old, on her groin at the top of her leg, along her panty line. I was immediately startled by it, it seemed to pop out of nowhere-I mean she was potty training, so it wasn't like I never look there! Seriously, it was like overnight! So I called right away and took her into the doc. He was surprised by it and called another doc for a second opinion. They put her on some intense antibiotics to get rid of it-they thought it was Staph infection-which Kyle has had before and so that was a little scary at first!

Anyways-the lump was still there after she took the medicine, in fact, it seemed to be changing in consistency a little bit. We took her back in to the doc who suggested we just wait some time and see if it doesn't go away on it's own. They did a TB test on her which came back positive, so they thought they figured it out-that she had a form of tuberculosis. It should be gone in a month or so.....SO we waited a month, it wasn't gone.
Went back to the doc who said, he talked to another doctor and it could take 6 months to a year for it to go away on it's own, so we could wait, or we could get it removed if it seemed to bug her. So we talked to the surgeon for kicks and giggles - I didn't like him AT ALL. He told me there could be tons of side effects, and he wasn't going to bother doing a biopsy on it because it's a swollen lymph node and he already knows what it is (he'd never even seen her...so that was interesting). Long story short. We didn't go that route. He was really pushy about still doing the surgery..ugh, he was frustrating....just thinking about it. I'm so glad we didn't do that!

Well, we pushed to get a test done and were referred to a specialist in Salt Lake.
In January 2015 we saw a specialist who did a CT scan of her lump.
That was terrifying by the way-She had to fast for 12 hours and be put under for the test. Kyle took her since I can't be exposed to any scary ray things since I'm preggo. I won't go into a ton of detail, but it was fairly traumatic for her. The IV's and blood work that they did was extensive and painful and she was not a happy camper when she came home.

We waited for the CT results for another couple weeks and after some more tests (back and forthing to and from SLC) we were told that they accidentally found a tumor in her spleen and wanted to do a biopsy of that mass and the mass in her leg. So Surgery was scheduled! In the time between we did more tests, blood work, ultrasounds etc. Several of the nurses now know her and on one particular occasion as we were walking through the hospital, people were saying, 'Hi' and she was responding, 'Don't hurt Indie, Okay?'

FYI-that's the hardest thing as a parent-She was completely, fully aware of what was going on. It was terrible. The nurses and doctors, however are exceptionally kind and patient with her. Obviously they work at the CHILDREN's Hospital for a reason! By this point they were fairly confident that the lump  in her leg had nothing to do with the mass in her spleen because the bacteria that they were finding in the tests does not normally spread. That was definitely a good thing for us because spreading bacteria would be a real problem!

February 18th 2015 : Indie had surgery. This was definitely a hard day for us. We were terrified taking her in there. We had to do the whole fasting thing again, obviously-making a 3 year old avoid food and water for an extended period of time causes temper tantrums. She actually did really well not fussing. But was not herself by any means. She was prepped and put in some cute little pajamas. They gave her some medicine to help her with separation anxiety-it was like intense melatonin and turned her into a limp noodle. That was the hardest part for me. She was trying to turn her head to see where we were as they wheeled her away in a little red wagon. She could move but her body was slow motion. Oh my goodness. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry! ayayayay.

Midway through the medicine that made her loopy, at least she is still smiling! 

She had two different surgeons, one for her spleen and one for the "lymph node".

When all was said and done it went exceptionally well! They told us the surgery would take several hours. She was out in an hour and a half. They told us it would take her at least an hour for her to wake up in recovery and before we could go see her, but she was up almost immediately. They told us she wouldn't be able to keep any food or drink down for a while without throwing up, well, when they came to get us, we walked in and she was totally awake and DOWNING juice. The nurse said she was thirsty when she got up and was chugging everything she gave her!

Not as happy post surgery, but she did get some new toys! 

We thought we would be there all day as we waited for her to be aware enough to leave, but we left 5 hours earlier than expected since she was such a trooper!! We were thrilled about that! The surgeon told us that she would limit herself because of discomfort from the Inch and half cut in her leg and hole in her side, but little did he know...well, he didn't know, Indie at all! She was walking herself out of the hospital and would ABSOLUTELY not be picked up!

Limping her way out of the hospital with daddy

She was not to get into water to have a bath, therefore avoid getting dirty, so keep her inside! Well.......She did not limit herself at all! It was hard with her little brother around wanting to play-Needless to say we bought netflix because it was the only thing that could keep them still! It also was tough since there was unseasonably nice weather outside and all her friends were out there playing, but we toughed it out and played LOTS of games. Special thanks to friends and family who brought new things over for her to play with. It was nice to have some new things around to sway her attention!

Before we left the hospital from surgery that day, the surgeon told us that it was most definitely not a lymph node he removed since it was totally different than any lymph node he'd ever seen. So whatever it was, they'd find out and let us know! Also a good sign-since lymph node problems are not good. So more waiting followed.....