Thank you to all those that have been checking in on me and praying! Surgery went well from what I know and I will have my follow up with the surgeon on Wednesday to go over details. I am slowly recovering…and I mean slowly. I honestly thought it was going to be much easier and quicker, but turns out I have a few things trying to hold my recovery time back. I am working on those things and taking it one day at a time. I am so ready to be back to normal and am looking forward to it!!!

**A HUGE thank you to our parents for all of your help with the girls!!! We could not have gotten through this without y'all!**

Thankful

As I prepare for surgery tomorrow I can't help but to be thankful for so many things right now. There are a million thoughts running through my head and I just want to share some of them.

• I am thankful that it is just gallbladder removal surgery and hopeful this will solve some of the issues that have been going on. I know it is a Dr's job to present you with all of the possibilities and to test you for everything under the sun, but some of those "possibilities" can be really scary and I am so thankful to have ruled the scary stuff out. 
• I am thankful for laparoscopic surgery that is in and out. Years ago removing your gallbladder was major surgery and recovery time. I am so thankful for the advancement of medical treatment and to live in a time where things are so much easier and quicker recovery.
• I am thankful that it will only be 7 to 10 days that I can't lift M and M on my own. Yes, it will be extremely tough to not hold my babies for at least a week, but seriously y'all it could be soooooo much worse. At least I will be able to see them and kiss on them and their little smiles will heal me that much quicker!
• I am thankful for an amazing husband who goes above and beyond for our family every single day and will be by my side throughout all of this!
• I am thankful for my two healthy little girls who light up my world every single day (even on the tough ones)! We went through our difficulties and scares with Makenzie, but for the most part she is now healthy and doing awesome!
• I am thankful for all of our supportive family and friends! WIthout you guys we could not get through everything. Thank you for your support, help, and most importantly prayers!
• I am thankful for healthy family and friends. There are so many families struggling with so many horrible illnesses and heartbreaking problems it truly makes me realize how blessed we are. I pray for all those struggling in any way!!!

I could seriously go on and on and on, but I am lucky to have been able to type out this much and will go ahead and wrap this up before my two lil ones wake up. Not to mention my focus today is holding and snuggling my girls and getting it all in while I can!!!

So tomorrow we will arrive at the surgery center at 6:30 am and surgery is scheduled for 8:30. The plan is to remove my gallbladder and also anything else that needs to go while he is in there. The Dr is even going to be checking my lady parts to see if my endometriosis is back to hopefully save me from another surgery that my OB was discussing doing. Surgery should take about an hour and then it is off to recovery. As long as things go smooth we should be out of there by tomorrow afternoon!!! It should be a quick recovery. The hardest part is just gonna be not lifting the girls, but thankfully I have lots of wonderful help that I will be taking full advantage of and getting all the rest I can to heal as quickly as possible & can get back to normal asap! Please keep the positive thoughts and prayers coming and thank you so much!!!

The good news is…

after weeks of my white blood cell count being elevated it has finally come back within normal range. Yay!!! Still dealing with the Gastritis, but thankful no more worry about my blood levels. So that's two of the three issues we can check off. As far as the third…

Well, after all the tests and a consultation with a surgeon I am scheduled for surgery next Wednesday to have my gallbladder removed and anything else that needs to be done while in there. Hoping and praying this takes care of things. Thanks so much to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers and please keep 'em coming.  

The good, the bad, and the frustrating

This week I received the results from my endoscopy, colonoscopy, and abdominal ultrasound. The biopsies from the colonoscopy and endoscopy all came back negative which is great…surprising but great! The colonoscopy also showed that my partial bowel obstruction was completely gone and nothing further had to be done there…Hallelujah I was not looking forward to anything more to do with that! The results of the endoscopy determined and diagnosed me with severe Gastritis (this explains the major pain in my stomach). Because of this I have to stop taking my back medicine and start taking two new proton pump inhibitor medications. In order to get my stomach better I have to be in worse pain in my back/body…such a catch 22 and frustrating!  

The main purpose in the ultrasound was to look at my gallbladder to check for stones. There were none which is good, but the ultrasound does not show how things are functioning. Now I have to go in for a HIDA scan next week to look at the functions of my gallbladder and liver. After this test I will take all the recent Cat Scan and ultrasound results along with the Hida scan to meet with a surgeon to determine if anything needs to be done. In the meantime I am on a new medication for these issues. Incidentally during the ultrasound they found two small Hemangiomas on my liver which I was told are harmless. There was also an issue with my right kidney that I will follow up with my primary Dr about.

The question still remains why is my white blood cell count still elevated?! Well, I had some more lab work this week and am hoping to get to the bottom of this.

I am thankful to have a diagnosis on one of the three different issues going on, but I am frustrated not knowing the other two. I am so sick of the tests and thinking it's this or that especially when a Dr is so convinced "this is what is" and treats me for it and then we find out that is not the case. Maybe it will all just go away and I will wake up tomorrow and feel all better. One can hope right?! For now I am just thankful a lot of major stuff has been ruled out and will just continue to pray, take all three new meds (hoping they work), and take it one day at a time.

First of all thanks for all the sweet messages and thoughts and prayers…means the world to me. Now onto today…

I have had 2 different things going on…I will not go into all the nasty details, but lets just say there have been problems in my upper abdomen and lower abdomen which is why they did both the Endoscopy and Colonoscopy. The good news is they found nothing major today, the bad news is no true answers YET. They did do some biopsies so now we will play the waiting game again for the next ten days. 

The Dr thought everything looked normal during the colonoscopy, but did some biopsies there just in case to make sure he was not missing anything. Last week my cat scan showed a partial bowel obstruction so a big part of the colonoscopy today was making sure the course of treatment worked and no further action was required…thankfully it was taken care of without anything further being done! That was an answer to prayer for sure!

During the Endoscopy he found inflammation in my stomach which should not be there so that was concerning. The biopsies done there are important and will hopefully provide some answers. For the past month they were treating me for an Ulcer and were very surprised to learn there are no Ulcers or anything they were expecting to find…yes this is good news, but at the same time I was very frustrated. Don't get me wrong I am thankful nothing major was found today, but I am frustrated because I was really hoping for answers to all of this.

I also had some lab work done a few weeks ago which showed elevated white blood cell count among some other stuff. Based on those results they put me on antibiotics hoping to treat whatever infection may be going on. Unfortunately my blood work this week showed my white blood cell count even more elevated now. Because of that and a few other things I am now going to have to have an abdominal ultrasound to check my gallbladder. If that is normal then onto the next until they figure out where the infection might be coming from. Where is Dr House when you really need him?!?!

So that is the deal for now…I will do my best at keeping you guys updated. Hopefully we can figure this out asap and get back to normal!

I try to keep this blog just about the girls, but today I need some thoughts and prayers. I don't have time to go into all the details, but I have been having some major abdominal issues for the last couple months. After lots of tests, scans, Dr's, and even the hospital this week I will be going in today for an Endoscopy and Colonoscopy (it was supposed to be in October, but based on the Cat Scan results they pushed it up asap). We are hopeful for some answers and figuring out how to relieve some of this pain and problems so I can get back to normal. All thoughts and prayers are truly appreciated!!!

On a happy note I have lots I need to update on the girls as soon as I can actually get around to doing it. For now I will leave you with a picture I snapped on my phone this morning before the girls left for grandmas so I can look at it before they put me under the anesthesia…oh how I love these sweet girls!!!

M and M's First Birthday Party

We decided to celebrate the girls first birthday to have a pool party/pig picking with our family and some friends. This first birthday was a huge deal and accomplishment and long story short we had LOTS to celebrate and be thankful for so we wanted to do it pretty big! Little did we know when planning it that it would be the hottest day of the summer (so thankful for the pool and grandparents house and tents), but we made the best of it and truly had a special day! Thank you so much to all those that came out to celebrate and we missed those that could not be there. A GINORMOUS thank you to our amazing family for all of your help with everything…we could not have done it without you!!!

The Invitation

The Party Decor

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The Food, Cake, and Smash Cakes

The Birthday Girls

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Thank You Cards

It was a fun filled day with lots of fabulous people, yummy food/cake, pool time, and celebrating the guests of honor! We are beyond blessed by our precious M and M's and could not be more thankful to celebrate these sweet girls!!! 

If you would like to see the rest of the party pictures click on the following links:

M and M's First Birthday Party Pictures

M and M's First Birthday Party Pictures by Tonya Mae Photography

**All pictures with an asterisk were taken by Tonya Mae Photography

One Year Photo Shoot

So you may remember when I posted this sneak peak forever ago…well I am playing catch up on the blog and am finally getting around to sharing more pictures from this fun photo shoot! I made the big cupcakes for the girls (and was just a little proud of myself because I do not cook or bake), the onesies were ordered from etsy, and the wonderful Tonya Mae Photography took the photos. Enjoy!

Our Beautiful and Crazy Monkey Makayla Faith

Our Sweet and Precious Munchkin Makenzie Grace

Our silly M and M's

**To see the rest of their pictures click on the following link: One year photos 

***Whenever you see text in Blue it is a hyperlink that you can click on***

M and M's 1st Birthday!

On the girls actual 1st birthday we spent the day hanging out together as our family of four. The day started with us getting the girls up together followed by Carl cooking the girls a special pancake breakfast.

After breakfast and a little play time the girls went back down for their morning nap and Carl headed into work for a little bit to get some stuff done so he could spend the afternoon with us. When the girls woke up we had a quick lunch and then headed downtown to meet Daddy at Marbles Kids Museum. We had a blast! We toured the whole place and spent lots of time just letting the girls loose and watching them play with all the different stuff they have to offer. Getting to see Carl watch the girls play was priceless and I am so thankful we were able have that time together!!!

After lots of fun precious family time we headed home for an afternoon nap for the girls and Carl went to finish up some stuff at the office. We decided to wrap the night up going out to dinner at one of our favorite sushi bars which is the same place Carl and I went on our last date before the girls arrived! We ate there a lot during my pregnancy and each week the owner would say "Wow you still pregnant" so it is so cool to take them in there now so she can see how much they have grown.

 Sweet Daddy surprising his girls with a beautiful rose!