Whew!

Oh my goodness, she is so adorable!

The tooth fairy has been busy at this little girl's bed lately.

Well that is it. With that toothless grin I think I am finally caught up on the blog. Not that there was anything really big that I missed, but I hate getting behind. This is my journal and a scrapbook all in one so I've got to keep it up. I am going to keep it up :)

September and October were just really crazy months. We had some unexpected distractions that took us by surprise. Something big that we had planned on was Mattie's new job. He was with a wonderful company these last few years, but had an incredible opportunity come his way with a new company that he just couldn't pass up. He still sells seed corn just like before but for Syngenta, a really wonderful and really ginormous company. He LOVES it! It has only been a couple of months now, but he is in Heaven. It makes me beyond happy to see him so fulfilled in his employment. It has just been so busy.

For the unexpected, I had a routine appointment with my hematologist to check my platelet levels and discuss his thoughts on where we were at 6 months later. He wanted to have my abdomen checked to see if anything was wrong with my spleen, liver and pancreas. There are a few conditions with those organs that can lead to low platelet disorders. I had the ultrasound done and I could tell by the technician that everything was not normal. She was very concentrated in one area compared to the others she looked at. I was pretty worried waiting for the results.

Long story short, my spleen was enlarged and they found a mass. Dr. Pascual who was normally so upbeat and a cheery little lovable Asian man turned very serious in our next few meetings. He wanted a CT scan done immediately and order a million and one in-depth blood tests. He was still hoping that there was a much simpler explanation than what he was afraid we had found. He was very concerned in telling me that his primary concern was that I had probable lymphoma. Lymphoma on my spleen. I was so taken back by his words I couldn't really process it all. I didn't even know there was any connection or possibility that all this blood nonsense the last 6 months could have anything to do with cancer.

I had a blessing right away and my family fasted as we awaited the results. THANK HEAVENS after the scan they were sure that I did not have lymphoma. The enlargement is due to a cyst inside my spleen. It could have happened years ago, a car accident or even playing basketball (I played rough you know ;) Maybe all the wrestling we do around here squished my spleen causing a cyst! But they are not worried about it and Dr. Pascual was very confident that they were right and this was NOT lymphoma. There was no lymphoma anywhere else which helped him feel confident that this spleen issue was indeed just a cyst. They will repeat the scan in 4 months to make sure that they are correct and it has not grown at all.

So after weeks of pure anxiety I got a big old clean bill of health, wahoo! A nice fat false alarm! The results of the extensive blood work was all negative too for what could be causing the low platelets. I just have something in my antibodies that kills off my own platelets. But the levels that they have remained at which are low, are not low enough to have to worry about. Just probably monitor periodically.

I can not explain the relief. We have been one grateful family around here that all is well. Thanksgiving is always a great time to be grateful and while I have never taken health for granted, I certainly have added gratitude for it this year. Life is so very very good :)