Surgery coming July 22nd 2013 ~ Prayers Needed

I wasn't sure what to call this post.

April 2012 I started having pain in my lower stomach, after a couple of months of tests and DR visits we found out that I have endometriosis. I had surgery Aug 7th 2012 to remove my right ovary and burn off some of the endometriosis. We hoped that this would fix the problem and remove all pain. It lasted about 6 months.
In February, the pain started coming back. I returned to the Dr and discovered the Dr was only able to remove 30% of the endometriosis and had to leave the rest due to placement so close to vital blood vessels. I have 2 options, go on a medication for 6 months that shrinks the endo  but puts my body thru a fake menopause. After said time frame I have to come off the meds and see how it helps. If it doesn't I would have to have surgery. Option 2 is to just go ahead with the surgery....this is the one we chose.

I'm having a robotic da vinci hysterectomy the end of July. I will be in the hospital for 2 days and out of work for 2 weeks. With out pay....:( You can totally youtube the surgeries if you are That interested in it....I'm not. Nate watched some of them and thought it was cool.

This has been the hardest couple of months for me. I have gained weight, lost muscle mass, can't exercise, walk for long periods, and have been in almost constant pain. I'm on pain meds from the Dr as well as work restrictions to help manage the pain. It is hard to not be active and involved with my family. I am looking forward to being able to get back to my life in just under a month.

Here is a picture of what the endo looks like in the body. It looks like someone took a pepper grinder and shook it into myself....this is not a picture of me...During the surgery the Dr will burn off any of these spots he finds.

This is what is feels like...

Thanks in advance for all the prayers and concerns.
Here are a few specific needs over the next 4-6 weeks.
~ Safe and successful surgery
~ Calm nerves for Nate, who will be in the waiting room by himself
~ 2 weeks of no pay, I'm not salary and have no vacation/sick time
~ Speedy recovery and healing
~ That this surgery solves the problem and no pain after it.

Anyone wanting to send care packages and cards message me and I'll send you my address. Just kidding...prayer are great. Feel free to share with your church family and friends, the more the better. I already have a list of books and movies for Nate to get me, and a couple of crochet projects ready to go. I will send an update as they come. As for now I have my pre-op appt on July 16th.

Toddler Dresses

Two new dresses I made this weekend.

This one is a sleeveless dress, I used a solid yellow for the lining and a hot pink ribbon over the hem.

This is a simple summer dress with biase tape for the sleeves and neck hole. This adds some color and finish to the dress. The below pattern is the one I used for this dress. You can also make the dress a bubble dress with lots of fullness to it. 

Batman Mask

This last week I started a crochet batman mask for my nephew. I found a pattern on pinterest but it did not work to well on my test one. Maggie got that one as her new chew toy. I picked parts from a couple of different patterns and came up with this. Its for a kid about age 4. I thought it was cool to make.

High School hear we come!

When I was growing up you had Kindergarten graduation and Senior in high school graduation. Out here in California any time you leave one school to go to the next you have a promotion ceremony. Its like one school is giving permission to move on to the next school, really weird. Anyway today was Cori's promotion to High School. We had to be at the school 30 min before the ceremony, wait around the corner from the school for 15 mins to be let into the building to find seats to sit for another 20 mins before the thing started 15 mins late. The principle started the welcome speech by listing all the people who had died while the kids were in middle school, some even I didn't know who they were...lol It was very ironic to sit and listen to these 8th graders give speeches about how hard life was, overcoming difficulties, leaving friends behind and so on. I wanted to shout, You have no idea, your life is a dream right now.  After 2 hours of sitting on hard bleachers, sweating to death (if I was sweating you KNOW it was hot), and listening to children give life speeches the Principle presented the kids to the Superintendent to accept them into the new school district for high school. See out in California the high schools are a different district then the K-8th graders.

Anyway, I was able to shout for Cori when she got her certificate, make Nate's jaw drop when he saw his "grown up" daughter walk into the room and become the parent of a high school freshman.

Walking in, she is in a cream dress

She has a dance after the ceremony and then the family is going to dinner. It was her choice till she picked Taco Bell, now its Mom and Dad's choice. Hopefully I will get a family photo before the day is over.