Intentions...

I had fully intended on sitting down to update the blog right about now; however, we are having one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever been in. In fact, I am keeping an ear out for the tornado sirens to start! (Mom, Grandma, etc don't worry - they rarely mean anything around here. I know that all of you Kansas relatives are thinking, "They worry about tornadoes there? I'll tell them about tornadoes!")

So instead of blogging, I am going to turn off and unplug the computer until the storm passes!

Recovering

It has been two weeks since my surgery and things went very well. I just got back all my biopsy results today and everything was good (no cancer, etc). My doctor did say that my uterus was not in very good shape and it was quite obvious that it was not functioning correctly. Based on what he told me I am glad we had decided not to have any more children after Ellie; I don't know if it would have been possible if we had wanted to, and quite possibly would have led to much disappointment. In the end, it seems as though surgery was the correct decision.

My recovery is going well and I just have a small amount of lingering tenderness. It was so nice to have my mom here to help out during my surgery and for a few days after. Tim's mom, Cheryl, came up and entertained Ellie for me when Tim went back to work. I had a few wonderful friends who brought us meals during the week after Cheryl went home. I've been so thankful for all the help!

Last Friday Tim and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. It is amazing to both of us that so much time has passed since we said our "I dos." Tim, Ellie, and I went out to a nice Japanese restaurant near our house to celebrate. Ellie tried sushi for the first time and was determined to use chopsticks instead of the silverware. We had a very nice time spending the evening as a family.

Here are a couple of quick pictures from a hike we took the weekend before my surgery. Ellie hiked the entire one mile loop on her own and just kept saying, "We're hiking in the for-ust (forest) Mommy and Daddy! I love the for-ust so much. It is my favorite." The pictures are in reverse order. As you can see, by the end of the hike we had to pull out the rain gear.

Countdown

Well, I feel like the countdown to surgery day has begun. I spent all day today cleaning the house - I figure it will be a couple of weeks before I feel up to doing that again. Tomorrow morning I go to the doctor for my pre-op appointment. After that, over to the hospital for blood work and other pre-surgery tests. Thursday my mom flies in and Ellie and I make the drive to the airport to pick her up.

Then it is the big day... I have to be at the hospital at 10:30 Friday morning and my surgery is scheduled from noon until 4:00pm. Tim is going to stay home with Ellie and my mom will drive me to the hospital and back. We figured that would be the least disruptive to Ellie's schedule, since the following days are going to be a bit confusing to her.

My mom will stay until Monday, and then Tim's mom has kindly offered to come stay with us for a few days once Tim has gone back to work. I am hopeful that the recovery will only take a week or so. My doctor is using the Da Vinci Robot for the procedure (if you are a Grey's Anatomy fan, this is the robot they show in the season finale) and it is supposed to dramatically reduce recovery time from a standard hysterectomy.

I'm a bit nervous, but overall I am excited to finally be rid of the constant pain (and other things I won't go into detail about!).

I have some great pictures from our recent trip to Idaho and some of a hike Tim, Ellie, and I went on last weekend. I will do my best to get them up before Friday!