Christmas - Ok, let's get 'er done...

Ok! The last installment of pictures...

Here was Cox Christmas for the last time at Grandma Cox's house in Redondo. As I look at this picture, I see Aunt Mary who is now home with Jesus after a courageous two-year battle with pancreatic cancer...she is greatly missed already!

 

 

Uncle Brian lifted Garrett up, noting how solid he is.

 

Sweet GG with Lars and Oliver...she has her hands full in more ways than one these days!

 

 It was nice to see the great-grands together...SO many boys!

It was really special to watch a few old movies of the 4 Cox boys growing up in that very house.

 



 

Lots of boys...and that's not all of them!

 

Playing with Great-Gran's mail slot is highly entertaining.

 

And......moving on.......Wyatt was sick so Grandpa stayed with him while the rest of us walked over to see Phil and Abby's house. They apparently had fun playing with Garrett's light kit, lighting candles, and what not...

 

Wyatt was so tired he crashed in the middle of the fun with Grandpa.

 

...Another fun beach day! It was a little chilly, but so nice to soak up some sun at Newport Beach. When we had been back home for a few weeks, Wade brought his Crocks to me and said, "Go to the beach." He has good taste in activities!

 

...Gretchen was really sick, so I took Ollie for a couple of hours and gave him a nice bath in the kitchen sink and just enjoyed being his Auntie and letting the boys play with her boys. It was really nice to have them right across the driveway!

 

We went to Disneyland and it was so fun to have mom come along! It turned out that they gave her a free ticket when we got there because there was some mix-up about her annual pass!

 

On the tram, excited and ready to enjoy!

 

I'll put this one in for comic relief...remind me not to take a picture out in front of Disneyland in the bright sun again...we did this last time too and it was miserable for everyone! ;-)

 

It was CROWDED. Also remind me not to go right after Christmas again. ;-) Lots of lines and some gridlock in the  middle of New Orleans Square. But fun memories too.

The boys love the movie Dumbo, so it was a highlight to get to go on the ride!

 

Wyatt flew our elephant expertly.

 

It was fun to treat them with a huge lollipop.

 

So nice to have mom with us.

 

What is a Disneyland trip without a good solid nap in the middle of the day in the stroller?

My 3 cuties.

We rode the train around a couple of times just to get out of the crowds and rest our feet.

 

As we got off of the train, we were just in time to get a great spot where we could enjoy the parade!

While waiting for Jim and the boys, Wade enjoyed working on the stroller straps.

 

Me and my love...at Disneyland again! Lots of dates and good memories here together.

 

When we realized we couldn't get out of the park until the fireworks were done because of the crowds and the castle being blocked off, we broke down and got the boys light necklaces and enjoyed the fireworks! A memorable day together.

 

The boys loved Gma & Gpa's mail slot too.

Mom and Dad had to leave a little early for a trip to the desert, so we went out to In n Out together and said goodbye there. Bitter sweet. We had such a great time together!

 



 

Back home, Anders was really sick so we had to relegate play to between the fence. It was still fun though. We just wished the boys could have played more together!

 

At a hotel in Grand Junction...we stayed there for the night so we'd be fresh for the icy trip over the mountain. The boys were WILD! They had a lot of pent up energy from being in the car that long!

 

Settling down for dinner.

 

Ready to go in the morning!

The latest on my health...

First of all, thanks you so much to each one of you for your kind comments and lifting me and this health issue up in prayer! It means so much.

I'll get you up to date here. My friend Jen suggested getting a second opinion and found a list of top-rated doctors for Denver. I hadn't thought of that and am so thankful for her idea! I made an appointment for last Monday (April 7) with a "top doctor" about 20  minutes away. But the Friday before I also had an appointment with my other doctor, and had an ultrasound there too. The original doctor was very mystified as to what it is, and said we could do laparoscopic surgery to "fish around" and see if the mass is in a place that can be operated on safely, given the high blood flow nearby. She said I might need to consider a hysterectomy because it's easier to just take the uterus and tube out than to try to take this delicate thing out and then get patched back together. Hmmm. The mass hadn't grown so that was good news. She also thought there is a possibility I have endometriosis which may have deposited the mass in that spot. I went away from that appointment with the choices: exploratory surgery to see where the mass is and possibly take it out but the surgery might be risky, hysterectomy which is less risky (but I don't want it!), or just bear the pain each month (and she didn't give me any ideas on pain management.)

Okay, so on to the next "top doctor." I liked the office environment better, and she was very professional, direct, and got me in quickly for a 3D ultrasound. I could hear the sonographer talking to her out in the hallway when she gave her the report and the sonographer kept saying, "I don't know.... I don't know.... I don't know..." ;-) Oh, boy. :)

The Dr. came in and said she thought this was either a dilated fallopian tube (from...? not sure but the sonographer thought it looked cyst-like but said the Dr. was a "wizard" so she'd let her diagnose it), OR an ectopic pregnancy that fizzled out. She thought it was most likely the latter, and said we could try one shot of a chemo drug (Methotrexate) that is a non-surgical approach to target the stem cells. If the diagnosis is correct, it would dissolve those cells in 2 weeks.

Hmmm...sounds pretty good, and I even almost got it that day but the office I'd need to do it in had closed already. After reading more about the drug, Jim and I aren't too excited about the potential side effects, possibility of birth defects if I accidentally get pregnant 3 months following the shot, etc.

She said if we don't feel comfortable with the shot option she can schedule a laparoscopic surgery and see if the mass is safe to operate on given its location, but said there is a higher possibility of a lot of bleeding. I asked if she could just look around and not do anything if it's not safe and she said yes. She also said if the mass if far enough down the tube she'd just take it and the tube out and sew it back up...didn't mention a hysterectomy so that makes me feel better about her!

It's kind of a strange feeling to be the patient that has an ailment everyone is mystified about. I don't like that feeling! I also don't like the feeling that whatever choice I make I have to take a pretty big risk. I could leave it there, but then endure days of crippling pain each month - and what about the mass? Could it turn cancerous over time? Could it dissolve on its own and be absorbed into my body? Is there any harm in leaving it there?

In the long run, would a hysterectomy be better than all the pain or having a risky surgery?

So at this point I'm trying to do as much research as I can, praying about it, and want to also share it so I can get people's ideas on it. If you have an idea, let me know. :)

What's going on...

Let's take a little break from Christmas pictures to catch up on things around here...
We are thinking more seriously about buying a house soon! That is exciting news, as I can't wait to nest in and make a house our home. It's been almost five years since we got here, and it will be nice to feel like we're finally really settled in Denver. We're looking around Broomfield because we love all that it has to offer - tons of trails and beautiful places to walk or ride bikes, lots of mature trees, an older established feel, shops and a great library close by, and not too far from Jim's work. We are looking into the possibility of buying the house we're in right now as the owners previously said they may be willing to sell; we're still waiting to hear back from them and we'll go from there. We love this neighborhood, with a beautiful lake to walk around and a nice park for the kids. Many of the houses in Broomfield are kind of quirky, built in the 50's and 60's; we like the newer more streamlined floor plan of the newer houses, and love the circular floor plan in the house we are in. It gives the kids lots of uninterrupted space to run, or ride their scooters or bikes.

Since August I noticed that I had a lot of pain a few days a month in my abdomen, related to my monthly cycle. I finally realized it was more than cramps on Halloween when we did a lot of walking around the neighborhood and the pain progressively got worse so that I had to head home early, and could barely get Wade out of his shoes and jacket. I felt nauseous and white with pain, very similar to really bad contractions. So I made an appointment at my OBGYN and finally got scheduled for a sonogram. They found some sort of mass a couple of millimeters wide in the fallopian tube that looked just like an ectopic pregnancy but that was ruled out with a urine and blood test. I've been going back for sonograms every 6 to 8 weeks to monitor its growth. They initially thought it was a fibroid and thought the pain might be from it deflating, and then I went back to another Dr. in the practice and her sonographer thought it was definitely not a fibroid, but a rare kind of cyst. The scary/tricky part is that it is in a spot right near an artery and the first sonographer said that if it was an ectopic pregnancy I could bleed out! Ugh. Or if it gets big fast it could be a dangerous situation. And she thought they might not be able to take it out because of the dangerous location next to the artery. So........now they're saying it's a rare kind of cyst, and they're going to continue to monitor it. In the meantime, I am in excruciating pain every month for 1-5 days, to the point that I can hardly talk or walk at times and have to figure out how to take care of the boys. Thank goodness for Netflix at times like those! ;-) It makes me feel very isolated when I'm sick and can't take care of everything I'm supposed to. I already struggle with the fact that we're so far from family, and in times like this I feel it even more. Right now I'm on day 3 of this month's bout, and I'm planning on calling another Dr. on Monday to schedule an appointment for a second opinion. If you could pray for my peace of mind, a quick and successful resolution to the issue and the pain, and the ability to trust God to provide all of our needs here in Denver, I'd appreciate that!

In September we started visiting new churches and we think we've finally found one! It's Calvary Bible Church in Boulder. It's about 1/2 hour away, so that is the only downside. But our next thing to do is to figure out if they they have any small groups in our area. Also, we are planning on going for the adult Sunday school hour because that's one of the things we love that they have and it gives us the opportunity to get to know people more quickly and deeply. The kids love their classes, and Garrett got a nice note from a grandfatherly teacher he has, thanking him for joining in the question time so well and being so respectful...always nice for parents to read!

I'm feeling the need for some social outlets and also would love to study the Bible deeper, so I'm going to sign up for a Bible Study Fellowship class that will start next September. I was trying to figure out how to do this while homeschooling, and found a charter school that offers elective classes to homeschoolers one day a week. I just signed Garrett up for that, and it looks like he will be getting some fun classes - cooking, art, creative writing, PE, cultures of the world, music, sports and games (over 2 semesters). At the same time, BSF has a great children's program for Wyatt and Wade while I'm in Bible Study so I think Wednesdays will be a good time for all of us!

Jim is doing well, likes working at Sashco, and is busy keeping his eye on the housing market around here. He's planning a camping/fishing trip for him and Garrett and Wyatt for September, and thinks they'll go on some day fishing trips this summer too. (After last summer's camping trip I decided I'll wait to go with Wade until he's a year or two older; it was stressful trying to keep track of him in the mud, etc. and he kept waking up crying throughout the night. We'll all have more fun when he's a little older!)

Christmas Part 5 - Grammy & Poppa's, Beach, and More...

Grammy and Poppa had us over for a nice breakfast one morning. It was so nice to be together. Poppa took the boys outside to see the fruit trees and even showed them the BBQ, which they were very interested in.

 

 

Poppa shook the lime tree to get some limes the boys could pick up.

 

It was such a hot day that we decided to head to the beach! A real treat in December! The boys loved it, and we ended the day meeting Mom and Dad at the Crab Cooker. Laguna Beach was perfect, with lots of soft sand and small waves for the boys to play in. Wade spent most of the time putting sand all over my shoes and down my shirt, Garrett loved jumping over the waves and looking for seaweed, and Wyatt enjoyed digging in the sand and water.

 

It was really nice to meet up with some old Granada friends at Kim & Cory Mack's house. The kids loved playing together, and it was nice to have some time to sit and chat.

 

Fun at Grandpa & Grandma's...

Christmas Part Four - Christmas Day!

We decided to save our stocking gifts for Christmas morning and use Grandma's stockings to load for the boys. They were very excited!

 

 

Jim showing Dad his recently-bought Surface.

 

Mom, the sweet hostess, as always!

 

Kids table...

 

Lars with his trash truck.

 

Present time!

 

We tried this hat method, which lasted for a few rounds...whoever is opening a present puts it on. It minimized loud talking to figure out who was next and put everyone's attention on that person.

 

Wyatt was so excited to get a Bible.

 

Garrett was thrilled to get his first watch.

 

Anders' turn!

 

Wyatt suggested cleaning up the leaves outside to help Gma & Gpa, so we did. It was nice to get out and get a little exercise too.

 

Grammy & Poppa came over for lunch.