If only Arnold Schwarzenegger was my Doctor....

...and I would have heard "It's not a tuumah" from my doctor when I saw her at the end of March. Sadly, SHE is not Arnold, and it WAS a tumor, not a pulled muscle as I had thought. That appointment began a journey that was supposed to be a quick one, but unfortunately *still* has not yet reached its final destination. Hopefully, though, it's getting close.

Upon diagnosis, my doctor assured me that it was a lipoma, a benign tumor, and that I would be fine.  This, as you may expect, greatly relieved me! Two things that added some humor to the whole thing were A) a lipoma is also called a "fatty tumor". So... after working so hard to lose weight over the past couple of years.. I end up with a "fatty tumor". Sheesh! And B) This one is the kicker.. the tumor location... my left buttocks! Seriously? Of all the places! Apparently a fall down our stairs 6 years ago probably caused it and then my weight loss just made it surface for some reason. Whatever the reason, whatever it was, it needed to come out. It was slated to be an outpatient surgery, quick and easy. I would be off my feet for a few days but should be back to "normal" within a week or so.

I had surgery to remove this silly thing in mid April. (For the record, we named it "Squishy"!) The surgeon was surprised to find the tumor was 3x bigger than my primary care doctor thought it was and because of that it took over 2 hours to excise it (my surgery was slated for 30-45 minutes!).  Being as large as it was and its tricky-to-keep-it-immobilzed area, the void left by the tumor decided to reek havoc on me. No one expected this. And it hasn't been particularly enjoyable! Bad Squishy!

I have had to have 2 more surgeries after the first due to fluid build up, blood clots and to rule out infections. The past 7 weeks have brought lots of pain, lack of sleep, drains, dressing changes, and way too many trips to the surgeon! It has left my sweet family battered but not broken, tired but still going, and still trying to get back to "normal". I cannot express how amazing my husband has been during this time, pulling double duty and working his tail off with little complaint. My kids have been so good, and so gentile with me, too.. and worked extra hard to be good and to let me rest on my "bad days" (and there were many in the middle of this mess!). I was well cared for by my sweet family!

Because of the location of my "issues", we haven't shared this with too many people for discretionary purposes (how does a man talk about his wife's poor bumm in a discrete way, anyhow? haha!), but those who did know were so generous to pray for us, cook for us, clean for us, encourage us, and watch our kids. I am eternally grateful for that.

Life didn't stop while I was "down".. it can't, not with kids anyway! So while I didn't do much, there were still sweet moments happening during the past 7+ weeks. 

My sweet girl inviting me to a tea party during her quiet time. Although sitting was and still is painful, there was NO way I was going to miss this. We had a lovely time (and I sat on a bag of frozen peas..haha)

Mother's Day. While I was sad to miss church (I had my last surgery shortly before this), I did get to spend most of the day with these gifts from the Lord. So thankful for them!

Evelyn finished up another year at AWANA. SO proud of her memorizing God's word and working to keep it close to her heart!

Daddy also finished up another year of teaching at AWANA. I am proud of him, too!

Thankfully the weather wasn't all sunshine and we had several days of cozy book reading! I am glad they love to read!

We played "Digger Man" in pajamas

We play with legos. A lot!

And when the sun DID come out, the kids were on their bikes with daddy!

And we planted! Not a big garden this year due to all that has been going on, but it is enough to make me super happy! Thanks to my sweet Doug for doing this for me!

And my kids were silly in the pool!

I am finally on the downhill side of things (we think, anyway) and I am getting my strength back slowly, trying not to overdo it (which if you know me, you know I struggle with that even when I am healthy!). I am still having pain issues and troubles sleeping but I am gaining on those, too! I am thankful that we all have seen God's goodness and felt his presence throughout this ordeal, and I am looking forward to putting this all behind us soon!