Blog time

I took Scarlett over to my parents’ to stay the night yesterday, so I’ve had some free time on my hands, which has been wonderful.  I love that kid, but I also love sleeping through the night and sleeping in until 10:15.  I woke up feeling like a million bucks!  I’ve been busy catching up on cleaning this morning, and since I have the time, thought I throw out a blog, too.

Here’s what Scarlett has been up to lately:

Working on her backpacking skills so she can go hiking with her Aunt Sara, Uncle Shane and Uncle Matt when she gets older: 

She still needs a little practice, though:

Helping with laundry:

Helping with baking:

Eating lots of Asian foods and crossing her legs at the ankles (my new favorite thing she does):

Easter egg hunting:

And, wearing pigtails for the first time:

 

As for Scarlett’s little sister, she’s doing great!  She moves around so much now and has been kicking hard enough that we can see it and not just feel it now.  I go in on Monday for my 24 week appointment.  I still can’t believe how fast this pregnancy is going!  I’m physically feeling good, but I’ve been hugely emotional and it doesn’t take much for me to get tired these days.  Scarlett and I have been having some quality nap time lately.  We still haven’t decided on a name for #2 yet, but I doubt that will happen any time soon.  Girl names are so hard for Mark and me!  There are three main names that we keep throwing around, but my favorite of those three changes almost daily (and I don’t think Mark is crazy about any of them).

Speaking of Mark, he had his radioactive treatment (finally) for his thyroid cancer.  Scarlett and I had to pack up for a week and head to my parents’ so Mark wouldn’t expose us to his radioactivity.  He had to spend the first 4 days totally quarantined in our apartment, and then could go back to work after that, but had to keep away from pregnant ladies and children for a whole week.  It was a long week for both of us.  Thankfully, he didn’t get too sick from the treatment, like we were both expecting.  He only felt sick for about half an hour after he took the radioactive pill, and that was pretty much it.

The point of the pill (from what I understand) was to destroy any remaining thyroid that was left after his surgery (clicky for more info).  Even though he had a total thyroidectomy in September, they can’t get every bit of the thyroid because of other stuff in the neck getting in the way, so they leave a little stub.  Mark got a scan after the treatment that showed small amounts of something in his chest area.  We don’t know what it is yet.  It could be cancer that spread, scar tissue from when he had pericarditis, or nothing.  He’ll get another scan in 6-12 months because he’ll continue to be slightly radioactive for that long and the radioactivity will keep working in his body until then.

It’s been pretty frustrating for him to go through this all.  His endocrinologist is crap and doesn’t listen (Mark’s looking for a new one).  Mark’s medication levels aren’t right.  He’s been taking synthroid, an artificial thyroid pill, and wasn’t getting enough.  He was supposed to be taking a high enough dose to keep him at a hyperthyroid state to help keep the cancer away until his radioactive treatment.  Turns out it wasn’t a high enough dose and he was actually at hypothyroid levels.  He tried to talk to the doc about some of the symptoms that he was having that didn’t quite make sense, but the doc literally said he didn’t want to talk about symptoms until after the treatment.  And then it turned out Mark’s levels were super low, instead of super high like they should have been.  His meds have since been upped, but he still doesn’t think they’re quite right.

Mark’s also been frustrated by two distinct sides of having cancer and being treated.  On the one hand, thyroid cancer is fairly easy to treat and has a very low mortality rate.  It’s an “easy” cancer to have, and Mark has been told many times that if you’re going to get cancer, thyroid cancer is the one you want to get—that it’s “the good cancer.”  The medical professionals have been relaxed in attitude towards Mark, to the point that he feels like he’s being under-cared for.  But dudes!  It’s still cancer and something that has been disrupting his life for over a year.  On the other hand, though, Mark knows that his health is in God’s hands, so when people give him props for “fighting the good fight” and “battling” cancer, it just feels wrong.  He isn’t doing anything.  He had a good surgeon who removed his thyroid and felt confident that he got it all when he scraped the tumor from Mark’s neck.  More importantly, Mark has a sovereign Healer who is in control of it all, orchestrating it for His glory, who gets all the credit for the healing and endurance Mark has had.  Mark just had to have surgery, play some videogames while he was radioactive, and has to take a pill everyday.  He’s not battling anything, just trying to adapt to a flawed body (but aren’t we all?).

Please pray for us, especially Mark.  God has told us, through a woman in our home group, to expect the best.  So we’re trusting in Him to take care of Mark and believe that whatever the outcome, it will be the best outcome to continue God’s story of love and mercy.  We were hoping that the radioactive treatment would give us more information/peace/closure, but we’re in the same state of unknowing as we were before the treatment in terms of figuring out if the cancer has spread.  Please super pray for wisdom for the doctors and nurses that are treating Mark, and peace for us all.

 

Uhh, I didn’t mean for this to be an uberpost about Mark and his cancer, but I guess I had some emotional vomit that just needed to come out.  With that, I’m off to do some more cleaning and get a few things done while Scarlett is still with my parents.

Happy Lost day!