The bad news...

I want to thank each and every person who offered prayers on mine and my family's behalf over the last couple days.  It has been a REALLY long couple days.  Monday I went to the doctor because my breast was swollen and painful.  I had an ultrasound done to see if I needed a cyst aspirated, but there wasn't anything to aspirate.  He sent me home with some pain medicine, an antibiotic and instructions to call him if it wasn't better by Wednesday morning.  Wednesday morning I had seen no change so I called the office back and he referred me to a general surgeon for a consult.  Thankfully they squeezed me in to the general surgeon's office to be seen on Wednesday at 2.  After the surgeon looked at the inflammation, he really thought it was a severe case of Mastitis (which is what the original doctor and radiologist all thought the problem was also).  In case you don't know, Mastitis is a breast infection that a lot of women can get mostly when they are breastfeeding.  It is very painful and is usually accompanied by a high fever.  I'm not breastfeeding anymore and I hadn't had any kind of fever, but was in a lot of pain.  He admitted me to St. Vincent's in Birmingham for IV antibiotics.  During the evening, I had a reaction to the vancomycin.  They call it "Red Man Syndrome".  I got very itchy and my skin turned the color of a coke can.  The nurse stopped the vancomycin and continued with the other antibiotic that had been prescribed.  Thursday morning the surgeon came into my room and the swelling had actually gotten worse.  He stood at the foot of my bed and just shook his head and said I had him stumped, but he wasn't going to give up.  He really thought it was an infection so we kept going with the antibiotics.  He sent me to Ultrasound again to have them attempt to find a pocket of fluid to drain to reduce some of the swelling.  Unfortunately, they didn't find any pockets to drain.  The surgeon came to my room kind of late that evening.  He was disappointed that they couldn't drain anything and said he really didn't want to have to do exploratory surgery.  He left to go back to read the ultrasound reports again and see if he could figure out what to do for the next step.  Friday morning he came into my room and said he was sending me to Ultrasound...again...this time to take several biopsies to try to determine exactly what kind of infection this was.  He also wanted to rule out some other conditions.  Very shortly after I returned to my room, the surgeon came in and sat down on the bed.  (Never a good sign when they sit on the bed.)  He broke the news that I tested positive for Inflammatory Breast Cancer.  My heart immediately began to race.  I started crying because that wasn't anything near the kind of news I as expecting to hear.  I know that God is in control of the situation at hand.  It was a surprise to us, but it's not a surprise to Him.  He has a plan and a purpose and I pray that this situation is going to be used to Glorify His Name.  I want to be strong for this.  I know there will be times, there already have been some, that I will be weak and scared and confused, but I know that I'm not alone.  The outpouring of love and support already shown to us has been overwhelming.  I have the most amazing husband who is my rock and has been so incredibly supportive.  He is unshakable and I am so blessed that God put him in my life.  Today I had a MUGA test that confirmed that my heart is strong enough for treatments and a CAT scan that confirmed that the cancer hasn't spread to any other of my organs.  Tomorrow I will have an MRI to finish confirming that the cancer has not spread anywhere else in my body.  Please pray with me specifically that the cancer has not spread and is localized to my breast only.  I will start Chemotherapy tomorrow.  I hate typing those words.  I know this isn't going to be easy, but God has a plan or He wouldn't be allowing this to happen to me.  I feel His love and presence and I am resting in the security that He promises to never leave me or forsake me.  I will try to keep my blog updated for anyone who is interested in my progress.  I don't plan to update on Facebook, but I know I won't have time and energy to be talking on the phone a lot.  I'm hoping to be released from the hospital Monday.  Please pray for me, David and Ashlyn as we embark on a journey that we never knew we would have to take together.

Working

Ashlyn's earning her keep now!!!  Labor laws....what labor laws...2 years old is plenty old enough to pitch in at the restaurant!  Just kidding, but she seriously loves to feel like she's helping!  We've officially been open for a little over a month now!  We're so grateful to all of our friends and family for coming out and supporting the newest Southern Dining Resources venture!  We've heard such great feedback.  I can brag on how good the food is because I don't cook it!!!...and let me tell you...it IS GOOD!!!  Hopefully the permanent sign for the building isn't too far from completion.  I'm so incredibly proud of my husband.  He worked so hard for this!!!

Alabama V. Texas A&M

We didn't win this game...but I don't remember ever being fired up at a game like this before!  Loved our seats!!!  I kinda got used to winning though...it was a little rough remembering how not to be a sore loser...

Roll Tide!!!

My girlie girl



When I had Ashlyn, I was convinced that I needed to do all things pink and enjoy girliefying my little one while I could.  I don't know why, but I just knew she would be a tomboy and not want to do anything girlie once she had the choice.  BOY, WAS I WRONG!   I have such a girlie girl!!!!!  I love it!!!  She let me french braid her hair the other morning. :)  She will argue with you if you don't put a bow in her hair every day.  She LOVES pink and princesses!

She LOVES jewelry!  I standing at my jewelry box putting my jewelry on and Ashlyn was asking (you know over and over and over and over again!) for earrings.  We haven't had her ears pierced yet, but I found some that had a swivel back and put those on her.  She was shaking her head and prissing around in her earrings.  She felt so pretty!  I stopped at Claire's when we were at the mall the other day and got her a card of clip ons for the mornings she just won't let the request for earrings go now.  She is growing up so fast!  I've got a 2 year old going on 13!

Disney on Ice

We recently went to see the "Disney on Ice" production at the BJCC!  Ashlyn was a huge fan!!!  David and I were huge fans of watching her reactions!  She was SO extremely excited when she saw Mickey and Minnie come skating out.  The video on this post was a secondary reaction after I pulled my camera out and we told her to say 'Hey' to Mickey again!  We had hot dogs and popcorn and soda!  Wintertime family activities are so fun!

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was quite festive!!!  Ashlyn's first Halloween, she was too little to take out.  Last year the poor thing had been sick so we stayed in and answered the door to give candy to trick or treaters.  This year we got to make the most of it!

We were invited to a friend's Halloween party, so David and I decided to dress up like Phil and Ms. Kay from Duck Dynasty.  It was actually a pretty inexpensive thing to dress up as since David already had full camo thanks to his renewed obsession with hunting! :)

This year Ashlyn was a bumble bee.  She sure was a cute bumble bee though!  We stopped at T-town Cafe to eat dinner and what a fun surprise, David's brother and his family stopped in!  We always love getting to see them!  Ashlyn was a little reluctant about the antennae I made to go with her outfit...until she saw Ella the ladybug wearing hers!  Wasn't a problem at all then!  Ashlyn loves seeing all her cousins!!! We just love hanging out with Kenzie, Caden, Colton and Ella!!!!  I wish I had gotten a picture of all of them together.

My little bumble bee!

Daddy was so tired, but that didn't even begin to stop him from taking his little girl for some trick or treating!

Please excuse the mound of clothes on the couch waiting to be folded.  I'm not sure I'll ever have all the clothes wash, dried and folded for more than one day....never ending task!!!  Anyway, this was when we were getting ready Halloween night!!!

We got to go door to door trick or treating with Richard and the family!  Totally made the experience a million times more memorable! :)

Ashlyn's very first trick or treat house...EVER!

Weighing in on the candy success!!!

Kentuck

This year has just flown by!  Kentuck Weekend seems like it just snuck up on us!  David has been working so hard and Kentuck Weekend was no exception.  Ashlyn and I had a wedding to go to on Saturday, so Sunday after church we headed out to the park to visit Daddy while he was working.  Much to our surprise, David's brother Richard was there with his wife and their youngest, cousin Ella.  David mom and step dad were there with his step dad's family and then I got a text that my Dad and step-mom were headed our way.  What a fun Sunday it turned out to be!!!

My dad and step-mom came back to our house to visit for a while before heading home.  Ashlyn was so excited that Papaw agreed to take her on a "bike ride"!  She sure does love Mimi and Papaw!

Ella's First Birthday!

I can't believe Cousin Ella is ONE YEAR OLD already!  Time is flying by!

Hayden's Game

Ashlyn gets up at 6:30...everyday....even on the weekends.  One pro of her early bird tendencies is that we were awake in plenty of time to drive down to Pinson to see my nephew Hayden play on his football team!  I loved getting to see my sister and her husband and all three kiddos!!!  We had lunch together after at McDonald's so all the kids could play together in the Indoor Playplace.  Such a fun day!

Random

Couple random pictures to share. :)  Ashlyn was invited to one of her classmates' birthday party.  We loved the trampoline!  She wasn't too keen on the idea of them painting her cheek, but she compromised and was willing to let someone paint her hand. :)  She was very pleased with her butterfuly.

We'll do just about anything for dinnertime entertainment.  Ashlyn thought this was so much fun!  LOL!  I'm sure the other people at the restaurant were so sorry to see us leave. <Insert Sarcasm> HaHa!

Destin

David took the opportunity to participate in a guy's fishing weekend at the beach around Mid-October.  I told him I had no intention of staying cooped up at home why he enjoyed the sunny shores!!!!  So Ashlyn and I packed up for a girl's weekend with my life-long friend Olivia and her girls!  It was a short trip, but we packed it full of fun!  We couldn't have asked for better weather!