Rest of the story

At least I wish it was the rest the rest of the story. As I detailed last month I was scheduled for surgery at the Huntsman Cancer Institute January 8th to have a larger incision and make sure all the cancer was cut out of my leg. It was a success, all the margins came back clear and now I just have to see the oncologist a couple times a year for a few years to make sure it stays that way.

At check-in we got some good news. My insurance had waived my co-pay. I guess they figured what's $20 when they are on the hook for 100 times (or more?) that. Thank you Altius! Despite the good news there was still a sense of foreboding. Not because I was scared, or nervous, or because I hadn't eaten in 12 hours, but because I was afraid they would find out I cheated and had a sip of water at 6:00 am. It's just so dry in this state, how can they expect no food or water after midnight?

There was bit of role reversal as Beth watched me slip into the ever revealing hospital gown and then get my first IV. Then there was the waiting game which went longer than expected. At least I had a T.V. But as SportsCenter began for a third time I decided to check out what else is on. I've said this before but daytime television is the worst! The total lack of options is infuriating. Even more so now that I can't watch any Olympic skiing or hockey live. The only interruptions came in the first 15 minutes as the heart monitor alarm kept going off as my hear rate kept hitting the low 40s. That made me feel good considering it had been 6 weeks since any sort of a work out. Now if I could just do something about the high blood pressure.

Eventually my doctor came and took me away, then I was put away into the magical land of no recollection or pain. Eventually I woke up with a huge bandage on my leg but otherwise I felt OK and walked out of there. While Beth got the car I got myself a Twix and Haagen Dazs and water and Diet Coke. Couldn't eat any of it and it wasn't until that night I felt OK enough to finish the kid's mac n cheese, only to get violently ill a few minutes later. The sad part was despite all that I don't think I got close to pre-Thanksgiving weight. There was some pain and nausea for sure but my parents took care of all for the next day or so.
The bandages stayed on for five days. Yes I did the ridiculous grown man in a tub with his leg up thing. Hated it.
Once removed an adorable 6 inch incision with 15 staples was revealed. The staples came out slowly over a three week period. I was told to take it easy for at least that long as there isn't a lot of extra skin in the calf/ankle cankle area and wounds often open up in that area. At one appointment I asked the nurse if it was just me or is the pain getting worse each day. She smiled and said that was a good sign that I was healing and the nerves were regrowing. I did think it was weird I couldn't ever feel them removing the staples.
This picture was taken February 2nd, almost four weeks later. As you can see my surgeon was some sort of magician and it had closed up and healed nicely. Well as I said at the start I wish that was the rest of the story. And since my doctor called this afternoon and I won't be going under tomorrow morning (delayed until next week) for another surgery (sorta unrelated) I should have time to that part.

Jack skis again

We got Jack out on skis again a couple weeks ago at Beaver Mountain. We need to put his season pass to use so hopefully once his dad recovers from various skiing related injuries we'll get some good days in this spring. He immediately figured out how to control himself much better than last season but as you can see he still struggles with double fall lines sucking him towards the fence and being distracted by his mom.

Happy Duck Song

Earlier this week Jack called us up to his room after he had gone to bed and was just streaming tears. Apparently he was sad because he wanted to sing Happy Song before bed. Every night since we've made sure to sing it and it just cracks me up. Not wanting to embarrass anyone I'll just say Jack gets his singing ability from one of his parents.

Midway Happenings

(this photo taken today also serves as an "our air is cleaner than your air" in your face.)

Big news in Midway this month. We got a store of our own, cleverly named The Store. I know it's crazy, next thing you know they will put in a round-about to handle the heavy commuter traffic. Wait they jumped the gun and did that already. It is an important part of the master plan to lessen Midway's dependence on rival Heber City.

I'm very excited for The Store, in fact I'm blogging from there right now. Not only is the Wi-Fi fast, it is also quiet. Seems most other hot spots like to blast crappy music making it impossible to make or take phone calls. The Store is one of those half-size markets but I cannot for the life of me figure out what they don't have. They have had everything I've been sent to get including skim milk, 2% milk, chocolate milk, and milk of magnesia. There is a bakery, deli, salad and salsa bar, espn, and two underrated but important aspects of any store, speed and cleanliness.

The Store also brought Midway's first Red Box. Now I no longer have to sit on the couch at night and calculate whether it is worth returning a movie or paying another $1 to keep it a night. It was a very detailed calculation factoring in the average cost of gas, which car and miles per gallon, outside temperature, number of kids involved, likelihood of crying, opportunity cost, wind direction, the time value of money, movie rating, and chance of running into the Bishop. It was a hassle but I'm happy to share the Excel Spreadsheet with those interested.

Recap: December

A whirlwind tour of December . . .We put the kids to work clearing the snow.Toured the grounds and saw the lights at Temple Square.
Took the kids to see Santa with their cousins. Lily was terrified but was overheard saying it was "totally worth it" after getting the sucker.
Greg and I took all the kids sledding at Wasatch State Park. Greg was able to capture one of the few moments where Jack wasn't complaining about the sun being in his eyes. This also was one of the last rides taken on our trusty Torpedo, before it broke. That night Jack said "maybe us tell Santa to bring a new sled. That's an idea." We then called Santa (listed under Brian Cell in my phone if you need his number) to inform him of the idea. Santa didn't come through on Christmas with a new sled but Brian made up for it by making a sledding course at my parents house after Christmas.Christmas eve at Grandma and Grandpa McEuens. Her shirt says snow cute.One of the few photos in any month of all four of us.
Christmas morning. We spent the night at the Heber House so the kids could be with their cousins. I think we let them down the stairs sometime before 7:00 am.
Lily was by far the loudest entering the room with presents and I'm pretty sure she had no idea why she was excited. There was just so many people. Here they are waiting for their turns.
Jack with the Millenium Falcon. This was the toy Santa tweeted about and was way excited to give Jack but almost didn't because he wasn't sure Jack would fully appreciate it. Well in true Christmas miracle fashion Empire Strikes Back was on TNT Christmas Eve and I had Jack watch it for a minute. He was hooked, didn't want to stop watching. I knew he would love it and it has barely left his side in the three weeks since he got it.
What a little girl.
Christmas day we drove to Logan for the extended Emmett and Smith parties. We spent a couple days hanging out, hitting the movies (Sherlock Holmes), Brian and I went skiing. This photo has a couple interesting points. Notice the gang sign Jack is flashing. You might also notice Jack is dressed as a shepherd but has a thin halo in his hair. He decided he couldn't fully commit to being a shepherd or an Angel so he just picked the parts he liked best. The last couple years we started using a Nativity story that starts a couple years before Christ's birth with Samuel the Lamanite prophesying. My dad filled the role to acclaim.

Recap: November

Looking back at the 19 photos we took in the month of November was no help jogging my memory of what went on, especially since 6 of them were similar to this one. Made you look. I know that I turned one year older but couldn't for the life of me remember what we did. Then I looked in my BlackBerry and was reminded I spent it in Denver for a couple days work. But I didn't fly out until after taking the family out for a luxury breakfast with all foods starting with Mc. That night I did go out with some friends from work and they bought my dinner at one of those expensive and delicious restaurants that make you stop at Walgreens afterward for Peanut Butter Twix and E.L Fudge just so you can get full.

November also brings Thanksgiving which for the first time I think ever we spent in Logan with extended family. Which was great but at the same time depressing to be reminded my parents no longer live in California. The food was amazing and Beth and I somehow ended up sitting at the adult table and able to enjoy it. It was like everyone brought a dish and because they only had the one dish put all the love and magic into it and the end result was dozens of the very most magical dishes. Lily did come join us later as can be seen in one of the photos I stole off other blogs.


In other news these two really started becoming good friends. It has been so fun to watch them play and interact together. Lily has always loved her brother but just in the last couple months has Jack been excited to include her in all things he does. He has a ton of patience. Lily also hit 18 months meaning she could go to Nursery with Jack. The first week he just grabbed her hand and walked her in and started showing her the ropes. We were so proud. He still does the same thing every Sunday and also when they get dropped at the "kids" gym.

Lily FINALLY got more than just her four front teeth.She also FINALLY has just long enough hair to put in tails. She is such girl, loves when people take notice of her hair, shoes, or outfit.
Oh and of course the month couldn't have ended better than with a BYU overtime thrilla victory versus the Utes. Actually it could have been better if Max Hall would have just kept his trap shut and not ruined the taste of victory by running his mouth, oh well.

(edit)ancer sucks

Who would have thought that "sucks" wouldn't be the word that was edited? My mission president would be so disappointed. But the C word is on the top of my least favorite words of 2009 so it got the title edit.

A lot of you know that I was diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer a couple months ago in my leg. It's fine, I'm fine, it was in the very early stages and is fixed easily enough. If only the same could be said for my Grandpa who was diagnosed with an advanced stage of Melanoma and started Chemotherapy this month. I was tempted not to blog about it and not just because I'm a lazy blogger. I just didn't need any more people to bug me about putting on sunscreen. But it is one of the events that shape the future and deserves to be documented.

Back in May I saw a mole on my back that looked darker than it should be. I asked the following questions in my head "has that always been there? was it always that dark? did it change shapes?" And of course the answer to all those questions was "I have no freaking idea." So I called Beth in to look at it and she proceeded to ask the same three questions but I decided to answer questions with questions "how am I supposed to know? I mean, really? I've never measured and mapped and color coded my body, has anyone?"

I decided to at least bring it up with my doctor and set an appointment. He too walked through the same questions and I replied with the non-committing "maybe". He took an interest in the mole I pointed out but really focused on the birth mark on my leg. I wasn't even thinking about that because I see it all the time and no doctor has ever thought it a concern. But this time I knew that it had changed shape and color and it just never clicked. It looked like I scraped it on rose bush or something and left a little white scar in the middle. I didn't think anything of it until the doctor said it should be tested. So he laid me down, took off the mole and did a few stitches on my back, then did a punch biopsy from my leg with a single stitch . . . see photo.Those test results came back negative for cancer but were the ever popular "pre-cancer". The one on my back was moderately dysplastic and my leg was severely dysplastic. Both needed to have larger incisions and samples but since we were leaving soon for Asia for a couple weeks (continue staying tuned for those posts ;)) I didn't do it then. Then it was summer and I was busy and had races and didn't want stitches or holes. Plus I kept getting those annoying statements from insurance and the pathology lab "This is not a bill but you might get a bill so look out for a bill even though you shouldn't be billed but we might not be able to figure it out so this could be used as a bill."

September rolled around and I finally went to see the doc for more cutting. He took off a wider bit of skin on my back and then took off the discolored part of my birth mark on the leg. Each had 7-8 stitches but I didn't get those photo documented. When I went to get the stitches out the test results still hadn't come back. The doc said that was unusual but not necessarily bad. Two days later I got a call from his secretary saying the doc needed to see me and wanted me to come in on Monday. That was an annoying weekend. He broke the news that my back was fine but my leg was positive (which is actually negative) for melanoma, an invasive and aggressive form of skin cancer, but thankfully it was early and wouldn't require anything other than larger and deeper cutting. The lab originally diagnosed it as in Situ (stage 0) but further examination by a trained pigment pathology fellow said it was actually Clarks level II or stage 1a. More confusion found on Wikipedia.

My doctor referred me to a surgical oncologist in SLC that we went to see before Thanksgiving, Dr. Dirk Noyes. Apparently one of the differences between an oncologist and family doctor is not the questions they ask but the number of people they have asking them. First there was the secretary, then the nurse, then the nurse practitioner, and finally the doctor. The doctor looked at my leg and before he was done with the examination had me on my stomach and prepping my leg for more skin removal. I hardly knew what was going on other than the doctor rolled me over, give me a couple shots, broke out the scalpel, and then the blow torch. Beth was in the room and saw him remove the rest of my birth mark and then cauterize it. Since he knew he was going to have to eventually cut a larger amount he didn't close it up.
I often do or say something that makes me realize I'm turning into my dad. For example, I am always complimenting Jack on his haircut and asking who is awesome barber is months after the actual cut. But when I post gross photos of a surgery I feel like I'm turning into my Grandpa. You can see the horizontal scar on the bottom from the original removal. You can also see that it is the off season and my leg hair has grown back.

Further tests of the entire birth mark came back as good as we could hope, only the discolored white area was positive for melanoma. It has now been over 5 weeks and the wound has finally started to scab over. I go in to the Huntsman Cancer Center for surgery on the 8th so it should be close to healed at that point. Just in time for the doc to knock me out and cut a 1 X 3 inch area and go down a little deeper into the muscle but at least nothing to do with the lymph nodes. I don't think there will be any skin grafting going on but if so I'll be sure point out my problem areas as potential sources for skin.

I included this photo taken today of our sheets for context of how much this hole in my leg has been oozing. If you want you can look closely to see the mess I've been dealing with. I try to make frequent band aid changes to keep the mess down. The fact that my "owy" terrifies Jack and Lily is just a bonus. "Me no like yours owy! No take off your band aid!" Anyways these were spotless a couple days ago and like I said it has been 5 weeks and the oozing has drastically decreased, plus I wear band aids and sweats to bed.

I'll plan to update after the next and final surgery.

Howdyeen

Jack and Lily and their cousins Porter and Seth all went as Cowpeople this year. Unfortunately Seth was ill and couldn't join us for the trick or treating. Fortunately I was there to tell the various neighbors that we were also collecting additional candy for our brother/cousin who was home sick. This was much more successful than when I tried the same line as an 11 year old with my pillow case and rollerblades.


Can you tell who was the most photogenic of the evening? Lily just loves people paying attention to her clothes, shoes, and hair.


It wasn't very long before Lily's bag was just about as heavy as her.

Celebrating our haul. Just an hour later with a sick stomach of my own and two sugar high, sticky fingered, chocolate drool stained kids tearing it up as they ask for more I had a different opinion of the event.
Couldn't resist .... Check out how nicely I pull off the cowboy as an almost three year old.

Rivertrip October 2009

Yes that's right I limited this post to 26 photos. It's my blog and I'll do what I want to. For those not in the know the river is a strip of the Colorado just below Lake Havasu. Beth's family has been going to the river house on the California side for ever. We spent the first week in October down there.
Probably one of my favorite photos. Lily waves goodbye to the boat with her cousins in tow. We spent one day down at the Wagon Wheel, 20 miles or so down river, with Ruben Kathy and gang.
The gang: Sara, Tony, Jason, Heidi and Nick.
Nick was a super good sport to play and entertain the kids. He also introduced Jack to the Scooby Doo movies which I could not be more thrilled about.
Would somebody please potty train this kid. Diapers in general are a bust but really cramp your style with boats and swimming.
We all had to keep an eye out for Jack, Nick and their water cannons.
Highlight of the week was surfing. Tony's boat throws an awesome wave and we spent many an hour trolling up and down the river.
This trip was my first time trying wake surfing and I could ride without the rope but if I really wanted to carve it up I preferred using it. With any luck I'll grow up to be as good as Jason and pull off 360s etc. without it.
Just look at the water that waited for us at just about all times of the day.
She's so cute with her little hat. Now if we could just get her to ever keep a bow or a clip in her hair.
Jack rocking the gun, holster, and diaper look while checking the traps. He got those for his birthday and has barely let him out of his sight since.
Beth getting in on the surfing action. She picked it up fast and too had a lot of fun. She had the advantage of being goofy foot along with everyone else. I was basically the only regular and had to wait for all of them to take a turn. But I did have the advantage of the cleaner wave. So there! I guess the way the prop rotates helps one side more than the other.
We still got out to lay down some slalom ski turns. Once again Tony's boat was just too fun.
Lily was in heaven with all these adults around her to giver her squeeze its, capri suns, fruit snacks, etc. anytime she wanted.
Jack loves his mommy but can you blame him?
I spent most of the week trying to clear the wake on the wakeboard and consistently landing just short. Finally on the last day my coach, Jason, told me I was wimping out and needed to attack the wake. That made the difference and also created a lot less stress on my shoulder.
Jack and Lily playing on the dock. We had a few bandannas left over from the birthday celebration.
Some pretty sweet sunsets. The weather was actually on the cool side, hovering around 90 degrees instead of the usual 93.
Lily watching from the boat.
She's ready for a turn on the tube. Did not happen.
Bringing me sunscreen for her fair little legs and arms. You might notice the beginnings of the riverstache.

Lily did not want to be left out of the goggle fun. Here she is with her aunt Heidi. Nick didn't appreciate anyone trying to out-nerd him in a photo.
It took pretty much the whole week before Jack started to get as comfortable in the water as he was in the pool just a few weeks before. Finally by Friday he was jumping off the dock and diving head first off the swim deck. By head first I of course mean lowering your chin to your chest and jumping in feet first.
Blanket? Check. Cowboy hat? Check. Goggles? Check. Gun? Check. OK Jack's ready for the day.
Isn't this nice when the two boys gang up on the baby girl? Lily thought it was the best thing ever.
One of the standard activities for any successful river trip, reading. On the way home we stayed a night in Vegas to see BYU-UNLV and attend Will's baby blessing the next day. You might notice the riverstache really coming into it's own.

It was a great trip and could not have come at a more perfect time. The sun, water, friends, relaxation, mexican food, board shorts, good tunes, are all very therapeutic. And for the heck of it here's our theme song of the week. Must have listened to this two dozen times.