Roller Coaster Rides

I love roller coasters, the faster, the more they hang upside down, the better. Well here lately that has been my life. Some of you may know that When I took Courtney for her annual check up (11-4), we had them look at this lump on her ankle. Well they sent us for a x-ray (same day), one week later (11-12) to a foot specialist to look at it. He thought is was just a cyst, easily removed, but wanted to send her for a MRI (11-15) just to see exactly what it was touching. On Wed, 11-19, the foot Dr. called me to tell me Courtney may have a malignant tumor and he was referring her to Baptist Hospital. She was going to see the head of the Adult Orthopedic Oncology Department. Now, when he called me at was volunteering at the boys' school and just lost it.

I was so scared, I left the school and went straight to Paula's house and crashed for the day. There she let me just do whatever, play with Andrew, love on Ashleigh, talk on the phone as it began to ring constantly. I had to call Danny and tell him. I only told him and then Dana for the 1st several hours. I just didn't want to say it out loud, making it real. Dana did the reasearch on the tumor and found great info for me later in the day. As the day went on, I began telling people, asking them to pray for Courtney, me, and to put her on every prayer list they knew of. As our prayer request went out, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of concern for all of us. My home and cell phone rang constantly and my email was overflowing. God was showing himself through our church family and our friends. Just Amazing!

11-25 our appointment at Baptist: Dr. very knowledgeable, told us he doesn't believe the tumor is malignant. They scheduled the surgery for 12-15 so Courtney only has to miss one week of school and then it is the Christmas break. They will remove part of the tumor and do a biopsy right there. If it is benign they will stitch her up and she stays the night. If they find cancer, they will remove everything around the area, even her skin. That will be much more invasive and she will be there for several nights. She would go back eventually for skin graphs.

We had so much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. We enjoyed our time with our family and the great shopping on black friday! Yes Danny and I went out at 3:30am and were done by 8am, home and in the bed.

I have also had some of my own stuff going on the past 2 weeks. Some really high highs and some really low lows. It just makes me wonder what God is up to. I firmly believe Jer 29:11 and Phil 4:13, but that has been hard this week.

So now we wait until Monday. With a week in between these dr visit, we rested for a bit. Now reality of the surgery is back and I must make plans for next week. We don't know what time the surgery will be, so it is hard to figure out what to do with the boys. I am thankful for my mom friends who I can call at the last minute to get the boys.

This weekend will be crazy with 2 different Christmas cantatas and bell ringing and wrapping to do.

So as much as I love roller coasters, I have decided that I love them because the are over in 1 min and 37 sec. Not the ones that last for a month and counting.