Thankful for day 22...

But only if they're DECK-RUNG.

(the 'deck-rung' thing's a joke... What About Bob... funny, huh? Nevermind.)

Thankful for day 21...

Wouldn't eat a sandwich* or salad without 'em.

*excluding peanut-butter sandwiches!

The 'fatty' on Porter...

First of all, I am so overwhelmed by all of you! When I read every one's sweet comments I just started crying... thank you. You brought sunshine to our family at a gloomy time... you'll never know what that means to me. Thank you for your concern, your prayers and your love... from the bottom of my heart... THANK YOU!

So we went to the doctor today to find out exactly what the CT scan said. He told us that the tumor is less than 2 centimeters (seems a lot bigger to a mom, I guess.) and is filled with FAT. YES, THE F WORD...FAT! He told us that these kinds of tumors happen sometimes in kids because their sculls are not fused together... so their brains and whatever can grow... and sometimes lumps occur on these plate lines. That is probably what we have here. Yes, it IS a TUMOR... no, it's NOT cancer. (PHEW!!)

He told us we have a choice to make... we can go find a pediatric surgeon and get the bump removed. OR we could watch it to see if it starts to bug Porter, or if it grows or anything. If we had Porter go to surgery, it IS possible that a nerve or a muscle could be snipped or damaged, BUT the bump would be gone and out of our lives forever. If we just watch it... maybe nothing would ever happen and Porter would have a little (unnoticeable) bump for forever.

Kind of a tough call. We don't have to make our minds up today... surgery is a big ordeal, especially right before Christmas. So, Spence and I have decided to watch it and go back to the doctor in 2 months to see if it's different at all. The doctor said he was more than comfortable with that. After all, in the words of Dr. Bowman, "Just because there's a bump, it doesn't mean it has to be removed." We'll just wait and see.

Cool. Now we can make up names... not too mean, please... for our little lumpy monkey.

Thank you again, dear friends. We sure love and appreciate you!!

Grateful for day 20...

Thankful for day 19...

Happy Birthday to me. Hey, don't tell anyone my age, OK?

The skinny on Porter...

Well, we were kinda keeping it under wraps, but I got about 17 phone calls yesterday about Porter. I thought I would BLOG this little journey we have embarked on... not for your sympathy, but to keep people... who want to know... updated. Here's how it all went down.

We were sitting at my sister's house after Sunday dinner when I asked my mom and my dad and my sisters... pretty much everyone there... what they thought about the bump near Porter's eye. You can't see this bump, but you can definitely feel it. They thought it was strange and told me to go get it checked out.

Monday morning, I made an appointment with Porter's doctor. He examined it... and decided that since it's so close to the eye that I should take him to an eye doctor. The nurse made the appointment for me and took me across the hall to Dr Bowman's office. He examined Porter's eye and decided that he'd like his colleague to check it out.

Unfortunately, his colleague was out of town until Thursday.... so we came back then. Porter got the whole eye doctor routine... as much as a 2 year old can handle. It was determined that Porter can see great, his eye moves properly, and everything eye-related was perfect... except that darn bump.

Well, the two doctors told me that they think Porter's bump is probably a tumor. They suspect that it's the kind or tumor that is made of good cells... they're just in the wrong place. Tumors like this are known to have teeth in them, or hair, or skin. (SICK!!) They just formed in the wrong place. I asked if it would be easily removed... they said it was "a little bit of procedure". I guess that means that it's not quick and simple, but it's not re-attaching a limb or open-heart surgery.

At this point, we don't KNOW it's that toothy tumor at all... we don't know how big it is... we don't know if it's attached to anything. We really don't know much... that is the scary part. They set up an appointment for a CT scan so we could have a better idea what we're dealing with. That was yesterday...

We went to the Hospital early yesterday morning. We waited in the first waiting room, then went down to patient check-in... got all squared away with wristbands, insurance and paper work... waited in waiting-room #2... then followed a nurse to waiting room #3. Then it was Porter's turn. We took him in, laid him on the bed and tried to coax him to hold still for the first picture... the practice before they do imaging with contrast. (that's just fancy-talk for injecting him with DYE and taking pictures of it.)

Porter would have NONE of that. He was ticked! So the nurse... doctor... tech... whoever he was, decided to give him his I.V. and strap him down. (side-note... the IV was not to sedate Porter, it was to inject dye throughout his body in 40 seconds...amazing.) That is exactly what he did. They popped that sucker in... then tied his arms under his body... strapped him to the bed.... taped his head to a head-rest-thingy... then pushed the bed into the huge donut-shaped CT scanner. Porter couldn't move, but he could scream! He kept saying, " No want to!" It was so sad... broke my heart to see that little guy so scared.

The good part is it was quick. It was also quite amazing. Spence got to wear the led apron thing and stay by Porter's side while I went behind the window to watch. I was checking out the computer and watched images of Porter's brain flash all over the screen. In 10 seconds, about 400 pictures were taken... I only know that because the x-ray guys told me. It was truly amazing.

It was over quick, so we unstrapped him... and loved him... and gauzed his IV wound... and took him home. He was pretty ticked the rest of the day. I don't blame him.

I made him get a few pictures... I'm sure one day he'll want to remember it.

Now is the hard part... WAITING. We won't know the results from the CT Scan until Thursday morning. I can tell you, Porter is not in pain, he's acting normal, he doesn't even KNOW why he has to go to all these doctors. I think that's a good thing. As for the bump... small and it hasn't grown. I feels like a ball of some kind. I really don't know how long he has had it... I just noticed it a couple weeks ago. And what's more of a mystery, I don't know how I ever found it!

Our spirits are high... we are just putting all our faith in Heavenly Father... he can fix this for us! We love you all and appreciate all the concerned phone calls and your prayers... we are blessed to have such great friends and family.

Thankful for day 18...

Especially on days like today! HEADACHE CITY!

Quote of the week...

This quote of the week goes to Porter... now that he can TALK, I think we'll be seeing more quotes from him.

We were at the mall the other day... up on the second level balcony.

We looked down and saw the mall SANTA sitting on his big red chair.

When Porter saw him, he started to yell... (and I MEAN yell) as he was jumping up and down and waving.

Thankful for day 17...

Grateful for day 16...

Best way to keep tabs on my family.