Shaun's top 5

Shaun has been doing AWESOME with this no iodine diet, but the cravings are kicking in. He has his top 5 foods for when he gets the chance to eat "real" foods again.

1. big glass of milk with cookies

2.double bacon cheese burger from Big Jud's

3.Pizza

4. cold cereal

5. all things breakfast: bacon, eggs (with yokes) sausage, and hash browns.

Guess I'll be making a lot of food runs to my parents house while he lives with them!

Low Iodine Diet

Shaun had a chest and head CT September 29 to see if the cancer had spread to any of those areas. Which thank goodness it hadn't. With that clean we have started him on a no/low iodine diet. No dairy, egg yokes, soy products, red die #3, rice, potatoes with skin, and to assume anything that says sodium had iodine in it. We have become HUGE label readers, and I have been cooking and baking a lot. I make him special bread, that actually taste pretty good, and he has to have hormone free meats, Only beef and chicken. No seafood, cause of the salts, and no pork.

He will hopefully start the radiation the second week of November. He will move in with my mom and dad, thanks to them for offering!! The kids and I can't be around him, but after day 3 healthy adults can be 9 feet away from him, but it has to be restricted. The radiation will take 11-14 days, we'll find out more when we get closer to it.

His scare is healing nicely from the 2 surgeries, and has okay energy bursts now and than. He is doing awesome with all of this, I think at times it's harder on me than on him. Than again that could be a male/female thing!

Shaun's Cancer

Shaun had his 33rd Birthday on August 24, on the 25th he was getting ready for work. He was kind of complaining about getting old and checking out his face. While shaving that morning he found a LARGE lump on the right side of his neck. He didn't know what it was, so he decided not to tell me about it at that time and to just watch it through the day. It didn't hurt or physically bug him, but he showed it to me that evening. I was worried about it and told him we would get him into the Doctor that friday, the 26th of August. We got him in that afternoon and the Doctor didn't know what to think of it since he had no pain. So he sent us strait to the hospital for an ultra sound on it. We heard back from that doctor on Monday the 29th and he said there was a mass and was referring us to an Ear, nose, throat (ENT) Doctor. His name is Barry Peterson.

We saw Peterson on the 30th, a Tuesday. He told us he was to young for cancer, and started suggesting things that it could be, and was going to send us to the hospital for a CT scan and an Ultra sound, we told him we'd all ready had the ultra sound. He excused himself for a few minutes to go look up the pictures. He came back in and focused 100% on Thyroid Cancer. And told us Shaun was going in for surgery that next morning, Wednesday the 31.

He lost a lot of blood during this surgery, the mass was on a few veins, and the Doctor had to do about a 4 inch incision to removed the tumor from his neck. He had a hard time with this recovery and had a lot of pain. At this point we weren't sure it was truly cancer so we had to wait for Pathology to get back with the Doctor so he could tell us the findings. This all fell over labor day so we had to wait until September 6th (Tuesday of last week) for those results. Dr. Peterson's office called around 2 o'clock that day and said he needed to see us at 4 to go over the findings. At this point we knew it was Cancer, just had no idea how bad it would be.

We sat in his office while he told us it was cancer, but it is VERY VERY RARE. Not only did he have cancer but 3 forms. Papillary, follicular, and Hursle. That is when he told us we would be doing surgery again the next morning, the 7th. That surgery only took an hour and a half, the first was well over 3 hours long. He came in and told me things went well, they removed the left thyroid, so he has no thyroid now. and that he found a lymph node that looked questionable. so he removed that also. We hope to hear back today if he also has Thyroid Lymphoma. Which would make a grand total of 4 cancers in his neck.

He will start radiation in a few weeks, his thyroid replacement meds are on order and I should be able to pick them up today. He has to be on them for a few weeks, than off for 2 weeks, to clear him out of thyroid hormones, than he will start radiation. The kids are having a hard time understanding all this so my Parents offered their house for shaun to do his radiation. That way we don't have to remove the kids from home. We are just telling them daddy is going on another business trip so they don't stress More. I'm sad I can't be there for him, but he can't be around children, pregnant or nursing woman. Only healthy adults. We aren't sure how long this will take, we are just waiting to hear back from that Doctor's office for an appointment.

He's tired and weak now, hope he can perk up more once on the replacement therapy. His pain is gone for the most part, the incision hurts sometimes but is healing. We found out today he has an appointment on the 28th of September to start the long road to radiation. It all happened so fast, now it feels like the treatment will take forever!

a moms rant

I knew having 4 kids would be challenging, but I love being a stay at home mom. I know I chose to do this, and I know it is what is best for my kids, but I sure could use a break from them!

I just want to run and take care of things that would normally take 10 minutes but end up taking at least an hour. Most of that time is telling Eli, "NO", or "get back here!". Or to sit down and not have to get up and break up a fight as soon as I get comfy.

I want a REAL shower, you mom's know what I am talking about, one where you can actually enjoy the hot steam, and maybe even shave your legs, and not just to the knee.

Again I want to say how much I love all my kids, this includes Shaun, but Ohhhhh I am exhausted with my life. I guess I need to take care of my self and make some time for me, how do you do that?

I need school to start!!:)

Countertops

A couple of weeks ago we took out the old counter tops in the Kitchen

and got our new BEAUTIFUL ones put in.

I bought the new paint for the walls and cabinets, just haven't had the time

to get it done. we are also going to put nice glass tiles up on the wall

behind the stove.

Our OLD PINK countertops

So glad they are gone. Now if only we could find time to paint

and put the new hardware on the doors. I'll post the final pictures

when we get it all done.

counter tops

We are getting new Kitchen counter tops. They are coming

Thursday to measure and order. Here are the

two that we have narrowed it down to.

I have put them in different lighting through out the day

and still can't decide what one to choose.

This is the darker of the 2 on the wood floor. There are times

this one is my favorite, I think it may make the

kitchen feel a bit small though.

The lighter one, our cabinets are white, so this is a good go

between. Just not sure if its to light.

Our current counter tops are a pale pink, and need to go.

The Screaming boy!!!

I swear it all started the day we brought Addison home.

Eli quit using words and just started to scream

and have MAJOR fits! He quit taking naps, which I

so need him to take. For example, today he was in the

back of the house and I hear this bloody murder scream

I yell to find out what was going on, he wouldn't answer so I go

to him and asked repeatedly what he wanted, what is wrong.

No answer. After about 10 minutes he finally cries he wants milk.

REALLY all that for a cup of milk!!

Another thing is Trevor coming to us saying I'm bored.

So I mention half a dozen things to him. Clean your room, color

read a book, drawl, get a game down, but all those get a "no".

I don't want to hear it!!

Eli crashing after one of his fits, we had to take this

picture to prove he does sleep once in awhile.