My Arm

I wasn't going to post about this but figured I would document my family history in medical so it might help someone.  At the funeral yesterday, one of the sons said that everyone is born with "biological ticking time bombs" and it's our responsibility to know what those are so we can disarm them when the time comes.  I agree with that assessment. 

One time bomb in my family is skin cancer.  Oman's do not tan.  It's just a fact of life.  We are pasty white, always have been and always will be.  It took me a long time to be fine with that but I have come to grips with the fact that I will never been tan.  Okay.

But, I have to watch when I do get in the sun to always wear sunscreen and then to be aware of moles that don't look quite right.

When I was pregnant with Courtney, I noticed a freckle on my leg that hadn't been there before and kept getting bigger.  I asked my OBGYN and she said it was nothing but thought I should have a dermatologist check it out.  I made an appointment with my dad's doctor so he would know our family history of skin cancer/melanoma.  He is a character (to put it mildly).  He took one look at the freckle, said, "That doesn't look good," numbed me and used a razor blade to take it off.  Ugh!  All like that, without any preamble or explanation. 

It turned out to be an "dysplastic nevus" with a "senescent change" that was "aggressive."  This means that I had an ugly mole that was quickly changing from being just a regular mole to a melanoma mole.  Since I have a family history of this, it meant that a week later I had to go back in to Dr. Duke and have a huge section (actually it was only the diameter of a quarter and only 1/2 inch deep) cut out of my leg and then sewn back up.  But he got all the changing cells.  I was then told that I had to go in every year to have a full-body check for other "ugly moles."

Now, everyone has "dysplastic nevus."  Dysplastic nevus are what turn into melanoma.  But not all dysplastic nevus will turn into melanoma.  Many people have "ugly moles" and never have melanoma.  The difference is in your genes.

So for the past 6 years I have watched my moles, had my body checks and been fine.  Last month I went in because I had a couple moles that bugged me.  Once again, Dr. Duke looked at them, grabbed his razor blade and I left the office with 2 "owies."  A week later I got the call that I had another "dysplastic nevus" that had a "senescent change" but it was only "moderate."  They still felt that they needed to cut it out of my arm.

This time, because this is my second dysplatic nevus, I am now considered to have FAMMM (familial atypical multiple mole-melanoma syndrome).  Just a fancy way of saying that I have to keep watching my moles.

So last week, once again I was in the office where he cut out a chunk of my arm.  It was about 3 1/2 cm long, 1/2 inch wide and 1/2 inch deep.  He took pictures of it wide open then with stitches so I could show my kids (not something I really wanted to do but I did tell you that he is a character).  It took 15 stitches to put back together (12 inside and 3 outside).  The weird thing is that it really hasn't hurt at all.  What hurt was the horrible wrap they put around my arm that itched!

I have another week until they can take the stitches out and I haven't heard if they are sure they got all the "changing cells" or not, but with that huge of an area, I'm pretty sure they did.

IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH, DO NOT LOOK AT THE PHOTOS BELOW!!!!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.



This is when it's opened up:

 This is after he stitched it closed.  You can see the nurse's fingertip on the left side.  That helps with the scale.

 

Gymnastics

Courtney has been asking to do gymnastics for a month or so.  I checked things out and found a place that has a nice facility and a summer program.  So I signed her up to take gymnastics, two days a week.  She had her first class yesterday and loved it!

We went to pick her up and were watching when Ethan said he would like to try it.  He has since changed his mind, he thinks.  I told him we would watch the Summer Olympics then he would decide.  I think it would be cool!

Now Courtney thinks she needs all the "gymnastics outfits" but I keep telling her that she doesn't need them.  She may be doing this for the clothes.  ;)

Basketball

Snow Canyon High School offers a basketball skills camp and a basketball shooting camp every summer for boys and girls from 4th grade up.  We didn't know about it last year but this year we did.  Ethan had told me that he didn't want to do it but then on Monday morning we started getting phone calls from the moms of boys in the neighborhood wondering if Ethan wanted a ride.  Finally, after 4 texts he decided to "cave to peer pressure, fine!" and go to the skills camp only.

HE LOVED IT!!  His tennis shoes are falling apart and have holes all over in them (I wanted to wait until school started and didn't think he would need them for anything but camping) but he doesn't care.  There are 5 boys from our little neighborhood in it and we car pool together.  He has camp Monday through Thursday this week for 1 1/2 hours each day.  At the end he will get a t-shirt and is so excited.

I have realized that sometimes we just need a little push to get us going.  I'm glad he loves it though!

My 3rd Counselor

Courtney is such a trooper.  The past 2 days have been absolutely crazy but I have had so many people step in to help, Courtney has been a huge help and Ethan had adapted to everything like a champ.

We had a funeral yesterday in our ward that I had to get ready.  I am an organizational freak so I had check lists of what needed to be done and I had everyone organized last Thursday before we left for our camp out.  I posted the sign up sheets on google docs for women to sign up for food.  I bought hams and potatoes on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday during Sunday School I sent around a sign up sheet for salads/desserts/baking the potatoes and helping at the funeral. The Elder's Quorum put up chairs and tables on Sunday afternoon.  Courtney and I went up on Monday to put on the table clothes and decorate the tables.  We also got everyone out of the Relief Society closet so we wouldn't have to disrupt the viewing to get plates, etc. 

On Tuesday morning Courtney and I ran up to the Church at 9:30 a.m. to start getting things ready.  The viewing was from 9-10:30 with the funeral beginning at 11:00.  I couldn't believe how much help Courtney was to me.  All the women called her my "third counselor" and she was loving it.  She put cups on the tables, helped carry food to the kitchen, etc.  After the funeral, she stayed with the women at the Church while I ran home to get the hams that had been cooking in my oven.  When I got back, she had been busy helping to set things on the table and get things ready for the family to come back. 

She helped serve the food, clean up afterward (she can shake table cloths like a pro) and she vacuumed the floor.  And she did this all without complaining...except when it was 2:00 and she was starving!  Yes, it was a long funeral day.  We went up at 9:30 and got home around 3:30.  But I had so many people helping.  (We had a lot of down time because we had everything organized so there wasn't much to do.  I was grateful to all the woman who stuck around to help for hours.)

Ethan got a ride to basketball skills camp and the same family brought him back to their house afterward and fed him lunch.  Another woman brought out family dinner last night.  I am grateful to those who step up and help.  And they don't even tease me when I give them a check list!  ;)

Ethan's Tooth

Once Ethan gets the "tooth pulling bug" he just has to keep going.  So it wasn't a surprise when he came out on Tuesday morning with a tooth in his hand.  Yes, it was loose before but it wouldn't have come out so quickly if it hadn't been for Ethan's persistent wiggling.  He now has holes where all 4 of his molars were.  Crazy kid!! 

I think this may be the last one he can pull out on his own, so it's good that Courtney's teeth fall out so slowly.  He will have years of joy ahead of him pulling her teeth.

 The one he lost this time  is on the left (you can see a little red) and you can also see the hole on the right where it's mirror tooth was before he pulled that one out.

Her Tooth!

Courtney has had this front tooth which has been hanging by a thread.  It was so gross because it was hanging sideways and would just wiggle around.  Ugh!  Ethan was dying because he wanted to pull it so bad and she wouldn't let him.  Finally, on our campout she told him he could pull it when we got home.

Here it is hanging sideways:

 Sunday night, Courtney finally let Ethan pull her tooth.  It wasn't hard because the poor thing had just been hanging there for a while.  Courtney was so excited because now she has a hard time saying her "s" and "th".  It's hilarious because she really exaggerates now being able to say them!

Here is her new smile:

 The tooth:

The 50-Miler Hike

No, we did not do a 50-mile hike.  We just were on a support crew one day for the Deacon's 50-mile hike (which was actually a lot longer but that's another story).

After work on Thursday, we drove up to Lava Point near Zion National Park.  We hadn't been to the campground before and were shocked that all the campsites were full.  We went to the look out point to eat dinner and figure out what to do.  After a few minutes, Bryan and Courtney hiked back to the campsite to talk to people and find out when they would be leaving (we were trying to get a space for us and then save spots for the Deacons for Friday night). 

The trail ended in a campsite and Bryan was shocked to see the people packing up to leave.  He asked if they were leaving (remember that this is about 7:00 at night) and they said they were.  He and Courtney came running back to where Ethan and I were, yelling to us to get in the van.  We quickly drove around just in time for the people to drive out of the spot.  So we got a spot!!!

We set up camp, had smores and then went to bed.  By the way, it was a great camp ground.  The bathrooms were SO CLEAN!!  The only draw back is that there isn't any water so you have to bring your own. 

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and then drove to the Wildcat Trail.  I dropped Ethan, Courtney and Bryan off so they could do a 5 mile hike down to the Hop Vally rail head, where the boys would be coming out.  They had a fun hike where they saw a tree that was growing sideways, a robin's egg and a bunch of pretty mountains.

Isn't this a gorgeous view?

 Keeping hydrated:

 They are "out standing in their field":

 Hiking along:

 Weird tree:

 Taking a break:

I drove to the Hops Valley trail head just in case the boys came out earlier than we had expected.  We thought they would come out around 10:30 but I was there around 8:40 just in case.  (I did my Relief Society lesson while I was waiting.) 

After 2 hours my family showed up but the Deacons still hadn't shown up.  After a while Ethan and Bryan hiked 1 1/2 miles in to see if they could find the boys but still no luck.  We were trying to text the leader to see if they were okay but couldn't get him and we didn't know the number for his satellite phone.

At about 2 p.m. they finally came out, tired and really dirty.  We gave them ice cold water and then shuttled them up to the Wildcat Trail where they would loop back to the Lava Point camp where we had saved them spots that morning.  They drank a lot of water, ate lunch and relaxed for a little while until they were all ready.  Then they took off for the next few miles of their hike.  It was so hot and I thought it would be a really miserable hike.  They finally rolled into camp around 7:30 p.m. (I think).  They had begun the morning hiking at 6:15 a.m.  What a long day!! 

We ate dinner with the boys and then went to bed.  Our kids were pretty tired.  We figured that Ethan had hiked about 7 1/2 or 8 miles and Courtney had done about 4 miles (1 mile was in Bryan's arms that morning).

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast with the boys, broke camp and then went home.  But it was a really fun camp!  And Ethan really wanted to finish the hike with the boys but he couldn't.  He can't wait until it's his turn.

Just a side note:  The boys saw 2 rattlesnakes on their hike!  We always see rattlesnakes on the Hops Valley Trail and I hate snakes!!!!