Grandpa Funeral

My Grandpa Moss died a few weeks ago and I was able to go to Chicago to his funeral. All of my siblings were there. We flew in from all over the country, really. Altough I wish it was under different circimstances, it was so nice to see everyone. I saw cousins, aunts, uncles who I haven't seen in years. Here are some pictures from that weekend.


Me and my cousin, Nicole at the funeral home downstairs where all of the grub was. Good thing they had food. We were there almost all day and were starting to get really hungry.




My cousins, Becky, her husband, Jesse, Amber & Luke, Jenna, Nicole, Goosie and me at the funeral home 10/16/08.


Melissa, Kelly with Amber's baby, Luke, Amber, Ian, and Brandon at Goosie's house.


My cousin, Jenna West, Goosie, and Me at the funeral home. Goose was so gracious and strong the entire weekend. I was so proud of her.



Mom and all the Furness kids. Shawn, Melissa, Kelly, Amber, Brandon and Ian. Man we're a tall bunch! I had my 3" high boots on, making me almost 6 ft. and I was still the shortest! Okay, so maybe I was tied with Amber.




Amber, Shawn and Melissa

I'm so glad we were all able to be there as a family and support our sweet Grandma. We love you Goosie.

Halloween

The kids had such a great time this year for Halloween! McKenna was a Fairy Princess, Meghan, a ballerina mouse, Mitchell, Dash from Incredibles and Claire a pea in the pod. It was actually pretty warm here. The first above freezing Halloween I can recall since we've had kids! So...no arguements about wearing turtle necks under costumes, or coats on top that "ruin the way it looks!" It was wonderful. It did rain off and on, but it was so nice to NOT be freezing that I didn't even mind the rain. I took the kids trick or treating and Hans held down the fort at home with Claire. A great time was had by all!

The kids right before trick or treating. Mitch and Meggie didn't have their "Dash" and mouse gloves on, but oh well, at least I got a picture of all of them. That was a Herculean act in and of itself!



My little Sweet Pea. Doesn't Claire make a great pea in the pod?

So.. I had this most clever idea of Hans and I dressing up like Farmers and Claire would be our crop. McKenna thought I should tape smarties all over my jeans and go as a "smarty pants." But, in the craziness of all that's been going on in our lives lately, we didin't have time to put it all together. We ended up being party-pooper parents and didn't dress up at all.




McKenna looking rather Fairy princessish.

No Tumors!

I have the absolute best news to report. I don’t have any brain tumors! That’s right, not a one! So after two months of thinking the worst & trying to deal with my grim diagnosis, the doctors change their minds, and we get this amazing news!

I saw my neuro-otologist, Dr. Shelton, on Thursday. Basically, he said since the diagnosis of my kind of tumors was extremely rare, he has been consulting with other specialists and radiologists about my case. He recently consulted with a radiologist, who he said is the best there is for interpreting brain scans. Apparently, this guy goes all over the world with an electronic device recording all the rare scans. He checked his database, and no one has ever had bilateral tumors on the cranial nerves they thought mine were on.

This caused the docs to revisit my case. Upon further discussion and investigation, they, the radiologists along with the doctors determined that my “tumors” aren’t actually tumors at all, but large blood vessels going through the top holes of my spine. These vessels aren’t part of the regular anatomy of the brain. The doctors think because my first surgery was so long (13 + hours) several vessels on the right side of my head were compressed all during the surgery and as a result they permanently sealed off. In order to compensate, my body developed alternate pathways to route blood to and from my brain resulting in these massive vessels right at the base of my brain. Dr. Shelton thought it was pretty amazing how my body did that, and I couldn’t agree more. Wow! That would explain my frequent migraines. I’ve got some funky blood vessel anatomy going on upstairs. Who’s to say what nerves they’re hitting, etc. And migraines ARE vascular in nature. Wow! I can’t stop thinking that—wow!

Dr. Shelton did call me a few days prior to our visit and said he suspected the tumors weren’t tumors after all, but just altered brain anatomy due to my surgery. He didn’t have time to discuss the details on the phone but said we’d discuss it more in person during my appointment. When I got off of the phone with him I literally fell on my knees in our loft upstairs and balled like a baby. I had no idea I had that much emotion pent-up inside of me! I had the herky-jerkies and everything. What a relief. Poor Mitchell had to witness the whole thing. He kept patting my back and saying, “Are you okay, Mommy?” I kept saying, “Yes, gasp, gasp, I’m just so—happy.” He said, “You don’t look happy,” with worry plastered all over his concerned little face.

After the initial relief I felt with the good news, somehow doubt crept back in. I started wondering how all of a sudden the doctors were sure I didn’t have tumors. For two months they were so certain they were tumors. What if they were wrong THIS time? I was afraid to let myself get excited for very long. I just told myself we’d wait until we saw Dr. Shelton on Thursday. Well, as I mentioned above, Thursday’s news was incredible! We are so relieved and feel so blessed.