Collin's Procedure

I know that you've been waiting for an update, it's been a little crazy here. I got off the plane on Wed. around 8:30pm to lots and lots of snow and a throwing up child. (did I mention I left Louisiana and 70+ weather to come home to this.....) Welcome home Mom......Max was too sick to even give me a decent hug and he didn't want me, only his Dad....

During the middle of the night Jayden joined us as he had thrown up on his bed. Then Thursday I got to jump back into our routine, getting Amanda to school and feeding the animals and dealing with sick kids! Such fun. Oh yeah, don't forget the snow storm coming in!! Archery was canceled and Amanda was sent home from school 2 hrs early because of the storm.

Friday was a little calmer. The virus seems to be a 12 hr virus, thank goodness. We did get to archery practice (rescheduled because the kids have a tournament on Monday, if we can get there, another storm is being predicted) and Brent and I were able to go on a date! We also went grocery shopping, so romantic! When we came out of the movie theater it was SNOWING again! Oh and during the movie Than called to tell us that Lee had thrown up and Collin was sleeping in our room because he was sick. We came home to Collin laying on the couch, because he had thrown up in our bed....Lee also had thrown up again....luckily Lee hit a bowl both times... Collin didn't....

I'm not sure I even want to acknowledge yesterday.....two broken snowblowers (we still haven't dug out from the last week's worth of snow storms at the cabin), I ripped out a pair of my jeans, Amanda and Than got sick, the toilet clogged up, and I can't remember what else, but it seems like I'm missing something.......although that's plenty! I even took a nap to try to reset the day, within an hour of getting up the toilet clogged up! I took a hot bath and went to bed by 8pm!!

Church was cancled today because of the ice/snow storm that has literally shut down the North East part of WI. Even one of our major malls was shut down, the roads were too dangerous to be out on. That's saying something.....it takes a lot to shut down anything around here. So we relaxed and hung out. I've done some catching up on paperwork and have been trying to get this post up all afternoon/evening.

Here is our first 24 hrs in Florida. We flew into Tampa, FL on Monday the 4th, around 9pm. We left our house around noon in a snow storm, of course. We our flight was late leaving, so we flew out of WI around 5pm.

We took a taxi to our hotel. We got in so late that we ended up eating at a game/bar place called Gameworks. We walked to it, from our hotel, a very nice, touristy type neighborhood. We got to order off the bar menu.....a new experience for me.. We waited so long for the food that they gave us 1/2 off. Then we went back to the room to eat it. We got to bed around 12am. Then we got up around 4:30am to leave by 4:45am to be at the hospital by 5am. Collin was one of the first two to have this procedure done. The staff was so awesome. They were so good with him, everybody addressed him, and then me. He was made to feel very comfortable and they did an excellent job relaxing him and letting him know what was going to happen. He was away from for about an hour, during the procedure, and the rest of the time I was by his side. The procedure was 22 mins long and we were out of the hospital in 5 1/2 hrs from start to finish!



Here is Collin getting ready for his scan, he had a nuclear scan as part of the procedure. The dye makes the tumor show up on the scan, and then the surgeon uses a probe during the procedure to go right to the tumor and removes it.




To get the scan, you have to lay very still under the camera. Collin fell asleep during it, listening to his music. He was pretty tired as you can imagine after 4 hrs of sleep.

After leaving the hospital, we went back to the hotel. We had very loose plans for this part of the day, depending on how Collin was doing. He was doing so well, we checked out of the hotel and hit the road! We found a back road and followed it as far as it would go.

Here is Collin about 6 hrs after having the tumor removed from his throat. He has an ice bag hanging around his neck to keep the swelling down. We're parked on the side of the road admiring the swamp and hoping we'll see an alligator, well kinda hoping we'll see one......

More swamp...
More swamp.......
Not swamp....I loved how this trees was covered in spanish moss and surrounded by evergreens.

At the end of the road was Pirate's Cove! Here is a picture of a white heron....can't see it? Well it's there, Collin loves herons and the lower southern states are the only places you can see white ones! He was so excited we saw three on this road, we just couldn't get any decent pictures of them! The heron is between the car and the fishing rod off the green point, can't you see it?? It's white.......
You thought I was kidding, it really is Pirate's Cove, at least that's what this building is a the end of road. It's an abandoned building, it could have been an inn or restraunt or both.
The road is Pirate Point........
The sun set while we were at the end of the road....
It was a very beautiful sunset that coincided with us being gone from WI exactly 24 hrs!! What a day!!
During the ride, Collin told me he already felt better. This coming from the kid who could hardly swallow and who didn't want to walk around, just ride in the car..... His muscles felt better, they had been very sore for months. Since that day he has done nothing but improve, his anxiety is much, much less and he's just feeling so much better over all.