So... So...

Well things here have been okay. I was hoping to get pictures from Vince's graduation posted but in the mists of uploading my pictures to photobucket I dumped a glass of ice tea on my laptop. it is going to dell tomorrow in hopes they can fix it... boy do I hope so! so hopefully once I get it back I can post some pictures.

I just checked my photobucket account and I did get some pictures uploaded before the computer went out!!!!! Enjoy!

Look how cute he is!

Vince and Me

Vince and Steve

Vince and Reece

Diane, Vince, Reece and Steve

Vince, David and Kathy

I didn't get the group picture up so that must have been one that didn't get uploaded. Once I get my laptop back I will get it posted.

I have been feeling good. I think that I have been having some side effects from the prednisone but I am not sure, it is the only thing that I am taking so that makes it sort of easy to try and figure out what is going on. I have been kind of moody and my skin feels like it has a sunburn and is sore, it is kind of hard to explain. I know that this isn't from my CT that I had yesterday because it has been like this for a few days. My cough seems to be acting up again and I have been getting winded doing a flight of stairs at work.

the CT went well we will know the results on Monday.

The girls are in a Asthma study at Children's. Melanie completed her last breathing thing and she did very well. Allison still has 3 to go I think and she did surprisingly well. Before they start the breathing test they weigh and get the heights of both girls it was so funny because Melanie is our little chicken and she makes Allison do everything first, we could not get Melanie to stand on the scale if her life depended on it and trying to get her to stand for the height things was even funnier she was so scared I have no idea why we kept showing her that it was ok and that it wouldn't hurt oh well kids are kids and you never know what will scare them. well here are there stats:

Melanie - 2 year 11 months
Weight 31 pounds
Height just under 3 feet

Allison - 18 months
Weight 27 pounds
height..... I can't remember....

Melanie will be going in for her 3 year well CHILD check -- it is no longer a well baby check... my little girl is getting so big!-- so when we bring her in for that we will get their stats again.

Alright it is time for bed and to go and finish watching the baseball game.

Stuff... nothing to exciting

Not a whole lot going on here. Vince graduates at 10 am tomorrow morning. I will post some pictures tomorrow afterwards. I have my next scan on Tuesday I am getting a little nervous but everything will be fine. The other night I was reading though some of my old blog posts and I realized that I never posted pictures from the Light the Night walk 2008. Thankfully I still had the email from Uncle Joe and Aunt Ruby. There are a lot of pictures. You don’t need to sign up for a membership to the website you just want to select view album (bottom on the right under the album cover) and then Play Slideshow (top right above the thumbnails). http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=c0f2f30dff0e7f5e&sid=0CZuGblw3bMXUg

Vince and I went to the Children’s Circle of Care Gala the other night. It was fun. Didn’t know anyone there really other than the CEO of children's (don't really know him, but i know him) and a few other doctors, and some other administrators but anyways here is a picture of Vince, me and the girls before we left for the evening.

A year to Celebrate!

The Powell family would like to invite you
to come and help celebrate:
Melissa's Remission
Vince's Graduation
Melanie's 3rd Birthday
When: Sunday May 24th at 1pm
Where: Our Home
Please email for address
Please RSVP to:
Melvinell@yahoo.com

I go in for another CT scan on May 12th (Vince's Birthday) so we are hoping for more good news!

My hair is growing pretty fast. I am hoping that I will have something to style for Chelsie’s wedding but we will just have to wait and see.



Here is Allison being silly


Melanie when she comes back inside from digging in the dirt


Elisabeth is going to need surgery. She is scheduled for 5/15. Here is the copy of the email from my mom:

Elisabeth needs surgery and really at this point we are not sure what they will find. She has a golf ball size what they thought was a cyst (fluid filled) on her spleen. Not sure where she got it or what it is, usually seen after an injury so her involvement with sports could explain it. After the radiologist and the surgeons took a closer look they discovered the cyst is possibly not just fluid filled but also fatty or some sort of tissue as well which would then classify it as a mass.
Fluid filled cyst – laparoscopic surgery, remove fluid and cyst fairly easily through 3-4 small incisions. 2 hour procedure, maybe 2 days in the hospital and sore for a few more days.
Fatty/fluid mass – attempt laparoscopic surgery to remove as they would the cyst but may need to actually do a larger incision and remove a portion of her spleen. 4 hour surgery and 3-5 day hospital stay and longer recovery.
Spleens bleed so blood will be on hand for either procedure. They don’t like to take the spleen out if at all possible because it is an important filter in the body.
Keeping positive about it all, she has 2 surgeons involved in the case, neither of which have ever done this surgery before, it is my understanding that none of the surgeons at Children's have done this surgery before because this is not all that common. They are also involving a doctor from hematology not because they think it is cancer but because he deals with masses and what should be removed.
So the fact that she will have it all done here at Children’s is a huge stress relief, but doesn’t ease the nerves.
So anyway lots to absorb, will keep you posted.
Tom and Valerie