Richard & Lisa's Adventures: November 2011

As I write this entry it is just 2 hours and 26 minutes away from Lisa's birthday! Today she received an early birthday present when her Oncologist told her that her PET Scan was negative....meaning she is currently Cancer-Free!!!

Tomorrow is my final vacation day of the year.

Today was my second to last vacation day. I brought the boy to school and then took Lisa to her Oncologist appointment after letting her sleep in until 9:21 am. After her appointment we celebrated by going grocery shopping! We then went home and made lunch. Soon after that, it was time for me to pick up Nicholas at school. Once we got home he and I walked to the park closest to our house and went looking for bugs. We found and captured one cricket, one giraffe beetle, one moth and one click beetle! Nicholas also ran around and tried to play football and frisbee with some other kiddos....then went home and had pizza for dinner.

And now for some pictures!

(Pictures were loading VERY slowly today, so I did not post as many as I wanted)

This was the first year we have been able to take Nicholas trick or treating. We went to about a dozen houses before he asked me to pick up and take him home... As for the costume...he was supposed to be a Ghost. Lisa made a classic Ghost costume by cutting three holes in a sheet, but Nicholas did not like the way it felt on his face, so she made one of the holes big enough to slip over his head. This transformed him into a cross between a Choir Boy and a very young Priest. Luckily his cuteness and enthusiasm helped him rake in the candy! As this first picture shows, a lot of folks here in Lantana didn't feel like answering their doors so they just placed a large bowl of candy on their porch for little ghosts and goblins to help themselves.

Here he is going to the next house. At several houses Nicholas decided to walk right in and make himself at home. He even said to one neighbor, "What's that smell?"
To which he replied, "That's our dinner!"

Getting ready to say, "Trick or Treat!"

Here is the boy awaiting his gift from the Tooth Fairy for losing his second tooth.

And the wait was worth it! It's a double bucket digger!!!

WOW...where to begin? I can't believe it is already November 2, 2011.

As I write this, Nicholas is sleeping (10:39 pm) and has no idea that he is NOT going to school tomorrow. Instead, he and I are getting Flu Shots and then he is going to the dentist to get two crowns put on his upper and lower 12 year old molars because he apparently grinds his teeth and has damaged both of them. What a way to spend a vacation day! But that is tomorrow...

Over the past few months Lisa has had WAY too many Dr. appointments and medical procedures....and she has a few more planned for this month. After she had her lens replaced in her right eye around September 14th, her recovery was not going as planned....so her Dr. suggested she go to a retina specialist immediately....she did and lo and behold...she had a detached retina. Why? No one really knows. What they did know is that she needed to have it fixed, fast. One week later she was having another surgery...and she is still recovering. A day or two after the procedure she looked and felt like she was punched in the eye. That's when she came up with idea of marketing t-shirts saying, "My husband does NOT beat me...I just had retina surgery.

Lisa has two more procedures scheduled to be done before she can be declared Cancer Free! She had a mole that was a stage one Melanoma removed from her back and two lymph nodes from under her arms removed on July 1st and has had a few more smaller moles removed as well. In August she had the eye surgery and then discovered the detached retina....quite a year....We are already working on her New Year's resolution of No Surgeries in 2012!!!

And now for Nicholas' latest adventure!

On Thursday, October 27th Nicholas tells Lisa and I.... "I paid my token," while pointing at his nose. We asked him to repeat what he had said so we could be sure....and he did.... So I asked him, "Was the token this big?" while making a circle with my index finger and thumb about the size of a half dollar. To which he replied, "Yes." So I told him that the token couldn't be in his nose because it wouldn't fit........Friday, October 28th, no mention of token. Saturday, October 29th, no mention of token. Then on Sunday, October 30th, at 4:00pm, after we had finished carving pumpkins, the following conversation takes place:

Nicholas: How do I get it out?

Lisa: Get what out?

Nicholas: The token.

Lisa: What token??

Nicholas: This one. (pointing at his nose)

So Lisa gets a flashlight and tells him to lean his head back. Lisa then says to me, "Uh Honey? You better take a look at this." And what did we see? Something green and plastic lodged in the right nostril of our little boy! I tried to extract it with some tweezers, but it was clear that we needed professional help. Off to the Rapid Med center! We rolled by at 4:17 pm and they close at 4:30 pm. During our 45 minute wait Nicholas was telling everybody and anybody, "No shots, I don't want shots today!" Once the Doc took a peak up his honker, it was time to get it out! He return with two nurses and pair of forceps. Lisa held Nicholas' head, the two nurses draped themselves across his mid section and I had held his feet down. From my vantage point I was able to see the Doc's arm slowly moving towards me and then I heard him say, "Wow, that took a lot of work to get that in there!" What was it? A green plastic token, the size of a nickel, but a lot thinner. Where did it come from? Apparently his teacher's desk. Why did he do it? Apparently another boy in his class, who shall remain nameless whose name rhymes with flyin', told him he had to pay his token in his nose.

The moral of the story? When your child tells you they paid their token in their nose, get out the flashlight and take a look immediately!

And now for some pictures...

I am not really sure how this picture came about, but I really like it....

Before Lisa's lens implant surgery we were talking about how much Nicholas loves medical stuff and how he got to take home a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff from his surgery. Before we left we were given a bag full of hospital goodies for Nicholas to play with!
Thank you Baylor Outpatient Surgery Center....