Focht Family Blog

I survived the surgery. Anesthesia was not fun. I think I feel more pain from the intubation than the surgery. I am having problems being able to clear my throat. Other than that the pain isn’t too bad. I woke up and still have the left side of my thyroid so I guess that means the cyst was benign. Here is a picture of my main incision and bruise.

I realized while I was uploading the picture I had a few miscellaneous photos that I hadn’t posted yet. The first is of Timmy in a bunny suit at his grandma’s house.

The next two I have a cute story to tell on my mom. While we were in Indiana it was my youngest niece’s birthday. We asked what she wanted and my sister-in-law said she would love a long Amish dress. Andrea likes cultural clothes and Meghan loves long dresses. So we decided to see what we could do. Mom went shopping in town to see if she could find something in one of the antique shops. They send her to an Amish store but they only had dresses for babies up to size 18 months.

On a side note every time we go to Nappanee we go to an Amish bookstore that is owned by one of the men who works for Newmar. They have two kids and their little girl is about the same size as Meghan. I had told mom to go and ask her if she could buy a dress from her. So she asked the owner of the dress shop if she knew the family and if she thought it would offend the wife. She said no so she went to the house and asked her. She brought her into the house into the laundry room and gave mom one of the dresses off of the line that had just been washed. She had never sold one of the dresses before so she was going to sell it to mom for $5 but mom gave her $20. Here is two pictures of Meghan in the dress that mom bought off of the back of an Amish girl! :)

Well… Samantha should be partied out. We started out with going to Atlanta for her birthday weekend. Friday night, her birthday, we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. Here is her birthday dessert which she shared with her cousin Ashleigh.

The next day we went to American Girl a little bit early so we could buy Samantha a Nellie doll and get my nieces a set of Bitty Twins for their birthday gifts from us. Timmy also managed to talk grandma and I into an outfit each for his doll and Josh’s doll to share. Next we were sat at a large table with 3 adults, 5 kids, and 6 dolls!

Here is Samantha and Ashleigh with Samantha’s “Samantha” and “Nellie” dolls and Ashleigh’s “Ashleigh” doll.

After our lunch was finished they brought Samantha a beautiful cake that had pink and green dots on it. It had 9 candles on it and they sang to her. She let Ashleigh and Josh help her blow out the candles.

Josh enjoyed his dessert with his doll.

After lunch we drove to the local Michael’s craft store and bought Samantha and the boys boxes so they could better organize the doll clothes and accessories. Then we went back to our campsite at Sawnee Park. We were in a beautiful spot that had water on both sides. When you were inside with the windows open it looked like you were on an island. Here is a picture of the view.

That night everyone came to our campsite for pizza. We were planning on eating outside by the lake but somehow everyone ended up inside. I think it was because the kids wanted to play with all of the dolls and toys. Sunday we woke up late and headed home around lunchtime.

Of course this wasn’t the end of her parties. Nathan’s parents came home from NY on Monday and came over for a visit. Because they had driven the whole night before, we didn’t do much else but visit but Tuesday night they came over for dinner and yet more cake. :)

I think Samantha is still recovering. I know that I am! :)

I tried to give the old bikes away and nobody needed them at the campground so I gave them to Goodwill while we were in Savannah. Samantha, Timmy, and I went to the dentist on Tuesday to get our teeth cleaned. I am happy to report that none of us have cavities. Samantha also had sealants put on her back molars to help prevent decay. Timmy is now growing his first permanent tooth. The gap he has had for three years finally has a tooth growing into it.

Yesterday on my way to Savannah I received a phone call to tell me that my allergy serums had been sent to our mail forwarding center. That was not supposed to happen. As it was, my first stop in Savannah was going to be getting my first shots. So… I had to pay for them to send the serums overnight and I got my first shots today….. all 4 of them!!! No major reactions so I am good to have the next higher dosage next week.

Tomorrow I meet with the rheumatologist. My joints and muscles are constantly aching now and my fingers are getting more gnarled looking than before. It is making it more noticeable to me. I am hoping they can come up with what is causing all of these symptoms. If not I also have an appointment with an endocrinologist on Wednesday. Mom also meets with the surgeon on Wednesday so next week we will know when her surgery date will be.

Friday we will drive to Atlanta for Samantha’s birthday. She will be 9 on Friday!! I cannot believe I have a 9 year old! We will go to dinner with her aunt, uncle and cousins on Friday and then Saturday we will have an early lunch with her aunt and cousins at American Girl. I will take lots of pictures this weekend and try to update the blog early next week.

Nathan has been telling Timmy that if he learned to ride his bike without training wheels that he would buy all of the kids new bikes. Samantha and Timmy both had rust on their bikes because of being out in the elements. So Nathan bought Samantha and Timmy new bikes (Josh’s bike is newer so it doesn’t have rust). Here are pictures of the kids out riding their new bikes.

Samantha is with the owner’s daughter from the campground. We also bought a cover for the bikes so now when we are traveling they will be covered.

On Friday Samantha asked me to change her earrings because her left ear was hurting. It had been at least three weeks since we changed them so I went to clean them off and remove them. The left earring came out without problems. The right earring however was another story. I went to remove it and couldn’t find the back. I thought at first it had just fallen off but the front didn’t come out easily. That is when I realized that there was a little bit of blood on the back and I felt around and realized that the back of the earring had embedded itself inside her earlobe. I called her doctor and they said they could remove it but not until Tuesday because he was out of town. I called every plastic surgeon and ENT doctor but nobody could see her or they didn’t deal with stuff like that so off to the ER we went. They numbed her ear and sliced it open slightly until they were able to remove the earring. The ER doctor felt like it had been in there for awhile. Here is what her ear looks like now.

They said the hole should heal in a week and after about 6 months or so she should be healed enough to be able to get her ears pierced again. I guess I don’t have to worry about changing her earrings for awhile. :)