Focht Family Blog

The good news is that mom made it through her surgery on Wednesday. She is healing as fast as she can and she should be released from the hospital tomorrow morning. The bad news is that today we received word from our dear friend Maryellen that she has breast cancer. She will be having a double mastectomy on Friday so any extra prayers sent her way would be appreciated. I will update as we receive more information from her. Right now I am ready and waiting for my surgery. The cyst is growing so the choking feeling is getting worse as well as the symptoms. I am just hoping Hanna or Depression 9 do not alter my plans for surgery since Charleston has tendencies to flood without hurricanes being involved. If Charleston is not under water my surgery should be on Thursday, September 11.

We were in Indiana for the last week and a half and it was wonderful as always. I always love it there, even in the snow. While we were there we drove the RV over to Lehman’s. He does woodworking for RVs and is well known in the area for making custom cabinets and desks and such that blend into your existing cabinetry. We have decided that we will go back the beginning of December and have the cabinet in the hallway next to our pantry removed as well as the hallway sink and medicine cabinet. He will then build a bed in the space that can be accessed from the stairs into the loft. There will be 3 large drawers under the bed and then on the bedroom side will be a cabinet with shelfs since the one side of the bedroom will be closed off. The new bed will be Samantha’s and then the boys will have the beds in the loft.

We are also going to take out the carpeting and have linoleum or linoleum wood planks put in so we don’t have carpet to deal with anymore. We have also discussed adding a second satellite and having flip down TVs installed for each of the kid’s beds and then converting the TV cabinet to another regular cabinet. So… by Christmas we will have a new to us RV without the extra payments! :)

We will be back in Savannah this afternoon. Mom has her pre-op appointment tomorrow morning and I made Misty an appointmnet in the afternoon to discuss giving her shots for her arthritis. She is getting bad fast and it is very hard for her to get in and out for her potty stops. Once her vet appointment is over with we will go back to Statesboro and settle back in until the surgeries are over with. We will be in GA until October 1 when I will have my appointment with the MUSC endocrinologist and my check up with the surgeon. My surgery will be on September 11. I should be released the same day and once I am released I won’t have to check in with the doctor until 3 weeks later.

I am disappointed. I had hopes that this would be the perfect RV for us. The way I had it all planned out we would put a single bed in the loft, instead of the queen. That would be Samantha’s bed and the extra floor space in the loft would be the play area. The bunks would be for Timmy and Josh….. well…. that was the plan at least. The reality is that the loft is at best the height of an over the cab bed in a Class C. Nathan had to belly crawl in and out of it. I could get up there on hands and knees and Samantha was hitting her head trying to sit. We tried to talk to Newmar about lowering the floor by 6 inches which would make it good enough but still not ideal. Their answer was “no”. I am not sure if they are just not wanting to invest money in the engineering behind a redesign or not. There were 2 other people at Newmar while we were there that wanted the new floorplan as well but for all of us the loft height was the deal breaker. So… Newmar just saved us a bunch of money! Nathan put up a page that has all of the pictures on it that we took. If you are interested in seeing this engineering malfunction, go to: http://www.focht.net/photos/4159

This was a week for doctors. Samantha went in on Monday for her 9 year checkup. She is doing great. She is still at 90% for height and is now about the same for weight. The doctor said that it is normal for this age to start getting a little thicker. He said to just keep an eye out for how much snacks she is eating and what kind of snacks she is eating.

Mom went to the surgeon and I went to the endocrinologist on Wednesday. Mom’s surgery is scheduled for August 27 at 7:00 in the morning. The endocrinologist looked at my one value and told me it was within range. I was fine and I should have my ultrasound repeated in 3 months. Apparently I was supposed to go on feeling like I was choking for another 3 months. I went from there, crying, to my regular doctor’s office. I asked him to test me for anemia (I have had it before) as well as do some further testing on the thyroid. The tests came back on the low end of normal but within range so he basically said the same thing.

I have to say I was getting mad at the doctors for not listening to me and not trying to find out what was causing all of the symptoms I have been suffering from since March. I had the original ENT order a repeat ultrasound because the choking feeling is back. It went away for awhile after the cyst was drained in March. The ultrasound showed the cyst is back.

I decided I will probably have to have surgery so today I drove to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston to meet with a doctor that does a minimally invasive surgery to remove the thyroid. The first thing he said when I showed him my lab numbers is that it is very possible that you can be within normal range but be low for you. He wants me to go to an endocrinologist there to have it evaluated. However, he said that giving me medicines to raise my thyroid will not get rid of the cyst. My original biopsy did not get enough cells to show if it was malignant or not. Your chance raises slightly to about 5-6% if the cyst returns. I can have it drained again and have it injected with alcohol which keeps it from returning 90% of the time. However, I wouldn’t know if it were cancerous or not. The odds are low but we have a family history of women getting cancer at young ages. If I were to get cancer later on I would always wonder if it started in the thyroid and spread so I am opting to have that side of my thyroid removed. The doctor is about a month out in his surgery schedule so I will find out soon when my surgery date will be. If there are no complications I will be released the same day.

Since Nathan will be stuck in GA longer than he wanted we are taking a week or so and driving to Indiana to get out of the heat. The new RV floor-plan we wanted to look at has the first one coming out of production this week so we can get a look at it as well as getting a few things fixed before we are out of warranty.

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.