This is MY ribbon!.

This is MY ribbon!

On several occasions I have worn ribbons for other people in my life. I often wear a Yellow ribbon in memory of those who are fighting or who have lost their lives fighting for our great country. I have worn Teal ribbons in support of Cervical Cancer and the battle my sister in law Kiley went through while she fought her way through treatments and recovery. I have worn Pink (like most of you have) to support Breast Cancer and the millions who have been affected by it.

 On Thursday June, 28 I had a biopsy done on my left leg. On July 3 I got the call from my doctor telling me she received my pathology reports and the biopsy was positive for Melanoma.... Cancer. I was sitting at work when I got the call from my doctor. I had missed a call on my cell phone and when I listened to the message, Dr. MaGree asked me to call her on her cell phone if I could not call back until after the office had already closed. I could physically feel my heart sink into my stomach as I was listening to the message. I called the Dr back and left her a message with my office number on it. She called back several minutes later and started off the conversation by saying "I'm sorry to have to give you bad news over the phone, but with tomorrow being a holiday, I did not want to wait to talk to you". Yes, I'll be honest and say I had a mini meltdown at work. The worst feeling was knowing I was getting such horrible news and Paul was not there with me to hold my hand. Dr. MaGree and I discussed my options and we decided I would schedule my surgery for as soon as possible. Paul and I had already booked our flights to go to Wyoming for a few days the 1st part of August so I decided to have my surgery on July 27th so I could have a week to recover before heading off to Wyoming on vacation.  I am so thankful my mom is able to come to Virginia to help me out for a week before she heads off to Utah to spend a week with Emily :)

I had called my dad when scheduled my 1st appointment to tell him what I was going in for.  He's had several places on his arm burned off to I knew he could tell me what to expect!  YEAH RIGHT!!!  He told me they would either burn it off or just cut off the top of the mole.  :)  As you can see in the above picture, they did more than cut off the top of the mole!  ha ha!  They made a 1 1/2 inch incision and I ended up with multiple internal stitches and 12 external stitches.  That was a big fat pain in my rump to deal with for 2 weeks while I worked.  I had to keep it covered so it delayed healing and on top of it all, i found out I am 1) Allergic to all band-aids and medical tape except for paper tape.  Everything else TOTALLY breaks me out!  and 2) I am allergic to the internal stitches.  I ended up with a nasty sore on my scar line and finally, about 2 days ago, the internal stitch came out and it's healed up very quickly since.  I asked my doctor about it when I went in on the 9th to have the stitches removed and she told me it was nothing to worry about.  Apparently it happens from time to time.  It just slows down healing a bit.

I'd also like to say I TOTALLY flipped out during my biopsy.  I stressed out so bad I made myself ill.  Dr. MaGee thought it would be a good idea for me to take some Valium before my surgery since it too will be local anesthesia.  I am doing a trial run tonight to see how it makes me feel.  That way I will know how much to take to make me feel good without overdoing it and not being able to walk out of the place on my own :)

Well, that's all the Melanoma updating I am able to do tonight!  I'll post again hopefully Friday evening after surgery!  Wish me luck!

In Other News:

Since it is now the end(ish) of July and my last post was April 2nd, I guess I have a lot of catching up to do!  So... here goes.  I hope I don't miss anything important!

April 9th, I started a WONDERFUL job at Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville.  I am a CNA in their Hospice House!   It's a house that was built back in like 1920 and it's a BEAUTIFUL area of Charlottesville.  We can only hold 8 residents and the only staff there in the evening is me and my nurse Wendy (who I love).  I went in for my 90 day evaluation a week ago and I am proud to say they are very impressed by my work.  It's not hard to do a good job when you actually enjoy going to work every day :)
Paul hit his 1 year mark with the Albemarle County PD April 21 (I  think).  His PD ordered 3 new radars this week and Paul was given one b/c he writes more tickets than anyone else on his shift!  THAT'S MY MAN!  I can't explain how proud I am of Paul and all of his hard work!

April 3rd was Paul's birthday :) (Sorry if I am repeating stories from my last entry).  We decided it would be fun to drive to Harrisonburg for dinner at Long Horn Steakhouse!  Well.... long story short.... although the drive was BEAUTIFUL, we made it there only to find out the building was under construction... or should I say demolition!  We laughed so hard when we realized we drove over an hour for steak and ended up eating at Buffalo Wild Wings, which we have here in Charlottesville :)  Ha ha!  I did decorate for Paul's birthday this year!  He was at work and I thought it would be a lot of fun to have him come home to the house looking all birthday festive!

July 9th was our 2nd wedding anniversary :)  Awwwww Love!   Can't believe it's been 2 years already.  Sometimes I feel like we just met and other days I feel like I can't remember a time when we were not married.  Since there really are no words to express how I feel about being married to Paul... I will just say this.  When I was a little girl and I dreamed about my prince charming... I never in my wildest dreams ever thought he actually existed!  I honestly don't think 2 people could be more perfect for each other than Paul and me.

Last year for our Anniversary he surprised me with my Kitchen Aid mixer and this year was just as wonderful!  I have been REALLLLLY wanting the perfume by Coach called Poppy!  It's way out of my perfume budget so Paul bought it for me as one of my anniversary presents!  I was SOOOO excited when I opened that coach bag and found it tucked away in it's little white box :)  I wear it every day and am in love... YES!!! IN LOVE with it!  I had also told him I wanted a wristlet from Coach but when he went to order it, it was on back order and NONE of the Coach stores in our area had it.  So, instead of waiting for it to come in months from now, he told me I could pick out a different one in the store.  I ended up getting the CUTEST little wristlet and I actually like it more than the one I had originally picked out :)  I don't want anyone to read this and think everything I own is Coach!!!  haha!  Totally NOT!  These are the 1st 2 things I have ever owned by Coach :)  For Paul's anniversary present I bought him a paisley silk western scarf and a scarf slide.  He honestly picked them out AND ordered them but I would not let him have them until our anniversary!  He's not a fan of surprises so I pretty much have given up trying to surprise him and let him buy whatever he's been wanting!

Tell me it's not CUTE!

YAY for pretty presents :)

Upcoming Events!

On August 3rd (1 WEEK FROM FRIDAY... YAYYYYY) Paul and I are leaving on our first vacation alone.  The only times we have traveled together has been to see my family in Missouri!  We thought it would be fun to take our first vacation to Cheyenne Wyoming!  Paul's never been there and I've only driven through once or twice. We have our flights booked, rental car reserved and our hotel booked!  While we are there we will be looking at a few apartment complexes to see if there are any that we like, Paul will be doing a ride along with the Cheyenne Police Department so he can pick their brain about the department... pro's, con's, etc.  We will be attending an LDS Ward while we are there and pretty much spending 3 days looking around the town to see if our dream of living in Cheyenne could actually be a reality. 

Well everyone, That is the happenings of the Quillon home :)  I will update more on Friday or Saturday... depending on how I feel after surgery!  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!!!!

Liz