Cyst Removal

This is Doug's back just hours after having an emergency surgical procedure to remove a sebaceous cyst from his back. For years he has had a cyst growing on his back, right in the middle along his spinal line. It's been checked regularly by our GP who assured him it was fine and that it didn't need to be removed or have anything done. It had even grown to about an inch long and sticking quite far out from his back. They are something that just happens for some people. Unless it got infected...

Which of course it did. It went from being a lump that didn't bother him to swollen and infected within a matter of days and our GP referred us to a specialist. Upon calling I found out the waiting list without private health was around a year, going private without insurance would cost us $180 for the initial consult, then probably $2-4k for the surgery. As "luck" would have it, he ended up in the emergency 2 days later when it got to bad to bear, which resulted in it being removed the next day after spending the night in the hospital on IV antibiotics. I had NO idea how huge the surgical procedure would be, but they ended up having to put him to sleep, then slicing a piece out, removing the entire lump, including the casing and roots kind of thing around it that were holding into his back. It left a gaping hole, 2 cms deep and about 3.5cm long. They weren't able to stitch it closed as it had developed an abscess with the infection, meaning it has to be packed with surgical swabbing every day for the first week, then every second day afterwards for a few weeks. Wowsers. Literally has to heal from the inside, out.

I would like to say here, this was all at NO COST to our family. For the surgery, the overnight stay, the medication and the follow up home visits. I feel blessed every single day to be an Australian and to have the amaaaazing health care we do. Thank goodness it went through emergency and we didn't have to wait! 

happy birthday doug!

during the last year this guy has become more than we ever imagined he would have to be. after his dad died in january of last year, he had to step up and become everything for his mother, who truly mourned her husband and relied on doug to do so many things that we thought were easy. being ill herself certainly didn't help with it and through it all doug was strong and sure for her, while mourning himself.

when she passed away earlier this year, he remained calm and constant, while still dealing with the first loss. it broke my heart imagining myself in the same situation yet he handled it with grace. today is the first birthday he has spent with neither of his parents to spoil him, so we kept it low key at home, just us and the kids. i've been mindful of him over the past months and especially today. he seems happy with his lot and never complains, but i am sure this hasn't been easy and continues to hurt.

but here we are, another year down, 41 years old and still smiling.

some photos with the kids to round the night out, as we celebrated last night

the proudest dad with his favourite girl ❤

joseph made this cake pretty much all by himself and he was so proud of it! hooray for packet mixes.

flowers from my love

there is absolutely nothing more wonderful than getting flowers for no reason. better than my birthday, valentine's day or any anniversary, is simply for no reason at all. every now and then my husband delivers and today was that day. he even got my favourites, yellow roses, which i had in my wedding bouquet. today was a good day. ❤

 

doug's 40th party

what an awesome night at the swans restaurant and function house in henley brook. covid-19 may have ruined a lot of things this year (including the family trip we had planned to celebrate with dougs best friend james who turns 40 the same week as doug...) but it didn't ruin our ability to have a party at a great local restaurant. the swans is pretty special to us, my best friend jennifer and her husband got married there 10 years ago and dougs sister and her husband a few years back - so we kind of love the place. it's had a few owners since then and the current ones seem to be nailing it! the food was excellent, as was the service and we really enjoyed our evening.

i got there a little early and set up a few things of my own, including the big 40 made out of photos that was in our hallway earlier this week...

and a stack of gold jars with electric candles around the place. they looked so gorgeous flickering away throughout the night.

star of the show was definitely this amazing cake made by my best friend jennifer, it tasted just as good as it looked. forever grateful to have such a talented bestie.

doug very kindly shared his birthday song with his bonus little sister darrio because he had his birthday party on her actual birthday. we felt bad, but she assured him there was nowhere she would rather be.

we had so many friends and family turn up and it was lovely to see him so loved. this year has been hard for everyone, but especially for him losing his dad, who was truly his best mate. he has really risen to the occasion, helping his mum out and doing what he can to step in when she has needed him. i am so proud of him and loved being able to celebrate him today.

happy birthday to the one i love the most. ❤

 

doug is 40!!

this guy is 40 today. forty. i actually can't believe it. 17 years ago we had only known each other for a few weeks and i gave him a metal toy story bucket full of lollipops as a birthday gift. i am really hoping this years gift makes up for that... what a day it was to get it all done though!

we started early at 6:15am, out to drop off my outlander with the broken rear end off to the panel beaters and collect a replacement to drive for the next week or so. dum dum dummmmmm, a freaking kia cerato. look beggars can't be choosers and that thing's got some get up and go, but it was a terrible day to have to lose my car. i had ordered 40 gold, black and white balloons to pick up so doug could arrive home to them, but now had no way to pick them up. 

lucky for me, my beautiful friend tara was on hand to collect them in her full size mum van, bless her and we shoved them all in there, which made me realise they wouldn't have fit in the outlander anyway, so even luckier! haha.

seriously, she has a mercedes benz valente and they took up the entire inside!

and just for good measure, here's me showing you how forty balloons looks like in real life. i honestly felt like i was at disneyland!

and they perfectly filled the hallway. huzzah!

anyway, here's the fun part. for doug's 40th present, i bought him a set of custom number plates for his ute. he always said when he got the car he wanted, he was going to get private plates with dsk 11. his initials and favourite number. so, on the downlow a few weeks ago, i got onto the department of transport website, found him the colour i knew he would like best (this has since been confirmed, he was very pleased with the colour choice) and nabbed the combo he was after. funnily enough, last weekend, he got on there himself and was trying to order the same ones and was very put out to see that someone already owned his combo. i don't know how any of us managed to keep a straight face as his mum was there too and knew i had ordered them. he finally managed to convince himself that he was happy with 011 because then "both sides had the same amount of characters". yeah okay g.

by some miracle, they were ready in time for his actual birthday, but i still had to go and collect them and get them onto his car... but you have to hand in the old ones to be able to collect them. here came the sneaky. i called in a favour from his boss, who removed them and left them by his car for me to pick up. all the way from ellenbrook to balcatta to collect them, then back to midland to get the new ones, back to balcatta - and guess who was right there sitting by his car. that was such a facepalm moment. his boss had sent him up past joondalup to do a job, but he finished early and arrived before i was back with the plates. i pull up, his mates like, "bro, isn't that your wife?" yes it was, holding his birthday present. there went that surprise, but he was still stoked... until he got a mouthful from the boss for being back too early hahah. he looooved them and was super stoked! plus he got a good laugh out of knowing that the jerk who stole his combo, was in fact himself. hahahahaha. 

i still had some tricks up my sleeve though, each of the balloons we collected earlier had a photo from his life attached to the base. i had spent hours trawling through old photos at his mums house and on facebook over the past few weeks, saved them all to a folder and printed them to attach them to the balloons...

 and make a big 40 on the wall in our hallway.

all set up and ready for dad to arrive home. 

it was so fun. he arrived home from work, all the kids popped out and yelled happy birthday and then they all spent ages looking at the photos, him showing them people they knew and telling them about people they didn't. it was the best!

my old mate 40 year old husband. ❤

i am so beyond grateful for you and especially grateful to have been able to show you just a little today how much i love you - and the time and people before me, that made you who you are. 

doug's new car

oli was not the only one to get a new car this week... doug got one too! her car was finally ready to be picked up late friday afternoon... but this clown decided that he would go and buy himself one too! augh. as if i didn't have enough stress with oli's being written off and getting her new one sorted. he has been looking for one for a while but just hasn't found the right one, when all of a sudden this green ss ute popped up and when he went to look he decided it was the one. sooooo we bought it!

look at him! he's so happy with it and i am so happy for him that he's found the one he wanted. he's waited so long for it too. 

perfect new addition to the front of our place!