Marie’s Mom

A couple months ago, Mom found out she had a gigantic cyst on her liver. Although the cyst was benign, its massive size was causing problems for Mom, so she had surgery at the beginning of the month to remove it. The surgery went well (although the tumor had wreaked more havoc than anticipated, making the surgery take longer) and she went home the next day, tired and sore, but glad to have the surgery behind her.

Mom in her hospital room after surgery

A week after her surgery, Mom was getting worse and worse, so they readmitted her to the hospital. She went in for minor surgery a couple days later to take care of a blockage in her intestines that was causing the problems. After that, she was able to start eating again and they sent her home a couple days later.

Today, she’s still really weak, but she’s recovering and feeling better. We went in for her post-op doctor appointment this morning and they told her everything looks good, but she’ll probably have another two weeks of weakness and fatigue before she starts feeling back to normal.

Nick’s Mom

Nick, Mom, and me hiking Wallace Falls

Nick at the Seattle Pinball Museum

For the past few years, we’ve been alternating between Nick’s mom visiting us in Seattle and us visiting her in Michigan and this year, it was her turn to stay with us. She spent almost two weeks with us this month and we really enjoyed spending time with her.

Nick curling

Nick’s mom had done most of the touristy Seattle stuff before, so this trip was more low key. We walked around our neighborhood, went to the farmer’s market, had game nights, cooked a lot of good food, and painted the living room and kitchen (I protested having her paint while she was on her vacation, but she actually wanted to help us and teach us how to do it — which was a big help; thank you!), but we had some fun highlights, too. Everyone’s favorite activity was when we hiked Wallace Falls, which was an absolutely gorgeous hike (post coming soon!). We also really enjoyed going curling (again, post coming soon!) and playing pinball at the Seattle Pinball Museum. We were sad to see her go home on Tuesday and we’re looking forward to visiting her in Michigan next year!