Forgot to post here: All went well, I'm doing surprisingly good, and Morgsn is amazing. Also huge props to my dad for driving us today.

I have a tube sticking out of my head, but the drain seems to be slowing down pretty quickly. Hoping that means it will be able to come out Monday or Tuesday.

Surgery tomorrow to remove the tumor "mass", and quite a bit of my parotid gland with it. I have to be at the hospital by 5:30am, so of course I can't sleep.

I really just want it over with. I'm not too worried about the worst case possibilities (Morgan is understandably freaked about the risk of partial facial paralysis, and, y'know, what if the mass isn't as benign as the needle aspiration indicated). I have a very good, very experienced doctor, I'm at one of the best hospitals in town, and everyone agrees it needs to come out, so best to get it done now.

I really just want to be able to say its over, and that I'm healing.

The samples all came back as benign. It was an amazing feeling of relief, but it took awhile to really sink in. The knots in my stomach took almost two hours to finally fade.

It's not entirely over - the masses are still there. I have a followup scheduled for two weeks from now - if they don't appear to be dissipating, they're probably going to need to be surgically removed. But compared to cancer? Yeah, no, I'll take that any day of the week.

Thanks to everyone who has been praying, hoping, and waiting. Thank you all so, so much. I am blessed with so many amazing people in my life.

(With apologies to Gryphon for stealing his turn of phrase.)

I went for my MRI results. What I found out is that I have a very large "mass" in my parotid gland, and several smaller masses around it.

He's calling them masses because he doesn't want to call it them tumors yet. The doctor took several biopsies, and I'll be seeing him in a few days to find out results.

Best case is they're benign, but my salivary glands and a lymph node will probably need to come out.

Worst case is some kind of cancer, and I have a fight on my hands.

Fortunately, I also have a lot of reasons to win that fight, and a lot of friends in my corner.

So, if you're not following me on facebook, you've probably missed some important news. Unfortunately I'm sad to say it isn't good news, for the most part.

A little after new years I noticed an odd lump on the side of my face, just forward of my ear. I'd had a cold at the time, so we thought it might have been a related infection.

I went to the doctor, he put me on antibiotics, they didn't reduce the swelling or the pain.

A couple of days ago, he decided to send me to an ENT. The ENT said it -could- be a blockage or stone in one of my salivary glands, but he's not totally sure. I'm going for an MRI on Tuesday to take a look.

Morgan's been very worried about cancer, because it's almost in the exact same spot where they found Dawn's tumor. I'm trying not to go there, but when Morgan was rubbing my neck and found a second lump around one of my lymph nodes...well, it's hard not to think about it.

If it is, I'll fight it. If it isn't, we'll find a way to fix it. I won't accept any other options.

Meanwhile, we also found an odd lump on the neck of Radar, one of our cats. (More specifically, Morgan's cat. He's been her special baby since she lived in Seattle, and they have a truly incredible bond.) After taking him to the vet, they took a sample, and it appears to be lyphoma. We won't know for sure until the results come back, but the Vet was honest with us and said "It doesn't look good."

For now, he's happy, otherwise healthy, and doesn't seem affected by it at all. If Morgan hadn't been reattaching his collar, we'd probably have never noticed it.

So, that's the current state of 2013. I guess we'll see what happens.

Technically, I guess, we got married AGAIN, since this was the public ceremony / party after doing the courthouse thing a few months ago, but regardless. It was a really, really wonderful time, and I'm both thrilled at how many friends we were able to share it with, sorry that some could not be there, and sad that I couldn't have spent even more time with everyone.

It was a crazy, crazy weekend, and I don't regret a thing, but I -am- kind of glad it's over. :)

For those who didn't get to see them live, here are a few videos from the wedding.

Vows

Cake cutting

First Dance (Actually, kinda the only dance. There wasn't really much room for a dance floor with all of the tables set up. Oh, well.)

Most people will have seen this on FB or whatever, but...yeah. We went to the Franklin County Courthouse and had a civil ceremony yesterday.

We're still going to do the "big" wedding in October, but we made the decision that Morgan really needs medical insurance, and waiting another six months for that wasn't a good idea.

That said...well, lemme share what I said yesterday.

We kept saying today was "paperwork", and that today was mostly about making sure Morgan can get the medical care and health insurance she needs.

But when we went in front of the judge today and swore to love each other, to honor each other, and to cherish each other, it was more than just paperwork or legal formality. It was true. It was true yesterday, it will be true tomorrow, and it will be true when we have the "big" wedding in October.

I married the most amazing, wonderful, fun, awesome woman today. And I cannot tell you how happy I am right now about that.

For the record? Yeah, it's still true. :)

So, I gave Morgan a box today. Being it was her birthday it was not totally unexpected.

The note inside, however, was.

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OK, who do I know on here who plays the SD Gundam online game? I think I'm going to give it a swing.

You can probably guess my username.

So, not quite a year ago I was at 384.

Today, I'm at 314.

Wow. :)