just a lump in the road: surprise.

Maybe I didn't say enough nice things about my sister in my previous post. Or maybe I said too many nice things. Yesterday, after responding to four urgent text messages saying that she needed me to come over to watch Will and Jude because she was at Urgent Care with Jack who needed a few stitches (any one of you would have believed this lie as well), I arrived at her house to find a perfectly calm Will watching for me from the front window, an un-injured Jack, a sneaky Emily, Krystal, Cousin Bob, Cousin Maria, my other friends Jess, Daniel, Angela, Sarah, John, and baby Ian waiting in the living room to surprise me with "Gretchen Mainia" - a Goodbye Thyroid Party/Surgery Shower/Brunch. I am not one for fuss or attention, and this was certainly a lot of fuss and attention. I scolded Emily and then enjoyed a lovely afternoon with everyone.

The party included a delicious red velvet cake with an extremely accurate 3D thyroid/larynx/trachea sculpted topper (thank you Krystal!), a medical school quality life-sized thyroid model (Will and Jack have been brushing up on their terminology all week), thyroid cut outs, a mad libs game that everyone filled out (including some remote submissions - thanks Mom, Dad, Michael, and Aunt Jake!) with suggestions for surgery prep and recovery (clean underwear was a popular suggestion), some gifts sent from afar, plus all of my friends contributed to the Boredom Buster bucket, a giant gift containing lots and lots of activities for me to do while I'm home recovering. I can't give you too many details about it because I want you to be surprised at Christmas when you open the Duck Tape belt or purse that I made for you.

Thank you to Emily, Krystal, Will, Jack (how on earth this guy didn't spill the beans when I spent 6 hours with him on Saturday is beyond me), and everyone else involved for reminding me just how lucky and loved I am.