So, I had a CT scan last week and today I got the results.  As far as I know I am still cancer free.  It is hard to make a decision yet since my previous scans were done in FL so the Dr cannot reference my new ones to anything.  I have masses that are probably scar tissue and hat would be normal.  The Dr. showed me one place they showed on the scans and he said it looks like it is probably the incision from my ceserean section.  Another place was under one of my breasts, but I did have a huge mass in my chest before so their most def. should be scar tissue there and because of breast feeding that will show lumps and stuff too, but that is just the milk production.  Also, I had part of one of my blood tests be high back in October right after I had the baby and I guess Hodgkins will produce that, but...it could easily be from just having a baby.  So...what I have learned is that having a baby shows some of the same signs as having cancer...sooo...babies are cancers....   They do wear you down, cause grey hairs, mess your body up, and so on and so on....hmmmm.....

Anyways when my blood tests come back from today I will know if I need to get a mammogram or if everything was just due to pregnancy.  I don't have any signs or itchiness like before so I am thinking I am doing pretty well.

So, let me refresh the birth in a quick way.  2 days prior to due date I had a regular appt. and found my blood pressure high and that I had preclampsia.  Preclampsia: high blood pressure, can cause seizures, breaking down kidneys.  Treated with Magnesium Sulfate. Next day given Pitocin (induced), then later given epidural, baby and my blood pressures crash.  They break my water quickly, put Epinefrin in my system (usually given to drug overdose patients), Oxygen mask put on, then internal heartbeat monitor placed on baby's head in utero to hear heartbeat.  Things calm down, given Pitocin again, won't dilate past 5 cm, baby won't drop down all the way.  so go into C section.

Now: Things are finally getting better.  On top of bruising my tummy because I was using my stomach muscles without realizing it my urethra was bruised due to having the catheter put in quickly during all the chaos.  Shit happens ya know.  I was actually hoping I got a UTI because I knew I would get meds and feel better.  That has been the most painful part of all, but now I just feel a little tenderness on the incision site which looks great and the tummy where I was bruised.  I'm not all swollen anymore.  I can wear my regular tennis shoes now.  Yeah.  Not my regular clothes though.  I'm not one of those tiny peeps with the little bump who go right back to skinniness.  As you can see from my pics I got humongo so all is good there.  I blew up to 216.8 lbs and lost 30 already.  I can see myself slim down a little everyday.  whew hoo. 

Baby stuff: went to 1st pediatrician appt and baby lost weight which is normal, but learned a better breastfeeding rotation from the pediatrician.   Found his way a million times better than the lactation consultants.  Next day he was circumsized and so glad they put numbing cream on for 30 minutes plus then a local anesthesia, and then sugar water to suck on since it apparently acts as valium for newborns.  Then a few days later another weight check and baby was down to 6.1 lbs.  He was born at 8 lbs.  I was very upset.  Of course my hormones were all out of wack too, but it seemed like every time I was there I was in tears.  Dr. wasn't worried though.  Kept up the breastfeeding rotation.  Next appt was 4 days later and baby gained 1 lb.  Yeah.  dr. decided we should supplement 2 to 4 oz of formula.  So he gained another 4 oz and I can tell he has gained more because his cheeks are chubby and getting a double chin and his belly doesn't look like starvin marvin anymore.  So all is normal for the most part now. 

Future: looks like this will probably be our only kid.  My husband had mentioned that right after all the drama in the hospital.  My mom had asked me if we were going to try to have more the other day.  she also doesn't think we should have anymore.  She is more worried that my body can't handle it.  I kind of wanted 2, but i am actually ok with one.  Just financially alone another kid would be so costly.  Daycare is outrageous.  But most definitely not worth one of us staying home.  We could look at adopting in the future, but we will see.  We might just spoil this baby, not to the bratty point.  He will learn to work for what he wants. 

Well, other than the many feedings and lack of a full nights sleep all is well.  I will most definitley not go to work until mid to end Nov.  I will figure that out tomorrow.

 

T

So, 2 days before my due date I had a regular Dr's appt.  I was already figuring my baby was going to be late sine he wasn't engaged in my pelvis quite yet.  So I was mostly hoping to find out if I started dilating or not.  Well, I go in to my appt. and apparently my blood pressure was really high.  I figured the midwife messed up and since she took it a second time is why my blood pressure read high.  Anyways, she sent mt to triage and they took my blood pressure every 10 minutes and put a heart monitor for the baby on my belly.  Normally my blood pressure is low like 105 over 70 something, but now it was reading 145 over 90 something even got to 140 something over 103.  So it came down that I had preclampsia all of a sudden.  Crazy how these things can just sneak up on you.  I was just fine at my appt 6 days before.  So, they decided to admit me to the hospital and I was going to have my baby.  At first I thought the Dr. was messing with me, but soon realized that I was not going home that day.  I was planning to take my dogs to the dog park and have this nice italian dinner and instead they only gave me ice chips and toast with jelly.  lol.

Anyways, I was to get this string with plastic deal at the end that has a medicine to help me dilate and have my cervix efface placed in my cervix.  So we did this and here it would stay for 12 hrs.  I was dilated at 1 cm at the time and was at a lower effacement percentage.  The next morning they pulled the string and checked and I was at 1.5 cm dilated and 90% effacement.  Then they started the Pitocin.  I was having contractions the whole time I was there, but I did not feel them.  As I got between 4 and 5 cm dilated I really started to feel them and they were every 2 to 3 minutes.  So they were going to start the epidural.  Well, they did the 1st test dose and all was well, then the 2nd test dose and all was well.  Then they did the epidural fully and all went down south.  This was the scary time.  My babies blood pressure dropped and so did mine.  Mine was about 90 somewthing over 43 or something like that.  All i know was that one minute all was pretty well for the whole high blood pressure deal, but now we went from 2 or 3 nurses to a full room of people and my husband getting pushed out of the way, my water being broken really quickly and them putting some medicine in the IV to get my babies and my own blood pressureback up to normal.  I was really scared at this time because I didn't hear my babies heartbeat anymore on the monitor.  But the Dr and nurses were really good and got everything back to normal.  Since I was still around 5 cm dilated when they broke my water they knew that I was not going to dilate anymore and that my baby was tired and not going to engage any lower into my pelvis.  So they decided I needed a C section.  This was fine with me.  I just wanted my baby to be safe.  And so we went into the OR which was right next to my room.  They placed me in the room next to it because of my Preclampsia and they were already at a 50/50 chance of vag vs ceserean.  So, not long later I had a beautiful baby boy named Samuel Barrett Huneycutt at 8 lbs, 20 inches long.  He does have a slight case of jaundice, but he is at normal levels for having it at birth.  So we are good and he has his first pediatrician appt set for Monday. 

Anyways, as my husband says, we can't seem to have anything normal happen.  Believe me, i wished we could have forgone all the excitement.  We both handled the situtation well, but I think that was the most scariest we have been through yet.  I kept telling him his baby was trying to kill me.  LOL.  Anyways, that is our crazy story.  We are home now and very happy to be.  T

I'm in my 36th week now.  Next week my baby will be considered full term so you never know when he is going to make his appearance.  Apparently, people think that he is going to come out early.  This last trimester has brought on mega heartburn and shortness of breath.  Sometimes my breathing sounds like I have been running, but that's just how it is right now. 

I joke that I should name my baby stewy from family guy since he is cutting off the circulation to my legs.  Yep, he is head down, pretty much in position, and I guess his weight and the way he is low is restricting my blood flow causing my legs and feet to be very swollen.  My Dr. wants me to lay down on my lunch break at work now.  I was getting worried that they might end up bed resting me.  I will not be happy if that happens.  So we will see how things go. 

Well, that's all for now.   I plan to update my belly pic soon, but after I get a new camera.  So maybe this weekend.  T

So, what can I say now.  I am getting bigger and my back is starting to feel it.  The cool thing is my baby moves around a lot and it is  wierd, but neat feeling at teh same time.  I did have a moment where I thought my water may have broke. and was having wierd and different movements in my belly.  So I told some people the next day at work and my mom of course and everyone was like you better call the Dr.  I was going to wait a week until my next appt.  So I call and guess what...they want me to come in and get checked out.  So an hour and a half later I get to find out everything was normal.  Fun stuff.  Well they were like better safe than sorry and it was good I called and stuff.  Anyways, I do know what it feels like when my baby has hiccups now.  He does kind of feel like a little alien in there now.  Other than that fun stuff, my feet are starting to swell again and it is not as easy to get comfy.  So I am ready to have this baby already.  I can't imagine how I will feel in the next month or so.  I hope I don't get much bigger.  I guess I kind of carry big, but I swear there is only one little boy in there...well..I am hoping he is little.  I don't need no 10 lb baby in there.

Well, that's all for now.  Oh, I met my new oncologist here in WA and since I am prego they are not going to do any scans until after the baby.  i believe in Dec since that will be a year from my last scan.  So let's hope for the best.  T 

So, after the last 2 blogs this one will be more upbeat.  My feet and ankles are actually normal again.  I think with the moving and driving across country just tore me up, but now things are pretty normal.  My hands get swollen alot, but it is not to bad.  My baby is a lot like me..he doesn't sit still for a long time.  He likes to move around a lot.  It is cool becaue I know he is alive and kicking.  Just sometimes now those kicks hurt.  I even said ouch out loud a couple of times and my husand asks me what is wrong.  So I just poke a little bit at the belly to get the baby to move. 

Well, I met the midwife today.  I think everything is going to be great there.  I did the gestational diabetes test today.  The Kool-aide stuff you drink is not to bad at first, but then it is kind of sickenly sweet as you drink it down.  I think everything should be good so we wills ee in 2 weeks. 

I am now at the point of do I want to take a birthing/lamaze/or whatever class or not.  I have a lot of friends who did not so I don't really care too.  The midwife suggests I do, but who knows.  My husband can't go to one either since he is on a boat and will be flown in sometime before the baby is born (Hopefully).  I just think you are going to breathe however you want to breathe when you give irth and everything else is going to go out the window.  Plus I believe they go over that stuff in the hospital too.  So we will see on that too. 

That's all for now.  T

So, I made it across country from FL to WA along the Southern route (I-10 to the I-5).  That was fun!  Not really!!  On top of being 6 months pregnant I was sick the whole way across with a nasty little cold.  Got to love being sick and staying in cheapy hotels.  We have dogs so we had to choose motels like motel 6.  Anyways, lets start with right before we left.  We had a week of busting our butts getting our house ready for rent.  Of course we wanted to set it up for sale at the same time so we repainted most rooms and cleaned everything.  During this time I realized I had monsterous ankles and the bottoms of my feet started to hurt really badly.  Also, sleeping on an air mattress for a week is not exactly comfy.  So, now our house looks awesome and the best since before we even moved in.  We did a lot of landscaping too.  So, we left PCB and made it over the border of ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Texas on the East side.  We had to stay at some flea bag hotel there because all of the other hotels were full.  This is when I really started to feel like crap too.  The next day we made it across Texas to El Paso.  That took 14 hrs.  You may think sitting down is good for your feet, but sitting in a car and driving for 14 hrs with minimal stops kills your feet.  My feet and lower legs were super swollen.  It took more than that night for them to get back to normal.  We stayed at my aunt's house in Yuma, AZ.  Thank God.  They had a BBQ for us and even a surprise baby shower.  It was super awesome and unexpected too.  I did know about the BBQ and I had to laugh when my Tia Francis (Tia means Aunt in Spanish) had asked if we minded a BBQ being held for us when we arrived.  Hello, a six month pregnant chic has no problem with lots of food for dinner.    So, after that we went to Lemoore to stay with my parents for 2 days.  That was such a great little break.  I think I would have been hurting a lot more if I didn't stop for 2 days and relax.  My parents were awesome too.  They had a BBQ for us and also a surprise baby shower.  Some of my old high school friends and even one of my best friends from childhood was there.  That was an awesome surprise.  Then we headed for Oregon and then we finally made it to our new house in Lake Stevens, WA.  One more night with an air mattress and yes, we got our nice big bed and furniture.  Whoo hoo.  So, what else can you expect from pregnancy in general.  Hmmm…well, I started getting heartburn, but not after eating certain things.  Luckily I can eat whatever I want.  I just get it at random times throughout the day.  I most definitely am hungrier more often now and I can tell the baby is growing along with my belly.  Sometimes my vision is a little messed up and I am most definitely more clumsy now.  I have broken quite a few things lately.  Me and glass don't mix very well right now.  These are some symptoms you can get while pregnant.  There are so many things it is ridiculous.  I do feel the baby a lot now too.  He is a very active little boy.  So, traveling can really suck when you are pregnant, but in the end you are really happy when you get to where you are going.  My feet and ankles are not as bad as they were while traveling so that is a major plus.

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Now we are having fun unpacking all of our stuff, still.  It has been a week and 2 days.  We have way to much crap.    Tanya

Well, I let everyone into my worl of cancer and that was like so I guess I can let everyone know the realites about being pregnant.  All those women who say it is great and love it are full of shit and lie.  The first trimester is full of being nauseous or sick inwhcih I never puked, but I was nauseous at different times throughout the day every day, morning, noon, and night,  That sucked.  Sometimes I wish I just puked and got it over with.  Your boobs hurt so bad and i mean really bad.  When you roll over or just lay on your side and your boob squish together a teeny bit that is like agonizing pain.  And I am an A cup.  Can't imagine being larger.  Your blood starts pumping more and you see these dark veins across your boobs too.  Good thing my skin isn't really light.  I now understand what racetrack skin looks like.  You get it when you are pregnant.  So the first trimester you just feel crappy and you should really stay away from caffeine during that time.  No Caffeine, what the hell:  Coffee, soda, chocolates....    There have been studies about caffeine affecting your fetus negatively and everyone has a 1 in 4 chance of miscarriage for each child they carry during the 1st trrimester.  For me a 1 and 3 chance.  I did workout though and even ran.  I learned the meaning of doubling up on sports bras.  There is a whole mess of other things, but those are what I really remember most.  Oh, I forgot for a sec...the prenatal pill...a huge ass horse pill that makes you feel even more sick.  Yes, I love that.  And you have to take it everyday for the whole pregnancy.  Whoo hoo.

Ok, now the 2nd trimester is what I am in now.  Currently at 5 months.  20 weeks and 3 days to be exact.  So let's see.  I don't sleep well anymore.  I have to lay a certain way and you have to stay on your back.  Guess who usually likes to sleep on her back.  Me!!  And when you lay on your side you still have to ind of lean fwd a bit and not be perfectly on your side.  It feels as if your belly is pulling one way and the rest of your body is going the other way.  You are gaining more weight now and you are starting to look like a cow.  But not in a bad way.  It does play a number on your legs though.  Mine have started to feel tired and a bit tight or crampy at bedtime so that keeps me up a bit.  But I guess I should be glad I don't have those bad cramps in my legs that I have read some women get that wake you up in the middle of the night like a charlie horse or something.  That would suck.  Another thing is called Luekkoria...not sure if I spelled that right.  It is a liquidy substance that tends to extract a littel each day in your undies.  Lovely right?!  It is there for a purpose because it keeps bacteria and abd things from going into your uterus.  Oh, and talk about liquidy stuff.  Hmmm...sometimes you sneeze and bam, you kind of dribble a bit on yourself.  Not everytime, but it does suck when you sneeze and you fill like you just pissed on yourself.  Yes, go ahead and laugh.  It is kind of funny, but sucks at the same time.  All you can say is "Dammit" and then go to the bathroom.  Also, my kid likes to sit low.  Which means he likes to sit on my bladder all the time and kick me right above my pubic bone.  He's a little fucker.    My upper back is starting to hurt at times too.  I am not allowed to do the things I want to do.  Everyone is afraid to play volleyball with me and we are working on our house and the yard and I'm not allowed to pick up heavy stepping stones because my husband freaks out, etc...Hmm...what else..I guess on the positive my boobs have grown, but only a little bit.  Like half a cup.  What is that crap?!  Of course your hormones are whacked out too.  That's so much fun to deal with. 

Anyways, there are some great books that are realistic and they are so much better than those happy frue frue B.S. books that really don't tell you the real thing.  One book I found funny that a guy gave to my husband is titled "How pregnancy sucks for guys"  Every guy should read just because it does let them into the realities of pregnancy world.  There was one written for women that I have not found yet, but I would love to read it. 

So, to those women who say pregnancy is great and blah blah blah...You LIE or you are smoking crack.  I will love my baby, don't get me wrong, but I am not going to lie about the nine month process of getting there.  That doesn't prepare anyone.  There are so many other things that chics deal with too like heartburn and constipation and indigestiona nd stuff like that.  I have not experienced it all thankfully, but I think the constipation part is universal.  Fun stuff.  And I thought chemo sucked.  

When I move at the end of May I will let everyone know how much fun that was to drive from FL to Seattle in separate cars from the hubby at 6 months pregnant.  I'm excited to move, but not excited about how many times we might have to pull over for pee breaks.

Tanya

So, I was pretty suprised that I popped positive for pregnancy.  After going through 2 cancers and not being on the pill for a long time it just seemed like it wasn't going to happen.  I even have polycystic ovarian syndrome which means out of the 8% chance a month a normal person has to get pregnant I was at 4%.  But I guess a month or so of rekindling the marriage and acting like newlyweds crazy things can happen.  LOL. 

Anyways, I am super happy and I hope things go smooth.  So far this year has been a wild ride.  I am clean of cancer, I found out I am transferring to Seattle in June, and now I am going to have a baby in Sept.  Good thing I am moving up to cooler weather right before the summer heat.  Last trimester in the summer in the South would have been just lovely.  LOL. 

 

That's all for now.  Tanya 

Everything came back negative.  Yeah...I guess I will get to deal with this for next 5 yrs when I will be officially pronounced cured.  But negative scans are the best. Everything has been going well.  I was having some very tender skin on my upper body and arms for about 2 weeks at the end of Nov/Beginning Dec.  That is about a month and a half or so after radiation.  You get some random sysmptoms later, but all is still well and I starting to get into shape now and work out again.  just in time for the holidays and all those goodies.  Lots of Love....Tanya