Back to Work

Well today was my official first day of work. It was ........ tough. I am so ready to busy myself with things related to work so I can get my mind off of things but dealing with people (not the children) is proving to be more difficult than I anticipated. Two days ago I had come in to start my classroom and an older woman I know well began asking and hasseling me about when I was going to have a baby, I needed to get a move on and not wait forever etc with all good intentions of course, but mentally I snapped. A little angry satanic voice cut her off bluntly and said "I was going to have a baby - but it died!

I was so shocked that 1. I actually said that out loud and 2. I was so mean. Needless to say that conversation was quickly changed after she nervously said well you take your time and have your baby when you want to! I couldn't believe myself. I hope I don't have any more little outbursts like that, but sometimes people are so "obnoxious" as my doctor says. I actually had to go to the doctor today for bloodwork and I was having a little meltdown there. Dr. C.M. was so super supportive. We talked about how to handle these "people." We also talked about how today would have been the day my good friend (who referred me to these wonderful doctors) and I would have announced our pregnancies together at work as we were due only a week apart. Instead she announced her news while I kept my unfortunate news private. I am so excited for her and hopefully it will be me next year :)


Dr. C.M. also said, "Molar preganacies SUCK! (yes she said that) but use the next year to do amazing things- go to Italy, get a massage, travel a lot, do all the things you won't be able to do or do as easily as when you have children." Those were doctor's orders right? I wonder if I can get a prescription for that and what's covered? Hmmmmmmmm......... Hopefully tomorrow I will be a 0 --- not that 0--> I will never be a pant size 0!

More Good News!

My blood work came back today and was down to 85 from 322 last week. Hopefully next week I will be at 0 so I can start going monthly instead of weekly. My little veins are starting to hurt! At least I have been able to get a head start on some stuff for my class this year with all the down time I have had. Next Thursday seems all too soon to be going back to school. At least the kids don't start until after Labor Day.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lorelei!!!!

Today we visited my cousin Lorelei to celebrate her third birthday and what a day it was. It was complete with a princess theme, delicious food, fun art for the kids and the biggest bouncy house I have ever seen. Everything was fit for a princess. Enjoy the many faces of the cutest three year old princess around. We are so glad they moved back to be closer to all of us.

My bouncy castle is finally ready!

I am so cute.

This pinata has yummy candy.

I love the slide on the bouncy castle.

Hey Dad aren't you coming in?

I think I am getting tired.

Oh wait it is present time!

I am getting very sleepy.

No more smiles from me. I've had enough.

It was also a nice surprise that my other cousin Bridget was able to stop by for the big day all the way from RHODE ISLAND. We finally got to meet her new daughter Clover Rose. What a good baby. She was so quiet and slept most of the day. Here is Clover with her grandma, (my Aunt Jackie.)

Another Follow Up

Well I had another ultrasound yesterday during my follow up appointment for my D&C and I still have some little clots left but nowhere near enough to warrant another D&C! YEAH!!! I also had my blood tested again (ouch!) and my levels have come down significantly from 31,000 to 322! (The goal is 0) Since my levels are dropping so well there "should not be" anything to worry about, but I still need to get my blood tested weekly then monthly to make sure the levels don't go up. Paul bought me cute little Sesame Street bandaids since the ones at the doctor's office give me a rash! Also yesterday I had a chest x-ray which was clear. This is a standard procedure to make sure no molar tissue spread and is growing in my lungs or elsewhere so this is also very good news. So things are pretty back to normal whatever that is and I have finally been cleared to go swimming. Too bad the summer is just about over and I have to go back to work in less than 2 weeks :(.......

Recent Pics of the Pups

Abbie Einstein 5 months

Tom Jones almost 2 yrs

Smartie Jones 3 1/2 yrs

Jerry--> The Mighty Quinn 7 months

Happy Birthday Bob, Dad & Grandpa!

Today we celebrated my father in law's ?? birthday. He got lots of nice presents and everyone had a good time. One of his presents was a stir fry cookbook. I hope we all get another invite soon for stir fry! Below is a picture of Keri's Lemon Icebox Pie that was decorated with home grown flowers and it tasted so good it made your teeth hurt!!

PCOTC Picnic 2007

Today was our annual PCOTC picnic. We gathered at FDR for a nice BBQ and members brought food to share and dogs to socialize. Everyone had a great time. The picture above was not as easily staged as it looks. I thought it would be easier now that Abbie is older and supposedly more mature! HA! I think I must have taken 50 pictures and Abbie was missing in most of them because she kept jumping off the table and running away. The other dogs stayed nicely, but of course Tom decided he was camera shy and Smartie wouldn't take her eyes off my dad, the cookie machine, so this was as good as it gets. Enjoy!

A Trip to the ER

Monday night I went to bed with a terrible backache which was a side effect of that medicine my doctor put me on but when I woke up yesterday my leg felt weird, like it was frozen stiff. I thought maybe I slept wrong but by noon both legs were stiff and it hurt to walk. My doctor called to see how the medicine went since all my doses were done and told me that leg stiffness is not a side effect of the medicine- leg cramps- yes very rare, but stiffness like what I felt-no. So off I was sent to get an ultrasound of my legs at the hospital to see if I had any clots. The ultrasound showed no clots but they were concerned that I was having a lot of trouble walking. So they brought me to the Emergency Room. They checked everything and couldn't find anything abnormal so they ruled I was hypersensitive to the medicine. I was told to come right back if it still persisted or became worse since I had already finished the last dose of meds at 8am. I still had some trouble with my legs last night but today they feel a lot better. So we will see what happens.

Back to the Doctor

Unfortunately yesterday through this morning I experienced abnormal bleeding so I had to go back to the doctor for another ultrasound which showed I still had "junk" --> what my doctor called the leftover clotted tissue and blood in my uterus. The amount was a little more than normal so I have to take medicine for the next 24 hours to try to empty my uterus. Good news though that my HCg levels have dropped from 136,000 to 31,000 from July 6 to now which is good but still a long way from 0!

Pathology Results

Today we got the news that I did indeed have a partial molar pregnancy. There really wasn't anything more to report except that there was a lot of molar tissue that was removed so my doctor wants me to have a blood test immediately to see if my levels are coming down from my initial bloodwork on my first visit. We won't really know anything more for weeks until we have a series of results to compare.

On a happier note.....

Congratulations to Paul's cousin Michelle and her husband Nathaniel who brought home their baby girl Grace Alethea from the hospital today. Congrats to BIG brother David too!

Congratulations also to my cousin Bridget and her husband Joshua who adopted a baby girl Clover Rose who turned two months old yesterday!

Post Surgery Update

On Monday I went to the doctor to see what was going on in the hopes that this miscarriage was on its way. Unfortunately what we saw on the ultrasound was masses of grape like tissue that had rapidly grown since my last visit which pointed to a molar pregnancy. On my first ultrasound at 7 1/2 wks we saw several "grapes" and were unsure what it was then because there was a heartbeat and it wasn't as visible on the "better" machine at the hospital. Even at my second visit the whole gestational sac had changed a lot but it did not look like there were a lot more of these structures. Now since we could see the masses of growing grape like tissue the best and only option for me was to have surgery TOMORROW which was yesterday because both doctors best guess was that this was a molar pregnancy which cannot be confirmed until after pathology tests everything. What was strange was I did not have any of the common symptoms of molar pregnancy except the "grapes" and that my body was still continuing to think it was pregnant even though there was no heartbeat which is why I never miscarried- I think?

So the surgery was yesterday and it was not scary. The worst part was the IV because I have little veins :) Both doctors from my ob/gyn office were there and were great. The hospital staff and all the nurses were amazing. It is so so so different from the "commercial" hospitals of NYC. I woke up in the operating room after the end of the surgery so I was able to eat a lot sooner. I was STARVING. It was 4:45 and I hadn't eaten since the night before. Paul was there and I was able to leave by 7pm.

We went immediately to get Tom and Jerry from class because they had been sleeping over my parents house and my dad was going to run them at class so they didn't have to miss school! My dad did a great job with them except when Mr. Troublemaker Jerry decided to hit the gas and run really fast he made my dad fall down! Thank goodness they put the soft agiliflex floor down a few months ago and that my dad is OK!

I am feeling good now just a little tired but I can finally get out of the house for more than an hour or two and do some things. We will be waiting for the pathology report and hopefully will have it by tomorrow so we can see where to go from here. If it is a molar pregnancy I will have to have blood tests every week and hopefully get a negative pregnancy test result. A positive result would mean I still have molar tissue inside me and may need another D&C surgery. As soon as I get three negative results in a row I am tested monthly and after a year of negative results we can try to have another baby. My chances are slightly higher now for another molar pregnancy or other uterine diseases but the doctors said that if this was a molar pregnancy it was only a partial molar pregnancy which is the better one to have. So we will have to see what pathology says.