Surgery

On December 14, 2016 I underwent a robotic total laparoscopic hysterectomy bilateral salpingo oophorectomy.  Look it up. :)  I thought I would right a blog about my experiences, feelings, etc to answer some questions and make people aware.  I hope my girls can benefit from it down the road.

Shortly after Jacob was born I was tested to see if I have the BRCA (Breast Cancer) gene as my mom and my grandma have both had breast cancer.  I tested positive for BRCA1.  This making the chances much more likely that I would develop breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer.  At that time I knew I had to make some decisions, but of course I wasn't done having kids so things got put on the back burner.

I knew Macie was our last child so Miguel and I discussed what our options were.  As ovarian cancer is a high possibility with having the BRCA gene and harder to detect we decided I would have the surgery shortly after Macie was born.  I wouldn't say it was a hard decision, it was something I needed to do and being done having kids made it easier, but at the same time, of course it wasn't easy.

I feel like this is the start of new beginnings for me.  Obviously I'm not going to be pregnant again, I can become more consistent about working out and lose some weight.  Who knows, maybe ditching the ovaries, birth control, etc will make losing the weight easier?  One can only hope.  It's the beginning of new beginnings for my family. I will enjoy every stage and every moment with my kids.  Our family of 5 will forever be a family of 5, how exciting is that?  

Questions I often get asked....

1.  Will you have a mastectomy?
Not in the near future, maybe down the road.  Breast cancer is more detectable and I am monitored every 6 months with either an MRI or Mammogram.  When people find out I have the BRCA gene, this is the first question I get asked.  There are so many different opinions about this, but for now, I'm holding off.

2. So you are going to go through Menopause?
Well....yes, my ovaries were taken out.  Is this something I want to do at the age of 37?  Not really, but I supposed it will be better than getting ovarian cancer.  I will deal with the side effects as they come and hopefully it's not an issue for me.  There are worse things...

I must say that my favorite part of the surgery was the anesthesia.  Crazy, I know.  I had never had anything other than an epidural before.  The last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist telling me to take 4 deep breaths (I had the oxygen mask on).  I remember taking breath 3 and the next thing I know, I'm in the PACU with the nurse telling me I'm waking up.  The surgical site was definitely painful as I was waking up, but I wasn't sick or anything.  I was completely coherent and remember it all.  I was drinking my diet coke in no time!  Haha!!  My least favorite part was the gas pains.  I believe with the laparoscopic procedure they inflate my stomach with CO2 so in addition to regular gas pains, but body was filled with gas for 2 hours. Bleh.  I also hate the fact that I cannot lift my kids.  I feel like I have this disconnection with Macie because I have hardly even held her.  I think I'll be able to at least lift her soon, but for now I try not to. 

In a nutshell, that's it.  For the past few days I have been laying in bed at night thinking about things to write and chances are I've forgot to mention any of them, but I'll continue to add as things come up.  Maybe I'll start a new blog just about this...who knows.  Feel free to ask me questions, or whatever, I don't mind taking about it.  I figure the more people that are aware, the better.

My advice to you today....GET A MAMMOGRAM!  (It's not that bad).

Macie's Birth Story

 I wasn't sure what to expect with this pregnancy.  I wasn't sure if baby girl was going to come early with some element of surprise, come around her due date or what would happen.  Baby girl was due May 10, 2016.
At about 4am on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 (36.1 weeks) I woke up to a small gush of fluid.  I went to the bathroom and saw that this fluid was bloody.  I panicked a little bit and yelled for Miguel.  I told him to get ready, we needed to go to the hospital.  I called my mom and she came over to stay with the kids.  Because of the bloody fluid I was a little bit nervous and in the back of my head, I was debating on whether I should go to Alta View where I was supposed to deliver with Dr. Smith or if I should go to IMC where there is a NICU.  We ended up going to Alta View.  I wasn't continuously bleeding or leaking fluid so I figured it would be fine.
We got to Alta View, I told them my history, they confirmed that my water had broken and told me I was admitted and we were having a baby today.  Still in a little bit of shock, as baby girl was still 4 weeks early, I was nervous.  I hadn't received the Betamethasone shots like I had with my previous pregnancies and I just felt like something wasn't right.  I informed the nurse that generally my labors go quickly, I don't push for long and the baby's come pretty quick.  Knowing this, I wanted to make sure I got the epidural fairly early because I didn't want to miss the opportunity.
I got the epidural and they decided to start Pitocin.  My contractions suddenly slowed down and I wasn't progressing as quickly as I usually do.  Something wasn't right.  I kept feeling these small gushes of fluid so I called in the nurse.  I was gushing blood.  They had checked me and I think I was about a 3 so slightly progressing, but still not very quickly.  I continued to gush and when they did check me they had pulled out some clots.  The nurse was on and off the phone with Dr. Smith, keeping him updated.  They ended up turning off the Pitocin and just waited to see what my body would do.  I was scared and I explained to Miguel what was going on.  I knew that if this was the start of an abruption, it could be bad for me and the baby.  During this whole time the baby looked awesome!  She was a rockstar!  That is mainly why they waited and watched for so long is because the baby was doing so well.  Dr. Smith finally arrived around 12:45pm.  He checked me again and felt a bulging bag, my water wasn't completely broken.  He broke it and it was very bloody.  They had been measuring all of my blood loss and I don't remember an exact number, but it was a fair amount of loss.  Dr. Smith briefly talked to me and I told him I wanted a c-section.  I knew what could happen.  I didn't want to completely abrupt.  I wanted to get baby girl out now!  Once it was decided to have a c-section, things happened fast!!  They had Miguel ready, gave me more mess in my epidural and had me in the OR and baby out within about 15 minutes.  I was pretty out of it and shaky, but they brought her over to us to see and then she needed to go get some oxygen.  Miguel did great too!  The c-section was the best thing to do and thankfully we did, everything turned out just fine.