The Ultimate Blessings of 2012

** This is a long post, but worth reading! Also, if we are Facebook friends, I ask that you not post about the contents of this post. Thank you**

As Thanksgiving approaches, I have thought about the many blessings in my life that I have to be thankful for. I have an incredible family, access to great health care, financial resources to get my medications, a sweet puppy who makes my days great, a beautiful home, a reliable car, I live in a place where my vote counts and I have an overwhelming amount of freedom. . . the list goes on and on. This year, however, there are two things that I am especially thankful for.

Out of those two blessings, the first is that my sister has completed her final chemo session. You may remember that my sister was undergoing chemo after we found out (back in March) that she had Stage IV colon cancer. Our lives were immediately changed forever, and we (primarily Ellen but also her back-up team) started fighting with everything we had. She underwent over 8 hours of surgery on June 12 to take out the infected bowel and liver, and an ileostomy was placed to help prevent infection. She then went back to rigorous chemo that made her feel miserable day after day. At one point through her treatment, her white cell count plummeted and she was given a shot to help build them back up. This shot made her feel worse than the chemo. She also suffered from a pretty serious allergic reaction about three treatments ago. She was taken off of one of the drugs but still kept going with her chemo, and thankfully she stayed reaction-free for the last treatments. She has dealt with swollen tongues, nausea, pain, sensitivity to cold, swollen hands and feet, and just feeling miserable. BUT…she is finally done! Her CEA level is within normal range, and she will be having a reversal of the ileostomy soon! We are so thrilled at this news, and we are going to be celebrating during my family’s Thanksgiving! I’m getting a cake, balloons, streamers, the whole nine yards. We need to celebrate her amazing achievement, and I am so very proud of her.

With that blessing explained, it is probably hard to believe that there could be anything worth celebrating that even comes close to that good news. Normally, that would be 100% right, but this year we have been doubly blessed in an exciting way. . .

Basically, our Christmas present (the best Christmas present ever) came early this year. . .

Best photo we own! Baby's hand is front of its face, and we got to see Peanut move on this ultrasound.

That’s right! That picture is our little Peanut at 9 weeks and 4 days! I have been extremely quiet about the results of my last frozen transfer because I wasn’t quite ready to share the news with the world yet. I wanted time to enjoy it ourselves and to tell our immediate family and a few close friends. I still have a few family members who do not know such as my niece and nephew and my cousins. I will be telling them once I hit 13 weeks (so beginning to mid-December). But we are incredibly happy and blessed to announce that we are finally expecting a sweet, precious baby. My due date is June 12 or 13, depending on which ultrasound you listen to, and my husband and I couldn’t be happier. We found out on the first of October, and it has been INCREDIBLY hard not to write about it all this time. We were waiting until I got further along before sharing the news, but I couldn’t resist any longer.  So, as I write this, I am 10 weeks and 2 days, and believe it or not, I already have a little belly. I’ve had one for about three weeks but it’s gotten a bit bigger each week. I know they say you don’t show this early with a first pregnancy, but they obviously haven’t seen my body. It never goes down so it’s not just bloating that’s for sure, and it’s quite firm! I will have to post a bump picture very soon, but for now the ultrasound picture will have to tide you over!

Over the next few weeks, I will post about how I found out and what has happened from that point on. I’ll be looking back at the beginning of the pregnancy and explaining thoughts and feelings, and I also want to focus on the CF and CFRD aspects of the pregnancy.

As you can see, we really have been blessed with two of the most incredible blessings in the entire world this year. We are so thankful!

Again, if I can ask those of us who are Facebook friends to not post about this. Since a good amount of family does not know, I really don’t want it getting out on Facebook yet. I also want to wait for a public announcement to everyone who actually knows me until 13 weeks. Thank you all so much for understanding!

Stay tuned for all the exciting details about the last 8 weeks! :)