The Mass

Today is a hard day.  I was scheduled to have a second MRI and exam and consultation with an oncologist today, but we decided to decline and cancel the appointments.  Our decision to go against the doctors recommendations were not reached in haste or without a lot of tears and passionate discussion.

"Isn't an oncologist a cancer doctor?  I thought she was pregnant not sick!"  If you're saying something similiar to yourself, I'll back up a bit for you.  From what I've heard, almost no pregnancy goes without its own difficulty and complication, mine happens to be the mysterious mass that has been discovered in my pelivs.

At nine weeks pregnant, I had my first appointment with my OB/GYN, Dr. Miller.  Through ultrasound, he discovered...1.Yes, I was in fact pregnant and 2. There was a large (5 cm) funky looking mass there too!  After two more specialized ultrasounds and radioligist consults, it was deemed that the mass had consumed my right ovary and needed to be surgically removed to prevent complications.  SURGERY WHILE PREGNANT!??!?  Yep, that's what I thought and felt and said too...but at the "sweet spot" of 15 weeks I went through with it only to find out after I awoke from anesthesia that my right ovary is in place and perfectly fine and the mass is off floating somewhere else and could not be touched.

At this point, Dr. Miller and his cronies were pretty sure that "the mass" was nothing to worry about...but not sure enough, because after a few days of pondering, it was recommended that I see an oncologist, who insisted we do an MRI, which caused me to have to sign a scary waver that said, "We are pretty sure this won't hurt your baby, but we can't make any promises."  The MRI did not return diffinitive results and Dr. Drescher, the oncologist, recommended we "keep an eye on it" with another MRI and follow up appointment in 4 weeks.

This is pretty much where I said enough is enough.  Not only have I put my baby in jeopardy with surgery and an MRI, but now you are asking me to continue to go down that road, and it's getting us NOWHERE!  Not to mention, even if they did discover "something" with this testing, the next step would be to explore options like terminating pregnancy or forcing a super early delivery of the baby, both of which suggestions make me want to hurl and in my mind are not an option.  So, it might be better just not to know, ya know?

Dr. Miller was supportive when we spoke with him about not wanting an MRI, but after he consulted with Dr. Drescher, called to say he could not in good faith tell me it was ok just to ignore things and not do the MRI.

Well, as you already know if you read the first paragraph of this post, that is precisely what we decided to do.  It sucks to have to go against medical recommendation, but at the same time my heart is very strongly leading me not to spend any more time, money, stress, or chance at jeapordizing this otherwise extremely healthy pregnancy at the moment.  The mass can be monitored (although not with as much detail) by ultrasound and if any concerning symptoms appeared we would definitely investigate more at that point, but so far, that's not the case.  After the baby is delivered, Jon and I are quite open to testing, procedures, evaluation...have at it!   ...as long as it isn't at the expense of this baby.  I believe God put this baby in my body (and without wasting any time I might add!) for a reason, so although  my doctor doesn't agree, I have to have faith that both baby and me will be okay in the end, even if it means prolonging discovering the mystery behind this mass for four or five more months.

Today will most certainly end brighter than it began.  Jon and I are finally traveling "home" to Michigan to visit our families and some friends and hold the "holiday" celebrations that were made impossible due to the surgery, recovery, and endless days in the doctor's office in December.  I'll be blogging about our trip when I get back next week.

It's a...

BOY!!!!!

Most of you have already heard the big news.  Thank you for being SO excited for us.  We're excited too, mostly to know that the baby seems happy and healthy and to be growing right on schedule.

The best part was the look on the ultrasound tech's face.  She was showing us the heart, and lungs, and bladder, and hands, etc. and then all of a sudden she just cocks her head and gives us this look like...you know what THAT is!  I said, "It's a boy?" and I was right!

Here are some pictures to share!  No wee wee's in these shots, just the most adorable little feet and a side profile shot of the head.  We're SO happy!

The Bump

I talked to my Mom last night and told her I am finally looking pregnant and she insisted on seeing a picture, so here I am in all my glory.  These shots were taken last night on January 11, 2010 and I am 19 weeks and 3 days along at this point!

The slippers are especially awesome, huh?  I had on cute red flats earlier in the day; use your imagination!

This Friday, we have our big 20 week ultrasound where they do a full anatomy scan of the baby.  If we're lucky, we'll know boy or girl then!  Hopefully, we'll share the big pink or blue news with you very soon!

Happy New Year!

Here we are on New Year's Eve!
My resolution is to keep this Blog CURRANT! Aren't you excited??? It's embarrasing that I last updated in September. My excuses included life changes that I wasn't quite ready to put on the internet (We're pregnant!) followed by surgery and a mysterious mass in my body that has made me worry endlessly, as well as caused us to live at the doctor's office.


Anywho...it's all out in the open now, and I'm back! I have big plans to do a little review (like share the photos from our Labor Day trip to Orcas Island that I have already uploaded) as well as look forward; I'm SO excited about my big plans for our nursery decor! Stay tuned...I promise there will be something to see this time!

Miss McKenna Seattle Style

Our favorite little sister, McKenna, traveled to Seattle all on her own to spend an entire week with us! It was exhausting, yet totally awesome! We did so much, including tons of shopping (McKenna is TOTALLY my thrift store buddy and she splurged on the COOLEST PURSE EVER at Nordstrom Rack. She said if she dies I can have it. :) and eating, with a tour of our favorite ethnic places including pizza, mexican, chinese, and indian food! The biggest adventure (and only thing we photographed) was an overnight camping trip to Mt. Rainier. Camping was FREEZING! But the next day was PERFECTLY gorgeous and sunny. Here we are having breakfast. Flat Annie came along too! We stopped to check out this waterfall...

How could you NOT want to live in the Pacific Northwest? It still takes my breath away...

Alley and Oscar ADORE McKenna and all the attention she gives them. She actually succeeded at tiring out Al, a miracle in itself. Al and Osc REALLY miss McKenna and hopes she comes back to see them really soon!

Thanks for visiting McKenna! We had a great time and hope you did too! You are welcome ANY time!

Prom!

On August 15, we attended the Jensen High Prom! Our good friends, Colleen and Justin throw some mean theme parties. We've attending several other shindigs at their place including, the ugly Christmas sweater and Halloween parties. With a disco ball, DJ, and lighted punch bowl fountain, they didn't dissapoint and we went all out to join in the fun! I even asked my friend Joan at work who is a florist to make a corsage and boutonniere for us! Pretty fancy, huh?

I purchased this lovely frock for the occasion at Value Village for $13 the day before the party. It's covered in glitter and left a trail all over Jon's car and Colleen's house! Whoops!Jon even treated me to a fancy steak dinner at the Melrose Grill before the party! We got LOTS of good stares at the restaurant.

This is Justin and Colleen's baby, Helen! Isn't her flapper outfit awesome!??

Just another day along the journey of Jon and Nicole!

The Olympic Peninsula

It was our fabulous four day *mostly* camping trip and our first real vacation alone since our honeymoon. The Olympic Peninsula made the perfect destination. The variety of landscape that occurs within the span of just a few hours drive, is truly amazing. We saw mountains, lakes, rivers, rainforests, waterfalls, oceans, beaches, and so much more! We hiked and biked and camped and as always, enjoyed good food and wine along the way.

The journey began with a ferry ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.

All good waits at the dock involve eating take out fish n' chips from Ivars, and so did ours!

Okay, so we left Wednesday evening and didn't arrive in Port Angeles until about 8pm, so our first night of camping was spent in this really nice hotel. Of course Flat Annie came on vacation with us too!

Our first adventure on our first full day of our trip was Hurricane Ridge. After a scrumptious breakfast at a little local place called Olympic Bagel, we drove from Port Angeles 18 miles up into the mountains. Here we are outside the visitor center. It was rainy and cloudy when we left, but we traveled above the clouds where there was bright sunshine!

Then, we assembled turkey sandwiches in the parking lot, put lunch in our backpack, and began a pretty difficult climb up the mountain even further along the Hurricane Hill trail. This shot shows some of the trail we traveled.

Even though the Olympic Peninsula had lots of 90 degree weather the previous few weeks, we still found one patch off snow left!

Hiker Jon was sweet enough to carry the pack for us! Check out the view. I wish the pictures would do it justice.

Another shot from the top! The clouds were pretty cool, but if it had been a clear day you could see the ocean, the Straights of Juan De Fuca and all the way to Canada.

Once we were off the mountain, we headed farther out onto the peninsula to Lake Crescent. This picture was taken at our campground, Fairholme, part of the Olympic National Park, where we befriended Ranger Jim and got lots of free firewood!

After setting up camp, we took our first bikeride along an almost deserted back rode with gravel, and lots of exciting hills, and a view of the lake through the trees.

Unfortunately, our bike portrait was the last picture we were able to take before my camera battery died. Not only were we camping without electricity, but I didn't bring the charger either. Lesson learned. We had to buy two Kodak instant cameras and pay quite a bit to have film developed, all which resulted in not such quality pictures. Sorry!

On Friday morning, we packed up camp and headed for a hike to a waterfall!

So many GINORMOUS trees everywhere we went!

One of the two log bridges on the way...

Prepare for a horrible picture of Nicole. Focus on the waterfall!
After the waterfalls, it was time for the beach, so we traveled on to the coast. We camped in rainforest territory very close to Rialto Beach. It was very rocky and smelly, with lots of big waves and driftwood logs.

Then we traveled to LaPush onto the Quinault Indian Reservation and hiked to Second Beach. GORGEOUS and sandy....

We also stopped at First Beach, which is easily accessible by car, and THERE IT WAS the Twilight Tours bus! The tiny towns of LaPush and Forks, WA have become major tourist attractions for teenage (mostly female!) fans of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight book series. I caved and have read two of the four books so far, and will admit that I actually like them.

I didn't pay to take the official tour though. Why would I do that when I could make Jon be my guide and drive me around to all the Twilight hot spots? I did have to put up with his teasing and eye rolling, but I know my fellow Twilight fans will enjoy these shots. Here's Flat Annie posing at First Beach where Bella first learned about "Cold Ones" aka vampires from her friend Jacob. It was really great to see that most of the people and businesses of Forks have really embraced the Twilight phenomenon and are really welcoming and encouraging fans and making it fun!
The sign outside this hotel said, "Edward Cullen Didn't Sleep Here!"

Here's Forks High School where Bella met her vampire boyfriend, Edward in Biology class. Go Spartans!

We swung by the police station for a picture of Chief Charlie Swan's patrol car.

This family has agreed to let their home represent the Swan's house. There were definitely teenage girls knocking on the door when we drove by!

I posed with the replica of Bella's truck outside the Forks Chamber of Commerce.

At the hospital, we spotted Dr. Cullen's parking space.

...and that's where the Twilight tour ends. Back to the camping trip! We spent two nights at Mora National Park Campground. It was pretty moist most of the time, and definitely rained the last night. I suppose that's to be expected in the rainforest, huh? Jon didn't mind at all, and I only whined about it like 24 or 27 times or something like that. :)

Camping and rainy weather weren't excuses to forgo fine dining! Kabobs were on the menu our last night.

I had been DYING to buy a deck of UNO cards to play with on our trip, but even after going to several stores couldn't find them, so on our last rainy evening in Forks, I was determined, so Jon patiently traveled to four different Forks stores until we found the prize! If you could see the score sheet you would know that I was totally whomping him!

On Saturday, we drove the 18 mile long road to reach the Hoh Rainforest. Our first short hike was through "The Hall of Mosses". Incredible!

The size of the trees in the rainforest is truly incredible. You could really see just how huge they are when you walked beside the fallen ones. The information we read said many trees grow to 300 feet tall.

After our hike, we ate BLT's for lunch that we had made at the campground earlier that morning. We almost decided to leave, but then changed our minds and took one more hike on the Spruce Nature Trail. There were signs posted everywhere with warnings to stay at least 100ft away from Elk, because they had been charging people.

Can you find the elk in this picture!?!?!? We stumbled upon two elk feeding just off the trail, and we were definitely only 10 or 20 feet from them as we snuck by! I had been complaining about the lack of wildlife we had seen, so this was very exciting for me!

We headed for home on Sunday, stopping on the waterfront in Port Angeles for one more bike ride, and after driving to four different restaurants only to discover they were all closed, we found this awesome little fancy place at the Sequim marina. We looked pretty rugged after not having a shower for three days, but they gave us great service just the same, and we ate an awesome last meal of wine and seafood pasta.

Here's Jon back at home; showered but not shaved! He had a lot of work to do unpacking all our gear and spreading everything out to dry in the backyard.

I hope some of our family and friends want to come visit the Olympic Peninsula someday! It's a truly awesome adventure and we definitely plan to go back.