OK Blog Geniuses I have Questions!

I have really enjoyed blogging. It's something that comes pretty easy to me. Sometimes I ramble on about things you care about, other times maybe not so much. My blog is a bunch of things really. It's what's on my mind today. It's what happened to me today. It's what happened to me last year. I think my whole life could be a book honestly, but then couldn't everyone's? I like sitting down and just writing it all out. I think I started off slow but now it's become more. So, I want to be serious. There is a ton I do not understand. First of all, what is the nofollow and dofollow stuff? Is it good or bad? I have no idea. I am thinking I should get my own domain name. I can do that right here through blogger for $10 but is it worth it? Should I do it somewhere else? My biggest question is if I do I will lose all the widgets I have up...some of which are kind of important. I could write down every single code I suppose and repost them in a new blog. Oh how complicated it seems! I don't think I could create a good blog layout on my own. Writing is more my thing, not designing a layout properly. I think there are people out there who do that sort of thing though. So...I need tips, hints and all of that stuff from those who know what they are talking about. If you have experience tell me. I am working on getting more traffic and have been proud of my efforts. I am running out of ideas there too though. It feels like I have done it all. I am sure there is more. So those experienced bloggers and technical pros, I am asking for advice. I appreciate any tips in advance. I will look into each one. I search and browse the web for things but a lot of it is confusing to me. I am not sure which way to go. I'm sure others out there have wondered all the same things. I see blogs with 20 to 30 comments on each post. That would sure be nice. Someday. I can see it in my future. haha

How Could Chemo Be Safe During Pregnancy?

I was once asked that question on this blog. It's funny though, the way the statement was made seemed almost accusing. Well I can assure you though I have gone through it, and have gathered much information on it and fully support a woman going through pregnancy while having cancer at the same time, I don't have all the medical knowledge to really tell you why it can be done, how it could possibly not kill the fetus. I don't know. I do know though after much research and study and because of the best Internet site out there for someone like me, www.pregnantwithcancer.org, that chemotherapy can in fact be given safely during pregnancy.

Most doctors and websites will say the same thing. It's safest when given in the 2nd and third trimesters after all the major organs have formed. This makes sense of course. Upon further study though the only defects I found from first trimester chemo were along the lines of cleft palate. Well that's not all that scary to me. I'd be willing to risk it. I did have to start chemo during the first trimester. 99% of any information you'll find on chemo during pregnancy will NOT be for first trimester. Not any doctor would suggest or recommend it unless there was absolutely no choice. Well I had no choice.

I found out I was pregnant towards the end of April 2007. I knew I had been feeling short breath and choked. I knew I had to sleep sitting up just so I could breathe. I felt constant pressure in my neck and had seen numerous doctors all of which blamed my thyroid yet at the same time told me it isn't big enough to be causing these symptoms. Regardless, I wasn't super thrilled about being pregnant. I cried. I had gone back to college. I was on my way to finally getting a job after raising 3 older girls. My youngest was in school. I was ready! I had finished 2 years of prerequisites for the nursing program. Then, I was pregnant. I think that the biggest fear though wasn't that I wouldn't be finishing school anytime soon. My fear was that I knew something was wrong. I had no strength. I felt tired walking up 2 stairs. I couldn't talk on the phone without panting. About 2 weeks later I found out I had cancer. I can't begin to explain the whirlwind of thoughts and not only thoughts but things I had to do. I really didn't have time to sit down and cry or feel sorry for myself. There was too much to do!

After seeing my regular oncologist who told me what he recommended he sent me to a specialist whom he thought should give me a second opinion. I guess it's regular procedure. I had to go to St. Louis for it. Her recommendation was simply that it would be too hard on me. I should have a therapeutic abortion. I asked what the risks were to me and she said none. They didn't know what effect the chemo would have on the baby for sure and based on that and how I would handle it emotionally she thought we should terminate. She thought if something went wrong and the baby had problems it would be too much for me. I knew without a doubt it would be impossible for me to survive if I terminated. I loved that baby already. I knew she had a right to beat this cancer as well. That specialist is the only one suggested terminating. From then on it was never mentioned again. I was treated always with the baby in mind. I got x-rays with a lead vest covering my tummy. I didn't have any other scans because of the risks to baby. Doc said it was OK since treatment for Hodgkin's is all the same at that point anyway. I had to start chemo immediately though because I wouldn't last another 3 weeks which would have put me at the second trimester. I could hardly breathe at all and truly didn't know how I would last another day much less 3 weeks. So we began chemo at 10 weeks into my pregnancy on May 22, 2007. I had 6 rounds or 12 treatments. I finished the last chemo on October 23rd 2007. The only thing that chemo ever did was cause some mild but continuous uterine contractions. I did have to be in the hospital for a few days on a magnesium drip. That worked and I was sent home. I delivered a healthy baby girl on November 17th, 2007. Now can I say all situations would be like this? No. I am no expert but I can say that babies are born to mothers who have had chemo with full heads of hair. Mothers are bald from chemo and baby has a full head of hair. Wouldn't you think that if the chemo crossed the placenta over to the baby that the baby's hair would be gone too? More and more they are seeing chemo can be safely given. There is no way to get a huge study together and find out for sure. There are many many different chemo regimens and one may not be as safe as the next. There is hope though. Do your research if you ever find yourself in this situation. Here is an article I was reading today. I will leave you with this. I found it to be very helpful.

With Child, With Cancer

A Little Sad

I made a video last year for Gabriella. It was a sweet video that took a lot of time. I added pictures from early in my pregnancy to her delivery. It shows a lot of pictures from when I was sick and some sonogram pics. It really means a lot to me and I put the song Baby Mine by Allison Kraus as the backup track. I love watching the video as it always brings tears to my eyes. The video is simply titled, My Little Miracle Baby, Gabriella. Well I got a message from YouTube tonight saying the owner claimed copyright against me or something and so they REMOVED my video. :( Now I would understand if I were trying to make money off of it or something why I shouldn't do it...but this is just a personal homemade video to honor my little one. The song is something I always sang to my girls. I love that tune. I love it as sung by Bette Midler and from the movie Dumbo as well. It has special meaning in my home and now this is going to scar it forever. I don't feel I did anything wrong. There are TONS of songs and people singing songs all over YouTube that are copyrighted but it is not selling or downloading anything. I guess I am very confused as to what is OK and what isn't. I mean if you record some friends dancing to a song will it get removed because someone else owns that song? I think it's crazy. This is just my 2 cents though. I feel sad that someone obviously VIEWED my video first to hear the song then claimed copyright and had it removed. It breaks my heart. They saw the description obviously of how I endured cancer throughout my pregnancy and how I dedicated it to my little girl. Oh sometimes people have no hearts.

Award Time

Yes I got some blog awards this week. Thank you so much to Your Fun Family for these awards!








I'm supposed to write 6 things I love and 6 things I don't love. So here goes:

6 Things I Love

I love my family.

I love being cancer free.

I love Christmas.

I love tickling my girls.

I love anything with sugar!

I love low gas prices. hee hee


6 Things Do Not Love


This headache I've been nursing all day forgetting to take something for.

When my kids get sick.

When strangers touch all over Gabbi's face. This happens too often.

When I go shopping and need to get something but someone is standing in front of it and never moves, so I don't get what I need. This also happens a lot. lol

Sleet. Yes. I hate it. I know we'll be seeing it a lot now that November is here.

Getting no comments on my posts. (haha)


I also got another award from Juicy Alligator.
The award comes from Maternal Spark.




I won't be tagging anyone right now. I was going to do it, but Gabbi is sick and needing her mom, so I hope you understand! :)

So Much to Do, If Only I Could Move My Feet

Oh I can move my feet. It's a matter of wanting to. I got a few blog awards this week! I love getting them and I wanted to thank those who gave them. I also got tagged. I saved these in my e-mail and am going to post those up tonight. I get a little lazy sometimes but I do plan on getting those done. I feel it's an honor for anyone reading my blog to feel it's worthy of an award from them.

I'm feeling just a tiny bit drained today because Gabbi did in fact catch my second cold. I had a bad sore throat for a few days only a few days after I recovered from the first cold. Well Gabbi got it and worse. She ran a slight fever last night and was coughing. She would occasionally whine in her sleep so of course, I wasn't getting any sleep. I brought her to my bed and cuddled her and today she seems to be feeling better. She's stuffed up, but better. I hate seeing a little one with a sore throat. I am guessing that's what was wrong. She can't tell me that. I know I whine and get upset when my throat hurts.

I plan on doing a blog post tomorrow about chemotherapy during pregnancy. I want to get some good accurate information. I have a whole lot of things in my head but I don't want to just babble out what I already know. So look forward to that coming soon.

Gabbi has taken a liking to suckers. We don't give them often, but this particular brand has no allergens in it. The package clearly stated no milk, nuts, eggs, etc in these so since she has a milk allergy I was pretty excited. I gave her a sucker and helped her with it. Other than sticking it in her eye and trying to touch her hair with it (ouch) she did pretty good! Oh and we bought her a Yo Gabba Gabba hat. That show is well...odd. But since her name is Gabriella sometimes we call her Gabbi Gabbers or Gabba Gabbers, etc. Well every time this show yells Yo Gabba Gabba I think she believes they are saying her name. haha It's cute. She likes it and it seems pretty harmless. So here she is modeling her hat and eating her sucker. She sure has grown a lot from that Christmas pic from last year in the previous post hasn't she? Wow. Oh and she was holding a tiny little plastic water gun. I didn't let her hold it long as it's not really age appropriate but she was really enjoying it for the short time I let her hold it.