As you could probably tell from my last post I was dealing with a lot of heavy emotions regarding potential Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD) and possible uterine cancer. My doctor wanted me to have a second surgery right away to remove a mass they found in my uterus. He suspected it was one of two things; 1) remaining products of conception from my most recent miscarriage, or 2) tumors that have developed from GTD. If it was the latter, I would need to begin chemotherapy.

I got the phone call from my doctor last night with the results, and I am happy to announce that I do not have cancer! It turns out the mass they found was part of my placenta from my last miscarriage that hadn’t been cleared from the first surgery. I feel so relieved, especially considering I know two infertility bloggers who just recently got diagnosed with uterine cancer right around the same time I was waiting to hear back about my results. The one blogger is starting chemo and the other had a hysterectomy in order to save her life from the cancer spreading, and she now has to find a surrogate to complete her Frozen Embryo Transfer. I keep thinking, “That could have been me” and “I could have been dealing with permanent infertility, a hysterectomy, or battling cancer right now.” I dodged a major bullet. It could have easily been me. 

My Next Steps:

• Continue weekly blood draws until hCG levels are back down to zero
• Once hCG levels drop to zero must do monthly blood draws (to monitor if Gestational Trophoblastic Disease develops)
• Per doctor’s orders wait 6 months before doing Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) (April or May at the earliest)
• Before FET must do SIS (Saline Infusion Sonohysterography) procedure
• Fly to Seattle for FET in mid-2020

 

 

This recent cancer scare has really put a lot of things into perspective for me. It got me to reevaluate my expectations of God and to renew my faith but in a different way. I feel like I have a greater appreciation for how short life can be. A while back I created another website (still being developed) where I wanted to track my life goals or “Bucket List.” I want the site to include resources for people to pursue their own life goals too. It would be kind of similar to HopingForBaby.com in that I’d want it to be a hybrid of a personal blog plus informational posts. I would be talking about my progress with my life goals and posting articles related to self-development and achieving goals. 

The high cost of infertility is definitely a major obstacle when it comes to pursuing other life goals. Recently my husband and I realized that he and I haven’t gone on vacation together for three years. For a couple that loves to travel that is a really long time. We are planning to go out-of-state together here in a few months as long as his time-off request gets approved.  All of my money has been going towards paying down my medical bills since my last round of IVF. It’s so easy to get tunnel vision when it comes to trying to have a baby. But perhaps this recent cancer scare was meant to shake me out of that all-or-nothing mentality. I need to create more balance in my life, and I think pursuing my other dreams could help me gain that balance. 

Comment below to Today’s Question and receive bonus entry to the current contest.

Today’s Question: 

What life goals do you have that you’ve put on pause while dealing with infertility? What is one of your life goals you can start working on today?

Thank you for reading. 🙂

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