Pregnant with Cancer

I passed!

2012-02-12T14:06:00.000-06:00

I'm now officially an RN. I passed the boards. I am officially RN, BSN. I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments. I've come a long way to get here. I finally decided to go back to school after already having a family. It was hard, but I did it. I then got sick and pregnant again. I took a little time off but went right back to it and this time with four kids! It hasn't been easy but yesterday the result of all my efforts came to me in the form of one simple word: PASS. :)

Photo Contest!!!

2012-02-06T08:56:00.001-06:00

Win a teeth whitening or a grand prize of a professional teeth whitening session in NYC for busy moms who need a get-away and a beauty pick-me-up. I entered Gabbi. Please go here and vote for her picture:http://www.topdentists.com/smile/entry/243427.

While you are there enter your picture too! Who makes you smile?? Upload the picture and then just try to earn the votes. It's a lot of fun. I never seem to get a lot of votes in these things but I'm trying so share the link, spread the word and enter the contest too! We could all use a little beauty pick-me-up right? I know I can!

Maybe Germs are Loving this Mild Winter?

2012-01-31T12:23:00.000-06:00

There is so much sickness going around where we live right now! Central Illinois has been experiencing some wonderful temps for the end of January. I am used to Illinois winters. I am sick of the snow and was not ready for it this year. Last year we had so much of it starting in November and it kept going. We had one storm that literally left one open lane of traffic and 15 foot walls of snow on either side. I wouldn't drive in that. If a car came the other way, what then? Ha!

So this year I kept hearing it would be a bad winter again. I got grumpy and hoped everyone would be wrong. So far? They are wrong. This time of year I'm usually convincing myself it's almost February! Winter will be over soon. Maybe it will warm up a little in March? Well my thermostat read 62 yesterday. 62 in January!!! I'm used to negative temperatures in January! I mean at least in the low teens. So everyone is getting sick. I know a lady who worked at an after hours doctor's office and out of the 8 strep tests she did only one of them was negative. That is a lot of strep! My girls are no exception. Gabbi has been sick with a bad cough. We all lost our voices and have been battling a cold. Mikayla started to get better then got worse again so I figured I better take her in. She has laryngitis, bronchitis and strep throat. She's happy about no school for a few days though.

I think these warm temps are a great breeding ground for the germs usually going around this time of year anyway. Now nothing is stopping them. My throat feels a bit scratchy at the moment. Not sure if I should worry...or not. I did expect some snow this winter. We have had a bit, but not much. Certainly nothing to be concerned about. I keep wondering if the winter will go out like a lion since it came in like a lamb. That's how it works I think!

NCLEX

2012-01-26T19:21:00.000-06:00

I have my date set to take the boards. It's coming up fast so wish me luck, send prayers, whatever it is you do! I know I can use it. This past few years I have overcome a lot. I went back to college, had cancer, had a baby, went back to college AGAIN and continued on. I went to nursing college and though at times it seemed like too much I made it and graduated with that Bachelor's degree. I am proud of all I have done and sometimes I sit back and wonder how the heck I did it.

I am relaxing tonight with family. My husband lost his grandmother this past weekend. We attended her funeral yesterday. The hubby's brothers were able to come and spend some unexpected time with us which is nice despite the circumstances. His grandma lived close to us and the my hubby's family is all in North Carolina. It has been very nice to have his brother's here. They stay up late visiting and playing cards. I take my little Gabbi and cuddle with her in bed. LOVE my cuddle time. :)

Technically Four Years

2012-01-18T22:27:00.000-06:00

So I have always considered my date of remission the day they called and told me that I was cancer free after my PET scan. Well I discussed with my Oncologist at my last appointment that they consider remission the day of your last treatment, not including radiation. I am not sure why. This would mean my remission date is October 22nd and would make me technically four years in remission. This also means that as of this next October I will be going to my doctor every 6 months instead of every 3 for checkups. I still consider that day that I heard my doctor say there was NO cancer the day I was free from it. That was the day I knew it was gone. I'll be glad to be considered 5 years out in October and the fear of it ever coming back is minimal. I will miss seeing my doctor and nurses so often though. They are like family to me.

I still have to take NCLEX. Please send prayers my way! Things are really moving for me. Thanks for all the love and support all of these years since I began blogging!

What to Expect Prize Giveaway!!!!

2012-01-16T11:43:00.006-06:00

Drum-roll please! The big winner of all three books in the What To Expect series is: Danielle!!! She followed me on twitter and followed what to expect as well gaining extra entries. Way to go Danielle!!!

I have an additional surprise now. I have 3 more books to give away! Each person will get one book. I will select the book to give you since more than one person might pick the same book. I will do it randomly. The winners of the 3 additional books are:

1. Leslie: You will get the What to Expect book, first in the series
2. Kristi: You will get the What to Expect the First Year book!
3. Sheryl: You will get the What to Expect the Second Year book!

Since I did not have a lot of entries this was a really great contest because I think the majority won something. Congratulations. I will be holding more contests in the future and I hope to get more entries next time. Remember to try for those extra entries. They are very easy to do by simply following me on Twitter, etc. :) I will be sending off the email addresses to the sponsor so we can get the books out and congratulations again!

Just to let everyone know I used: http://www.random.org/widgets/integers/ and gave each person or entry a number and that's how I selected the winners randomly by order of entry :)

Michael C. Hall Stands Up

2012-01-13T09:18:00.001-06:00

Pet Peeve of the Week and My Giveaway

2012-01-08T20:00:00.000-06:00

I really love to read news stories online. I rarely if ever watch the news on TV anymore. If I want to watch it I can watch it any time I feel like online. I love to do it and I catch up this way on current events whether they be related to an earthquake or even celebrity updates that I may admittedly get sucked into. I do however hate the way yahoo posts every news story I read on facebook. I don't think everyone needs to know what I'm reading. Do you? This is my pet peeve of the week!

Also please do not forget to enter my giveaway. Enter it for someone else if you do not need the books. These are great books. Whattoexpect.com graciously offered to sponsor this giveaway. I have a surprise. The big winner gets all 3 books, but I will be selecting an additional 3 entries to receive one of the books! So that is a total of 4 winners. I do not have many entries right now. Please scroll below to enter the giveaway. Also please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win! This is super important. There are ways to earn extra entries as well. Share the link, spread the word!

For your convenience I'm giving you the link to the giveaway! It ends January 14th. -->
http://www.pregnantcancer.com/2011/12/what-to-expect-giveaway.html

Enter My Giveaway!!!

2012-01-04T14:35:00.001-06:00

Enter the Giveaway by clicking below:

WHAT TO EXPECT GIVEAWAY!!!! THREE BOOKS!

You don't want to miss this one. Share the link. Pass it around. This is three books from WhattoExpect.com. You can enter for someone else if you don't need the books. These would be the BEST shower gift. If you can use one, you can give the other to a friend. Follow the link to see the titles included in the giveaway and enter. Extra entries available!

What To Expect Giveaway

2012-01-04T02:29:00.001-06:00

It has been such a long time since I have done a giveaway but I think I'm ready now that I have graduated from college. I love doing these things and now I have more time again finally.

I have four daughters. Each time I was pregnant I referred to the What to Expect series. Do you remember those books? They are amazing. I read them every single day. I marked my pages and referred back to them constantly. My sister was also pregnant at the same time as me during two of my pregnancies. I would relay the information to her as well. I had the answers because of these books! haha I have to admit it has been the source of a lot of the information I already had when I started nursing school. I had an advantage in the obstetrics and pediatrics courses because of the information I got in these books.

My favorite book was What to Expect When You're Expecting. I particularly loved the comparisons to the size of the growing baby inside me. It was just so amazing and really helped me to visualize how big my baby was. The books continue to What to Expect The First Year, and What to Expect The Second Year. I also referred to The First Year book. It helped me a lot and I continue to pull information from these books. They are such a great resource.

What to Expect.com has contacted me and offered to host a giveaway on my blog! I am honored to be a part of this as I whole heartily support these books. I know if you are pregnant or if you have a young child you will love these books! For this giveaway I will be giving away the first 3 books of this series including:

One of my readers will receive:

What to Expect When Expecting
What to Expect the First Year
What to Expect the Second Year

To enter this giveaway you must follow Pregnant With Cancer publicly, and leave a comment telling me which book you will enjoy the most. Please include your email. You must do this before you complete any of the extra entries! You can enter for someone else if you wish. These would make a great baby shower gift as well. You can always share one of the books with a friend.

Extra entries – leave a comment telling me you have done each of these:

*Followed me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/sandilynn1975

*Followed What to Expect on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/WhatToExpect

*Tweet about this giveaway up to once a day (leave the link in your comment)

*Post this giveaway on your blog (leave the link to your post)

This giveaway will end on January 14th, 2011. Good Luck!!

Birthday!

2011-12-29T00:05:00.002-06:00

Today is my birthday. I celebrate another year of life! Yay :) Almost didn't make it here. Already got some good presents from the family. I'll post pics tomorrow. My birthday is the 29th. It's 12:05 a.m. I waste no time at all. haha

A Star is Born! Haha

2011-12-27T18:40:00.000-06:00

Christmas and Birthdays

2011-12-26T13:19:00.001-06:00

This month was always a big one for me. We have Christmas, my birthday, my mom's birthday and New Years this month. This will be the second year I have added the anniversary of my father's death from pancreatic cancer. He passed away December 27th, 2009. I miss my dad each and every day. He loved this time of year. There was nothing like Christmas and family and lots and lots of food for my dad. I can miss him now with a smile instead of all the tears. I do still get sad but I also remember the good times more than those awful sad times when he was so sick.

I also lost a dear friend on December 28th, 1992. I remember her as well. Her life was cut too short in a car accident at the tender age of 16. Miss you Rocky. Miss you dad. Always remembered! Never forgotten.

As for me, I will be another year older on the 29th. I am finally at the age where I no longer have the desire to TELL you how old I'll be. I don't lie but I do like to leave people guessing. haha Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Village Photos

2011-12-23T11:08:00.000-06:00

If you are reading through my blog and pictures are missing they should be back eventually. Village Photos has been down now for about 4 months I think. I am so upset because I have been paying for a service that I am not receiving. I am assuming they will see some lawsuits at the end of this. You can't have people pay for a service that does not exist. First their site was just down. I only got information from other people complaining on an ebay message board. Now I see a notice when I go to their page. They have made up a lot of excuses but it's come down to them moving their facility to a new location. The problem is their site has said they hope to be up in a week for a month now. I am beginning to lose hope. I have linked my pictures to my blog through them for a very long time now. Hopefully there won't be too many dead links. Just know that they should be back up. I just do not know for sure when.

Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. Seriously!

2011-12-22T21:49:00.000-06:00

Since Gabbi has had this allergy to milk I have had to be quite creative. I have made her wacky cake which is dairy free. If you don't know what that is, you need to google it or go to allrecipes.com. There are many variations but I have my favorite. I have always wished Gabbi could have a freshly made chocolate chip cookie. That seemed like an impossible thing to whip up since it requires butter and chocolate chips. I managed to find the way to do it today! Here is my "secret".

First look for this at your local grocery store:

The above is milk free. It does contain soy. The chips are made from chocolate liquor and cocoa butter which is vegan. It DOES say to add butter, however I substituted 1 cup Crisco plus 2 tbsp of water for the butter. The back of the container of Crisco says that this is the substitution for 1 cup of butter which is what these cookies require.

This is my happy little camper tearing into her cookies :)

And this is the actual cookie. They turned out nice golden brown. The texture is a little more gritty than a regular chocolate chip but great regardless. I thought they were wonderful and a great substitution for the milky alternative. :)

I Did It!

2011-12-11T22:28:00.001-06:00

It's been many years since I made the decision to go back to school. I was stopped in my tracks by cancer not to mention having another baby. It was a rough road but I made it. I beat cancer, I had my baby, I went back to school AGAIN and Saturday my dreams came true. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. Thanks to all those that supported me and encouraged me! I am on cloud nine and still can't believe it.

Nursing Books for Sale

2011-11-22T19:55:00.001-06:00

I'm going through the ones I don't use anymore. I have quite a few for sale. I try to offer fair prices that compete with those on Ebay. If you are interested here is a link to all those for sale:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/trust404/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3686

If you are not interested, well, don't look. I cannot wait until December 10th!!!!!!

Oh and I have my first interview on December 2nd. Wish me luck.

Graduation in 31 Days!!!!

2011-11-08T19:52:00.001-06:00

I'm getting so crazy anxious and nervous with finals coming up. There is so much to do, and so little time. It's like HERE now. I am so ready. This blog has followed me through it all. I haven't spent as much time here lately because I've been focused on my studies but I'm on my way back! I am so ready to graduate.

I'm on the top row here 5th one from the left.

Here I am, all ready to graduate. December 10th, 2011. That's the day I will be in my cap and gown.

So What's up With Entrecard?

2011-10-24T12:40:00.002-05:00

My widget has not been working and I keep getting errors. Now I go to campaign on the website and it is not finding widgets on anyone's blog. I need details! Thanks to all of those entrecard bloggers for any replies! I want to know as well when it might be fixed.

It Makes Me So Sad, Please Help Spread the Word!

2011-10-18T17:27:00.000-05:00

I would like for people to share my story. Tell others. Spread it around. Tell people chemo may be possible in pregnancy. Watch the shock on pretty much everyone's face. You'll get that a lot. I just read a story about a mother who decided to not have chemo so she could save her unborn baby's life. I don't know the details, like what chemotherapy she had, but I am practically jumping out of my skin here. So many mothers think their only choice is to delay treatment. This is what ultimately resulted in this woman not surviving her cancer. The baby did survive but the mother did not. I wish I could have told her that she could have both the chemo and the baby. At least present the option to her. I could show her my Gabbi and say "see how healthy she is?" It can be done! I realize not every person is the same and maybe she had a chemo that was not possible to have while pregnant but honestly there are so many more options than once thought. I am so frustrated when I hear people assume my baby died because I had chemo while pregnant. I think it's been long enough. Gabbi is 4 now. It's time to do more research and spread the word! How many mothers will abort because they think they have to? How many mothers will delay treatment and die? These are not the only options. I myself was told I should abort by a specialist. But that is based on old facts, not the new ones. So it's time to change the way of thinking!

Where Have I Been?

2011-10-15T17:18:00.000-05:00

I hate those blog posts where people post about how they haven't been posting. Don't you hate those? Yeah. So I will leave that part out. School has been keeping me crazy busy and even today I am crazy busy studying for a test. I decided to take a few moments and fill in my blogger world on what is happening in my life. I graduate in 55 days. I am super excited. I have come a long way to get here. It's hard for me because I feel some take it for granted. I never would have guessed even 10 years ago I would be here today. Honestly when I got sick it seemed impossible that I could get here but I'm doing it. One day at a time. It's nearly pushed me over the edge of insanity but here I am.

Gabbi will be four in December. How is that for hard to believe? I started this blog when I found out I was pregnant with cancer and now my beautiful miracle baby is a healthy, happy almost 4 year old. Time flies. Pretty soon she'll watch her momma graduate. She's my little inspiration too. Don't ever give up on your hopes and dreams. Nothing can stop you, but you.

I've Done it All, But What's the Hardest??

2011-09-13T09:20:00.001-05:00

Right now? I would say nursing school is the hardest thing I've done. Considering I'm a mom to 4 girls and well, a husband. That's hard work! lol I also was pregnant with cancer. I went through some serious trials as a child well up until I turned 18 and moved on with my life as an adult. I have always led what I called an interesting life. Hang out with me long enough, you'll see what I mean. There is never a lack of excitement. Nursing school is hard work. It's so hard that when I hear of someone coming in and just starting I feel SUPER sorry for them. You have to give up your life basically for 2 years. I did 2 years of prerequisites. Then I went to the actual nursing school for 2 years. I will graduate in December. It has been a long road and honestly there have been days when I asked myself "What the hell do you think you are doing???" I never had any idea I would be all grown up and say hey, you know what I want to be when I grow up? A nurse! That's supposed to be decided when you're young right? Well, when I was in high school my whole goal in life was to be on the news. I was going to major in radio and television broadcasting. I was going to minor in journalism. I had it all planned. Then I was 19 and got married. That was where it all changed.

I have been overloaded with homework, stress, zero family time. It's hard. I want nothing more than to cuddle with my Gabbi and pinch her little cheeks. Instead I have to tell her to go play with daddy because I have homework to do. It's hard stuff. I am getting there. It's so close I can taste it. The fear never leaves. One of my classes has 3 total tests. 2 worth 20% and the last worth 30% of my grade. There is absolutely NO room for error. You have got to be good at this stuff now. It's the home stretch!

School and Checkups

2011-08-12T15:52:00.000-05:00

I had another healthy checkup this month. I saw my Oncologist who decided to schedule my next appointment for mid December. He wants to see me after I graduate. He offered letters of reference and referral. He keeps telling me that which is awesome.

I guess in some ways I'm kind of lucky. My desire is to work in Oncology. If I had not gone through all I went through I never would have chosen Oncology. I saw it as sad and depressing. I think the whole experience opened my eyes. When people ask how I can handle working in that field I am reminded of when I was sick. As soon as you tell someone you have cancer they look at you like you're already dead. It's true. I hated telling anyone because I wanted to stress to everyone that I wasn't a walking dead woman. I was a person, fighting an illness that I fully intended on beating. I would go in and get chemo for hours. I would sit next to other people who were getting their treatments. I would talk to them and get to know them. They all have a story. They have brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children who love them. They are human and being around them wasn't scary or depressing at all. It was nice having someone to sit there and talk to that knew what you were feeling. It's hard to explain but I knew after a few treatments in that Oncology was the field I needed to be a part of. I'm getting close! I hope I can inspire even one patient. That will make it all worth it.

Votes

2011-07-27T16:50:00.000-05:00

I entered a contest with a pic of my "favorite" guy on facebook. It's really simple. The pic with the most likes wins. I have a little over 40 now. Those in the lead have over 100!!! I was winning in the beginning and now I'm getting creamed. I would really appreciate any votes I can get. So simply follow this link to my photo: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=523108322886&set=o.28162239860&type=1&theater

To like this photo you'll have to first like the page Johnny's Italian Steakhouse. After that just click like on my photo. I appreciate the votes. I would win a few steaks. Honestly I just want to actually win something, but you can't win unless you try!

Relaxation and Wanting a Beach

2011-07-27T14:15:00.000-05:00

This vacation has been about rest, relaxation and family. I have missed my girls and really enjoyed the time off to spend with them. It's almost over. I never really went anywhere. I read about everyone going to exotic places taking these great vacations and I haven't stepped foot out of boring Illinois. I am ready to leave this place and do something exciting. I need a beach. I want a beach!!! I graduate in December. Maybe I'll find that beach someday.