I'm back

We're back from out trip. It was WONDERFUL! I'm so glad we went. We stayed at the bed and breakfast which was nice, as always. We did a few "tourist" things and stayed away from our area of town as much as we could, so it would feel more like we were actually out. We went to a place called Ruby Falls. It's on the mountain, and you go under ground via elevator. You walk through with a group and tour guide and see all kinds of cool thing in the cave. It was a mile of walking and I was very nervous about it. It hurt some walking, but in the long run I think it was good for me. It was totally even ground, some steps and stuff. That night I was in a good amount of pain. Every time I tried to roll over in bed, it was very painful. Plus heartburn was no fun. And, I have to sleep with no lights, no TV on, and no sound. Since Simon works 3rd shift, he woke up in the middle of the night, turned the TV on, which woke me up. Urg. I wasn't happy. I woke up many times during the first night. Some for the bathroom, some from heartburn, some from ECP, and some from the TV. Yesterday we went driving, watched some hang gliders, went to our church (I know, not a tourist activity, but we wanted to go), and went to a state park. Oh, and we found this really awesome buffet. I always say that is should be the law that any buffet, should have hand sanitizer available and request people use it. This place, actually had 2 big things of it and requested it. Oh, and in bathrooms, you know how it's law to post that employees must wash their hands in the bathroom. This place also had signs requesting EVERYBODY wash there hands. How awesome is that. Ok, so here's my problem with buffets. You use the utensils to put food on your plate, the same utensils many others of have used. You eat your food, lick your fingers, cough, and then go back to the buffet and get more food. Meanwhile everybody there and all that's been there that day have done the same thing. Talk about disgusting germs. So having hand sanitizer at a buffet, only makes sense. Plus the quality of the food was awesome. It was clearly home cooked type food, not frozen stuff reheated.
Sleep last night was AWESOME. Well, compared to the first night anyway. I didn't have much ECP, just a tad of pain, nothing terrible. Heartburn didn't happen. Simon did turn the TV on in the middle of the night which disturbed my sleep. Then he wanted to study for his CDL, but I recommended him going down to the Waffle House. How genius of me. He got so much accomplished, and I got 4 or so hours of peaceful sleep without TV interuption. We did a little today, and now we're home. Vacation is home, which is great, I'm so tired.
I have learned though, that lots of walking, though it may be painful at times, has really helped this ECP. I have an appointment with the OBGYN in a couple days, so I'll still talking about it. Then next Tuesday is my high risk and the pulminologist appointment. My sister in law has a good friend who has a little boy with CF. She is also available for me to talk to and stuff. I'm looking forward to meeting her.

I'm great, but...

I am feeling fantistic still with this pregnancy. Except for one pretty darn big thing. I was naive to think that I wouldn't have ECP, or not bad anyway. It seemed like a lot of what I read was mostly women in their 2nd, 3rd, or more pregnancies. Now, first I have to say, that I'm not sure what I am talking about ECP (evil crotch pain), is what most others have. But, whatever this is, it's definitely EVIL, beyond evil, it's in the crotch, and it's some of the worse pain I've ever had. Not the worse, but it's about equal to when I sprain my knee last year.
To explain what I'm feeling, so maybe some of you who have been pregnant recently or those who are around where I'm at in your pregnancy can help me. This I'm sure will be TMI, so feel free not to read, but I'm disparate for help and the only way to get it is explain what I'm experiencing.
It's constant pain mostly on the right side of my pubic bone. It feels terribly bruised, and it goes up to where my leg and abdomen meet. When putting on pants and underwear I have to sit down. I can barely lift my right leg, and when I do, it's excruciating pain. Going down stairs is extremely painful. Walking is far from painless. I'm walking with a limp because I can't put much weight on my right leg. Especially getting into a vehicle is very painful. I have to sit, then twist both legs into the vehicle, same when I get out. Like I said, it's constant and it HURTS. My mom doesn't remember this, but she was pregnant 26yrs ago and only once. Time does fade memories. I have an appointment on Wednesday and I plan on discussing this and the severity of it. Oh, yeah, and it's painful to lift even a basket of clothes. I've done some research, and I'm not a doctor so I can't really diagnose myself, but Symphysis Pubic Dysfunction sounds like what I'm experiencing. Not too much can be done for it, other than common sense things, that the pain forces you to do or not do. Like getting in and out of the car the way I said, or sitting to put on pants and underwear. Umm, duh, you got to when you have this pain. Oh, yeah, also when I sleep in the bed (I mostly sleep in the recliner these days), it is VERY painful to roll over. Is there a stronger word for painful?
I was in Walmart today, and used a scooter, can't believe it. It's not something I'm proud of. So here I am going through Walmart for a few things and for some mental health (getting out and about). The pain was so bad, I was seriously on the verge of crying. Seriously, my eyes were watering. And, I was raised to not cry from pain...it never helps. So it has to be really bad pain for me to cry. As a general rule though, crying is pointless so why do it. Maybe that's a little harsh, but that's the way I was raised, and I still live that way. But occassionally pain is so bad, that it does force tears out, and this is on the verge of being that bad. The last 2 times I can think of that I've had pain bad enough for crying was, right after I sprained my knee in a ski incident last year, and my last cycle on clomid when I had a wk long migrane. By Friday, it was so bad, that I was throwing up and before it got better I ended up crying. I had to take my mom's migrane medicine to get relief. This is almost that bad. Thing is, I have 2 more months left. So I get to have this pain, and who's to say it's not going to get worse, for around 2 more months. It's going to take a lot of strength and a lot of prayers to continue to functioning with moving soon and the normal "have to's" in life.
We are going to our bed and breakfast this weekend. Simon is at work and gets off in the morning. He'll sleep for a little while, while I pack and get ready. We'll head up the mountain and we have a few activities to do. Hopefully the pain is down some, and I may actually pop some tylenol. We're spending 2 night there. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not looking forward to not having my recliner to sleep in. But, with prayer and tylenol, I'll survive, right. I have his valentines day gifts, and I thought it was anniversary too, but he said that he's going to give me a little something on our anniversary. Totally defeats the purpose. But, whatever he wants. I got him a shirt that says "Trophy Husband." It's kinda cute, and I really think he's the best husband ever. Or at least the best husband for me. I didn't want to get him flowers or a card even, or chocolates. I mean really what do you get a man? His want list is getting long with electronics, but it seems to be a little pricey right now. So a shirt it is. Pray for me this weekend that I wont have as severe pain down yonder.

Update this morning: So far, though the day has only begun, the pain seems to be quite a bit better. Hope it stays this way.

Valentines Day

We got married 10 days after Valentines Day. Why? So when life is busy, we can celebrate both any time in a matter of 10 days. Think about it, life gets busy and maybe we can't do anything on the 24th, but just maybe the 14th falls on a better day. Well, I didn't see it coming for our 2nd anniversary. I figured I would still get my box of chocolates and a card (something real small) on Valentines Day, then we would celebrate our anniversary. Not looking that way. I'm not sure if I'm happy or not about this. Simon asked me tonight if I wanted to go to local motel this weekend. We live in a medium size city, we get tourist. So it's not like it's a small boring town. There are many things I haven't done here. Living in a tourist town, you don't always get to do the fun stuff. I told him to surprise me. The reason for this, is because we do hope to be moving and settling in during our anniversary and I do now have 2 appointments on our anniversary. So, it's going to be busy. And hey, isn't a house enough of an anniversary gift. If we don't do a fancy dinner this weekend, which I don't mind not doing, then we can do it on our anniversary and I would be estatic. Just basically a weekend getaway in town, a time to relax, and have a good time, and maybe see the aquarium, or he can take me to some other attraction. I guess I'm going to look at some of the area hotels. I have to ask something.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MOTEL AND A HOTEL?

Saw the house and have an appointment

We got to see the house again today. We measured for blinds/curtains, the refridgerator, and checked the size air filter we will need. We fell in love with the house all over again. We will close no later than Feb. 27th. We are hopeful that we will close before, but that's the date set for sure.
I have an appointment with the pediatric pulmanologist (sp?). He sees all the babies and children in the area who have CF. At my last high risk appointment they tried to schedule my next appointment for Feb. 24th, but since it's our anniversary, I requested a different day. Well, turns out Feb. 24 is the day our consoltation appointment is. He only does these appointments on Tuesdays, so it'll work. I'm really looking forward to it. I was surprised when I started asking a few questions from the lady on the phone. So maybe I will have questions. I haven't really thought much about it lately. She said that when my due date gets closer she will be keeping an eye in labor and delivery for me. She said the doctor likes to check the baby the first day so they like to really be on their toes. Oh, and she loved the name Elizabeth Ellen. She told me at the beginning of the conversation that she loved the name, that it has nothing to do with the CF, but she just had to tell me. I haven't gotten any negative responses about the name. I feel like we've come up with the best name for the best little girl. I'm looking forward to this appointment. It's only a couple weeks away now.

Preg. update and other

My high risk appointment went very well last week. Ellie is looking great. She weighed 3lbs3oz, which was right on for 30wks, and I was 29wks 6 days. So, basically I was 30wks. Everything was wonderful. The next day I had my OBGYN appointment and all was well there. My blood pressure was great, and still no protein in my urine. Can I really luck out and not get pre-ecclampsia even though I've had high blood pressure for 5yrs? We'll see, we now have less than 9wks before this pregnancy is over. I can't believe it.
When I entered the 3rd trimester I wondered when I would start feeling aches and pains and not being comfortable. Well, all in all, I'm still feeling great with no rights for complaining really, but the discomforts have started some.
One thing my feet are KILLING me. I can't walk in a store without feeling like my feet are going to fall off...well maybe I hope they will fall off. On a side note, I've had really bad feet for as long as I can remember. I remember being 6yrs old and I couldn't stand/walk for a day of shopping and at age 13, I couldn't handle without extreme pain a day of walking at an amusement park. But, I guess the extra weight is making it even more painful for me. I want to walk so bad...I try to walk despite the pain, but it HURTS. Knock on wood, I'm not having back pain. Heartburn has me scaling the walls at night from time to time. I'm now sleeping in the recliner which helps it some. Another reason for the switch, is it's so hard for me to remain laying on my side. I always roll over to my back, or I get uncomfortable on one side and need to roll to other. I guess being overweight and pregnant, rolling over is hard, really hard. Sometimes I think Ellie is going to kick through my skin to get out, but she's refusing to let her Gammy see or feel her move. She was really shy about letting Simon feel her, but now she's used to him. Now, he'll come into a room and talk, and she'll get active. She's already a little stinker. LOL. We have a Toyota Tundra, that I mainly drive, but I knew that the day would come that it would be too hard for me to climb up in it. That day hasn't come yet...but I can see it in the near future. It's getting harder to get up in it. We have to hurry and get the car fixed so I can switch and ride it. However, a car is going to be hard in it's own way too. Darn being overweight and pregnant. Memo to self..."before next pregnancy loose weight." Overall though, I may be a little uncomfortable here and there, and at times I may be have something called pain...but in general, nothing to make me wish the pregnancy was over. I'm still enjoying being pregnant. While I can't wait for the day I get to hold my little Ellie and see her, I'm gonna miss being pregnant.

We went to a different church tonight, one in the town we will be moving to. Our current church is still in driving distance, like 45mins-1hr away from our new house. We could keep going to it, many do commute for our church. Yeah, it's that awesome. However, we really feel like we need to try to find a church closer and in the area we live. I feel like we are house/home hunting again. We are looking for a church home so it's similar. We like to visit other church for fun, but now we are having to visit with a mission. We are looking for a church that will fit our family. I don't think it's going to be the easiest part of moving. We'll have to wait and see where we are led.

I'm tired and ready to go to bed. I could write about a couple more random things if I could keep my eyes open.

Amnio results on paper

They sent me the results and a confirmation of the telephone conversation. The chromosome result confirms that she is female. So much for my father in law's theory. Even though I have seen like 4 ultra sounds seeing that she is a she, my father in law was convinced that it was wrong. I can understand being iffy on one ultra sound, but when you have multiple ones later and still no package goods indicating a boy, then I think I trust the doctor's.

So, back to business. "The reulsts of the DNA analysis for cystic fibrosis indicates that Elizabeth inherited a CF mutation from each of you. She inherited the delta F508 mutation from Sherry, and the R117H mutation from Simon."

"You will recall from our previous discussion tht the R117H mutation is not a typical classical CF mutation. Only when it is paired with a polymorphism known as 5T does it function as a true CF mutation. Simon does not have 5T. His genotype is 7T/7T. Thus we know that your baby has delta F508 (which is a classical mutation) and R117H 7T."

"Predicting the exact effect of this genetic make-up on your daughter is not possible. However, it is unlikely that she will have classical CF. She may have unclassical CF, pancreatitis, sinusitis, or be relatively asymptomatic."



So that I didn't really mess up the facts, I just quoted the letter. So, that looks pretty good doesn't it. I really hope she doesn't have pancreatitis. I had it when I was in the hospital after having my spleen removed and it hurts real bad. My mom and her best friend both have chronic pancreatitis, and it's no joke. It's so "weird" to see the name "Elizabeth" in reference to my baby, and see the words "your daughter."

Maybe this is more for the genetic counselor but what is 5T and what is 7T. I know this doesn't matter when it comes to Ellie and her CF, but I have always been interested in genetics, sciences and all that good stuff. So, I'm just curious, what exactly is that referring to. I'm gonna take it to google, but I do have a feeling that I will do best by asking the genetic counselor my curious question.

On another note, I'm feeling a lot better. I had not 1, but 2 bowls of cereal this morning, and I don't feel sick. YIPPEE. But, I've decided to not go to Babies R Us, but rather go to Target, and a used baby store in the area. Babies R Us is in a different part of town that right now I just don't feel like traveling to. Then I get to Ellie on the ultra sound. Hopefully she's doing fun gymnastic moves again and I'm hoping to get another great picture of her face. I'll update later.

I'm SICK!!

I hate to complain, but I'm tired of being sick. It all started Friday night in the middle of the night. I started feeling not so well. Simon got home from work Saturday morning, and he too wasn't feeling well. Saturday was torture for both of us. We were both sick, and it was no fun. Sunday we started getting a little better, slowly, but surely. We weren't as bad as we were on Saturday. Now, Monday, still getting better, but neither are 100% better yet. We can't eat much at all- it's very strange for him. If we eat more than a few bites, we feel sick. My fever is pretty much gone, though it's an off and on thing. We're both pretty miserable, and just ready to start feeling 100% bettter. I'm getting short tempered, as is he. He's having to take care of some business today. I have things to do tomorrow, including a high risk appointment. My mom and I have been planning for about a month now to do some baby shopping tomorrow and she is going with me to my appointment. I don't want to blow her off, so hopefully I'll feel well enough tomorrow to hang out with her. I'm just tired of being sick.