Thursday, March 29, 2012

How quickly things change....

I think it is probably safe to say that this has been the most stressful, emotional and overwhelming week of my life. Here I am now 40 weeks pregnant, so uncomfortable, so exhausted and all I want, or wantED was this baby OUT! After countless prayers of begging for relief from the discomfort and emotional roller coaster, my prayers went un-answered and I just have had to tell myself, "She'll come when she's supposed to come!"
Turns out that that couldn't have turned out to be more accurate.
Sunday night, after professing to my entire family that I was DONE, Joel and I went home and got ready for bed. While laying in bed watching some of our good ol reality TV shows. Joel suddenly says, "I think I need to go see a Doctor soon". Of course my next question was, "Okay, whys that?". He follows up by explaining that he just noticed a large mass one of his testicles and it just doesn't feel right. I was instantly in an emotional panic and you could tell he was as well. We both quickly turned to our phones and started googling for about an hour straight.
After countless articles, and good ol WebMD, almost everything we looked at lead to Testicular Cancer. Of course at this time its 10:30 on Sunday night and there is absolutely nothing that either of us can do but TRY to sleep and worry about it in the morning. I think we both didn't sleep a wink.
The next morning Joel had already scheduled to go golfing with the men in my family, and didn't return from that until about 1:00pm. We immediately headed to the Urgent Care and both held out a glimmer of hope that they would tell us it was nothing and send us right home.
Instead, Urgent Care was followed by an immediate rushed appointment for an ultrasound. Results of the ultra sound got back late Monday night and all that we were told is that we need to see a urologist. By this time it is 6pm on Monday night and of course by then every urologist office in town was closed, thus leading to another night of absolutely no sleep for either of us.
Tuesday morning I devoted the entire morning to calling urologists in the valley to see if anyone could get us in. Not a single office had a same day appointment available. After explaining to one urologist receptionist that I was pregnant and due the NEXT day (Wed, 28th) she kindly said that she would have the doctor in their office look at the ultrasound and would get back to us in 20 minutes.
Sure enough, 20 minutes later the office called back and said "The doctor reviewed the ultrasound and can get you in in the next 2 hours". While I was absolutely thrilled that someone was willing to squeeze us in, it was evident that they were willing to squeeze us in for a reason which was also a little disheartening.
We met with the urologist around noon on Tuesday and it was an extremely quick appointment. It took the doctor only a quick exam and a review of the ultrasound to determine that surgery and removal would be required. Not only did the doctor want surgery performed, he wanted it done immediately. 10 minutes later, Joel is scheduled for surgery very ironically ON my due date the following day. You can imagine my panic when I realized that I MUST hold this baby in for 24 hours at the very least if I want my husband to attend the delivery of his 2nd baby. This ended up working out pretty well for me however, as it helped take my attention away from the surgery itself, and put my focus solely on trying not to have contractions. So turns out, not even 48 hours after this mass was discovered, Joel is scheduled for surgery! While the speed at which everything happened was VERY overwhelming, I am so grateful that everyone we worked with worked so quickly for us on our tight timeframe.
My mom, Joel and sister basically helped me to not lift a finger all of Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure no contractions whatsoever.
Tuesday night was yet another sleepless night for us both- Joel of course was anxious because of his surgery the next day. I spent the entire night up paying attention to every little cramp and ache and trying not to move and start any sort of contractions.
Wednesday came, surgery was complete and everything went wonderfully. The doctor said that based off of what they saw during the surgery it looks as though everything was confined to the small mass they removed. They said on a range from "Best Case Scenerio" to "Worst Case Scenerio" we are darn near best case scenerio. We will not have the results of the biopsy until next week sometime and until then we won't know much of anything- but we are very optimistic that everything is going to be just fine.
Now here it is, one day after my due date, and I could not be more grateful that this baby has not arrived. My husband is supposed to be "off his feet" for 1-2 weeks to recover and that makes having a 1 year old, and trying not to go into labor practically impossible- But the help of friends and family has been overwhelming!!
I can't help but think while we are going through this absolute craziness at possibly the worst time, how frustrated I was just a week ago when sweet baby Presley would not make her arrival. My prayers were going unanswered, I was in tears and misrable, and now its just like the song says "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.".  On the other hand, our prayers have been answered in so many other ways- The fact that she remains unborn giving her daddy time to heal and that everything went SO well in the surgery. And even more the fact that we have been so blessed with amazing support around us.
Joel is doing very well- He is extremely sore but is very happy also that everything has been taken care of. We feel so blessed and we are grateful for all the love and support we have received.
Now we just need to hope that this little girl remains unborn for just a FEW more days.

Joel holding his "detonator" and ready for surgery :)

5 comments:

Kim said...

Oh my goodness, what a blessing it is that you haven't had the baby yet! I feel bad that you have to hold her in, but we'll be praying for you to be as comfortable as possible in the mean time and for Joel to have a quick recovery! Let me know if you guys need anything!

Brittani said...

Oh Kasey- I sure hope Joel is on some drugs because he needs to be able to laugh when rich starts cracking jokes at him. I can't believe all this happened so quickly!! How insane and busy and isn't it amazing how merciful our God is. He listens to you and loves you but he always knows what is best for us. Get some rest and I am so excited to meet your sweet baby girl!

Emily said...

Man you have had a crazy week. I can't imagine that now (and I have two weeks left). I'm so glad Joel is doing okay and you're little girl hung in there a little while longer. Good luck and I'll be thinking of you guys!

Natalie said...

Hey Kasey - I saw your blog on fb. Gosh, sounds like a crazy week! Congrats on having another baby - I hope everything goes well with the delivery!! Your little one is so cute!

glen, paige, & baby preston said...

We are thinking of you guys and keeping you in our prayers! Hope you have an easy delivery and that the two of you have quick and easy recoveries!