Catching up on 2016

So it has been a while since I have blogged. Between work, travel, and having a baby - I barely have free time for anything. But details on that for another post... In pre-baby times the events of the past seven months of my life would likely have been multiple blog posts, but these days I don't have time for that. So here's a catch-up of what I have been up to so far this year.

 

 

Running

Running. Oh running. How I love you, and miss you. But alas we have barely spent time together this year. Due to my schedule with work and the baby and life, I barely have time to run anymore which is a sad, sad, thing. That of course didn't stop me from signing up for races! Which without training equals pain and misery at times. I'm racing less these days but not considerably less compared to how much I'm training which is next to nothing. But hey - racing is fun! When racing with friends it involves costumes, coordinated outfits, and girl time. So maybe it hurts way  more than before. I still enjoy it. So far this year I've run a 15K, a marathon (what was I thinking?!), an 10K, two half marathons, and a 12K.

 

 

Resolution Run 15K

 

 

Surf City Marathon

Valentine's Day 10K

San Diego Half Marathon

La Jolla Half Marathon - DNF

Rock N Roll Half Marathon San Diego

Coronado 4th of July 12K

 



Travel
I've also been traveling regularly for work with about one trip a month. This has been challenging since I have been breastfeeding throughout this year, but I have learned how to keep up with pumping successfully 'on-the-go', which again, is content for another blog post. This year I have been to Florida twice, DC once, Vegas twice, and Beverly Hills a couple times for work.


Cancer
On the health front everything is still stable and good. I've had two MRIs in my regular quarterly MRI schedule (February and May) and my tumor continues to be stable. My next MRI is in August. Cue the anxiety...

David and I also participated for the third year in the annual Head to the Hill event put on by the National Brain Tumor Society where we met with the offices of our state representatives to talk to them about why funding research for brain cancer and supporting initiatives that affected the brain cancer community were important. This event is always an emotional one for me but its a way that I feel like we are directly impacting the future of brain cancer research and treatment.

 Head to the Hill 2016

 2014 versus 2016

Meeting our Representatives

I also spoke at an event for Athena, a local women's networking group for women in science and technology. Athena is involved with a program for high school girls who are interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) which allows them to learn more about oncofertility, a program at UCSD that focuses on fertility efforts for patients diagnosed with cancer. I was asked to speak at this event because not only was I an Athena alum, I have also had a career in STEM, and I'm a patient of the oncofertility program. It was really amazing to be around a group of young women who are tomorrow's engineers, scientists, and doctors.


Other
On other news - in between working, traveling for work, and other things going on in life - David and I managed to get away for a week to Maui! It's something that we'd like to make an annual tradition, and a really nice way to get away and spend some time together as a family.

Why Did We Have So Much Luggage??

Paradise in Maui

My father also moved here from San Francisco this year which has been great! Instead of only seeing once or twice a year I now see him at least once a week. He moved into a place near downtown that is only a mile away from us, and we have now seen him more in the past few months than I have probably seen him in the past 15 years.


Eva Update
And last but not least ... Eva! She just turned one this past week and I'm amazed by how quickly time has gone by. It doesn't seem like that long ago that she could barely hold up her own head and we were getting up every hour or two. Having Eva in our lives for this past year has been amazing. It has been so much better than I could have ever expected, and I'm amazed daily by how much I love this little girl.

Our Sweet Little Big Girl

Loving the Mommy Life

2015 in Review

2015 was a big year! Mostly because it's the year that David and I welcomed little Eva Mae into our family. Like previous years I traveled a lot, but unlike previous years I didn't run much. Running was shelved for most of my pregnancy in lieu of the elliptical, but I was happy to lace up my running shoes as soon as I could when I was cleared to run after having the baby.

In 2015 I:

• traveled to New Orleans, Las Vegas, Cocoa Beach, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Scottsdale, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Maryland, Montreal, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, and Lake Tahoe
• ran six 5Ks, and one half marathon
• had 29 doctors appointments, 9 blood tests, and 3 MRIs
• spoke at two events (one about how the media handled Tutugate, and the other about how I kept my career on track through a brain cancer diagnosis)
• attended two concerts - Brittney Spears in Vegas and NKOTB/TLC/Nelly in San Diego
• read 10 books, 5 of which were baby books
• made 216 tutus
• changed more diapers than I could possibly count
• and loved one sweet baby girl more than I ever thought possible

For a look back at my year, here's My 2015, one second per day.

 

 

 



3 Year Cancerversary

This month on September 21st I "celebrated" my three year cancerversary. It's hard to believe that it has been three years since I was first diagnosed! So much has happened in that time and a lot has happened just in the past year.

 

 

Three Years Since Diagnosis

 

 

The timing of this anniversary always lines up with the San Diego Brain Tumor Foundation 5K and for the third year I assembled a group of tutu'd friends to join Team Mokie. This year was our biggest team yet and we raised just over $1200! I'm grateful for everyone who came out to join the walk this year (babies and children in tow!) to help me celebrate yet another year of living life to the fullest.

 

 

Team  Mokie 2015

Team Mokie Funfetti Tutus

$1200 Raised This Year!

 

 

In the past year I also celebrated my 20 year high school reunion (OMG I'm old...) and David and I returned to Washington DC to participate in the National Brain Tumor Society's advocacy event Head to the Hill to lobby for support for brain cancer research.

 

 

Class of 94!

California Constituents on Capitol Hill

 

 



One of the biggest events that has occurred since my last cancerversary was the birth of our daughter two months ago! Last year we were in the planning stages for my pregnancy and I was pregnant soon after the 5K, but not until I was able to squeeze in two more active events; the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon 10-Miler and the Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure's Over the Edge Fundraiser.

 

 

Medtronic Global Heroes Team

Over the Edge for Brain Cancer

 

 

As of my last MRI a little over a month ago my tumor is still stable and besides being tired from caring for a newborn I feel great! I'm looking forward to what this next year will hold and most of all I'm looking forward to celebrating many more cancerversaries and watching my little Eva Mae grow up. Life is different now with a baby, and life is definitely better.

 

 

Date Night - Baby Style

 

 

 

 

It's a Girl!

Ironically on the day that I posted my last blog update about how my pregnancy was going - I went into labor later that day. I was one day shy of 39 weeks and had just finished my last day of work. The plan was for me to work from home for that final week so I'd be closer to the hospital (and not an hour away) in case I went into labor. Good thing I wrapped things up at work before I left the office since the week of working from home never happened!

 

 

Leaving Work - Back in 3 Months!

 

Going Into Labor

I went into labor on Saturday evening, a day shy of hitting 39 weeks. That evening we went to see the Minions movie (at 5:30pm), and as soon as the movie started I began having contractions. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks here and there, and those were usually high and above my belly button. The contractions I had during the movie were below my belly button and were sharp cramping pains, which made me realize something else was happening. I started timing them during the movie with the Full Term baby app and saw that they weren't close enough together or getting closer together, which would indicate that we should go to the hospital.

 

A few hours later when we were at home (around 8:30pm) they were getting more intense and closer and I called the hospital. Based on the information I gave the nurse she didn't think that it was time for me to come in though so we waited. Fast forward to a few more hours later around 11:30pm the pain had gotten to a point that I was really uncomfortable and the contractions were around 3-4 minutes apart so I called the hospital to let them know we were coming. We grabbed our hospital bags, asked the dogs to be good at home alone all night, and headed to UCSD.

 

Once we arrived at the hospital I was brought to a room and hooked up for monitoring. Of course as soon as I laid down in the hospital bed the contractions started going away and when they checked I was only 3cm dilated. Around 1am my OB came in and said that I could either be discharged and go home to sleep, or try walking around the hospital for a couple hours to see if that progressed the labor. I wanted to stay at the hospital because I felt like I had already reached as much pain as I could take, but didn't really want to spend the wee hours of the night walking the halls. If you know me you know I hate to walk. I'll run, but walking sucks. We decided to leave and take my doctor's suggestion to pick up some Tylenol PM and try to sleep through the night to see what happened.

 

 

Contractions Are No Fun

 

 

As we were leaving the hospital the contractions suddenly got worse. As I walked through the hospital towards the parking lot the pain became so strong that I was doubled over and could barely move. As it subsided I'd shuffle forward a little more, and then it would hit again. About 15 minutes later we finally made it to the car and drove to CVS. Once we got to CVS the pain became so intense that I was doubled over and crying in the store. Sorry David ... I'm sure the other people in the store were wondering what the heck was wrong with me. We finally got the Tylenol PM and headed back to the car, but before we could even get back on the freeway I was in so much pain I begged David to turn the car around and take me back to the hospital. When we walked into the hospital I was a mess. Crying, hunched over ... yet I refused the first wheelchair offered to me, but was smart enough to take the second.

 

It was about 2am by the time we got back to the hospital. Somehow walking to the car, driving 2 minutes to CVS, being at CVS, and driving back took an hour. They checked me again and I was now 4cm dilated which didn't seem far enough along to me (I thought I remembered hearing that you needed to be 6cm to be admitted), but they said that 1cm was a lot of progress in the course of an hour since they last saw me and I then heard the magic words ... "Would you like an epidural?" YES PLEASE!!

This was magic to my ears and I thought my pain would be over very soon. Wrong. Between being told I could get an epidural and actually receiving it two hours passed. Two hours of painful misery. The anesthesiologist who finally showed up around 4am said that he had taken longer than usual because of my medical history and that epidurals were actually contraindicated for people who have hydrocephalus (fluid build up in the brain) ... but that since I have a shunt to relieve the pressure that it was okay. I freaked out for a minute when he started explaining why I wouldn't be a candidate but was relieved to find out that it would be okay. I had already had the discussion with my OB about this and she had cleared it with my neurooncologist. I had NO desire to have a natural childbirth and had told her that if I couldn't have an epidural that I wanted a C-section.

 

Back to the epidural - I finally had it and let me tell you it was wonderful!! Within 10-15 minutes the contraction pain went away completely! I could kind of feel the contractions if I paid attention but they felt more like a warmth moving over my stomach versus intense, cramping pain. After having gone through labor I really can't understand why someone wouldn't have an epidural. The pain was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life, and I hadn't even gotten to the peak of how bad it could get!  Why suffer through that?!

 

Delivery

After getting the epidural and finally calming down after a stressful night, I was able to relax and try to get some sleep while we waited for my labor to progress. David and I got to sleep from about 5-6:30am before it was time for him to go back to the apartment to get the dogs and drop them off at boarding. The place opened at 7am and since we'd be at the hospital for a couple days they needed to be cared for by someone else.

 

 

Mika & Kona Awaiting Their New Sibling

 

 

David left around 6:45am and 15 minutes later the strangest thing happened. I heard a POP and felt something strange. What was that? Was that my water breaking? With a pop? Like a water balloon? I called the nurse who checked and confirmed that my water had broken, and she also exclaimed in a startled manner that she could see the baby's head. What?? They checked me and I was 10cm dilated and I was told it was time to delivery the baby. What?? I totally freaked out because David had just left and probably wouldn't be back for 30-40 minutes and I suddenly pictured him missing the birth of our baby! The nurse assured me that most first time moms labor for an average of 2 hours and that I could wait to start pushing. Whew! David came back around 7:30am and fortunately nothing had happened yet, and I actually didn't start pushing until about 8:30am when the doctor had arrived.

 

When it was time to push I didn't know what to expect. We had watched several childbirth videos during the various classes we took and the delivery process always seemed to involve an exhausted and miserable mom who was pushing for what seemed like forever. I am happy to report that this wasn't the case. I was instructed to push each time I had a contraction (which I couldn't really feel but the nurse would tell me was coming based on the monitor), and after three sets of pushes/contractions the baby was born! Overall it took about 15 minutes and really wasn't that bad.

 

 

First Family Photo



 

 

It's A Girl!

We didn't find out the sex of the baby beforehand and were both convinced that we were having a boy. I had even bought several boy outfits for the baby even though we tried to keep things as gender neutral as much as possible. Well, when they pulled the baby out and someone said "Dad call out the sex!" we both stared dumbfounded at the baby. I was looking at the genital area very confused, wondering where the goods were for the boy. It took me a while but it finally dawned on me, I was looking at a girl! We had a girl! Our adorable little girl Eva was born at 8:48am and was 6lb 10oz and 20 1/4 inches long.

 

First Few Weeks

We stayed in the hospital for two days before getting to bring our cute little bundle of joy home. David's mom came to stay with us for the first week and his dad came for the second week and David took both weeks off as part of California's awesome Paid Family Leave plan. The weeks went by in a blur and suddenly it was time for me to be alone at home with the baby. Ack! What if I couldn't do it alone?? Fortunately it turned out okay and I found that the days go pretty quickly between feeding/burping/changing/rocking the baby and trying to do anything else in between. Aka I barely have time to eat and shower (but still get it done!) in between tending to a baby who needs to eat every 2-3 hours when the whole feeding process takes an hour itself. And sleep? What sleep?

 

 

First Day Solo - I Did It!

 

 

Working Out

I have been really anxious to start working out again and to run for the first time since January, but unfortunately my doctor said that I needed to wait until my 6-week check-up before I can start exercising again. Boo. I'm tempted to sneak in a light elliptical workout this week since that seems pretty mild compared to running ... but we'll see. Patience is not a virtue I possess but I've made it through 4 1/2 weeks, what is 1 1/2 more right? I gained 30lbs with my pregnancy which was right on track with what was recommended and I was happy to see that after coming home from the hospital I had already dropped 12lbs. Another 8lbs came off pretty quickly in the following two weeks but now I've kind of hit a plateau. If you do the math that means that I'm still 10lbs overweight, and sadly I still can't fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. (I tried, it wasn't pretty. Can we say major muffin top?) I'm looking forward to being able to workout again and lose the last 10lbs and gain back some muscle. I feel like mush!

 

 

20lbs Down, 10lbs To Go!

 

 

Eva's Ready to Run Too!

 

 

Baby Gifts

Since coming home we have been showered with baby gifts. It seemed like almost every other day we had a new package in the mail with some cute gift for little Eva. We've received some great books, beautiful blankets, and adorable outfits for Eva.

 

 

Eva's First Hello Kitty Outfits

 

MRI & My Health

Once the baby was born and was healthy a lot of my stress turned back to my own health. As I had mentioned in my initial blog post about my pregnancy, pregnancy has been shown to progress brain cancer in a percentage of patients. They think that it may be due to the change in hormones and blood volume, but aren't sure. It was a risk we knew about going in, and was something that I have stressed out about for the past nine months. The plan during my pregnancy was to have one brief, no-contrast MRI during my pregnancy, and then a full MRI with contrast a few weeks after I delivered.

 

In the weeks following delivery I started having headaches again. They weren't the same kind as the ones I had before I was diagnosed with cancer, and they were in a slightly different location than before, but still they worried me. I'm sure everyone has headaches from time to time, but for me any type of head pain is completely alarming. I tried not to worry too much and focused on positive thoughts, and during my MRI I only had a mild bout of tears while lying in the machine fearing for the worst and worrying about the future.

 

Fortunately a couple days after my MRI when we met with my neurooncologist we received the good news. My tumor hadn't changed since my last full MRI in September of last year before I was pregnant. What a relief!! I'm now back to my regular 3-month MRI schedule and will be back again for my next check-up in November. Until then, we are back to enjoying life and loving the addition of our new little baby to our family! We love you little Eva!

 

 

 

 

 

Pregnancy Update - Home Stretch!

I  keep meaning to post an update on how my pregnancy is going and keep wondering if the baby will arrive before I ever have a chance to do it. I'm now 39 weeks pregnant and still no baby, so here's an update of what has been going on since I passed 24 weeks.

 

I've been traveling a lot for both work and personal trips and in my second and third trimester I've been to Tahoe, San Francisco, Scottsdale, San Francisco, Vegas, DC, Maryland, Montreal, San Francisco, and Napa. I'm happy to say that during my no-travel-time-allowed period after 36 weeks I missed another trip to Vegas for work for a tradeshow and during my maternity leave will miss tradeshows in Dallas and Chicago. Although my elite frequent flyer status is in borderline jeopardy for the year because of this, I don't care. As soon as I return to work I'll have a trip to Boston and New Orleans before being done for the year. Yay!

 

 

March

In March my company had a sales meeting in Tahoe followed by a tradeshow in San Francisco. The sales meeting of course included two free afternoons to ski, and I was heartbroken to miss out on the festivities since skiing is off the list of safe sports for pregnant women. As someone who LOVES to ski and who hasn't gone skiing in about five years I was pretty bummed out, but filled the afternoons with reading, working, and a trip to the spa. Oh well, there's always next time. The show that followed in San Francisco was a nice free trip home and allowed me to see some friends and my dad, and I wish I had more occasions for work to get back to the city.

 

 

Beautiful View of SF From My Hotel

 

 

April

In April I was in Scottsdale and Vegas for tradeshows, went home to San Francisco for the weekend for a high tea baby shower hosted by my BFF Garley. The baby and I also participated in our third 5K together at the March of Dimes walk in San Diego.

 

 

Found My Cabbage Patch Kid in My Dad's Basement

Found My Very First Stuffed Animal Too! Wooly Lamb

High Tea Baby Shower at the Rotunda

May

May was a crazy busy month and marked the end of me flying for several months. David and I flew to DC to participate in Head to the Hill for a second year in a row and to advocate on Capital Hill for brain cancer funding and research with the National Brain Tumor Society.

 

 

Representing California & Arkansas

California Representative Selfie

Head to the Hill Advocates for Brain Cancer

 

 

While we were there we got to visit his family and go to a Nationals game. And ... lucky for David the game we went to had a bobblehead giveaway so our collection is growing. Growing a bit too much if you ask me ... ;o)

 

 

Go Walgreens! Err... Nationals!

 

 

This month also marked my third time as an adult going to see NKOTB (New Kids on the Block) in a concert that was opened by Nelly and TLC. (In case you're wondering the L in TLC "performed" via a backup track while T-Boz and Chili sang.) The concert was fun but was SO loud I am pretty sure that the baby and I have permanent hearing damage. Is that a sign of being old? Wondering why the music is so loud?

 

 NKOTB Time

 

 

David and I also headed back to the East Coast later in the month for his brother Ken's wedding. Straight from the wedding David flew home and I flew to Montreal for one of my last tradeshows before maternity leave.

 

Baby's First Wedding

 

 

In May the baby got to participate in his/her fourth 5K at the National Brain Tumor Foundation San Diego Brain Tumor walk. Go Team Unicorn!

 

 

Always Be A Unicorn

 

 

The month also ended with a baby shower hosted by Tara and Devika where the baby was showered with a lot of love and built up his/her collection of custom onsies.

 

 

 Custom Onesies For The Baby

 

 

June

June is the best month of the year since it's my birthday month! The month started off with a roadtrip from San Diego to Napa via LA and San Francisco for Jenny's wedding. Kris flew out to LA from Michigan and I picked him up from LA and we headed north via the coast stopping in Santa Barbara before getting to San Francisco where I got to have an early birthday-twin dinner with my dad.

 

Celebrating Another Birthday Together 

 

 

Celebrating With The Beautiful Bride

Having Fun With Kris

Go Gauchos! UCSB Alums

 

 

David's work also threw us a lamb themed baby shower complete with lamb decorations and a lamb rice crispy cake! In case you didn't know I can't stand cake but love rice crispies. And lambs. The only thing that could have made this cuter was having Hello Kitty riding the lamb. ;o) jk

 

 

Cutest Crispie Cake Ever!

 

 

Soon after getting back from Napa it was time to head off to my next tradeshow in ... where else? VEGAS! Always Vegas, ugh. Since I was too far along in the pregnancy to fly David took a few days off work and drove out with me. I was hoping to drag him to the Mariah Carey show or Michael Jackson One Cirque show while we were there but both were on break that weekend. What the heck?

 

The month of June ended with David proving yet again that he is the best husband in the world by accompanying me to the Hello Kitty Super Cute Fun Festival. Yes, it exists. It was actually kind of lame and totally over priced but hey, I got to meet Hello Kitty!

 

 

Hello Kitty Festival

 

 

This last trip to Vegas marked the end of any type of travel for me until October, and now that I was back home every weekend it was time to focus on preparing for the baby. David and I took a number of classes offered by UCSD on infant CPR, childbirth, breastfeeding, and infant care.

 

 

Infant CPR & First Aid

 

We also finished the nursery and bought the rest of the items we need to prepare for the arrival of our little one. We've been pretty much ready for the baby since week 37 when I hit full term, so I've been pretty antsy for the past two weeks waiting for the baby to come. I've had Braxton Hicks contractions on several occasions that got me excited but never led to anything.

 

 

World's Most Complex Tree Decal

Nursery Complete!

 

 

I've also been going in for twice weekly fetal monitoring non-stress tests and once weekly appointments with my OB so my life right now is consumed with baby related doctors appointments.

 

 

Hooked Up For Fetal Monitoring

 

Yesterday also marked my last day in the office, although if the baby doesn't come this weekend I still plan on working from home next week. As a control freak the idea of not being involved with decisions at work for three months kind of drives me crazy, but maybe when I haven't slept in a month and am surrounded by dirty baby clothes and diapers I just won't care as much. We'll see.

 

 

Still Working Out - Round and Proud

 

 

My due date is July 26th and my induction date is the very next day on the 27th so at this point we only have 9 more days max! And many less I hope. Keep your fingers crossed! We can't wait to meet our baby!