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Monday, January 27, 2014

When Your Body Freaks Out On You


Has your body ever just freaked the hell out on you? Mine has. I'm pretty "in tune" with myself and I typically know right away when something is up, but about a month ago my body threw me a total curve ball.

It was right at Christmas when my body started screaming at me. You're pregnant! I figured that being pregnant was highly unlikely considering I had my tubes tied back in 2009 but I also knew that there was still a small chance that it could happen. I was experiencing every pregnancy symptom you could imagine. My breasts were sore, I had a constant headache, I could smell anything and everything. The thought of Mexican food made me gag (which is unheard of) and I puked after every meal. My super straight hair even went curly. 

Chris and I were convinced that I was pregnant. He ran out and bought a home pregnancy test and made me pee on a stick. It was negative. However, I wasn't discouraged because I knew from my previous two pregnancies that I don't get a positive from home pregnancy tests until around 8 or 9 weeks because my body is slow to produce HCG. 

My symptoms persisted and worsened. Chris and I spent hours on Google looking up symptoms and reading pregnancy forums. I took more home pregnancy tests and they all kept coming back negative. We'd had enough so I called my doctor and she ordered a lab test so that I could have blood work done. Because I had a tubal ligation, if I do get pregnant, I am at high risk of having an ectopic pregnancy which can be extremely dangerous. The blood test would tell us if there was any HCG in my body & would determine once and for all if I was pregnant. We were so ready to finally have an answer!

My lab work came back & my HCG level was at a 2 - anything under a 5 is considered to be a negative result. I wasn't pregnant. So what was the deal with all of these symptoms and where did this little bit of HCG come from? Even though a baby isn't in our immediate plan, to be honest, Chris and I were devastated. We weren't pregnant and we had no idea what was going on with my body. 

We felt as though we had waited forever (a couple of weeks is a long time!) for answers and yet we still didn't have any. After further discussion with my doctor it was determined that my hormones were completely whacked out and that caused me to have all of these pregnancy symptoms. I still have a hard time processing how it all worked because my symptoms were so strong. Finally, 12 damn days late, my cycle started and my symptoms are slowly dying down. Feeling pregnant when you really aren't seriously sucks! 

The last several weeks have been quite the emotional roller coaster but thankfully we made it through; I'm hoping and praying that I don't experience my body freak out like that again any time soon! Chris and I learned a lot through the whole situation though - like how important it is to us that we grow our family. Hopefully the next time I go in to see my doctor it will be to talk about a tubal ligation reversal surgery!

Has your body ever freaked out on you?
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Thursday, January 2, 2014

We Will Grow {2014 Word of The Year}

Last year I adopted a new tradition for ringing in the New Year. Instead of making a list of resolutions that I likely wouldn't keep (I still made the list and I still didn't keep the resolutions) I decided to choose a "word of the year." 

My word for 2013 was Change and boy did the year bring some changes! Some bad, some good, and some that were life changing. I could have never foreseen some of the events that took place last year, but I am very excited for the place I'm at right now and for what 2014 will bring. 

My 2014 word of the year is GROW.


While I was considering what my word of the year would be for 2014, Grow seemed most appropriate. I've started over in so many ways and I'm growing and rebuilding myself, my relationships, and in general - my life. 

When I told Chris that I'd chosen the word grow we ended up having a family pow wow (kiddos included!) about how we'd like to grow in 2014. 

Here is what we came up with:

~ As a Family
  •  We've talked about adding to our family this year. We're considering adopting a dog ;) 
~ As A Person
  • Our Education - Chris is doing excellent in school and *fingers crossed* I'll start back to school next week! I've worked really hard towards my degree to just not finish it and the time has come to get it done!
  • Our Fitness!  We've both been pushing ourselves to get into the gym a couple days per week and we've been doing okay. However, we both have lofty fitness goals and we're ready to reach them. I'm super thankful we have each other for support on this one! 
~ Our Sea Monkies!
  • We got the kiddos "sea monkies" for Christmas and Addison made sure that I knew she wanted to grow her sea monkies in 2014. We're working on it kid, we're working on it!    
~ Relationships
  •  Although my relationship with Chris is not a new one, we are starting over and rebuilding after being apart for so long.  We are both looking forward to growing closer together in 2014. We have some big plans and we are excited to put them into motion! 
So what about y'all? Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you have a word of the year?

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