The Goodrums

At this point, this blog is long overdue for a medical update. We received the results from my procedure in late May and found that I’m in remission. While this was news worth celebrating, the news came with many qualifiers and in a lot of ways was surprisingly difficult to process.

My case was more difficult than many to resolve, and that comes with a high likelihood of relapse. Relapse means immediate hysterectomy, which is the ultimate outcome but relapse shortens your timeline by about 5 years overnight. Some of my doctors are puzzling about the tenaciousness of the case given my lack of risk factors and have recommended screenings for a series of genetic cancers. The genetic cancer associated with uterine/endometrial puts you at substantial risk for a host of other cancers (and though the long-term prognosis is relatively good for many of those cancers, the prospect of multiple cancers is still intimidating). You find yourself in the strange position of hoping you will just have to contend with one cancer.

In a case like this, you are given a relatively short window of time before you get to say goodbye to a piece of your anatomy – 5 years from diagnosis is the usual limit. You are told that you will need to continue to undergo surgical procedures every 6 months to check for relapse, unless you are pregnant, to your physical and financial detriment.

In all this, you find yourself caught in the in between of wanting to celebrate a recovery, but knowing there is still a long road ahead until final resolution. One chapter of the journey is “over,”  but there are still many more chapters before you can breathe a true sigh of relief.

Following the news of remission in late May, we met with our medical team to find out next steps. One of the next steps was genetic cancer testing. The other next step was family if that was in our plans. Given the treatment I had undergone, we were informed that the chances of becoming pregnant without substantial medical interventions were extremely low. We were sent for fertility evaluations, and especially given all that my body has been through in the last year, the results were not very favorable. We began planning for fertility treatments once the genetic cancer screenings were complete.

But meanwhile, God has a sense of humor.

Introducing our little miracle:

We can take no credit for this little life. All medicine and life circumstance said this would never happen without major medical intervention. But God is bigger than medicine and life circumstance. It has been a rough and very complicated first trimester, complete with some substantial complications. Many times we thought this pregnancy would be lost – and we still don’t know with certainty what the future will hold. But we are trusting and expecting the best.

On the anniversary of last year’s diagnosis, we are 15 weeks along and, so far, the baby appears to be healthy. Over the last year, we have walked a road fraught with bumps and bruises, fear and grief. And one year later, we are so incredibly thankful for improved health and this little gift that should be joining us in March.