The Expected...and the Unexpected

As of Saturday (10/16/10) I was 37 weeks which is technically considered FULL TERM!!!! Although I still have three more weeks until my due date, the baby can now be born and will do very well outside of the womb. During this week I can joke that I swallowed a watermelon seed because the baby is now the size of a watermelon! However, I don't think I want to think on such a grand scale at this point in the game knowing that the "watermelon" has to squeeze out of a space that, well, we'll just say it's much smaller than a watermelon!

"Sally O'Malley" is definitely perfecting the "stretch" part of the "Kick, Stretch, and Kick" routine (refer back to earlier blog if you are clueless about Sally O'Malley). Still very active and has found a new favorite spot...my rib cage!! Since my feet are beginning to swell if I don't rest, I have to lie down to keep the swelling under control -- well, we'll just say that although I'm sure everyone would love to lay around with their feet up all day - try laying on your side with your feet propped up and someone poking you in the ribs and not being able to breathe...all at the same time! This is why I am counting every second, minute, hour and day that passes by and gets me closer to my due date! Now it's time for you all to send your collective thoughts to Baby Bealer and tell him/her that it's time to get a move-on!

Jeff and I were going to celebrate the 37 week mark by having a final date night before the birth and installing the car seat over the weekend. However, we had a change of plans. My Papa has been sick lately -- we thought he just had a bladder or urinary tract infection that seemed to clear up with a week's worth of antibiotics. But it didn't. He went in on Friday for a cystoscopy to clear out some blood clots (he had been passing blood and clots in his urine). We thought it was going to be a simple procedure and that he'd be home that evening and feeling much better. Come to find out, the clot that was causing him so much discomfort was the size of a large orange or small grapefruit and could not be removed by the cystoscope procedure and he'd have to be admitted to the hospital. The doctor was able to remove the clot on Saturday with my Papa sedated, however, behind the clot he found a very large tumor that is taking up about 1/3 of his bladder. This was very unexpected. My Papa has had prostate cancer for about 10 years now and it has gone into remission and come back at various times. The doctor is unsure if this tumor is related to the prostate cancer or if it is bladder cancer. He took a biopsy of the tumor and we will know later this week the results of the test. My Papa has heart problems also, so he is definitely not a candidate for any kind of extended surgery to either remove the tumor or (if bladder cancer) remove the entire bladder. He was discharged from the hospital this morning and is very grateful to be back home. He and my Mama are so cute because she was so worried about him being in the hospital (she stayed home in Galliano) and he was so worried about her being at home by herself. True love in every sense of the words!

Please send happy, healing and comforting thoughts his way and keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. We're just going to take things one day at a time and will see how this all plays out. Even though the tone of this blog is a bit more somber than ones past due to my the trying weekend we had with my Papa, the thought of the upcoming arrival of another great-grandchild is keeping both my Mama and Papa in very good spirits and is helping to keep the mood lifted!