You're What?!?!?!?!?!?!

This is going to be a long one.

Yes folks - the rumors are true. If you haven't heard yet (I think many of you have) - Jana is pregnant.

Believe me, we were more shocked than you are now.

Hopefully, I can answer some of the questions I know you will have:

She is 23 weeks tomorrow. She will deliver around weeks 34-36.

We found out about three weeks after she was diagnosed, when she literally was about to start chemo. Fortunately, one of the doctors we interviewed asked her about her cycle and then realized she was a bit late. We thought there was no way she was prego, but decided to take a pee test anyway. Well, that pee test turned into about 30 of them and here we are.

What to do now? We had no idea, and there is zero information out there for pregnant women dealing with cancer. Jana's OB was no help whatsoever either. The first words out of her mouth were "you need to terminate." Thankfully, Jana's response was "that's not going to happen, what can we do?" Her OB said she could/would not help us as she thought - incorrectly I should add - that the fetus can't survive the treatments and it would put Jana's life in danger. Suffice it to say, she is no longer Jana's OB.

As a side note, we have come to learn there are no numbers about the incidence of pregnant women with cancer. It really made us think about how many women might be out there as uninformed as we were and are actually listening to the first opinion they get and terminating their pregnancies. We can't stress enough the importance of getting 2nd, 3rd and even 4th opinions when dealing with issues like this.

(She did do two things right though, and I have to give credit where it is due: she suggested Jana get her annual mammogram starting at age 38, which probably saved her life; and she referred us to the high-risk maternity group at Evanston North Shore Hospital - a group of doctors who are as caring as they are brilliant.)

Fortunately, a close friend of ours - who is a breast cancer survivor - consulted with her doctor at MD Anderson in Houston. He told her that we needed to meet with one of the doctors there - Dr. Richard Theriault - who is one of, if not the, leading doctor in dealing with pregnant women with cancer.

Now you all know the reason we put our treatments on hold a bit to fly down there and meet with him.

He was a godsend and immediately put us at ease. He determined our course of action and called our oncologist to consult on the schedule of treatment.

We had to wait until after week 10 to have the surgery; and then wait until after the first trimester to begin chemo.

It all gets a bit sciencey here, so bear with me. You shouldn't do anything during weeks 6-10 because that is the biggest developmental leap for the baby. Once the first trimester has passed, the placenta has reached a stage where it is really in a position to help the fetus. In a nutshell, the chemo drugs do not penetrate the placenta. Unlike narcotics and alcohol (which are small molecule drugs), chemo drugs are large molecule and the placenta keeps them out.

Pretty cool stuff.

How has this affected Jana? Well, she looks fantastic - of course - but she is really tired. Still trying to rein her in - to no avail. But she is getting better at listening to her body and sleeping when needed.

Georgia is really excited about being a big sister and is already helping with potential names.

Hopefully, that will be enough for you to digest over the holiday weekend ;).

And I hope you all have a great 4th of July.

Best,

P.J.