Teriana Callanta

On August 23rd I was scheduled for a routine ultrasound for what I thought was baby number 2. Once on the exam table my doctor started my ultrasound and was instantly alarmed with what he saw. He said "there's no baby, come back next week for a more extensive ultrasound" threw me a box of tissues and quickly left the room. My heart sank, my palms started to sweat. "What does he mean there's no baby?" For the rest of the day I played that over and over again in my head. I had all the symptoms minus a few, I even had a positive pregnancy test. How could there be no baby ? What the hell was this thing inside of my uterus. I later found myself in the emergency room that night where I was diagnosed with a molar pregnancy. A molar Pregnancy is bascially when you concive and the placenta grows rapidly forming a tumor. I wassent to a high risk ob the next day for further testing and ultrasounds. They scheduled me for surgery the following day. That night as I got ready for bed and prepared for my surgery I got a call from my surgeon saying that she's canceling my surgery due to some concerns of my tumor. She stated that in a regular molar pregnancy the uterus grows with the tumor and the tumor has a "bunch of grapes" appearance. With my case my uterus was not growing with the tumor. My tumor was ground into the muscle of my uterus and wasn't in a safe position to remove. Yet again I felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks. That next morning instead of getting surgery to remove this thing growing inside of me , I was sent for more labs, more ultrasounds more scans just more of everything I did the day before. By the end of the day I knew that hospital like the back of my hand. I was just so ready to go home. I was tired, hungry and scared. I finally got to meet with an oncologist who brought me more bad news. She believed that my tumor had characteristics of a rare cancer called choriocarcinoma. She immediately admitted me to the hospital and started me on chemo treatments. I received methotrexate over the course of the next 7 days. My time spent in the hospital was the worst. I missed my husband, my daughter and my dogs. Going to sleep every night alone in a bed that was not my own was almost as worse as feeling like my body was being taken apart by a medicine that was supposed to be helping me  (chemo). After I was released from the hospital I finally had my follow up appointment to see if chemo worked, to see if my tumor shrank so I could get it removed. I was feeling good. I was feeling optimistic. Of course it didn't last long when my oncologist  (who I absolutely adore btw) came into the room and told me "it looks like to me your tumor has grown . You hcg levels are still increasing. Chemo did not work" just as I was on the brink of crying she then said "but, it somehow pulled itself away from the muscle of your uterus and is in a safer position for me to remove it next week". I was so surprised. This while journey has been nothing but a Rollercoaster but it was finally almost over. She scheduled my surgery for Monday September 12th.....only a weekend. I only needed to survive (mentally/emotionally) for a weekend. Monday came and as I entered the hospital I was so nervous. Too nervous to talk. With my husband, grandparents , daughter and my ant nanny by my side I was wheeled into the operating room. As I fell asleep Dr. R held my hand and told me it was all going to be ok. It felt like I had closed my eyes and opened them and I was done. ..the tumor was gone. She got it all out. I've never felt so good in my life...and that lasted all of 5 minutes because now we have to wait for pathology reports to come back.