Later, Gators!

Allright, folks.  Now it’s time for me to share something quite personal with y’all.  I debated whether or not I should get all into this here, because I tend to be kind of a private person, but you guys have been such an incredible source of support and encouragement to me, and I feel like I owe you an explanation as to where I’m disappearing off to for the next week or so.  If you’re a dude, you might want to put on your earmuffs, because I’m about to talk about lady parts 😉

I’ve been living with endometriosis since I was about 15 years old.  If you don’t already know, it’s a painful condition that affects the female reproductive system.  (My doc calls it the cancer that doesn’t kill ya…)  For 15 years, it was kept in check with low-dose hormones in the form of oral contraceptives.  It was probably because of this that my fertility was preserved, and I was able to become a mother to my two precious little rascals.  The best thing I ever did!

Since that time, the condition has progressed, and over the last year, I’ve been suffering with quite a considerable amount of pain in my right side.  I’ve lost a lot of sleep, both figuratively and literally.  I opted to undergo a procedure to implant the Mirena device back in March, in hopes that that would alleviate the problem, to no avail.  Over the course of this month, I’ve seen my doc more times than I’d like, and spent a lot of time at the imaging center of my local hospital.

There’s what appears to be a large endometrioma on my ovary.  Sorry, totally gross, I know.  I’ll be in surgery at the time this post goes live.  As I’m writing this, I’m, of course, pretty nervous.  The doctor is not exactly sure what he’s going to find once he gets in there.  There’s the possibility that I might come out of the OR missing some of the pieces I was meant to have.  Hopefully that won’t be the case!  I’m not emotionally ready to lose my fertility.  I’m thinking positive thoughts, and I feel pretty confident that I’ll just be in and out and back on my feet within 5 days or so, and better than ever.  🙂

In the meantime, I have some fabulous guest posters lined up for next week.  They have all been so sweet and kind and generous, I can’t even tell you how grateful I am!  I would love it if you’d go and check out their blogs, because they are all so super talented and fun and awesome in every possible way.

Rachel from Teacher by Day, Chef by Night <– Her photography and styling are gorgeous
Dani from See Hubby Cook <– So funny and her recipes are always spot-on seasonal
Kat from I Want Crazy <– Super fun and totally approachable
Nora from Buttercream Fanatic <– I mean, need I say more?  “Buttercream Fanatic?”  I think we were separated at birth!

Hopefully I’ll be back and baking/posting by 10/29, which is when we’ll be unveiling our second installment of #MysteryDish!  Until then, I’ll do my best to keep up with you guys and your comments/tweets/facebook posts/pins/etc!  Love ya!  See ya soon!  <3