My McDonald's Story!........part 1

LH x2 - we miss our fountain sodas!!

Back in the good 'ol days at CHOP, we were once blessed to have a McDonald's right inside our hospital.

Now... growing up in a large family of five girls, i always dreamed of having a family of my own. We would always play house, pretend our dog was our baby, and dress him up in little girl clothes.

So when i was ten and first diagnosed with cancer, i remember my doctor saying that i would never  conceive... because of all the chemotherapy and radiation treatments. I was devastated. I was pissed.

Well getting back to the McDonald's part of it. St Eleanor and i went to McDonald's that day, and as she stood in line, i spotted the disposable baby bibs on the counter (with the napkins, etc).  I took one, folded it up quickly, and put it in my pocket before anyone could see.  I said to myself: I'll show them!



Well little did I know, 2 more cancers later and 25 years later, I would show them. (Now sing- like the McDonald's commercial... BA DA BA BA BA ....

Rylan Cruz Dorantes Haffner

Side note:
In the Latino culture, children have 2 last names. The first one is their father's, and the second one is from the mommy. :o)




Well my boyfriend and I had met back in '97. At this point we had been together for 13 years. We were astonished to learn that i was pregnant.  Even more astonishing though, was that i was 19 weeks pregnant.  It was almost like the tv show: I didn't know I was pregnant. If you haven't seen the show, it essentially goes like this.... woman experiences pain, woman goes to the hospital or woman goes to take a dump,  woman has a baby, and then woman says, "OMG, I didn't know I was pregnant!" And we all think: What an idiot! How could she not know that she was pregnant. Well, I officially became one of those idiots, and I was glad to be one.

At first, my gynecologist/endocrinologist didn't believe it. Even after I had the blood work, and my HCG level was 57,051.  So she brought us in to do the ultrasound (vajayjay) -which is the standard. She must have been looking at his little noggin because she started talking to us about ovarian cancer and false positive hormone levels.  But just to be safe, she decided to do an abdominal ultrasound.

   And this is what she saw....

   And this is what she said....

   And this... was the happiest moment of my life!


   Next: McDonald's story part deux

   until then... lots of love... little lisa lollipop


   P.S. I held on to that bib for the longest time. I'm talking years.
   But that may also be because I have a small case of hoarding.
   I guess that'll have to be another post.