Resilience

re·sil·ience

1. the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.
2. ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.

Source: Dictionary.com

This is a word that is commonly used by my friends to describe moi. I have never really thought much about it - although I do tend to agree I'm someone who can take a lot of tough shit and have been through multiple hard knocks in life. But those experiences interestingly have never made me a defeatist, but rather shaped me into an incorrigible optimist who can always see the positives in every depressing, miserable, hopeless and shitty situation. 

I guess you can describe me as a bloody resilient freak. 

Until 7 months ago - when someone else completely redefined what resilience means. 

I was puking for two weeks - throwing up every meal, every drink, every morsel of food. I was practically worshiping the porcelain bowl, and could hardly keep anything down for more than 10 minutes.

So I cleverly diagnosed myself as having stomach flu and went ahead to the doctor's with that very same diagnosis. The doctor happily prescribed medication for stomach flu - and on the day of my very last pill, I vomited four more times. 

Which got me thinking that I may not be having stomach flu after all. Either that, or the medication sucked.

Hubby and I decided to go for a second opinion - and this time the female doctor asked all the right questions instead of taking me for my word. 

Are you married?

When was your last period?

Are you planning for a baby?

When did you start feeling nauseous?

She then instructed that I go for a urine test in her clinic that very same day - and when I re-entered the consultation room for the test results, she exclaimed,"You are not having stomach flu! You are pregnant!"  

I was like - "Oh really?" Awkward silence filled the room for a good two minutes.

I guessed although this possibility did cross my mind, my period has always been late so I kinda brushed it off - not wanting to give myself any false hopes.

The doctor went on to say that if she was the first doctor, she would never have given me the medication for stomach flu. I might have unwittingly poisoned my 5-week-old foetus. Oops.

It was then I remembered that just a couple of weeks ago, Hubby and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary at Universal Studios - and we went on every single ride in that theme park. Yup - all the high-speed psychological thrill rides with their sharp turns, high drops and fast reverses. Let's not forget I also went on the Battlestar Galatica - the world's tallest pair of dueling roller-coasters that feature several inversions, including a zero-g roll, a Cobra roll, corkscrews, vertical loops and near collisions mere inches apart.

Image source: Universal Studios Singapore

Okay...another "OOPS" moment right there.

Surprisingly - the baby survived all of that. A full week's dosage of stomach flu medication. The exhilarating daredevil thrill rides. And perhaps even more crap / junk food that I have been stuffing myself before I realised I was having a baby.  

Now if that's not resilience - I don't know what is. 

This baby's one tough little cookie - just like her mummy. :)

My ultrasound scans at 5 weeks