Pressing On

I had the privilege today of being deemed a celebrity ultrasound case!  How many people can say that? I got to have an extra tech in the room just to practice finding my arm veins!  Apparently they get to see lot of leg cases but many fewer arm problems.  : ) I started having pain in my arm before Christmas, like my sleeve was too tight up by my shoulder and was constricting my arm somehow and turning it a weird colour and making the veins standout (I have been a little freaked). Note this is not my surgery side arm, it's the other one, the only one left with good veins, so they say. At my pre-chemo checkup today the Doc decided to send me in for an ultrasound to rule out blood clots, which they did, thankfully. But the ultrasound techs were pretty enthused about having me in there!  Well, not me of course, only my arm ; ) So what should have been a 3 hour morning event at the Cancer Clinic, turned out to be all day as I got to impress the staff in Medical Imag...

Merry Christmas! 

I freely admit that as a Christian when I hear these oft-repeated words I frequently stop listening. What?  Yes, it's true.  We all know what follows: ...unto us a Son is given;  etc. etc.  It's a case of familiarity breeding contempt I guess.  The message is not revolutionary here where we have been inundated with the Christian tradition for generations and a personal lifetime of Christmases. I mean it IS revolutionary, but somehow Christian and non-Christian alike, we have heard it so many times that it's hard to grab hold of.  It's not real, or life changing.  We are not "sore afraid" (as those shepherds in the King James version of the bible), we are... probably bored.  Not the Motilone indians from South America though! (I'm currently reading "Bruchko", an almost unbelievable story) THEY thought the news was revolutionary, they wept with joy!  They already knew they were far from God and they were trying everything to get back ...

I have almost successfully completed my 2nd chemo.  6 more to go.  I have basically no energy today, 4 days post treatment but I have been busy the last 2 days which might account for that.  Hopefully I can recoup before Christmas. It's a good opportunity for me to practice my Dictator skills from the couch though. Never want those to get too rusty! Treatment #3 is on New Year's Eve, so that will give me a few days to recover before school starts. Then #4 on the 14th of January. After that I start 3 week cycles instead of 2.   If everything stays on schedule (praying!) I should be done by early April. Maybe you can tell I'm counting the days.

Hair that is.  Today was the big day! I guess it's a right of passage for chemo patients, of which I am one. Again a weird and wild job for my dear husband, shaving my head, which he did with grace and humour.  Certainly not something he bargained for - but better than giving Neupogen shots, certainly. The kids are not ready to see me with no hair, and I don't blame them.  I came out in my new toque and we watched the Santa Clause 2.  I just didn't feel up to fiddling with my new hair-in-the-box tonight. Maybe tomorrow. If you are feeling brave go ahead and see the pictures below.  I will post some with my "new hair" sometime later, stay tuned!   I look terrible in a toque, I won't specifically post any of those ; ) **  Obviously there are no pictures to see, that is because I am hopeless.   My email is on the fritz, my pictures won't text.  Some things send from one computer and not the other, one computer hates one dear friend's ema...

I just wanted to post that I have largely recuperated from my traumatic week's events. Thanks in LARGE part to my sweet husband who arranged a very special visit for me from a very special friend involving a sleepover, I felt like a new person by Sunday afternoon.  This was prefaced by several other wonderful people taking the time to listen, have tea and generally encourage me.  I hope you know who you are if you are reading this!  I love you all. Here I am in the midst of chemotherapy and I can still have comfortable chats and girls' nights and good food... it left me thinking that I can do this.  God drops little gifts in my path on a continual basis to keep me going, I hope you find that he does that for you too : )

I said in my last post that my next would be about my trip across on the ferry.  Due to the destructive nature of chemotherapy drugs, it is not advisable to have as many treatments as I need in the veins of my one good arm.  I was highly encouraged to have a "port" installed in my left upper chest area through which to administer these meds. Seemed reasonable; I like my veins.  A lot.  The catch was that they couldn't do it in a timely fashion (i.e. before my 2nd chemo) where I live which necessitated a ferry trip to another hospital. It all seemed a bit crazy but at this point, what doesn't? So Sunday we boarded the ferry to ensure we would be at our appointment at 10am Monday, which we were.  Sunday was actually kind of nice! Nice hotel, nice in-room dinner, nice linens, nice husband : )  Monday was not so nice.  The procedure itself was really not worse and maybe even better than going  for a dental procedure, but let me tell you that after 4...

So I had my meeting with the Oncologist.  I had been hoping, desperately, to avoid chemo.  I just don't like putting garbage in my body. I'm much more of a natural kinda girl - especially since a naturopath fixed me right up a few years ago from ongoing joint pain and being generally unwell.  But it is not to be. Based on a further inspection of my particular cancer cells, chemo offers me a 20% better chance of "living to be an old lady" quoth the Oncologist.  Still feeling sick at the thought of making this choice I went to a naturopath specializing in oncology, who although deploring the general state of cancer therapy available, stated that he had nothing close to a 20% improvement in odds to offer me.  He has some good recommendations to come through the chemo as whole as possible but even he couldn't, in good conscience, dissuade me from taking that route. THE ROUTE: 2 Chemo drugs every 2 weeks X 4 then... 1 Chemo drug and Herceptin every 3 weeks X 4...