So this blog started out as a way to update my family and friends and then I went into "procrastination" mode--not updating it for months! Sorry about that-- here's the latest!
MOM and I finished our chemotherapy's in mid/late April. HOORAY! We both suffered majorly with the third and last doses, and it continues. (We took 4 rounds of Taxol, two weeks apart.)
The side effects were different for this 2nd chemo. Taxol affects your nerves and gives nerve pain in feet and legs. Numbness and tingling in feet and fingers where the tiniest nerve endings are. Both of us still have numb feet!! We don't know how long it will last, and for me, it is quite annoying. But there is no Chemo Pain everywhere like there was for Andromyacin (the last chemo chemical we took.) So we thank God for that!
Mom continues with chemo related anemia and fatigue. I am not nearly as fatigued as she is. I am definitely tired at the end of the day, cannot paddle a kayak for more than 7 minutes at a time, and am horribly out of shape! In addition I have pulled something in my left foot due to the neuropathy and limp at the end of the day. I am trying to do as much as I can to get back into shape, lose the chemo/steroid weight, and fit into my clothes again!!! Eating a healthy, low fat, organic diet of fruits and veggies is the key. AND IF YOU COUPLE THAT WITH EXERCISE, IT WILL CUT OUR RECURRENCE OF CANCER RATE BY 20%!! THAT'S A HUGE INCENTIVE!
MOM lost 30lbs during chemo due to lack of appetite and from her diverticulitis, which was a horrible way to lose it. But she looks great and it's healthy to be thinner. Her loss however, was my gain! UGH!
NOW WHAT?
Now that chemo is over, Mom and I are under a radiation doctor's care a few miles from her condo. Dr. Gauwitz of the Countryside Cancer Center is a gem! He is treating the both of us for our next phase: 30 RADS. That is, 30 radiation treatments to our right breast. (5 days a week for 6 weeks.) We are the first "mother daughter" team he has ever treated! I pick mom up every weekday and OFF WE GO! We are only there for 25 minutes total! We walk in together arm and arm smiling and laughing at our pitiful plight!
The nurses and receptionists say, "You guys are sooo cute! " (smile)
It is nice to be doing this part of our treatment together, because with chemo we were separated.
Linda and Russ (my sister) and their two children were faithful in getting Mom through chemo. They left their unfinished house being built in NC to come live with her and take care of her during her treatment. They had to go back a few weeks ago. Zoe and I have taken over now.
WHY RADIATION TOO?
Ok- here is the scoop on radiation. The chemo cleansed out any rogue cell that may have been in our bloodstream waiting to "set up shop" and grow a tumor in the future. But it didn't necessarily kill off the "tumor site" cells that may come back again in the right breast. The radiation will take care of that.
Side effects include fatigue in the last two weeks, (great) "sunburn", peeling, itching, at the site.
NOTHING COMPARED TO CHEMO---YAY!!
For me burning is a bit worrisome though because I had planned out my Farm Camps here at the farm in February, thinking I'd be done with radiation by then. Instead, this coming week, and then my last two weeks of radiation, will be during my June farm camps--in the outdoor Florida summer heat, sweaty, itchy, burnt! YIKES.
But I can't disappoint the kids. They come from all over to be at farm camp for FARMER and ANIMAL FUN. LOL I will get a cooling apparatus to wear around my neck, and make good use of the fan and misting system in the barn!
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE RADIATION ROOM
We go inside a room that has a 10 inch door that closes is off. When I realized I was locked in behind that door, I got panick'y'. But the room is big, not a closet or anything, so I soon calmed down. You strip off your robe, (top naked) and lay on this narrow table with you hands stretched over your head. The radiation techs measure you and mark you with a marker on you ''cleavage'' and on either side of your chest. There are two or three of them hovering over you while you lay there "hanging out!" hahahah
This big ''monster'' of a machine comes gliding around and positions itself to the left of your body. They all leave the room and say, "Here we go, be right back." And that big, thick door shuts. The monster machine then makes this ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sound for 30 seconds while you lay still. It is radiating my boob.
Up above where I stare straight up, on the ceiling, is a tropical beach and water mural with lights behind it so it looks very real. I imagine myself there, kayaking and swimming in the waves. It's my coping technique.
Sometimes, as I lay there, I talk God and let him know that I'm scared. I'm scared that the radiation is going to harm me, or that the big, thick door will never open...... I'm scared the cancer will come back and that my boys will be MOTHERLESS...... the fears are real... they are a part of the journey.....THEN... I pray the fears away....
DETERMINED TO BE A SURVIVOR AND TO NOT LET FEAR RUIN MY LIFE!
"Can any of you add a single hour to your life by worrying?"
"If God be for us, who can be against us. "
"When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
you."
OTHER NEWS!
Some of you know that I was given the news that my son Paul, and his wife Nicole, who were married in December, are expecting!! I 'm going to be a yia yia!! Please don't call me grandma! I'm not ready for that!
I'm thinking NANA, or MI Maw LOL
I also sold my pontoon boat (which was too big for me to learn to drive, ) and bought a kayak inventory from a company that was closing up! The weird things you do when you are faced with life's challenges!
I am expanding our birthday party events to include kayaking!
NOAH'S ARK BY LAND AND BY SEA! HAHAH
http://www.mykayakparty.com/ is born! We already do the best birthday parties for little ones with our Farm and mobile petting zoo to you. Now, we will offer tweens and teens kayak birthday parties in different locations all around the Tampa Bay Area. What a great way for me to get back in shape! weeeeeeee
And.... MY HAIR IS GROWING BACK! WOO HOO ( A bit grayer than I'd like!) I even have eyebrows growing in... now if I could just get some eyelashes!!! hmmm falsies?
Dear friends, thank you for remaining faithful to my blog, for encouraging my on FB and in real life, for dinners brought over, for love and kindness shown to me, and my family.
Continue to think of us and to lift us up in prayer. We are not done fighting this wicked disease.
