I made it!

Treatment #3 done!!  HIP! HIP! HOORAY!!  Today is the first day I have begun to feel "normal" again.  I sat outside for 2-3 hours just enjoying the sushine.  The weather was phenomenal!  Looking forward to spending the day tomorrow in God's house and then with some godly friends.  Monday was a long day as many of you already know.  The treatment lasted its normal 6 1/2 - 7 hours.  This time, when I got home, I went straight to bed and took nausea meds 2  hours sooner than the last two treatments.  It seemed to help enough to make it through the roughest night of the week.  I didn't feel great at all, but just well enough to not be completely miserable.  The rest of the week has been BLAH to say the least.  My sister was here until Thursday morning and that was fabulous.  I have been very blessed to have had my mom and sis able to come and just be here.  Not to mention that both of them have done some serious cleaning while here.  Anyone who knows me well enough, knows that I can't stand a dirty house.  So even on treatment weeks, I am cleaning.  It was wonderful to have them here to help make the job not so overwhelming.  The nausea has been with me all week, but it is starting to go away.  I was given a prescription for indigestion problems I was having and it has helped make the indigestion (and therefore nausea) less intimidating.  I am thankful!  God is still here holding me in the palm of His hand!  At times, I admit, I lose sight of that.  However, through cards, texts, or emails, God places on someone's heart to remind me of it.  I am blessed!  Looking forward to an uneventful week.  He is Risen - He is Risen Indeed!!  Happy Easter!!   Love to all of you - please keep praying!!  Next treatment - May 9.

Catch Up!

Wow - what a quick and full 3 weeks it has been.  I must tell you about my hat party!  I will admit that I was a little worried about the idea since I have never been much of a hat wearer.  I happily announce how wrong I was to be worried.  We had an absolute blast!  If you weren't able to come and haven't seen the pictures, go to my FB page and you can pull up my album from the party.  I got some of the most fun hats.  I have already worn several of them and loved them (in addition to receiving multiple compliments on each one :)).  This week I had to go shopping to find some new cute clothes to wear with some of my new hats.  That has been fun too!  My fashionista 10 year old daughter told me that the hat I was thinking of wearing for Easter was way too dark (deep blue/purple) and that you don't wear dark for Easter.  We'll see!  I haven't decided what to wear yet.  Thanks to all of you that took time from your busy schedules to come to the party.  I think a  great time was had by all that attended.  I am blessed to have such wonderful, Godly friends that I can count on in times of need. 
Next Monday is my 3rd (out of 4) heavy treatments.  I have to tell you that I am not being very Godly on this, but I am working on it.  I am already anxiously worrying about how sick I will be this time on Day 1.   I felt horriby sick the last time and am hoping it doesn't get worse to the point that I am actually sick.  I HATE that!  I wasn't sick with either of my pregnancies and was always grateful for that.  I dont' want to start now with the "sickness" part of chemo.  I am taking all of these nausea drugs that help the rest of the week, but for some reason, that first day they don't even put a curb on the nausea.  Please pray!  As long as I stay very still lying down flat, it seems to help.  My plan is to come home, take the nausea drugs sooner than normal, and then put myself to bed.  I am hopeful that if I stay as still as possible and lay flat, my nausea will be bearable.  Please pray for a better attitude about facing this next Monday.  Right now, I am a fraidy cat and dreading it terribly.  I know that with my God, I can handle anything and l will hold tight to that all next week.  Just keep praying!!  My sister will be here with me until next Thursday and I am very glad about that.  My girls love her!!

The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

Many of you have already heard about my excitement from the Final Four on Monday night.  For those of you who haven't heard, here goes.  My great friend, LB, and her sweet husband, graciously allowed me to have their extra ticket to the final game at Reliant Stadium on Monday night.  We were all so excited!!  I won't bore you with all the fun stuff we did prior to the game starting.  Once the game started, a man (I can't call him a gentleman) walked past us to his seat with his "drink" (including alcohol).  He proceeded to talk to Kirby, LB's son, even though Kirby was using his headphones to listen to music (Kirb doesn't care much about basketball - just all the cool technology involved in a nationally televised game).  This man just talked louder when Kirb didn't answer him.  Kirby quickly let LB know that he didn't care much for this man, so Laura sent him to get some drinks and moved over so Kirby wouldn't have to sit by the man when he returned.  Now this man begins to hit on LB.  He asked  her multiple times (several minutes apart each time), if her husband was the coach.  When LB told him that her husband was an attorney, he laughed loudly and suggested he help him with one of his many divorces.  SAD!!  After he tired of LB ignoring him or not accepting any of his advances, he turned his attention toward me.  He asked LB who the beautiful blue-eyed girl was and asked if I was married.  He then began taking my picture multiple times with his phone.  I quickly grew tired of this and leaned over and told LB and her kids that if he tried to take my picture one more time (keep in mind that I am actually interested in the game and am incredibly annoyed to be bothered), that I would whip off my wig and smile really big for him.  LB and the kids couldn't believe that I would do that.  Sure enough, he leaned around LB and began to take my picture again.  So, true to my word, I whipped off my wig and smiled really big for him.  After he closed his mouth from shock, he declared he liked me better without my hair.  That was a big bummer since I was hoping I would shock him enough that he would leave me and us alone.  Meanwhile, LB and her kids are just about in the floor from dying of laughter.  I guess they didn't really think I would do it.  Let's jus say that just about everyone in the general vicinity of this was stunned.  We were surrounded by executive men and at this particular moment, they were not watching the game - the show around them was much more exciting!!  Ultimately, the man did leave us alone, and as we were leaving, he actually asked me how I was doing.  I answered good and he told me his wife had been through the same thing (I guess he put 2 and 2 together) and that she was doing great.  I was a bit stunned but more saddened that he wasn't home with his wife instead of drunk at a basketball game trying to hit on two ladies sitting near him.  So now you know.....the rest of the story!!

What A Week!!

Okay, Okay - I admit I had hoped this second week of treatment would be a bit easier than the first. "How can she be so naive?" you may be asking yourself.  My thoughts were that since the first treatment carried so much anxiety with it because I didn't know how my body would react, I thought maybe since I knew how my body would act for the second treatment, it would be "easier".  NOT!!  Day 1 is the worst for me.  Not only do I have to sit for 6 1/2 - 7 hours while these extremely intense chemicals are being shot into my body, but by about 5 pm, I am totally incapacitated.  By that, I mean I am nauseated beyond belief.  Considering the fact that I take one nausea drug in the morning before treatment and another is in one of my IV bags, you would think that would be better.  At 6 pm, on the night of treatment, I take two more drugs for nausea/vomiting, and by that time, the drugs don't help at all.  I was nauseated to the point of feeling like if I moved even an inch or took too deep of a breath, I was definitely going to be sick.  YIKES!  To me, there is nothing worse.  So on that first night, I put myself to bed by a little after 7 and just didn't move again until my 2 AM doses of more nausea drugs.  I can't imagine how awful it would be without all of those drugs trying to keep me from being sick.  WHEW!  Let's just not go there!  On Day 2, Tuesday, I felt 110% better.  The only exciting event from Tuesday was the shot I have to get in my stomach.  Fun??  Not so much!!  The rest of the week was okay.  By that I mean, I just wasn't myself.  I couldn't focus for very long on any one thing.  That makes for long days. I was able to take some naps and that was a blessing!!   My Mom was here and was immensely helpful.  When I asked her to do some cleaning for me, she jumped in and did a fantastic job.  Having her here was a huge help; I just wish I could have been more of a conversationalist during those first days of treatment and recovery.  By the weekend, I was feeling more "normal", but still not 100%.  On Friday, one of my good friends, LB, came by with a proposition.  She had come across 4 tickets to the Final Four for tonight (Monday), and since her sweet husband is going to be at a conference, he can't attend.  She wanted to know if I wanted to go.   WOW!!  What an exciting time it is sure to be (because, of course, I agreed to go after she twisted my arm - wink!wink!).  She suggested I paint my bald head the colors to look like a basketball so we could get on TV.  I'm not volunteering for that - my kids would DIE!!!  Hopefully, I can blog tomorrow as far as how much fun we had and not make you feel too bad that you don't have a friend just like my LB!!