We returned home on Sunday from a fabulous week at Pine Cove Family Camp (ending Saturday) and dropping off our girls at Pine Cove youth camp on Sunday. Family camp was incredible to say the least - we really love doing that together. We would love to visit with any of you who have ever considered family camp and share our DVD with you to show you how much fun we have. Some of the highlights are: breakfast trail ride (just the adults) followed by a wonderful breakfast (including bacon soaked in maple syrup - YUMM!!); trail ride with Maddie for the first time (she is finally 10 and old enough to ride the BIG horses); ziplining; breathtaker (also known as the superman) for all of us including me :); father/daughter dance lesson; water rocketing (girls with their cabin groups); lots of swimming; cattle roundup (for Dad - he loves doing this - you actually round up and herd cattle a couple of different times); and better than all of that is just getting to know our family devo counselor, and many other counselors associated with all the different things we do throughout the week. Our family devo counselor, BAMA (full camp name is A-Bama Whama - got the name because she goes to Auburn but cheers for Alabama b/c that is her home town), was the best - we absolutely LOVED getting to kow her. We also get to see the same (for the most part) wonderful families each year and that is an added Bonus as well!! We highly recommend family camp at Pine Cove - just ask us about it - any and all of us love to talk about it!
As far as the medical side of things, I was able to have a chemotherapy treatment in Tyler during family camp and that was a huge blessing. The doctor that I met with was awesome - she has written a book, SEEDS, that I would recommend to anyone about her journey from growing up in Yugoslavia and coming ultimately to the U.S. Very easy read and amazing stuff she endured during the journey. I went to my treatment again this morning - so that leaves me only three chemotherapy treatments to have. My last treatment is scheduled for August 17th. YIPPEE!! The new way you can pray for me now is preparing mentally and emotionally for the surgery that will be the week of August 29th (or so it seems as of today). I am beginning to be more nervous and worried and am working feverishly to turn it over to God and leave it at His feet. I just haven't reached that level yet. I will have a double mastectomy and reconstruction (assuming there is no cancer in the lymph nodes that they will remove) on the same day. The surgery will be approximately 10-15 hours. I will have 4 drains (one for each breast and one at each hip for the flap incision for reconstruction). I realize I am not the first one to have this kind of surgery done and taking comfort in that. My God is able to carry me through this part of the journey as He has all the other parts.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
The Real New "DO"
These are "REAL" friends
Wigs
Maddie having a little fun!!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Great News!!
I went in for an ultrasound today because the doctor was having a hard time finding the tumor yesterday at my appointment. What a great thing for me to hear! She wanted to make sure that she was measuring the size of the tumor accurately to continue to monitor the progress and success of the chemotherapy. With another ultrasound, she could more accurately locate the tumor and measure it. The ultrasound that initially identified the tumor was on February 17. The radiologist showed me that day that my tumor was in two parts (one bigger than the other), but in total measured around 4 cm. When the biopsy was done on February 21, the radiologist placed a clip in the heart of the biggest part of the tumor to mark it for future reference. Upon inspection today, the radiologist told me that all that was left of the area with the clip was the clip itself. No more tumor there. The other part of the tumor is no bigger than 1 cm. Praise God - the treatment is doing it's job and killing my cancer. What a mighty God we serve!! They also did an ultrasound on the left breast just to make sure that nothing suspicious was there. Afterwards, she had me do a mammogram. With all the cancer stuff going on, I totally forgot about the routine mammogram that was due in May. Nothing showed up in either the mammogram or the ultrasound of the left side. Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Just wanted to share the great news of the day!
Just wanted to share the great news of the day!
Fabulous Florida Fun
Last I posted, the girls and Brian had left for Florida and were planning to pick me up at the airport in Tampa on July 5th after my treatment that morning. It worked beautifully (for me anyway - Brian had the hard part with driving 12 hours on the 4th and another 6 on the 5th before my plane landed)!! Sarasota, Florida, specifically Siesta Key, was wonderful as usual! This was our 5th and best year yet to go. My college roommate's parents and uncles own several condos on Siesta Key beach and we have been thoroughly enjoying our visit each year. This year was better than ever because for the first time, we were able to coordinate with my roommate to be there together. She has 4 wonderful children that I had never met (3 girls and 1 boy). My girls and her kids hit it off beautifully. Not only was Gela (my roommate) there with us, but also her mom and dad, her sister and family, and two of her cousins with each of their families. It was fabulous! It had been 21 years (since Gela got married) that I had seen any of her family, so for me, it was fantastic! Gela's family and ours had an adjoining condo and spent just about every minute together (including sleepovers). Some of the highlights were hunting for seashells, playing in the waves on a stormy day, crab hunting (one of Brian's favorite things even if he did get "pinched" pretty good once), swimming out to the sand bar to hunt for sand dollars (found many), boogie boarding, grilling out and eating meals together as much as possible. It couldn't hae been better!! We truly hope we can repeat this again in years to come. We have always had a great time in Florida even just meeting new people and seeing them again from year to year. This year was just extra special!! Now we are home and gearing up for another trip - this time to Pine Cove for Family Camp. We are really excited about it as well. We will leave on Sunday morning to drive to Tyler (much closer than Sarasota). Family camp will last until Saturday, but we will stay the night, because the girls will go to Pine Cove youth camp on Sunday, the 24th for a week. July is always busy for us but with things that are great fun!
The latest Dr. news is that my MRI came back normal, so there are no tumors in my brain. Praise God! The tests showed a bulging disk in my neck and some bone spurs also. I will go back for a follow-up after PC and find out if there is anything the neurologist wants me to do.
My Dr. visit/chemotherapy yesterday went well. 7 down, 5 to go! I will go for treatment #8 while I am at Pine Cove in Tyler because Dr. Holmes has a colleague there. That is a huge blessing!! Dr. Holmes, once again, had a hard time finding my tumor to measure it. She is sending me for an ultrasound, because she wants to make sure to be accurate when she measures each time and ensure that the chemo is working like it is supposed to. I will go for that Ultrasound today if they can work me in since we are leaving town Sunday. All is well otherwise. She did tell me that my surgery would be 2 weeks after my last treatment, making it the last week of August. I was surprised by that (and a liittle nervous). I am hoping to make it the first week of September, so I can have two weeks of school behind me with the girls and finish all the beginning of school paper work and check writing. We'll see.
The latest Dr. news is that my MRI came back normal, so there are no tumors in my brain. Praise God! The tests showed a bulging disk in my neck and some bone spurs also. I will go back for a follow-up after PC and find out if there is anything the neurologist wants me to do.
My Dr. visit/chemotherapy yesterday went well. 7 down, 5 to go! I will go for treatment #8 while I am at Pine Cove in Tyler because Dr. Holmes has a colleague there. That is a huge blessing!! Dr. Holmes, once again, had a hard time finding my tumor to measure it. She is sending me for an ultrasound, because she wants to make sure to be accurate when she measures each time and ensure that the chemo is working like it is supposed to. I will go for that Ultrasound today if they can work me in since we are leaving town Sunday. All is well otherwise. She did tell me that my surgery would be 2 weeks after my last treatment, making it the last week of August. I was surprised by that (and a liittle nervous). I am hoping to make it the first week of September, so I can have two weeks of school behind me with the girls and finish all the beginning of school paper work and check writing. We'll see.
Monday, July 4, 2011
What a Month!
PLEASE forgive me for not updating! I have received several "complaints" and I deserve each and every one of them for not updating this in over a month. I hope you all know that means things have been going well. I will try to give you the highlights of each week I missed and catch you up. Be prepared to be here awhile! :)
I started my second half of chemotherapy on May 31. For those of you who don't remember, that was the last week of school. I attended Maddie's (my 4th grader) Celebration of Learning and had a wonderful friend from church pick me up afterwards to take me to my new doctor (whom I LOVE by the way). I had to see the doctor when I got there for the first visit, and we ended up waiting for over 1 1/2 hours for that part. When I got to the chemo part, it got very interesting! The chemo nurse tried to access my port, but as soon as she did, it hurt in my neck and my shoulder (never had done that before). When I told her that, she immediately told me she didn't feel comfortable doing chemo from my port, so she would have to search for a vein. O JOY!! She also sent me for a port study the next morning to see if anything was wrong with it. Long story short, during the port study, they found out my port had sprung a leak. I had to have the leaky one taken out and a new one put in on Friday, June 3 (first day of summer). Great way to start summer!! The good news was the doctor was able to use the current port "cubby hole" for the new one so I didn't have to get it on the other side. I am extremely grateful for Antoinetta (the chemo nurse) who caught the trouble.
The first full week of summer was FULL for sure! We had things like swim practice every day, two swim meets at night (lasting until 10 or later), dress rehearsal for Maddie's recital as well as the actual recital, the weekly chemo, and two days of planning for VBS at church. It was crazy busy! It was all fun stuff, but not relaxing like you think summer will be (at least not yet). The week following that was VBS at church. I had committed long ago (before diagnosis) to direct Maddie's 4th grade department for VBS and decided to stick with the commitment. Many thought I was a bit crazy to do so, but I knew I had fabulous teachers working with me and knew it would all work out great! We had to leave the house every morning by 7:45 and wouldn't get home typically before 2 or 3 (Mer and I would run errands and Maddie was practicing every day for the VBS musical that would be held on Friday night along with Family Fun Night). We also had another swim meet during VBS one night which meant we didn't get home and inn bed until after 10 again. Fun but a bit crazy! By Friday night of VBS, we were all tired. We attended FFN and musical at church and headed home around 8:30. This is when it got interesting!
We got the kids to bed and as I was walking through the den around 9:30, I had the immediate onset of the worst headache I have ever had. It stopped me, literally, in my tracks. I sat down on the couch, then laid down due to nausea, and decided to put myself to bed and hope the pain would go away. I was up off and on the whole night with the pain and nausea. The next morning, we had our last regular swim meet and had to leave the house by 7:30. I didn't want to miss, so I went along. We were outside until 1:00 pm. It was hot, but I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The nausea was gone, but the headache was still going strong!! By Sunday (Father's Day), it was still hurting all over my head, but was moving and began to hurt in my neck. We dropped Meredith off at church to leave for Camp Tallowood and headed home. Once I got home, I called the doctor (my doctor happened to be on call). After I described all of my symptoms to her, she decided it would be best if I went to the ER to have some tests run. She told me she would call ahead to let them know what she wanted to have done. We left Maddie at home (her choice, but not much later a great friend went by the house and picked her up for the afternoon) and headed to the ER. Sure enough, when we got there we didn't even have to wait. They had spoken with the doctor and knew she wanted a CAT scan of the brain and some blood work done. They started an IV and gave me meds that you would normally give a person having a migrane. Once all the tests were perfomed, they came in and said everything was normal and gave me a RX for a muscle relaxer and pain med. Throughout the course of the week, the headache continued to hurt in my head, but it gradually moved from my neck to my shoulders, through my back, and into my tailbone and down my legs. I joked that it was working itself out eventually b/c there wouldn't be anywhere else for it to go. Sometime during the week, I also started having very high-pitched ringing in my ears. It reminds my of how your ears feel after you have flown on an airplane and your ears havent' opened up again. Maddie attended a dance camp during the week and Mer was at Camp Tallowood all week. It was much more low key than the previous two weeks had been. I firmly believe that the headache was a result of overdoing things those first two weeks. I sometimes seem to forget that I am a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy weekly. The headache lasted 10 days. Then, last Tuesday, when I woke up to get ready for chemo - it was gone. YIPPEE!! When I got to the doctor, the nurse shared my joy but wanted me to see a neurologist in order to find out what might have caused it. More doctor appointments!!:( Let me just tell you how crazy last week was with all the appointments: Monday, met with gynecologist oncologist; Tuesday - chemo; Wednesday - met with neurologist who ordered 3 more tests; Thursday - held 7th grade girls bible study in the morning at my house then went back to neurologist to complete tests, had lunch at home, then went to meet potential plastic surgeon to discuss reconstruction; Friday - had MRI. Let me fill you in a little on each:
MONDAY - met with Dr. Barry Siller (recommended by not only my oncologist, but also a couple of friends/family who have had him as a doctor before). He is a gynecologist oncologist. He confirmed that he would not be doing the hysterectomy on the same day as my double masectomy and reconstruction (as I was first told). He said that after I had recovered from that surgery, he would bring me in for the hysterectomy. He told me I would be a candidate for laproscopy, but even if he had to do it by making an incision, the incision would only be 1-2 inches and recovery would be about the same - 10-14 days. Sounds easy enough after the first surgery recovery of 6-8 weeks. I really like him and will most likely use him for the hysterectomy.
TUESDAY - chemo was uneventful again - praise the Lord!!
WEDNESDAY - met with Dr. Sadeghi at the Houston Headache and Neurological Institute. He asked lots of questions and then ordered a stress test, a balance test, and an EEG to err on the side of caution and find out what might have caused the headache. Before I left there, I had the EEG done (it took longer to get the electrodes attached to my head than to perform the test - I don't know how they do it on someone that has a head full of hair :)).
THURSDAY - I held the 7th grade girls bible study at the house - it was great as usual. Afterwards, I headed back to the Headach Dr. to do the stress and balance tests. They were uneventful, so I considered that a blessing! I then went home to eat a quick lunch and go back to the doctor - this time to meet with a plastic surgeon, Dr. Derrik Lou. I really liked him, but WOW! was I overwhelmed when I left there. The only thing fully decided was that I would do "flap reconstruction" (not implants), which would give me a tummy tuck as well. One positive in the midst of all of this mess. When I begin to think about it again, I get overwhelmed again, so i try not to think about it too much. I'll think about it when the time comes, and I know God will prepare me for it!
FRIDAY - MRI! If you have been blessed enough to never have to endure an MRI, be extremely thankful!! The MRI was of my neck, then my brain, then my brain again with the contrast dye. Thankfully, I am not a claustrophobic person. The only way I can describe it is it say that it is the worst possible fire alarm sound you can imagine at different pitches and for different lengths of time right up next to your ears. Even with earplugs and another covering over my ears, it was almost unbearable. With all three parts of the test, I was in the "tube" for over an hour. While you are undergoing this test, there is not much you can do except pray. I had an awesome prayer time and covered lots of ground. If you are going through anything right now and I know about it, it's likely I prayed for you while in the "tube".
I won't know the results of this test before I leave town tomorrow. Please pray for positive test results! When I spend too much time thinking about it, my imagination (or SATAN), takes over and I get overwhelmed. That's the time that I just pray and know that God is in control.
Please pray for my sweet husband and two girls who left town this morning at 6 AM. They will be driving 12+ hours to Tallahassee, Florida to stay the night and then continue on to Tampa to pick me up at the airport. I am going to catch a flight after my chemo tomorrow. We will be spending a glorious week on the beach (Sarasota, Florida - Siesta Key Island) with my college roommate and her family (some extended too). We will return on July 13th. Just enough time for another chemo and some laundry before leaving again on the 17th for Pine Cove Family Camp. Thanks for your continued prayers and concern for me and my family! I truly am blessed to have each of you in my life!
I started my second half of chemotherapy on May 31. For those of you who don't remember, that was the last week of school. I attended Maddie's (my 4th grader) Celebration of Learning and had a wonderful friend from church pick me up afterwards to take me to my new doctor (whom I LOVE by the way). I had to see the doctor when I got there for the first visit, and we ended up waiting for over 1 1/2 hours for that part. When I got to the chemo part, it got very interesting! The chemo nurse tried to access my port, but as soon as she did, it hurt in my neck and my shoulder (never had done that before). When I told her that, she immediately told me she didn't feel comfortable doing chemo from my port, so she would have to search for a vein. O JOY!! She also sent me for a port study the next morning to see if anything was wrong with it. Long story short, during the port study, they found out my port had sprung a leak. I had to have the leaky one taken out and a new one put in on Friday, June 3 (first day of summer). Great way to start summer!! The good news was the doctor was able to use the current port "cubby hole" for the new one so I didn't have to get it on the other side. I am extremely grateful for Antoinetta (the chemo nurse) who caught the trouble.
The first full week of summer was FULL for sure! We had things like swim practice every day, two swim meets at night (lasting until 10 or later), dress rehearsal for Maddie's recital as well as the actual recital, the weekly chemo, and two days of planning for VBS at church. It was crazy busy! It was all fun stuff, but not relaxing like you think summer will be (at least not yet). The week following that was VBS at church. I had committed long ago (before diagnosis) to direct Maddie's 4th grade department for VBS and decided to stick with the commitment. Many thought I was a bit crazy to do so, but I knew I had fabulous teachers working with me and knew it would all work out great! We had to leave the house every morning by 7:45 and wouldn't get home typically before 2 or 3 (Mer and I would run errands and Maddie was practicing every day for the VBS musical that would be held on Friday night along with Family Fun Night). We also had another swim meet during VBS one night which meant we didn't get home and inn bed until after 10 again. Fun but a bit crazy! By Friday night of VBS, we were all tired. We attended FFN and musical at church and headed home around 8:30. This is when it got interesting!
We got the kids to bed and as I was walking through the den around 9:30, I had the immediate onset of the worst headache I have ever had. It stopped me, literally, in my tracks. I sat down on the couch, then laid down due to nausea, and decided to put myself to bed and hope the pain would go away. I was up off and on the whole night with the pain and nausea. The next morning, we had our last regular swim meet and had to leave the house by 7:30. I didn't want to miss, so I went along. We were outside until 1:00 pm. It was hot, but I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The nausea was gone, but the headache was still going strong!! By Sunday (Father's Day), it was still hurting all over my head, but was moving and began to hurt in my neck. We dropped Meredith off at church to leave for Camp Tallowood and headed home. Once I got home, I called the doctor (my doctor happened to be on call). After I described all of my symptoms to her, she decided it would be best if I went to the ER to have some tests run. She told me she would call ahead to let them know what she wanted to have done. We left Maddie at home (her choice, but not much later a great friend went by the house and picked her up for the afternoon) and headed to the ER. Sure enough, when we got there we didn't even have to wait. They had spoken with the doctor and knew she wanted a CAT scan of the brain and some blood work done. They started an IV and gave me meds that you would normally give a person having a migrane. Once all the tests were perfomed, they came in and said everything was normal and gave me a RX for a muscle relaxer and pain med. Throughout the course of the week, the headache continued to hurt in my head, but it gradually moved from my neck to my shoulders, through my back, and into my tailbone and down my legs. I joked that it was working itself out eventually b/c there wouldn't be anywhere else for it to go. Sometime during the week, I also started having very high-pitched ringing in my ears. It reminds my of how your ears feel after you have flown on an airplane and your ears havent' opened up again. Maddie attended a dance camp during the week and Mer was at Camp Tallowood all week. It was much more low key than the previous two weeks had been. I firmly believe that the headache was a result of overdoing things those first two weeks. I sometimes seem to forget that I am a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy weekly. The headache lasted 10 days. Then, last Tuesday, when I woke up to get ready for chemo - it was gone. YIPPEE!! When I got to the doctor, the nurse shared my joy but wanted me to see a neurologist in order to find out what might have caused it. More doctor appointments!!:( Let me just tell you how crazy last week was with all the appointments: Monday, met with gynecologist oncologist; Tuesday - chemo; Wednesday - met with neurologist who ordered 3 more tests; Thursday - held 7th grade girls bible study in the morning at my house then went back to neurologist to complete tests, had lunch at home, then went to meet potential plastic surgeon to discuss reconstruction; Friday - had MRI. Let me fill you in a little on each:
MONDAY - met with Dr. Barry Siller (recommended by not only my oncologist, but also a couple of friends/family who have had him as a doctor before). He is a gynecologist oncologist. He confirmed that he would not be doing the hysterectomy on the same day as my double masectomy and reconstruction (as I was first told). He said that after I had recovered from that surgery, he would bring me in for the hysterectomy. He told me I would be a candidate for laproscopy, but even if he had to do it by making an incision, the incision would only be 1-2 inches and recovery would be about the same - 10-14 days. Sounds easy enough after the first surgery recovery of 6-8 weeks. I really like him and will most likely use him for the hysterectomy.
TUESDAY - chemo was uneventful again - praise the Lord!!
WEDNESDAY - met with Dr. Sadeghi at the Houston Headache and Neurological Institute. He asked lots of questions and then ordered a stress test, a balance test, and an EEG to err on the side of caution and find out what might have caused the headache. Before I left there, I had the EEG done (it took longer to get the electrodes attached to my head than to perform the test - I don't know how they do it on someone that has a head full of hair :)).
THURSDAY - I held the 7th grade girls bible study at the house - it was great as usual. Afterwards, I headed back to the Headach Dr. to do the stress and balance tests. They were uneventful, so I considered that a blessing! I then went home to eat a quick lunch and go back to the doctor - this time to meet with a plastic surgeon, Dr. Derrik Lou. I really liked him, but WOW! was I overwhelmed when I left there. The only thing fully decided was that I would do "flap reconstruction" (not implants), which would give me a tummy tuck as well. One positive in the midst of all of this mess. When I begin to think about it again, I get overwhelmed again, so i try not to think about it too much. I'll think about it when the time comes, and I know God will prepare me for it!
FRIDAY - MRI! If you have been blessed enough to never have to endure an MRI, be extremely thankful!! The MRI was of my neck, then my brain, then my brain again with the contrast dye. Thankfully, I am not a claustrophobic person. The only way I can describe it is it say that it is the worst possible fire alarm sound you can imagine at different pitches and for different lengths of time right up next to your ears. Even with earplugs and another covering over my ears, it was almost unbearable. With all three parts of the test, I was in the "tube" for over an hour. While you are undergoing this test, there is not much you can do except pray. I had an awesome prayer time and covered lots of ground. If you are going through anything right now and I know about it, it's likely I prayed for you while in the "tube".
I won't know the results of this test before I leave town tomorrow. Please pray for positive test results! When I spend too much time thinking about it, my imagination (or SATAN), takes over and I get overwhelmed. That's the time that I just pray and know that God is in control.
Please pray for my sweet husband and two girls who left town this morning at 6 AM. They will be driving 12+ hours to Tallahassee, Florida to stay the night and then continue on to Tampa to pick me up at the airport. I am going to catch a flight after my chemo tomorrow. We will be spending a glorious week on the beach (Sarasota, Florida - Siesta Key Island) with my college roommate and her family (some extended too). We will return on July 13th. Just enough time for another chemo and some laundry before leaving again on the 17th for Pine Cove Family Camp. Thanks for your continued prayers and concern for me and my family! I truly am blessed to have each of you in my life!
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