Chemo 10 - 6 more!

Here for chemo #10 today. My counts were great today so that is definitely a praise to God. 

Also, I've been eating a lot of spinach. Like, a LOT of spinach. 2-3 servings per day. It tastes really good to me right now. Maybe my body is just craving whatever the spinach is giving me and that helped my counts too. 

6 more treatments to go, then I'll have a 3 week break during which I will be re-scanned. Either a PET or an MRI. Not sure yet. After the 3 week break I will have surgery. I have opted for a bilateral mastectomy. The surgeon will take both breasts, all the lymph nodes under my left arm, the skin of my left breast, and as much breast tissue as they can from both sides. After the surgery will be radiation but I'm not sure on how soon after surgery that will start. 

I'm just praying that the chemo has killed all the cancerous cells and the surgery and radiation will be more to confirm that than anything else. 

We were back on track with cookie boy today. He only had 2 flavors but he had a TON of them he had to give away. And he offered them to the nurses, which was sweet. 

Brian swears I am growing tiny white hairs on my head. I don't see them-but maybe. It's not unheard of on this drug for hair to start growing again. Only head hair though. My eyebrows and eyelashes are continuing to thin. Here comes Voldemort. :-/

Still praying big. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. It means the world to me!

Chemo 9 - 7 more

So yesterday we woke up super early (4am) and turned on the tv to see what was going on with the big storm we heard all night. And we quickly realized that getting to the medical center would be tricky. We were ready to leave by 7:30 but sat and watched the news and tried to figure out a route that wasn't under water. The people from the cancer center called me around 8 and said not to come in. I kept thinking that they would call me to come in later yesterday afternoon, but they didn't. So I texted my oncologist last night to see if I should just show up today or wait for them to call me to reschedule. She texted the infusion charge nurse and they decided to fit me in today. 

We left at 6:45 this morning and had a smooth ride here. I got in right away and got my labs done. All was good. White blood count was good and so were the platelets. So those guys need to keep it up! 

I love my sweet nurse that I had today (I've had her before) and it was very slow and quiet here this morning. So things went very smoothly and quickly. 

I've never had chemo on Tuesday and we got to see that on Tuesday there is a cookie LADY, instead of cookie boy. My nurse said she prefers cookie boy to cookie LADY because cookie boy always offers her one, but cookie LADY is somewhat stingy with her cookies. So I got the scoop on the cookie drama. :-)

I should go back to my normal Monday infusions next week. 

Still praying big. Thank you to everyone for praying with us. 

(This is what it looks like after they access my port and hook up my chemo. It is a sterile procedure and I have to turn my head away while they do it so I don't breathe on the area before it is covered up.)

Chemo 8 - halfway done

I almost named this post YAY PLATELETS cause they came back up. Chemo last week was a no-go due to low platelets. So I talked to my platelets all last week/weekend and prayed that they would come up and they did. Now my white blood count is low. So I'll talk to those guys this week and pray over them. And the platelets. I will also give myself my shots this week which should help the white blood count. 

My oncologist is not concerned with the other numbers that are low (L) or high (H) so I'm not too worried either. 

I have been having pain in my breast and under my arm this whole time - that's what I felt before I could even feel the lumps. The pain has continued during chemo. My oncologist said its not normal, but also not unheard of. Some people can feel the tumor shrinking. So that's what I tell myself this is. Pain from the cancer dying. So I talk to it too when I feel pain. I just say "get out of my body." So if you see me talking to myself aloud, I have not gone off the deep end just yet. You are welcome to tell it to get the hell out as well. 

Cookie boy was training a new cookie boy today. He had a little trouble getting rid of his cookies today. Brian got 2 but cookie boy came back twice offering more. We declined. 

My oncologist's sweet nurse went in an hour early today to access my port and draw my blood so I could go get another echo of my heart to check on it from the first chemo drugs that I had. We brought her a Starbucks to thank her. She is so nice!

My oncologist did an exam today and said that just by feeling the breast and underarm, there has been considerable shrinkage. She actually said "it's showing a really good response to chemo." Which is huge for her to say cause she's not exactly the most upbeat person. (For what it's worth, if I had to talk/think/diagnose cancer all day, I would have a hard time being upbeat. Thank God kindergarten is way more fun than that!) Anyway, it made me feel a little better to hear that because I worried all week last week that with me missing chemo it might start to grow or spread. And all I could do was pray that it never, ever grows or spreads or comes back anywhere in my body. And talk to my platelets. So that's what I did for a week. I actually want the chemo every week because I need it to kill every cancerous cell in my body. I wish it didn't make all my hair fall out (even my eyebrows are looking sad) but if that's what it takes to kill it, I'll gladly trade looking like Voldemort for having cancer. 

People have been so kind to send cards and emails and texts and pray for me and our family. I appreciate it so much! More than I could ever say. We will take all the prayers we can get.