Warrior Not Worrier

Hi family! Today I woke up with that song in my head, "Ohhh Ohh! We're halfway there! Ohhh Ohh! Living on a prayer!!!" Let's be honest, that's all the lyrics I know. But today is my eighth treatment of chemo and that means I only have eight more to go. I am actually at my infusion right now and am hoping that my labs are good and I can actually have the treatment.  Okay so as far as an update things have been good. I have had three treatments of the new medicine that is supposed to be easier on my body overall. After the first one (round 5), I started to experience some vertigo but none of the overwhelming fatigue. Then once I completed round 6, I got really sick all kinds of stomach upset- I'll spare you the details. But luckily round 7, which was last week over Christmas was overwhelmingly easy and I am hopeful round 8 will be more of the same. No matter what, I'll get through it.  Yesterday, I went back to Moffitt and met with the plastic surgeon. She w...

Oh my goodness- it's almost been a month since I posted. So much has happened so let's get into it! Round Three left me feeling exhausted. It was the first time that I had several times when I was trying to accomplish something- clean up a room, for example, and I had to physically sit down. That was happening a lot. The first week after treatment, I was moving really slow, not feeling awful- but moving slower and not accomplishing as much. By the week after though I was feeling great! Totally back to myself.  Round Four was interesting because I had a new nurse and from the beginning I could tell she didn't really know what she was doing. She used her hand and massaged my port for a good two minutes prior to inserting the needle and kept asking me if it moved or shifted. I was like, I don't think so? I'm thinking, how would I know? Then, when she inserted the needle, she didn't access the port and then kept moving the needle all around in my skin. OUCH! Anyway,...

Hi family! Well, I'm officially bald. I have never been bald in my life. I was born with a head full of hair so it's interesting to see my head. It's a little pale and I had a dream one night that I had a huge ridge in the middle. Thank goodness there's no ridge. I'm not walking around without a head covering yet. Nor am I in a rush to show it to anyone, but I'm bald and all things considered it's not too bad. I said from the beginning, it's just hair and if what is being done to my hair is any indication of what is being done to my cancer, good riddance! Other symptoms of chemotherapy that I am experiencing, I have black patches on my tongue. I look like a Chow dog except with no hair so not as cute. I also have to pee all the time. Like run to the bathroom pee. It's not cute. None of it's cute, but I'm doing okay. The best symptom I just noticed is the size of the lymph node under my arm. It has gone down so much. It hurt a couple days whic...

 Hi family! Just a few quick updates... I am home from Round 2 of chemotherapy. It was more of the same, except today I moved on up out of my suite and into a private room. With a view! Just kidding about the view part, but I did have a private room. Takers??? It was kind of funny because the window in my room faced a wall and because I was at the Cancer Institute all I could see on the wall was the word, Cancer. Just in case I forgot why I was there. Hahaha! Anyway, back to the updates: #1- My hair is falling out. A lot. Nothing too noticeable I would say for anyone else yet. But I lost so much when I was styling it yesterday that I knew it was time to break out my new wigs. I will definitely cut it this weekend. I wore a wig today for the first time and obviously have a lot to learn, but I'm going to figure it out. I am just grateful that my family and friends got together and purchased them for me so I can try to still feel put together. #2- Genetics appointment says I do not ha...

Well, I'm a week out from my first round of chemo. And, thankfully, I don't have much to report. I definitely felt the worst last Monday, the day of treatment, and have felt consistently better every single day. To most women, I can kind of describe my symptoms as how I felt during my first trimester. I know that's different for everyone, but I felt tired and had low-grade nausea that would sometimes be worse than others.  Medically, there has been little to report. On the day after treatment, at 3:00 I remembered I was supposed to get the shot. Bryson (my future scientist) was fascinated by this device so I told him it should be happening soon and then nothing. So, we forgot about it and then around 3:50-ish it started buzzing and beeping and CLICK! Totally accurate description of it feeling like a rubber band pop. My brother used to pop me with rubber bands all the time when we were kids. So, I guess he was getting me ready for this. Thanks, LeVar! My diet has changed, to...

 Hey everybody! Long time no speak. We can all thank Milton for that. But, all things considered, no complaints. I have been writing this post in my head for days, so I apologize in advance if it's all over the place. I'll try to keep it together.  STORM RECAP- Where do I begin? My sister, Shanté has a bit (and by bit, I mean more than an excessive amount) of hurricane anxiety. Another thing about my sister is she takes very, very good care of me. She shares everything with me. So, she even shared her hurricane anxiety, which I promptly shared with Brandon. We stocked the house, got enough gas to make it to my mom's house, charged our devices, and waited for Milton. He was a loud one. We lost a bit of our fence which we should be able to fix. Our power flickered a few times, but we kept it the whole time. And we lost our wi-fi until Sunday. I am so grateful for minimal issues because we saw so many people with severe damage, I won't complain for a few days without wi-fi...