Round 3--done

Well, I am officially half way through my chemo. Finished round 3 a week ago. This time, my body has definitely been beat down a little more. The actual chemo and lumbar puncture in the hospital were easy, but once I got home, my system took a hit. The first few days, it was hard for me to catch my breath, so I hung out in bed most of the time. Fine by me, but not much fun to get winded from just walking to the kitchen or making food.  I have a really hard time sleeping at night now, which is very different for me. I used to be a great sleeper.  My appetite has always been good, which keeps my energy up.  Some minor body aches from the Newlasta shot I get (to stimulate bone marrow production). Something new I do get is sternal and rib cage pain from the shot though, which is really painful and feels like heartburn. Luckily, taking just one Vicodin does the trick , and it goes away.  Not very fun, but now I know how to deal with it.  Up till now, each round of Chemo has been increased by 20% each time, since my body has been responding and doing well with that schedule. But for now, my doc thinks he will either keep my chemo the same for round 4, or decrease it by 20%. He said this is my "sweet spot" where my body is affected a lot, but just enough to not be dangerous to my system.  So if I can keep this amount, it will be perfect for me.  One of the chemo drugs affects nerves, so the tips of each of my fingers are numb. The feeling will come back though once I am done with all the chemo.  Since I am half way through now, they are doing another PET CT scan tomorrow to see how the treatment is affecting the cancer.  I am so ready for this all to be done and over with, I miss working. The hardest part of this has not been the chemo, it has been staying home. It is very isolating, and makes me really miss my old life when I was busy all the time.  I cant wait to go back to work.

Getting ready for another week at Hotel Mission

Well, I can honestly say I have been feeling pretty great.  Much more energy after round 2 than round 1 of my chemo.  My appetite and energy was much better, and I was able to do more around the house, study, take better care of Rhino, and even go to the gym.  This past week I had a little bit of a cold, but my blood counts have never been better, and my doctor is yet again increasing my chemo by 20%.  This is a good thing, because they want to give me the safest level that my body can tolerate without knocking me down too hard.  I will be going into the hospital for another week this Monday, so I am looking forward to spending time with Richie this weekend, and getting to see a lot of our friends for superbowl.  I really miss working, and cant wait to get the ok to go back. Staying at home all day has been the most difficult part form me, just because Richie is gone for 12 hours, and it makes for a lot of time to keep busy.  Im pretty sick of tv, so a hike with a friend, lunch dates, and just running errands is much appreciated since its nice to get out and just be around other people. One thing that is kind of different is the fact that now I get to wear fake eyelashes. They took a while to figure out how to work them, but they are pretty fun.

Round 2

Well, I am back at Hotel Mission for the next week. Round 2 of my chemo started yesterday, and so far so good. Feeling pretty well, walking around my floor, reading, doing homework, chatting with my visitors, and just relaxing.  Tomorrow I have a spinal tap, where they will do in and take a sample of my spinal fluid, and also put some chemotherapy in that space to make sure all my cells are treated.  This time was much easier, since I still have my central line in my arm, I didn't have to be poked at all. Just hooked up and got started. I miss my little dog Rhino, but Richie is taking care of him, and he has his best friend/sister Zoey to play with at home. My appetite is starting to go down, but thats ok, once I get home it will be better. Love you all !!!

My fundraiser was a HUGE success !

I have the best support system, hands down !! Last night was the fundraiser Lizette set up for me at Chili's. There were over 100 people there, I couldn't believe it.  The restaurant was packed.  At times there was even a 45 minute wait. There were awesome friends, some friends I haven't seen since elementary and high school, family, co-workers, nursing school friends, doctors, bike crews, and even firefighters.  I was overwhelmed with all the support.  At the end of the night, the manager said it was the highest turnout for a fundraiser he had ever seen.  Everyone that was there last night had checks totaling up to over $4,500 which is unbelievable really.  My portion of that was $700, my donation box had $660 in it, and my co-workers had wristbands made that completely sold out in about an hour.  Overall, we raised over $1300 last night. HUGE success,but I couldn't have done it without everyone's help.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported me, who came out last night, and has taken time out of their life to make a difference in mine. I love you all, and am so blessed to have your love and support.  YOU ROCK !!!!

I finally set up a donation fund

For those of you that asked me if I had a donation account set up, I signed up for a paypal account. At first I wasn't going to, but I got an overwhelming amount that asked me, and a lot of people that wanted to donate directly rather than through a fundraiser that would only donate a percentage toward us. My email for the account I set up is Nurselisa29@gmail.com Thanks everyone in advance for all your support.

Nah Nah Nah Nah.....Hey Hey Hey......Goodbye !!

My mop was thinning out quickly, which was not good for my mental sanity. I had my wonderful husband shave my head. I think he thought I went nuts, and I cried for a minute, but I think he did a darn good job :)

My Fundraiser

I am so excited to be given the opportunity to do a fundraiser to assist with some of the costs of my treatment.  It will be at Chili's Restaurant off Crown Valley in Mission Viejo on January 12th from 4pm till close.  I am warning you all now, I will have a shaved head by then too, but don't worry I am gonna rock it ! Yesterday I noticed my hair shedding 10 times more than normal, and in the shower the same.  For my mental sanity, I decided I am going to shave my head before it falls out. For me, it is less traumatic, and it's one way I can have some control over this cancer.

As many of you know, Richie is in the military, so we have Tricare health insurance. They are truly amazing, and are covering nearly 100% of all my treatments.  We are truly blessed to have this insurance, because I have heard cancer treatment beginning to end can actually run upward of a million dollars.  Well, with any regular insurance, we would have (at the very minimum ) copays and/or a percentage we would be responsible for. With those kinds of figures, you can imagine even being responsible for 10% of a million is a huge amount.  The one thing Tricare does not cover was fertility treatment, which I was told I needed to do prior to starting chemotherapy.  I had to take hormones, and retrieve my eggs so they were waiting for me after treatment.  It was really hard to say if I would be able to get pregnant on my own after, so we decided this was something we wanted to do.  Once chemo starts, and it starts killing away various cells in my body, there was no turning back.  So we harvested my eggs, and we have 7 fertilized healthy little embryos to go back to once I get the "all clear" from my doctor.  Many of you probably haven't looked into this, god knows I hadn't before I was diagnosed. But fertility is like plastic surgery....... most insurances do NOT cover it (mostly because it's not medically necessary) and everything is to be paid in full up front.  LIVESTRONG offers a program that I qualified for that cuts the cost down, which does help tremendously, but the cost is still pretty high, totaling quite a few thousand dollars.  Because I am a nurse in the same building as my fertility doctor, and because the reason I went to see him and the time constraint we had to get started asap, he is allowing me to make payments (something his office really doesn't do).  We are doing this fundraiser to assist  with these costs, and saving some to supplement my paychecks a little since I am on disability through the end of my treatment.

So many people have already responded they are coming, and most of them are bringing friends and family with them too.  I am blown away at the kind of support I have received from everyone.  People that I see often, down to friends I haven't seen since I was little. Everyone has stepped up in a unique way, and all together it has provided me with so much strength that I feel like I can do anything, including beating this thing and moving forward with my life in a big way.  I have a little motto for my treatment, and even when I am having moments I am scared or sad, I allow myself to feel sad for a few minutes, but then tell myself this .....................................CALM DOWN, I'VE GOT THIS !!!!