I'm Not Fighting Cancer Alone!

Dinner with Anne and Eric. Dinner with Frankie and Matt. NYE with Brandi, Max, Jason and Ryan.

My hair is growing back!

At the hospital getting ready for the implant surgery.

My last post was right after the mastectomy. Frankie took great care of me till I was good enough to go home. Love you tootsie! 😘 And I had the pleasure of lunch or dinner or homemade meals with a million friends during my recovery. Thank you all! At the time of the surgery they put in expanders to stretch the muscle and skin to make room for the permanent implants. So I went once a week to slowly have them expanded. It took about 10 weeks. They hurt WAY more than they said it would. Like the kind of pain that makes you want to puke! But I had plenty of muscle relaxers and pain meds. The only thing about all those meds is you're tired all the time and not allowed to drive. So I had to be choosy about when I took them so I could still function during the day. After the expanders are the size you want you have to wait a couple more weeks before the permanent implants can go in. Well yesterday I had the surgery to make the switch! This means I'm almost ready to go back to work! It's a short procedure, only about 6 hours at the hospital. Once again it hurts WAY more than they said it would. But it should only be a few days this time. It's all bandaged up so I can't see how they look! Bandages come off next Tuesday. Really looking forward to going back to a normal life! As normal as it can be. I still go for infusions of Herceptin every three weeks, it only takes about 2 hours and I still have my favorite nurses. Plus I will take a drug for five years that the simple explanation is that it hides the estrogen from your body as to not fuel any new cancer growth. Bonus with that drug is hot flashes! For five years! Damn. Thanks for checking on me! 💗😘💞 Nancy

On October 26 I had surgery. Because my grandmother had breast cancer twice in her lifetime, I decided to have a double mastectomy. It was a tough decision but I know it is the right decision. I spent two nights in the hospital where I mostly slept and pressed the "automatic give me more drugs" button! As soon as it turns green you can press it for more pain medication. If I was awake, I was pressing that button!!!! Frankie, Jason and his parents, Anne and Eric, spent a lot of time at the hospital with me. I'm sure it was pretty exciting watching me sleep! After I was released I went to Frankies house so she can take care of me, make sure I'm taking medication and take care of the surgical drains. She's making sure I'm comfortable, fed and drugged up! It's a pretty big incision so pain meds were a must! I'm going home for the weekend so I can spend some time with Jason. I've missed him!!! Thanks to everyone for all the cards, emails, texts, visits, lunch outings and flowers!!! 💞😘💗Nancy

It's been over a month since my last post! The last one was a few weeks after my last infusion of chemo. Chemo sticks around for a while in your body! I seemed to feel more tired after chemo rather than during chemo. That seemed weird to me. The doc says that's normal while your body recovers from all of those drugs. Since chemo ended my hair has started growing back, it's very soft and fuzzy like a baby bird! In October my daughter, with help from some friends, organized a fundraiser for me to help with copays and living expenses while I'm off work for surgery. It was so much fun! We had a wonderful dinner and great entertainment from DJ Sam for the first part of the night and then the band Social Therapy rocked us into the night! I have so many people to thank! First of all my wonderful daughter for the months of hard work and her amazing organizational skills! The night was perfect! I love you Tootsie! Thanks to McKenzie Brew House for letting us host the event there. To Thompson Entertainment for letting us have DJ Sam. To Social Therapy for coming out to play for us! You rocked it! Thanks to everyone who made the loooong drive alllll the way to Malvern to attend! To my family for traveling all the way from Colorado, Tennessee and Michigan. Thank you to all the individuals and businesses that donated the fantastic prizes and beautiful baskets that were raffled off. It was all so generous! Thank you to all the volunteers that worked that night to help make the night run smoothly. Couldn't have happened without you! Thank you to all of the many people who took the valuable time out of their lives to attend the event and also for spending their hard earned money on raffles to raise funds for me!! I'm so grateful and appreciative to each one of you! It was wonderful to see you there! I love you all! I wish happiness and good health to you and your families! Nancy 💗😘💞

It's been three weeks since my last chemo. The last one hit me pretty hard. I was very tired, achy and just generally feeling crappy. But that was only for a few days. Now I'm just tired some of the days. I actually feel pretty lucky, I could have felt that way the whole way through, not just the last few weeks! People have asked me how I can stay so positive through all of this. Here's how I look at it. They tell you you have cancer. But we have something for that. You'll feel like crap, loose your hair, we'll remove your breasts. Then there's radiation too. Oh by the way this will take about a year. And I said "sign me up!" You just do what you have to do. Besides I have wonderful people, including the medical staff, around me to help me along the way. Frankie and Jason have been great! I love you! Today is the first infusion of Herceptin. I will go every three weeks until May for it. It's a very mild type of chemo that helps fight the specific type of cancer I have. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has donated to my YouCaring page and to everyone who is planning on attending the fundraiser! Frankie has a lot of fun stuff planned for the evening! 💗😘💞 Nancy

#6 Last chemo! My nurses Shannon & Amy and my daughter. 💗😘💞

I had my 6th and last chemo infusion last Wednesday! I'm glad for that part to be over! Eighteen weeks is a long time, the whole summer! Looking forward to feeling like myself again in the next few weeks. No more feeling tired and yucky, no more sexy diarrhea! Looking forward to things tasting good again. It's a weird thing, food has a seriously gross texture in your mouth and most things don't taste good! Surprising enough, water doesn't taste good either. Yeah, water! To have something good to drink I made a purée of strawberries, mint & lime and mix it with club soda. Very refreshing! Looking forward to my hair growing back! Not just the hair in my head. You loose your eyebrows too. The bonus is you can draw them on however you want! Nice high arch! You also loose your nose hair! As appealing as no nose hair sounds, that hair is there for a reason! It keeps dust, allergens and bugs (yes, bugs) out of your nose! I have inhaled no less than 3 gnats!! For the last chemo I had my regular nurses Amy, Shannon and Jen. They are great. I will still go every three weeks for infusions of Herceptin until next May so I will still get to see them! Maybe bring donuts for them! As always my lovely daughter, Frankie was there too. Thank you for all you do for me tootsie! Thank you all for your kind words and prayers! They are working! 💗😘💞 Nancy

Treatments 1, 2 and 5. Only one more to go!

My daughter has done so many wonderful things for me! Thank you tootsie! She has an extra bedroom in her house so she got it ready for me to stay with her when I don't feel good. I'll stay there too after surgery so she will be able to care for me when I can't care for myself. I've already stayed there a few days during the week for a couple of weeks, it has been really great to spend the time with her! Plus she's already a good cook so we've had plenty of good meals! 😉 She did a beautiful job furnishing and decorating the room! It's mostly white, cream and grey colors with some sparkly accents, very girly and very comfortable! Nice comfy cushy bed! Another wonderful thing she did was organize a fundraiser for me! I'll need a little help with copays and taking care of household bills while I'm off work for surgery. Thank you to Kristen for all the help she is giving Frankie with the fundraiser! They have a lot of fun events planned for it and my brother in law, Ryan's band Social Therapy will be playing! They rock and always put on a good show! Here's the link to the evite in case you haven't seen it yet. http://evite.me/bA7Fv7fDaf I hope to be there so I can see everyone! (It depends on when surgery will be scheduled) Thanks for all the kind words and messages! Thanks for checking on me 💗😘💞

Today I had my 5th infusion, only one more to go! I had the consultation and exam with Dr. Szarka and Nurse Shannon this morning before the infusion. I still have that sexy diarrhea every morning (since May!) but I feel like I have it under control with meds to limit it to a few hours in the morning then I can get on with my day and still go to work. Dr. Szarka wanted to lower the amount of one of the four chemo meds to try to help with it. I said no! I'm dealing with it okay and don't want to lower the chemo! I only have six more weeks to go, I can handle it!!! This last chemo hit me a little harder than the previous ones. I was tired more often and for longer periods of time. On some days I sleep as much as 10-12 hours! And I had a little more achy bone pain from the Neulasta. (The automatic shot giver that helps the bone marrow) Also a little more nausea but I have good meds for that! But it's only six more weeks, I can deal with it!!! Dr. Szarka said my blood tests came back great! People usually have a diminished liver function by the 5th chemo, but I have had none! She also did an exam of the breast and couldn't find the lump! I can still feel something so I pointed out to her where I feel it. She thinks it's just a fibrous area and not the tumor! She said if she never knew I had a tumor, she wouldn't have thought I have one now! This is GREAT news!!! Soon it will be time to have a consult with the surgeon and plastic surgeon to give me options. Could be a lumpectomy, mastectomy or double mastectomy. To me this is scarier than the chemo. Surgery is a big deal and a long recovery period. I won't be able to work during that time. THATS scary! Thank you to everyone for the calls, texts and emails...it really means a lot to know you're thinking about me and my family. I love them all. And I love you! Thanks also to my co-workers for picking up shifts, staying late or coming in early. It's nice to see how much you care! 💗😘💞 Thanks for checking on me 💗😘💞

CHEMO # 5 !!! From the top: my other fav nurse, Jen. My fabulous oncologist, Dr. Szarka. My beautiful daughter, Frankie.

Chemo # high five ! With my fav nurses Amy and Shannon !

I'm at the doc office having my chemo infusion, the doc did an exam of my breast. She couldn't find the lump!!! WOW!!!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE EYEBROWS MAKE!

I had my fourth treatment last Wednesday! Past the half way mark! I had my favorite nurses, Amy, Shannon and Jen again. Jason's mom, Anne, drove me and as a surprise spent the whole day with me! She's delightful so it made the day go by quickly! And as always, Frankie picked me up at the end. 😘 In the morning, before treatment starts, you have a meeting with your nurse to talk about how things are going with side effects and general well being. I actually felt really, really good between treatments 3 and 4! Just a little tired some days! I felt so good, in fact, that I asked her "are you sure you gave me chemo?" !!! She smiled and started looking through my file so I asked "are you checking?!" She wanted to see if the dosage was lowered the last time. It wasn't. She said "this means you're strong". I like to think I am, so this makes me feel good! 😊 My oncologist, Dr. Szarka is still on vacation so I saw Dr. Ristogi again. At first I didn't like that I wasn't seeing my usual doctor then I realize that I have TWO wonderful women as my doctors! Dr. Ristogi did an exam of my breast. She had a hard time finding the lump! It's defiantly getting smaller! She put an arm around my shoulders and said into me ear "it's working". This made me cry. I'm so glad Anne was there to share my happy tears!!! Thanks for checking on me! 💗😘💞