Journey to Healing

January 1, Happy New Year Had to head back home from the lake.  It was so nice being there.  Driving back home with my watery eyes was a bit of a problem but I drove slow. Sorry it's been awhile since I've written.  Haven't had too much to say and haven't done very much.  Since my last chemo...chemo #5, it has taken just about 20 days to recover from most of the side effects.  Each treatment takes longer because the chemo treatments are accumulative..it all keeps adding up in your body. My watery eyes and nose hasn't stopped since the last chemo.  The nurses said it's from the Docetaxel chemo I'm on.  It's really bad and caused the skin around my eyes to stay raw. I've also had the same side effects that I've always had with the … [Read more...] about Welcome 2018!!

Dec 21 Had to have fluids again this morning. Trying to do everything I can to hopefully feel better on Christmas. It took them quite a while to get me in the infusion room but I told them I had to get back there because I had another doctors appointment in Nashville that I had to get to. Once I got back there it took about two hours to get the fluids. Yesterdays appointment at the Vanderbilt Osher Center went well. I’m glad I went. They deal with a lot of mental, physical and spiritual health needs. It’s really a great facility for anyone who is going through breast cancer. They can set you up with yoga classes, acupuncture, therapists, groups at Gilda’s club and so on. Was pretty tired after being at the doctors all day so we went home … [Read more...] about Christmas/New Year 2017

Dec 8-17th Sorry I’ve been behind in my blogging. Chemo #4 has been a rough one. Side effects have lasted a lot longer than the others. The bone pain from the Nuelasta in my sternum and in my feet lasted much longer than the other times. Also the numbness in my feet always gets worse when I lay down so that really interferes with my sleeping. So thankful that my best friend from high school could come and stay with me. Sure wouldn’t have wanted to be alone! She’s the best friend ever. She also married one of my best cousins Chuck that use to play in the family band with me when we were kids up until I was about 25 so now she’s family! She stayed with me for two weeks while my main caretaker was out of town. Her boss let her work from my … [Read more...] about Christmas Chemo Dec. 22 post

Nov 20th I manage to sleep a few hours last night! I remember watching the clock until about 1:30am and then I looked again and it was 4:30am. That’s exciting to me lol. 3 hours!! Got up and had waffles with orange juice and coffee. Though I slept some last night, I was up 3 times with stomach issues in the bathroom so I started taking my stomach medicine again to help prevent that. I’ve never been one to take medicine. I have to have a really bad head ache to even take and Aleve or anything. All these new meds I’ve been giving I’m trying to only take when I need to. Chemo is so harmful to your body that I don’t want to add any other problems by taking all this medicine. My doctor already said that my liver enzymes were elevated and … [Read more...] about Chemo #4!

Nov 15th - 17th Before you start your chemo treatments they tell you that after each one you will feel worse because the chemo’s are accumulative. You only flush so much of it out of your system. After this last Chemo round I’ve noticed that my energy level has really dropped. I wake up in the mornings and have the best of intentions of getting my “to do list” done. I have my breakfast, take my meds and vitamins and then start on my list. Usually around 1pm I now have to lay down on the couch and once the couch gets me it’s very difficult to get up for the rest of the day. This have been very hard on me because I’ve never been a couch potato. This seems to have become my new normal as my treatments continue. My doctor said that after … [Read more...] about Chemo’s Getting Harder

Sept 18th "Test For Chemo" Today my oncologist scheduled lab work and echo cardiogram on me to make sure my body could handle chemo. I was worried my heart would have an issue with the chemo but thank God all the tests showed that I was in good shape and I could proceed with my treatment plan. Finally some tests came back with good news. Sept 19th "Lymph Node Test" My oncologist wanted me to have my lymph nodes tested and wondered why they hadn’t been tested before. She wanted to be 100 percent sure they were clear. So at 8am I headed to my surgeon and had the biopsy done - two lymph nodes that are closest to my lump in my breast. My surgeon thought bringing me in for a biopsy on my lymph nodes was a little overkill since the … [Read more...] about Treatment Begins