{"id":252,"date":"2018-03-27T12:02:26","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T17:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/?p=252"},"modified":"2018-03-27T12:02:26","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T17:02:26","slug":"rude-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/rude-awakening\/","title":{"rendered":"Rude Awakening"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 15th Rude Awakening!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m still flying high from the benefit\/celebration but today was a rude awakening, a wake up call that I\u2019m still fighting this nasty disease. With everything that\u2019s been going on with the show, the song I recorded and the video, it seems as if I had forgot that I\u2019m still in treatment. Today I had to go for CHEMO #9.<\/p>\n

My friend and I jumped in the car like the normal routine. We got to the infusion room and checked in. As they got me ready for my chemo treatment I told them about the show and how incredible it was. All of a sudden I realized I forgot to put on the numbing cream on my port. Oh no is right!!! They give me chemo through a port in my chest and the numbing cream numbs the port so you don\u2019t feel them putting the needle in for the bag of chemo. I said to myself, \u201cHello, you are still in treatment how did you forget the numbing cream?!\u201d
\nThe nurse looked at me with the \u201cOh no\u201d look. She said I would be fine to not worry. Out of all of my chemo treatments I had never forgot to put the cream on.
\nShe pushed the needle in my port and oh yes it hurt but I was a big girl and didn\u2019t really show my pain. The nurse kept moving around the needle as if something wasn\u2019t right. She then said, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry but I have to take it back out and redo it\u201d. Really? The only time I forget to put the cream on and this is the only time they\u2019ve ever had to insert the needle twice. Ugh!! A definite reminder that I was still in treatment for cancer.<\/p>\n

During the infusion I ended up being the only patient getting treatment so we shared the video with some of the nurses. They loved it and asked if they could tell other patients about it. I said of course that the whole reason for the song was to help others.<\/p>\n

When I finished my treatment and went to schedule my next treatment a nurse asked me to show the rest of the staff the video. As we started to play it my doctor came walking down the hallway so she watched it with us. At the end, it seemed she had tears in her eyes as she walked away.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m really excited about the song and video and can\u2019t wait to share it with all of you. It will be soon!<\/p>\n

March 18 Sick Pappa<\/strong><\/p>\n

My daddy called me this morning and didn’t seem to be himself on the phone. He seemed a little out of it but I took it as he just woke up. I asked him if he was going to church and he said no that he forgot it was Sunday. I thought that was a little odd. We only talked a short time and then we hung up. A little while later my brother called and said daddy wasn\u2019t acting right so I told him to take him to the hospital and I would meet them there.
\nHe seemed a little slow thinking but could move all of his limbs, walk and he didn\u2019t have a slope to his face but he did have a stroke so they admitted him.
\nThe next day they did an MRI and ti showed a stroke but thank God it missed his mobility and his speech! He was in the hospital for a few days and then they moved him to a rehab facility.
\nHe\u2019s doing much better and the stroke seems to have only effected him a little. Hopefully he will get to go home soon. I sure hope so because the hospital is NOT a good place for me to be right now and yes I wore a mask.<\/p>\n

March 19th<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m also still having side effects from the chemo I was taking. Stomach issues, sore bones and muscles. I\u2019m still on one chemo so I\u2019m sure some of those side effects are effecting me as well. My taste is still not right but I can tolerate a lot more food these days. At least I\u2019m not spitting it back up on my plate. I really miss the taste of food. Two foods that I ate a lot were chicken and pasta. Right now chicken still doesn\u2019t taste right and red sauce for pasta tastes awful. I\u2019ve been told that when you take chemo it will take longer for you to get your taste back for the foods you eat the most. Dang, that seems true. Funny thing is is that sugar foods still taste good and remained tasting well during all of my chemo treatments. Something really bugs me about that. I\u2019ve blogged about that early in my posts. When doing a pet scan they run sugar water through your veins and cancer cells run to it and that lights up the pet scan to show if you have a tumor. So\u2026wanting to eat sugar the whole time while on chemo was it because it was the only thing that taste normal or does chemo or cancer cause your body to crave it? Which eating a lot of sugar is NOT good for a cancer patient.<\/p>\n

With all the chemo, the cancer, the doctors and treatment I\u2019ve also seen a holistic doctor. I believe both kinds of doctors are good to see. She put me on several herbs to help me. Not just for now but for long term healing from what the chemo has done or could do to my body especially my liver and my heart. My liver has been working overtime processing all the medicines and chemo\u2019s I\u2019ve taken and still take and the herceptin chemo I am currently on can effect my heart so I have to have echo grams every three months.<\/p>\n

March 20th<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today I started all my new herbs and it\u2019s the first day I started taking the estrogen blocker pill. I have to take this for 5 – 10 years. Ugh..I\u2019m not happy about it but it\u2019s the normal protocol for estrogen\/progesterone positive breast cancer. Once you\u2019ve had this type of cancer you need to eliminate as much estrogen as you can since that\u2019s what started the cancer. LADIES\u2026be careful if you are taking hormone replacement pills. Please have your estrogen levels tested often! Like every 6 months!!<\/p>\n

I met with my physical therapist this morning. She went over quite a few exercise\u2019s with me. The therapy is for my chest muscles. During my mastectomy\u2019s they removed my pec muscles, inserted the expanders and then reattach the muscles. In doing this my muscles need to be stretched back out again. They are very sore and my range of motion has been very limited. I can\u2019t lift my arms above my shoulders and if I push or pull anything it hurts.
\nI haven\u2019t been able to even put on a pull over shirt by myself.
\nThe exercise\u2019s she showed me hurt but will actually help me heal faster and I won\u2019t stay as sore. I haven\u2019t been able to lay on my sides at all which has severely effected my sleep. I can only lay on my back and I\u2019ve never been a back sleeper!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really hard to explain how these expanders feel inside. They are very uncomfortable and I\u2019m not supposed to lift anything over 5 pounds.
\nSometimes I get this weird feeling when I move a certain way. Like when you push in on a plastic bottle and it pops back out. Sometimes I feel like that happens.<\/p>\n

March 21<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today I had my first appointment to have my expanders filled. It was a bit uncomfortable to say the least. The expanders have a port in them so when the doctor fills them they have to inject a needle through your skin into the port for the fluid to go in. I have to go every week or every other week to have this done until we feel that I\u2019m good and ready for my final surgery. The schedule for fillings depends on how sore I am from the last one.<\/p>\n

There are so many little journeys you go through while going through this big cancer journey.
\nFirst it\u2019s the news of being told you have cancer. Then it’s putting together your team of doctors and figuring out your treatment. Then you start your treatments of chemo. As soon as you are done with chemo you have your surgery. As soon as you have healed enough from surgery you start your expander fills. Once that\u2019s done you head into your finally surgery. Heal from that and continue the new chemo treatment until the year ends from your very first chemo treatment. \u00a0Thank God I didn’t have to have radiation or that would be another little journey to add.
\nBasically as soon as you finish one thing you have to start another.<\/p>\n

On another note my dad is doing well and they are moving him to rehab tomorrow! Keep him in your prayers please.<\/p>\n

March 22<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not much to report today other than I\u2019m going crazy not being able to much. The weather is getting warmer and spring is in the air. I now sit daily and look out my windows and see all the yard work that needs to be done. How my flower beds need to be cleaned out, things that need to power washed and so on and I can\u2019t do much of anything. Like I\u2019ve said before, I am not one that normally sits for along time or a couch potato watching TV. Through the winter was hard enough but because it was cold I couldn\u2019t do much of anything outside anyway but now that it\u2019s spring it is really bugging me to not be able to do much. It\u2019s hard when you physically feel better but are still limited to what you can do. I can\u2019t even play my guitar because it sits right under my incisions from surgery or play it with a guitar strap on because the strap lays across my pec muscle. I use my guitar to write songs. If I\u2019m not playing music on the road I\u2019m writing it or working in my studio. If I\u2019m not doing that I\u2019m outside doing yard work or remodeling things. Those things are therapy for me. So it\u2019s TV, movies, read a book or eat. Not sure if I handle 6 more months of this good Lord! Hopefully things change or I\u2019m going to have to have a talk with my doctor. I can\u2019t golf or even get in the water to swim because of my port. Two of my biggest hobbies in the summer.
\nBut\u2026.again I remind myself of what my doctor said. \u201cYou are in a marathon and your are trying to sprint through it. You can\u2019t sprint through a marathon so stop it and accept that 1.5 years of your life is dedicated to fighting cancer\u201d.
\nI sure would love to be able to mow my front pasture though!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 15th Rude Awakening! I\u2019m still flying high from the benefit\/celebration but today was a rude awakening, a wake up call that I\u2019m still fighting this nasty disease. With everything that\u2019s been going on with the show, the song I recorded and the video, it seems as if I had forgot that I\u2019m still in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitacochranmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}