31 Days: NFL in the Pink

Did you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month? 

31 Days of Breast Cancer Awareness... Today is Day 3.

Yesterday I returned home in the evening, totally exhausted, after a lovely baby shower for my daughter; which was hosted by her mother- and sister-in-law and good family friend, Paula. Mark had a lovely pasta dinner in the works and the TV tuned into a football game. He asked me if I knew that the NFL was taking part in Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I did not, but then as I saw the pink ribbons on helmets, pink glove and shoes, I began to wonder. Now.... if each player would donate a portion of their NFL pay to fight and research breast cancer wouldn't that be cool. And if they are just wearing pink to bring attention, why can't they do more? Especially since they have probably plunked down a bunch of money for all this "pink promotion". 

Sometimes I have to catch myself from being too cynical. And it seems they are doing more than just wearing pink. You can bid on exclusive NFL pink products. Now I may not be doing any of the bidding, considering what some of the bids have already gotten to. But it looks like there will be a nice donation going to the American Cancer Society once this campaign has finished. So bid often, and bid a lot! Don't be shy -- lets find a cure to this horrible illness that has affected more than 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the US today; the most common form of cancer among women in the US.

Hugs,

Debbie... aka the cancer warrior ... AND SURVIVOR!!!

LIVESTRONG: 

I AM STRONG. I AM LOVED. I AM HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!

31 Days: Four Awesome Survivors

31 Days of Breast Cancer Awareness... Did you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

Sonoma holds a farmer's market at the town plaza, right square dab in the heart of our little down town, every Tuesday evening from Spring through Fall. Mark and I meet up there most weeks with a group of great friends, the majority of which have been home winemaking with us for years, under the tutelage of master home winemaker Gino Sperring. We each arrive with a bottle of wine and tasty nibble to share with our group, and talk, laugh, eat, drink, shop for the top produce and other food products of the area, and just relax and enjoy good friends. And I was able to meet up most weeks this year, even through chemotherapy and such.

Sad as it may seem, there are now four of us from this group who belong to the club of cancer survivorship, and we all celebrated some milestones at a recent gathering. In 2011, Jo celebrates 10 years as a cancer survivor, Steve celebrates one year; and this very night Mike celebrates 5 years and I am celebrating the end to radiation and most major treatment for this year.... and anxiously await January when I will celebrate one year as a survivor.

What better way to celebrate than with a group of such wonderful friends. A toast to the four of us and many more years of farmer market gathering at the Sonoma Plaza!

Here's to all the cancer survivors out there, especially to the breast cancer survivors on this October 1st, Breast Cancer Awareness Day and Month.

We are all ... SURVIVORs!!!

LIVESTRONG: 

WE ARE STRONG. WE ARE LOVED. WE ARE HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!

L-R: Mike, Jo, Steve, Debbie

Hugs,

Debbie

When Do I Become a Survivor

RIGHT NOW ~ As Kris Karr says, -- why wait?

And I like this take. After all, I am surviving every day right now. So from now on, I am Debbie... aka the cancer warrior; AND survivor .

Today was a crazy day with lots of visitors, food drop offs, egg pick ups, and an overall day with Sarah, finished up with a visit and dinner with Ada. I even helped with chores this morning, and that felt good. So you could say that this was an improvement over the "woe is me, down in the dumps" day of yesterday; THANK GOODNESS!!

Mike, Gail, and Carol all stopped by separately to visit and drop off a lovely selection of home cooked frozen items we will have later when we need them. Then Kate stopped by for eggs and a visit. And lastly, Carmen delivered a lovely food bag from my prior Sonoma County Farm Trails fellow board members. We had a nice visit and I was able to show her around the farm a bit and meet Dakota, the friendly alpaca, up close and personal.

Then Ada came up to visit and have dinner with us. We had a nice relaxing evening and I finished it all off with a decent hour to bed with the hopes to get a full nights sleep before my oncology massage with Karen in he morning and Donna's arrival early afternoon. The sleep thing has been the biggest challenge right now, so wish me luck.

Hugs, Debbie... aka the cancer warrior; AND survivor 

LIVESTRONG: 

I AM STRONG. I AM LOVED. I AM HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!

1st CHEMO: WINNER - Debbie

First Chemo Infusion ~ ROUND ONE: The Winner - Debbie... Loser - Cancer

I feel like  I'm going on a blind date.... I don't know him at all, is he cute, ugly, does he smell good or bad, will he burp in front of me? Is he taking me out for fast food or a nice dinner? Will we see a movie; a drama, or love story; or is he into gore and wars. I mean, I don't REALLY know a lot about this chemo date that I'm on. I've had all the instruction, but no one knows how I will react to these drugs. Everyone is different. 

Donna, a very pleasant medical assistant, calls me from the waiting room back to the infusion room. Is that even what they call it? She brings Mark and I back and gives us an orientation on the room. The bathrooms are over there, you can bring in food and there is a fridge to store it. They have crackers, water and fruit available, plus portable DVD players and a few movies. I see a basket of hats on the counter too.

I'm sitting in my cozy recliner chair in the infusion room waiting. My nurse, (she isn't wearing a name tag so I will ask her in a moment), is the same nurse who took my blood yesterday and was the first to access my port. She remembers that and asks if I used the lydocane yesterday. I did not, so we forgo that today too. It stings a bit when she "accesses" my port, which is basically placing the needle in. It is sort of odd as she has to push hard to get the needle into the port, which is made from some sort of material that immediately seals off after access and can be accessed to infinity. Sure hope I don't need it that long. Then she comes back a short while later with all the authorization and side affect forms for me to sign off on. I think there are an easy 5 pages. Mark snatches them so I can't read them during infusion. Probably a good idea.

Amy (I did ask her name) returns with my 3 bags of meds and has me verify that it is "me" on the bags. YEP! We got the right person (unfortunately). These three are the pre-meds, and designed to counter act the side effects, including the nausea.

The infusion room is a long room with a large nurses station in the center of the room. There are approximately 5 plush leather recliners on each side of the nurse station, plus a couple of side rooms for someone else, maybe radiation. Our chairs face a large bank of windows looking down from Fountaingrove over the Santa Rosa plain. There is a beautiful cherry tree in full pink blossom outside to the side. Go figure -- PINK! :-)

Its 3:05 PM and it's lift off; I am being infused.  The first hour will be with the anti-nausea drugs. Mark is reading and I am reclining and will get back to my knitting. I'm working on an entrelac hat. I wanted to have a baby project to start today, but that will be the next session, if not before. It needs to be the perfect project and yarn for the new grandbaby we will all welcome in August. And I wasn't quite prepared with it yet. I also have a beautiful alpaca blanket I will knit on soon, especially during the second series, which is a longer session each time.




It's now 3:30, and I've finished two of the bags for the "side effect" medications. One to go. AND I've just finished the first round of the head band and entrelac triangles on my hat, which is a dark heathery brown alpaca from my pacas. The next will be a fawn/white heather alpaca. So glad for my iPad. We don't have WiFi in the infusion room, but I can use my Notepad feature to get the Blog entry started so it is current when I finally get it posted. And although my phone volume needs to be off, I'm able to test and reassure Alura and Sarah that all is okay with their momma.

At 4:15 the chemo drugs start to flow throughout my body, but I don't feel any different at the moment. The first is a red drug called Adriamycin (aka Doxorubicin, or Rubex) and is done in a push/ pull method manually by the nurse. It can irritate the veins, so this method is used. This takes about 15 minutes and I'm told that my urine may be red for a day or so. Oops. Just took a potty break, and they got that one right! :-) Amy is a traveling nurse and very sweet. Id say she is in her mid-30s, much like my girls. She seems to love her job and is very enthusiastic.

Then a large clear bag is hung with the Cyclophosphamide (aka Cytoxan®, or Neosar®)  which is set on an automatic slow drip. We have another hour with this "date". And it gives me a foggy headed feeling, like sinus pressure and a slight ache to the nose. Almost done now!!!

I feel the cancer retreating already. WE are in control now, so you best shrink down to nothing you measly little cancer. There is no hope for you now!!!!! I can hear the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz saying, "I'm melting....."

So we leave RRMG at 5:30pm. This session lasted an extra hour, although I'm sure this was because of the orientation and some questions I had. Plus the three-four nurses had up to 10 chairs full for most of that time. We stop at Olivers specifically to pick up an allergy med (brain is mush now and I've already forgotten. They say short-term memory loss is expected. I got it already). It is to help tomorrow with the bone aches that come with the first Neulasta shot. Neulasta will help to correct the dip in my blood count that happens after chemo. Are we having fun yet? I will take this pill tonight and tomorrow to help with that. We also pick up some yummy bread to pair with the pumpkin soup I made the other night, and more veggies for our morning juicing. I was kinda loopy during our short shopping, as the head is getting more foggy as time goes on.

By the time we pull into our driveway, I'm pretty quiet and feeling kind of yucky. So Mark unloads the car and gets me all cozy in the recliner with my alpaca blanket, Basooka Bear, and some Ginger ale. I quickly fall asleep for about an hour while he does chores. Then it's soup, followed by some yummy sorbet Tricia brought us with her scrumptious dinner last night.

So now its 10'ish and I'm in my cozy flannel jammies, still feeling kinda yucky, but the head seems to be clearing just a bit. I have a whole regime of pills to take over the next 2-7 days, depending how I feel. Then I start all over again. And Mr. Phil is here to help me remember what to watch for...

What can happen when Phil is low? (NeutroPhil)

The main thing is that I'm home right now, and managing okay. This I will take and embrace for the moment. Sweet Dreams!

Results of this match:

Round 1 of chemo down: Debbie wins, cancer loses. 

Feeling groggy, stuffy headed and achy face, almost like a bad hangover but without the bad headache. Metallic taste in the mouth, a bit of a queasy tummy, saliva flowing, like when you think you might get sick. Vision kind of blurry. But all manageable -- so far, anyway! :-) 

Hugs, Debbie... aka the cancer warrior; soon to be survivor 

LIVESTRONG: 

I AM STRONG. I AM LOVED. I AM HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!

Countdown to Chemo

The last few days have been very good days.... Saturday spent on the road transporting alpacas, Sunday relaxing around the home front and taking in the Super Bowl, Monday some more farm time and a trip in to see the NP.

And Tuesday, a day off cancer! YIPPEE. And a good day at that. We took care of some alpaca heard management stuff. (Check out Brookfarm Alpacas here). And then I drove in to Sonoma to pick up Sarah and the prescriptions I will need for chemotherapy treatment.

We arrived home to greet our very good friends, Mike and Karen. They came up for a visit and brought El Molino Central for lunch. YUMMMMMMMMM. So delicious. So we spent the next three hours enjoying the scrumptious selection of about five of the different dishes on the menu, and talking. Talking about kids, about cancer, about alpacas, about massage, about cancer....

You see, Mike is a cancer survivor too. And for him he is coming up on his first five years!

Why is it the club of close friends, cancer survivors, is growing? My friends Joe and Steve, are also survivors. And I've had more conversations with these three friends, all about cancer, than ever before. They've been very supportive, and open in sharing their experiences and some helpful tips. But I can't help but ponder over these three; all healthy men, all in their 50's (I think), non-smokers. What gives? It's like cancer is this random salt shaker up their in the sky and it falls down and randomly hits people. People who have done all the right things, lived a good life, treated others very well and cared for their loved ones, took good care of themselves. But then this random "thing" hits them just when they think life is getting ready to wind down and they can enjoy the fruits of their labor a bit. I guess the operative word here is SURVIVOR! And that is what I will hold onto dearly.

So the countdown is on for my treatment so that I can be in that Survivor Club. 2 days and counting to chemo. Thursday is THE DAY. And I think I am ready. Ready as I'll ever be, anyway.

Hugs, Debbie... aka the cancer warrior; soon to be survivor 

LIVESTRONG: 

I AM STRONG. I AM LOVED. I AM HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!

Up, Down, AND All Around

Emotions.... that is.

Maybe it was the fact I got up early to do some "homework" and read the info on line and in my books about "Triple Negative" breast cancer, and began to focus in on the negative part of Triple Negative, or maybe it is because chemo is now on the calendar. Perhaps it is because today and tomorrow are full of tests and procedures, or that next week is already booked for the same. Or maybe it is just a blue day amidst all the gorgeous sunshine in Glen Ellen and Santa Rosa tocay. BUT today was a down day for me.

I had a full schedule of activities today, most of which were spent at my latest new Home Away From Home, Redwood Regional Medical Group offices, Sotoyome Campus. There is something about this word "campus" that feels a bit strange. I'm not really learning here, but I do seem to be spending a bit of time here! 

On today's agenda is an injection for the bone scan, CT scan, then a break when I hope to purchase a juicer. Then I'll return back here for the actual bone scan. Oh, and don't forget a trip somewhere in the day to the "Fountaingrove Campus", aka Cancer Center, to pick up a packet for my chemo teaching appointment on Monday. Are we having fun yet? I think I need to make a visit to see Mom sometime real soon. By that I mean a long-overdue visit to the cemetery. I want to bring her one of those silk Hawaiian leis I have stored somewhere and leave it draped around the angel we seven kids chose for her headstone. It's about time she and I had a good talk about what is going on in my life right now. Not that she isn't fully aware.... but I think I need it most.

My latest Home Away From Home

10:45 AM     Injection (Radioactive Tracer) for Bone Scan. Am I glowing yet?

It is starting to feel like Connie and Bill and I are good friends now. This is my third visit with Connie, as she was the one to receive me for the MRI Breast Scan last week. (Was it only last week ? -- feels like much longer ago already.) This was pretty uneventful.

11:15 AM     CT Scan

Connie walked me a short distance over to the brand-spankin-new CT Scan room. It even had clouds on the ceiling. This was a nice change although it didn't help much when the actual Scan was taking place, since the machine obstructed the view. 

A tall, pleasant young gentleman greeted me, and introduced himself. I don't remember his name, but I remember him saying he was new, or a student, or some such thing.  It is not that the CT Scan was a bad thing, it was that I didn't realize I would be getting another injection, and that the authorization/release form I had to sign for it was frightening to say the least. I mean, did they already have the MUGA scan results to know if my heart would survive this test that they were doing to help check my heart. HELLO! Is this making any sense right now????? 

Yes, the scan was quick, yes the other, experienced female technician was very nice and considerate of my tears at the end. Yes, this injection gave me a warm, but weird, feeling all over my body and made me (as it does most women) feel like I would urinate (but thankfully that doesn't really happen!!!!). And then I felt light headed when I got up to leave, but was quickly told to sit down for a bit. WHY DO I GET MYSELF ALL WORKED UP OVER THESE THINGS??? 

So, the CT Scan was over and I went out to my car to cry for a bit and call Mark. Yep.... silly me! I told him I didn't need him today, that he he should stay home and take care of things he needed to do rather than sit around in doctor's offices. Dumb idea on my part, for sure!!!

The fun part of the day was when I drove over to Macy's between appointments to shop for a juicer. The sale did not apply to electronics, but they had it marked down anyway. I picked up some cute little Fiesta bowls in turquoise and also in the new celadon green color. Then later in the day I returned to Macys to pick up our new Breville Ikon Juice Fountain. I've been fasting all morning for these tests so by now I want much more than juice. But I am anxious to get started doing some juicing.

1:00 PM     Bone Scan     I'm back! :-)

Other than this procedure taking a full hour. And considering the injection occurred earlier in the day (injections of radioactive material into my veins seem to be the thing that gets me going.) This procedure was actually restful, as long as I kept my eyes closed so as not to see the camera that was about 2" above my head at the start of the the first 27 minute "photo shoot". Of course it was kind of comical when, during one of the breaks between shots, Bill stopped to ask if I had ever had any trauma on my right side. He was pretty amazed at how all the broken ribs were still evident after the 15 years since I was struck by the SUV while crossing in the cross walk. He asked if they still give me trouble. I replied, "Only to ache intensely when the weather changes." Is that barometric pressure changes?

So now I am off to the Fountaingrove campus to pick up my packet from The Infusion Room!!! (Dun, dun.... dun, dun).

And I finish off the day picking up my new juicer and shopping for lovely fresh greens and fruits at the fabulous new Whole Foods in Santa Rosa. So see, there is a silver lining to my day. :-)

Now.... to head to home sweet home, and my sweetie. Then to start fasting again tonight for the Port procedure tomorrow. Just another day in a soon yet to be breast cancer survivor's life. BETTER WATCH OUT.... HERE I COME.

What is a CT Scan?  ~  Courtesy of www.radiologyinfo.org

CT scanning is a noninvasive medical test to help physicians diagnose and treat medical conditions. It uses special x-ray equipment and computers to produce pictures of the inside of the body. The cross-sectional pictures can then be examined on the computer, or printed.
CT scans provide images of internal organs, bones, soft tissue and blood vessels; and reveal more details than regular x-ray exams. The CT Scan assists doctors to more easily diagnose cancers, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease, appendicitis, trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.


This exam only lasted a few moments after the injection of the contrast dye. My experience today with this scan was pretty uneventful. Once I got past the weird warm feeling that moved through my body with the contrast material injected right before the scan, and the bit of weakness I felt after the exam, I was fine. The worst part of the experience was reding the authorization form, and learning ll the horrible side effects possible from the contest dye. I wondered what was worse, cancer or reding and signing this form.

 What is a Bone Scan?  ~  Courtesy of www.webmd.com

 A bone scan is a nuclear scanning test that identifies new areas of bone growth or breakdown. It can be done to evaluate damage to the bones, find cancer that has spread (metastasized) to the bones, and monitor conditions that can affect the bones (including infection and trauma). A bone scan can often find a problem days to months earlier than a regular X-ray test.

For a bone scan, a radioactive tracer substance is injected into a vein in the arm. The tracer then travels through the bloodstream and into the bones. This process may take several hours. A special camera (gamma) takes pictures of the tracer in the bones. This helps show cell activity and function in the bones. Areas that absorb little or no amount of tracer appear as dark or "cold" spots, which may indicate a lack of blood supply to the bone (bone infarction) or the presence of certain types of cancer. Areas of rapid bone growth or repair absorb increased amounts of the tracer and show up as bright or "hot" spots in the pictures. Hot spots may indicate problems such as arthritis, the presence of a tumor, a fracture, or an infection.
A bone scan may be done on the entire body or just a part of it.

A bone scan is done to:

• Find bone cancer or determine whether a cancer from another area, such as the breast, lung, kidney, thyroid gland, or prostate gland, has spread (metastasized) to the bone. See a picture of a bone scan showing the spread of cancer .
• Help diagnose the cause or location of unexplained bone pain, such as ongoing low back pain. A bone scan may be done first to help determine the location of an abnormal bone in complex bone structures such as the foot or spine. Follow-up evaluation then may be done with a computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Help diagnose broken bones, such as a hip fracture or a stress fracture, not clearly seen on X-ray.
• Find damage to the bones caused by infection or other conditions, such as Paget's disease.

Hugs, Debbie... aka the cancer warrior, and soon to be survivor!

LIVESTRONG: 

I AM STRONG. I AM LOVED. I AM HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!

...The Sky is Pink

Even the Sky is Pink for You Tonight

We were out doing our chores tonight, something I’ve not been real good about participating in the last week, and Mark said, “Look Deb, even the sky is pink for you tonight!” How did I luck out with such a sweet man. Even going on nearly 38 years and he is still my sweetheart.

He knows that pink has never been “my color”, but it appears that as fate would have it, pink may just become my color, like so many other breast cancer survivors. Perhaps it has already become my color.

Hugs, Debbie... aka the cancer warrior

LIVESTRONG:
I AM STRONG. I AM LOVED. I AM HEALTHY. WE WILL WIN!