Post Surgery Update

Yesterday Rebecca had her double mastectomy surgery.  She started surgery prep at 12:45 and was delivered into her recovery room at 6:00pm.  She was able to rest most of the night but did struggle with nausea.  She did discover that she loves Dilaudid (pain med), it worked very well for her.  :)  She met with Dr. Droesch this morning and he only had good things to say about the surgery and her recent 12 hours of recovery.  Several Lymph nodes were removed during surgery to be reviewed by a couple of pathologists and those results will be available early next week.  She is in good spirits and is doing very well.  The plan is for her to go home tomorrow morning.  I'm impressed at how strong and of course beautiful she is as she goes through these challenges.  It is incredible to see all the little miracles occuring all the time.  She has the most amazing doctor and the nurse she had last night was heaven sent, because of the wonderful care she gave my wife (she too had the same surgery 18 months ago and so could relate to my wifes discomforts).  We have felt your prayers and I know our Father in Heaven has heard them as well because of all the wonderful things that have happened in the past 24 hours. Thank you and I will be sure to send one more update in the next day or two.

Shad

Surgery Schedule Today

Todays surgery check-in time is 12:15. I was told to plan on 8 hours from the time they wheel me away to when I wake up. I'm guessing it'll be shorter then that.

People ask how I'm doing and I say good, because I really am. I don't sit and dwell on what's happening because if I do I can get sad really fast. I figure there's no point in sadness before surgery; let's save that for after because I'm sure I'm going to have a hard time tonight. Because of that, I'm asking for NO Visitors tonight. I'd like it to just be Shad and I.

I'm asking with humble heart for your prayers in my behalf this week. Strength to endure and healing will be in my prayers as well as all who will care for me and my family. I think I'm most worried about the mobility of my arms. How quickly that will come back. I already have problems with the numbness and tingling now, what will the surgery add to that?

In my mind I was thinking I'd be down for a week and come back strong but after some studying and reading, I realize it may be much longer then that. I will be a fighter in this, so we'll see how long it takes.

It's going to take many people to help my family get through this. To all of you reading this, praying for us and helping us in so many ways, please know how much I Love You! I could not do this today without all of you. My heart is very full going into surgery.

I will not be able to type on this for a while. I will try to teach Shad today how to put updates on here so it won't be weeks without you knowing what's going on. See Ya On the Other Side of Surgery!! :)

Shout Out to Uncle Mark

I need to put a Shout to my Uncle Mark. Apparently, he drove all the way to Washington just to see me before my surgery. Not really, but I know he would have because I'm his Favorite Niece!!

Why Didn't the Angel Just Take Him Out?

DISCLAIMER: I Did Not Write This but I love what she said and how she said it. Attached below is the link to this ladies blog. (I deleted the picture of her daughter, Jane.)

http://lessonsofamother.blogspot.com/2015/07/why-didnt-angel-just-take-him-out.html

Why Didn't the Angel Just Take Him Out?

I read Jane the story of Daniel in the lions' den tonight. When we got to the part where the angel appears and shuts the lions' mouths she asked, "Why didn't the angel just take him out?"

Don't we all ask God that question sometimes?
"Why aren't you taking me out of this situation?"
"Why aren't you taking away this illness?"
"Why aren't you fixing this problem or this relationship?"
"Why aren't you answering my questions or taking away my doubts?"
... I KNOW YOU CAN! Isn't that faith? And isn't faith supposed to produce results?

So Jane presents a valid question. If Daniel was a man of great faith, and faith produces miracles, why didn't the angel just take him out of the lions' den? He could have.

Because if he did, Daniel would have missed the whole experience of being IN the lions' den but not being eaten alive.

He would have known God's power to deliver him FROM difficulty, but he wouldn't have experienced God's power to deliver him IN difficulty. That's a whole different level of power and requires a whole different level of faith.

There was not just a single lion in that den. There was a whole group of lions ready to rip Daniel apart, but his faith was sufficient and God's power was sufficient that none of them got a single bite. 

At times in our lives we feel like we've been thrown to lions, lots of them, all ready to eat us. But instead of spending our energy wondering why God isn't taking us out, we can step back and realize, "I'm not being eaten alive in here... even though I should be. Somehow I'm going to come out of this alive." Then look around and see God's angels who are holding back your lions...

...At times I've begged to just be taken out of this. But look at what I would have missed! I would have missed the angels, on this side of the veil and the other, who have literally held back the lions' jaws. I would missed a deeper relationship with God and I would have missed the person I've become. 

So take another look at your lions, and be grateful for them. When you experience deliverance IN the lions' den, suddenly your faith and trust rise to a whole new level, one that never would have been possible had you just been delivered FROM it. 

Quick Update of Events

I realize I haven't posted in a long time and many things have happened, but typing right now is hard for me to do.  One of the symptoms of my last chemo is tingling and numbing of my hands and feet which makes it difficult to do things that require little movements with my fingers and toes. I mess up typing a lot because I can't feel the keys and where I'm at on the keyboard. Hopefully that will come back with time but the doctor said he can't promise that it'll all come back. For this reason I will just list things that have happened or will happen in the next couple months.

June 22 - Last chemo treatment. Exciting but nervous at the same time because I could still feel the tumors and didn't know what that meant for later. I took Rachael, my oldest child with me, and she ran errands for me as I went through the first part of my treatment. My sister surprised us with Costa Vida for lunch and the nurses sang to me and gave me a bottle of Sparkling Cider to celebrate; and No, it wasn't "Sheffield Cider." We need to get them a bottle so they can taste the difference. :)

June 24 - Received Genetic Testing Results. I forgot to mention anything about that. At the beginning of all this, I had some Genetic Testing done to see if this ran in my genes and could possibly pass it on to my kids and/or siblings. They ran a huge panel and it came back negative. Great News!! My body just likes to grow Cancer.

July 9- Pet scan. I was told I couldn't do any activities for 48 hours before the scan. Just sit. If you know me, that's hard to do but I did find a project to keep me sitting. I typed up recipes for Rachael's cookbook for college.

July 13 - Met with Dr. Gamboa for Pet scan results. Tumors have shrunk significantly in size and cancer hasn't spread. Continue plan to have surgery and radiation. More Great News!! Start Leuprolide injection, which blocks the release of estrogen in my body. I receive this every 3 months until my ovaries are removed. Start taking Anastrozole every day for the next five years. Both of these are hormone therapies. Anastrozolel fights cancer. These both have many side effects that I will have to watch for. Some hard to tell since they mimic the chemo side effects I already have, like hair loss, bone pain and weight gain. Lovely :(

July 17 - Met with Dr. Droesch to schedule Double Mastectomy. Monday, July 27th is the big day. I wanted to do it next week but he has to leave town for an adoption and he doesn't want to leave me under another doctors care right after surgery. I was told from start to finish it would take about 8 hours. I should expect to stay in the hospital for 1-2 nights, he's guessing two because it's a double mastectomy and wants me to be able to manage my drains well before I leave. Drains usually stay in 5-10 days. After healing, I will need physical therapy for my arms.Radiation can start 4 weeks after surgery.

I got ambitious and tried to get some projects done before surgery and school starting. I fell painting the kids rooms and hurt my arm pinning it between the slats on the kids bunk beds. People ask, why didn't you call? Because it started out as one of those little projects just switching the boys and girls room. We emptied the rooms and I realized it would be much nicer if I just hurried and painted the walls and ceilings, not taking into account I'm not really stable on my feet right now. Long story short, the rooms are done and my arm is not broken, just really sore wrist.

My endurance is coming back slowly but I've been told that radiation will wipe me out. We'll see. :) I would rather be tired from pushing myself then sitting all day. I know next week will be hard emotionally and physically but grateful to be this far. One week to get ready for Stage 2. Bring it on. The closer it gets to New Years the better.

Claritin and a Transfer Button

So I've got to write this down before I forget and while it's still funny right now. It wasn't funny a few weeks ago but now I can laugh at it. I'm having a hard time sleeping due to the heat and my night sweats and hot flashes aren't helping at all, so I thought I'd try to get caught up on my blog.

I've got to put this blog entry in so I will remember some of the commical sides to this fun adventure this year. For my last four chemo rounds, I've taken a different chemo drug called Paclitaxel. Like any drug taken, it has many side effects. Some I've written about and some left private for modesty reasons.

The night before I go into these treatments I'm to take 5 Dexamethasone. I was told it's a steroid to help with some of the side effects that can take place when they give me this chemo like: shortness of breath, my chest feeling like it's only got 25% of the capacity to breath that it normally does, bad charly horses in my legs, etc. And that's when they warned me that they'd have several nurses watching me the first 15 minutes in case I had a reaction and so forth. My first thought was, "Wow 5 pills! You couldn't condense those into one? And three nurses? What's going to happen that you need 3 nurses watching me like a hawk for 15 minutes?" And these are the things they tell you about, but I've learned over the past several months there's many things they don't tell you about. Hence, why we need what I call the "Transfer Button."

I love my doctor and nurses! I don't want anyone to take from this differently, but sometimes what you read and study in a book can be different then what's happening in front of you. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. You don't have to be sick with cancer to have the age old problem of trying to explain to the doctor the symptoms you're feeling inside your body. It's like taking the car to the mechanic and trying to mimic the sound the car is making and he should just know what's wrong when you make that sound right?

Well, I was given the short side effect list above before treatment, but no one warned me of the bone pain I quickly experienced after I went home. I was told that if I did start to experience leg pain to take a Claritin. A Claritin? Ok, I'm not an expert on medication but I've seen enough commercials to know that Claritin is an allergy drug. It helps with sneezing, runny nose, itchy, watery eyes, itchy throat or nose, that kind of thing. No where on that list does it include helps with bone pain. He said to take one pill a day for three days when I receive my injection shot the day after chemo. He said that they've had great results with patients who've done this. Great! So we purchase Claritin on the way home, because who am I to question the doctor on something he says works for others. Seemed like an easy solution to something that could cause a lot of muscle pain from what was being described to me. Again, how Claritin was to help with that, I didn't understand but I followed the doctors orders.

24 hours later I received my injection and about 3-4 hours later my flu like symptoms had set in but so did the bone pain. It started in my skull and moved down my neck and across my shoulders. It then shot pains down my legs or sometimes it feels like fireworks of pain in my legs. This lasted 3-4 days like he said but it wasn't muscle pain it was bone pain. So when I saw him again a week later for my follow-up appointment, I explained to him what I had experienced, that it's in my bones not my muscles. He then asked me if I had taken the Claritin that they told me to take. Time for my "Transfer Button." Sometimes I feel like we need a transfer button, so the doctor can feel what we're feeling. I just needed that button that day to push and say, "Here! Feel this! Does this feel like something you'd take a Claritin for?" So I responded to his question, "Yes, I took it for 3 days just like you said." He then asked, "Well, did you notice a difference?" I replied, "I wouldn't know. I took the medicine just like he instructed. So I'm not sure what it's like to not have the medicine inside me when I have these symptoms, but I'm trying to tell you now that it's still pretty bad even when I take the medicine. Do you have something stronger then a Claritin I could take? Like a pain pill for example. I have several of those on my window sill? Could I take one of those? How about Benadryl, that might put me to sleep for a few hours of relief. It's an allergy medicine."

At the time, this was a serious conversation, but today I can laugh at it. I have received some relief the next few chemo rounds by him suggesting I keep taking more of my steroid pills those first three days to help with the pain and it has. But I'm still waiting for someone to invent the "Transfer Button," and I will never look at Claritin the same way again.

Cancer, Didn't You Learn the First Time

I’ve had a very busy week. It’s been good but very exhausting. Each day has pretty much been a “normal mom” day this week and today I’m feeling the effects of all my efforts. So, aside from making our Father’s day meal, which most of it I prepared yesterday, I’m laying low. I did try to surprise my dad and husband by attending Sacrament meeting today though. J

As I lay here on my bed, I started to think about tomorrow and what it means, “Last chemo treatment.” People say, “aren’t you excited for your last treatment?” Excited probably isn’t the word I’d use. There are lots of emotions and thoughts that come with that question. It’s the end to one chapter of this year, a long one, but there’s so much still to come. As I sit here, I’ve gone back and read some of my first blog postings. I made myself cry, for so many reasons! I can’t believe it’s been 5 months since this roller coaster started. I feel… not sure how to put into words. I just breathe and am grateful. I’m sure my post tomorrow will be an emotional one.

Rachael told me the other day she thought she found a 5k race in the Tri-Cities in August that she thinks the kids should run in. She wants three of them to wear blue shirts that say, ”Cancer, didn’t you learn the first time…” and three of them to wear pink shirts that say, “you’ve messed with the wrong mom!” That put a smile on my face.