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"I'm Seeing The Light"

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 I have some great news to share, today was my last day of radiation. Can you believe it! As I lay in the radiation bed for one last time, I was actually grinning from ear to ear in between my breath holds. Funny the breath holds seemed so much easier today. I forgot to mention this in my last post that I had to practice these breath holds, because when you hold your breath in your heart gets shifted out of the way, when they radiate, and I was asked to practice these breath holds for around 40 secs. Do you know how hard that is to do with a cold? Not easy let me tell you!!!! I started my first treatment with a cold and half way through my treatments I ended up with an upper respiratory flu, I was very sick and concerned about not being able to breathe let alone hold my breath for too long. The technicians were quite surprised at how well I did, but no more than I was. Unfortunately Shawn ended up getting the same upper respiratory flu bug as I did, and I must say we are both quite...
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New Year "New Resolutions"

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 Or as in my case radiation! I know it's been a while since my last post, December 24th to be exact and I'm sure some have wondered why I've been AWOL. Well truth be told after my last post 5 days later December 29th I took a trip, yup I did and not somewhere hot either. I took a trip down Samantha's stairs, and on my way down every part of my lower back hit each step, and it seems my ribs were not spared either by the bruises I had on them. The good news about that trip is that it was a short one, only 8 steps thank goodness. The bad news is that it's taken nearly this long for it to feel better again, and that I gave both my poor grandsons a fright as they both started crying. Likely from all the screaming and crying I did all the way down those stairs. I'm laughing about it now but I sure as heck wasn't at the time. That night as Samantha put Calvin to bed he asked her repeatedly about my little incident and when I saw him the next time he reminded me to ...
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"Hallelujah"

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 Hallelujah!!!! I finished my last round of chemotherapy today and I got to bang the gong on my way out, it was a pretty cool moment. However I somewhat felt odd because I still have 8 more rounds of immunotherapy treatment to go I thought it was a bit premature. Not that I'm complaining and now that I'm thinking of it there should be a gong to bang after every stage of this process. The second best thing was getting my PICC line removed right after my chemo. Emily the nurse said to look to the left while she pulled it out, Shawn was looking to the left before he was told and said that he didn't need her telling him twice to look away lol. It's a good thing because that line was 42cm long a beautiful shade of purple, and came out without a hitch. Emily pulled it out like it was a zip cord on a kids toy top and it didn't hurt one bit. It was very debatable whether I would even be able to have my treatment today after seeing the bloodwork results Monday. Yesterday was...
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"Light at the end of the tunnel"

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One wonders how can you possibly say that you are thrilled to have one more chemo treatment, well it's that by having one more you're that much closer to being done and that's where the excitement comes. The thrill of getting that much closer to getting my old life back without living day by day looking at the calendar at which medical appointment you have today. Between weekly PICC line flushes, bloodwork, oncology appointments, than throw in Rheumatology and Cardiology appointments in between that and soon to see the radiologist oncologist for my next step to my treatment plan, radiation. Gosh Dr Willard was not kidding about it being a long process!!!! The good news however is that because I've been doing my immunotherapy along with chemo, and after I finish my next round I will only have 8 more cycles of Trastuzumab (Herceptin) for a total of 14 treatments. I will only be in the chemo chair for about a half hour treatment so in and out. Newsflash Christmas Eve I wil...
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Round #4 Done!!!!

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 Gosh how I've come a long way since my first chemo treatment from September 3rd. I was thinking about it today when I saw a lady sitting next to me starting her first treatment with all her hair still and how emotional she was, asking all the same questions I did on that first fretful day. Remember no PICC line for my first treatment ugh!!! Honestly I truly believe that it just finally hit me that this was happening and I do really have cancer.  I had my bloodwork done on Monday and instead of having 10 red flags like last Monday, I only had 7 so not too shabby considering other than a couple, the numbers have come up. Of course the two most important were the neutrophils which were 1.2 last Monday and now 1.3 which clearly the Lapelga shot is not working as well as we hoped and the platelets which were very concerning last week at 52  were up to 233 which is right in the range of 150-400  I was beyond happy this morning that I was getting my 4th chemo treatment whi...
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To Be, or Not To Be,

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 I'm sure you have all been wondering where the heck I've been since my last post. Yes I know it's been 19 days since I've felt like posting and I have to be honest, I've not been quite myself at all. I'm sorry! I should have blogged last Wednesday when I should have had my 4th chemo treatment, but I was in such a somber mood I just didn't have the heart to blog. As it turns out it was NOT TO BE UGH!!!! Not that I really look forward to having chemo if you know what I mean it's just that I'm definitely looking forward to being one step closer to being done. Now if all goes well I should be done Christmas eve, the chemo that is, not everything else. Not sure if they give treatments Christmas eve but I'm sure to find out very soon.  After my last treatment which was October 15th my magic number 9 didn't come to fruition it took nearly 13 days to feel somewhat normal and then again I haven't been quite the same. I'm told that chemo is cu...
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Hump Day "3"

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 Don't you love hump day when you're working? You know that half the week is over and that the weekend is just around the corner. Knowing you have plans, the excitement is palpable or not but your happy none the less because you'll be off for a couple days. In my case the excitement nearly came to a close, or it will be knowing what's coming and it sure as hell isn't a holiday or a picnic. Instead it's major trepidation because I'm not totally sure whether or not they will be giving me my third round of chemo after bloodwork. Monday October 13th is not only Thanksgiving which we will be celebrating with our beautiful extended McCauley family, but also our 41st anniversary which will be put off till Tuesday after my oncology appointment. My social life is now at the mercy of medical appointments.  Monday is a holiday therefore Life Labs is closed and the bloodwork needs to be done at "WCC," this way they have results for chemo day on the 15th which ...
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