Sitting here happily in my chair with all my cords attached to my port.  There is no pain.  Its easy right now.  Gone through 1 medication and now onto the anti-nausea meds.
Started my morning at 7am with a quick 3 mile run.  That felt nice!  Followed up by the appointment with the radiation oncologist, Dr Condra who was absolutely wonderful.

Conrad was here reading a book with me. Looking around the room, I notice there is only 1 person close to my age.

Its been a long run to get to today.   Starting with the 3 days of diagnostics in week 1 of the discovery.  Week 2 entailed path reports and treatment discussions an blood work for genetic testing.
Week 3 entailed an 3 days of MRI, Port Placement at the Hospital, Dr. Appt, CT Scan and Bone Scan.
Week 4 entailed Echocardiogram, repeat ultrasound from additional findings on he MRI… meet again with Chemo Dr… schedule this week
Week 5 MRI guided biopsy, chemo education appointment, Meet Radiation Oncologist , and now Chemo started today.

What Great News I have– First of all, the repeat MRI Tuesday indicate the spots seen in my right breast were gone, however the left were still present – so my right side is still salvaged.  This morning the physician shared that my biopsies were benign, then here at HOPE they  shared that my genetics came back negative!  So I have hope that I can keep with the lesser surgical options in the spring at this time and a quicker recovery!  Less chance of recurrence (my chances of getting it again are likely as common as the first time as long as I keep healthy)
Thank you Jesus!  He is by me through this all.  Helping me maintain a positive attitude through it all!  1 Peter 2:24 says ²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Finally here where there is an end in sight- Chemo has begun and as long as there are no abnormalities along the way, things should stay on schedule.

I have had some amazing friends, co-workers, athletes, family sending me so much love, funny texts, facebook posts.  All making me smile!  They are with me through the day!

 

So I had a friend suggest lidocaine cream prior to port placement.  The port connection was what freaked me out more than anything… I was nervous it wouldn’t work, but I didn’t even feel the placement of the needle. This stuff is amazing.  Anyone undergoing this… definitely request it as a script. I had a list of meds to pick up.  Heres a few… I had to pick up a few more since then and then I still have more…

Biggest problem today;  Continuously losing my battery power on my cell.  I spent half of the afternoon with it not working!  Reminder, bring a good cord and external battery pack if you need one!

Someone else suggested eating every 2 hours… so I’m downing salted peanuts at this time… approximately 2 hours into the treatment time.  When I get my next visitor, I’ll send him away to get me lunch :).
Nutritionist came early to visit with me. Gave me some tips on eating habits.  He told me almonds were better than peanuts…  Then a wonderful friend and parent of my athletes came and gave me a complimentary Reiki treatment.  Used her restful technique.

We started last night with a nice prep meal.

I sent Conrad away to get us some food from across the street from HOPE.  I got to eat a grilled chicken Greek salad.  Yummy. We had no restrictions on food except that it shouldn’t be stinky.

A friend and recent cancer survivor said we should go walking daily to pull the meds out of our system, so before we left the hope center a few of us went on a little walk…

I’m leaving this place with a nice attachment… my immunity booster Neulasta.  It will autoinject into me a medication.

And that is how chemo Day 1 went.  I was late and didn’t get set up until 10:30am, but they had me out by 4:30pm.
After our walk I made it home to some amazing gifts on my table!  I felt good through it all.  No pain.  Brought plenty of entertainment and visitors were wonderful.  The grogginess from the Benadryl drip prior to the Taxotere left me feeling spacy, distracted and lastet for several hours after getting home.

Thanks for reading!