I am ready to move out of chemo my chemo haze!

June 17, 2012
Sunday 12:00 pm


This has been a slow week, I am six days into chemo treatment recovery and five days from the bone marrow shot. I was back in Dr. Bhandari's office on Friday - just some side effects from treatment that have left me sluggish, my body functions have slowed down, nothing serious, my red blood count was high and of course my blood pressure is low 94/58. I am light headed and off balance, I am retaining fluids. My back and head hurt a lot, along with all over discomfort. Peggy who runs the chemo room, says I am weak. ( Peggy is awesome she  knows what she is doing and along with her staff - her wonderful staff of nurses - they understand what your going through and will do what ever it takes to care for their, patients.  Peggy is a free spirit and a what you see is what you get person, I love her.) They wanted to do an MRI , I do not qualify for an MRI's at his time as I have these breast ex-panders in my chest. ( remember them?) Well they have magnets in them  and an MRI  is a magnetic type thing. So no MRI. So I had regular  cat scan of my head - I was told looks good:) So as my long time friend Linda Stewart ( breast cancer survivor) always says "I am fine".  

• Magnetic resonance imaging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging - Similarto Magnetic resonance imaging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  An MRI scanner is a device in which the patient lies within a large, powerful magnet where the magnetic field is used to align the magnetization of some atomic ...
  How MRI works - History - Applications - Safety

The weak part is what I do not like! I need to be up and moving do something productive. Wimping around is not going to build strength. I am almost 64 and weak I hate it.  My dog Sugar's foot was hurting her last night ( she is always trying to catch bees). We were both going up the stairs to bed  and we were both  moving very slow. I looked at her and sat down and laughed. She was holding her paw up and climbing the stairs with me in slow motion. Very funny.  The best part is I will feel much better this time next week. My goal is to be able to work in my flower gardens in one month! With the help of my hubby Peter:) 


 Thank you everyone for keeping my spirits up  and sharing my journey with me. Thank you Carolyn for your kind words yesterday. This is truly a community journey you help me stay strong. Gloria my old friend our spirits are totally in sync:)
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    1:00 PM
Prayers of Healing
In my private yet always changing group of friends that  are on their own cancer journey we share a lot in the waiting  and the chemo rooms. Dr Bhandari's chemo/cancer group, I have a new chemo sister . Through my chemo brain/ haze I can not pull out her name at this time:(  I dislike referring to someone as she, but here is the story. My new friend  is very much in my thoughts. Thou  her cancer is not new to her - she is such a strong, happy soul/ she is a Minister's wife and has a fabulous support system. When I saw her on Friday she  was searching for authorization  to fly to the beach for a few days. This was iffy as she also a blood clot in her lung. Dr. Bhandari eventually sent her on her way and she went bouncing out the door.


 Her cancer path began several years ago with increased fatigue, weakness and feeling " something is wrong". She works with children and her arms began to ache so much she could not wipe off table tops. She went to her OB and family Dr. they did not see anything  wrong.  She became panicked and returned to her family DR. with the words " someone needs to do something - I am dying"  They  sent her for a cat scan.. The technician came out and told her he was calling her Dr. as there was a milky film over her organs. You the reader of this can sort of figure out where this leads.:( The shocking part is she had stage 4 ovarian cancer and it spread  through out her body.. She had her ovaries removed 28 years ago - she did not have cancer at that time. WHAT ! omg - those sneaky damn cancer cells, they develop where ever they please. Stage 4  cancer spread though out her body. Just like that her life changed.


She needed emergency surgery. OMG, again! This is where the insurance company raised it's head and steped in. They needed proof as in  a biopsy before they would authorize this  surgery or they would not pay!.  ( yes they do require this, a surgery before a surgery) The surgeon fought this battle for her with the words"I do not need or do we have time for a biopsy, I need to save her life". The emergency surgery happened and she is now a survivor living with cancer.


The enormous prayer and energy groups that follow her journey, faith, positive  energy, the surgeon - call it what you want - it prevailed - they removed the film covering her organs, they did what they could surgically.  The results were she went into a remission. Was this a miracle?  Yes !

Living with cancer, the fight was far from over, she had all the necessary treatments with some steps forward and some steps backwards. The cancer was still in her body - I call in hiding. The treatment went well and she recovered, moved forward. I am sure she always had her wonderful smile on her face. 

 On her recent path, I think she said  two years ago the ovarian caner  needed some attention. A new journey began - her blood count suddenly went from a range of 200 to 3000 she again had an active cancer and a blood clot in her lung. This fight continues, her spirit is great, her energy is  contagious and I am sure she smiled all the way to the beach. 
Plus she has a really good wig. hee hee!


Life is great.