Merry Christmas! Year in Review

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day and enjoying your Christmases!

This has been an interesting year, to say the least. I did some heavy thinking & revised some points of view - and that was early on before I knew anything about breast cancer!

Then we realized our beloved Jake had cancer and it was causing him pain, therefore we felt it best to put him down and now "Toothless Joe" probably has all his teeth again and no painful leg and is running around in dog heaven with his sister Madison and brother George.

Then Cooper arrived in March - the sweetest most docile little creature....for a few weeks. Then all hell broke loose and my canine garbage eater began his reign of terror eating everything he could put his paws on. Even his eye infection medication in a prescription bottle did not go unscathed. After a thorough and frantic search of the entire house, it finally dawned on me to check the backyard, and sure enough, I found the shattered prescription bottle and chewed up ointment tube out there. Not sure EXACTLY what it was that made him really sick enough to keep him at the vet for 3 days on intravenous and rack up a $1500 vet bill in June though.

Then I found the breast lump in June and all that has been thoroughly documented so I won't go into it.

Cam's job came to an end at the end of October, which has been fantastic for getting the house renovated. The place looks gorgeous and I'm very proud of him. The renos have come to a slow-down of late mainly due to the fact that he has been asked BACK to his old job for a 6-month contract so his retirement came to an end on Dec 21. Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas all rolled into one. If it doesn't turn into a permanent job again, at least it will give the economy 6 more months to improve for job hunting in the summer.

And that probably brings us up-to-date. Generally, it sounds like a pretty crappy year, but I don't really see it that way. I consider myself well on my way to recovery, and Cooper has calmed down to a level that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, Cam is back to work - and the only bummer is that Jake is no longer around physically, but we think of him often.

So have a great day, and enjoy your New Year celebrations!

3rd Chemo Progress Report

Chemo was Tuesday at 2:45. Tuesday night and Wednesday morning were not great - but I woke up early Wed, took drugs and went back to bed. When I woke then, I felt better & had a nice lunch. I felt a little woozy again in the afternoon, took more drugs and then felt ok again.

This morning, I felt great. So I scrambled a last-minute birthday dinner together (not previously planned as I didn't know if I'd be up to one). SUSHI - yum!

I had a nap this afternoon, but I think that had more to do with the 4:30 time I was awake this morning than any chemo fatigue....

I don't seem to have any other aches and pains as yet except for the odd muscle back-ache mid-cycle (chemo, I mean - since I don't get the other kind anymore while on chemo).

40 is not so bad - especially considering the alternative!

Cheers.

As I approach 40....

At the beginning of the year, I announced that when I turned 40 in Dec 2009, I would be FIT and FABULOUS. Well, things didn't work out exactly as planned, however, I can say that I am MORE fit than I was when I said that.... but don't get me wrong... I think I look pretty good - for a bald, one-breasted FORTY YEAR OLD..... HA!

SO, since I didn't exactly make my goal, I decided to harken back to 'the good ole days' and show off when I USED to be fit and fabulous... LOL


This is me on my 19th birthday. To the left is at the beginning of the night, posing with my semi-stripper that was arranged as a surprise for me at a RESTAURANT....


And to the right is the END of the night..... nuff said!

This is me on my way to a Christmas party in the mid 90s...

And this is me partying in my size 9 leather pants that I got when I was 15. I would guess that I am probably around 20ish here. Maybe a little older.

And of course, Halloween 1993. I'm pretty sure that when I saw this picture, I thought I looked fat.

All I can say now is... YOWZA

Does this shirt make me look bald?

So I promised new pictures when I had more hair gone. I was assuming that since I lost 3/4 of my hair in round one of chemo that the rest would come out in round two. So far, the remaining quarter (or is it an eighth) is staying strong....

I might post again if (when) ALL the hair goes - but this is entertaining because that remaining bit is slowly growing so now I have fuzz-head. Or, as Cam titles it for his own head "Frightened Family Hair".
I knew from the literature that one of the side effects of chemo is 'mouth sores' - but I never envisioned that it would be THE most uncomfortable side effect I would experience (at least so far). Last time I only got one painful canker sore. This time I have three. Ouch! At least it slows down my eating. Maybe that's why chemo patients lose weight - it's too painful to eat!

Who am I kidding - it takes more than that to curb my eating habits....

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow...

I'm back up and running, obviously...

In assessing round two of chemo well after the fact, it turns out that I was feeling 'off' until around Sunday. That's longer than last time. The good news is that I wasn't feeling wretched - just not quite up to snuff.

And the kicker being that the anti-nausea meds are appetite stimulants.... so I have been gaining weight on chemo instead of what everyone expects. I've put in a better effort this last week to start to get control of that part - actually using my treadmill.... and I stay on it longer than usual because I have company! That's right - Molly walks right alongside me while I'm on the treadmill - no leash or treats - she does it because she likes it. Sometimes a noise will distract her and she'll scramble off, but she jumps right back on again and continues walking with me. It's really cool!

The title of this post is because my head is starting to feel 'toothpicky' again - which I suspect is my scalp gearing up to lose the last remnants of hair that I have. About 3/4 of it fell out during the last round of chemo so I guess that last 1/4 will fall out around day 15 of this round too. So far, I still have eyebrows, eyelashes and stubble.... What the!?!

I'm so happy to see the sun back for awhile!!!