July 28, 2008 - Chemo Completo

Spent 5 hours at chemo today. Great nurse (Jill, of course). Needle went in successfully the first time. All went well. It was my LAST ONE. Yay! I slept through 90 percent of it. I'm so excited I'm finished!!

So excited, in fact, that I'm going to sleep off the Ativan and Benadryl.

Will celebrate later.

Me

P.S. Thanks for all the warm wishes via comments on my blog and cards and emails and flowers. You all make me feel sooooo special. You're the breast! Thanks for reading!!!

July 27, 2008 - Tomorrow is Final Chemo - YAY

Tomorrow is THE LAST CHEMO TREATMENT! 8 of 8. Done. Finished. Can't wait to have this behind me.

I should find out next Monday or the following Monday when radiation starts. With gas prices the way they are, I'm not looking forward to the 20 to 25 minute drive to Hoag to do my radiation treatments 5 days per week. Ugh. Hey, at least I get to travel down the Coast Hwy.

I know. I know. Some of you commute double that distance (or more) everyday. Commuting stinks. Living and working in the same town has gotten me away from it, and I am hoping to keep it that way!

July 23, 2008 - Nutrition in a Can (Not)

I had never sought out good nutrition in the past, but with the books I've read and healthy cooking shows I've watched lately, I've been learning so much about what good food (REAL food) can do for our bodies. It's interesting to me to learn things like there is protein in leafy greens. You all probably knew that, but I am pretty much nutrition-illiterate. If my stomach growls, I eat whatever is near....chips, burgers, fries, candy, etc.

I cannot believe how far Americans (myself included!) have moved away from eating real food. We hear about this all of the time, and we ignore it until we get a cancer (or other) diagnosis and we start asking ourselves, "Was it something I've been eating, drinking, or breathing that caused this?" We go through our days eating anything that's quick and/or tastes good, despite how it may have been prepared or how long it has been on our pantry shelves. And we eat foods that have been sprayed with pesticides and animals that have been fed who-knows-what.

Over the past week or so, our family has been watching episodes of Emeril Green, which is a show on Planet Green where Emeril goes into a Whole Foods Market and helps someone who is stuck in a rut with meal planning or has special dietary needs, etc. He introduces them to all kinds of new foods. Well, they aren't actually new foods, but they are new to them (and to us!). He shows non-fish-eaters what types of fish to buy and how to prepare it (and the folks LOVE the fish), and he prepares things I had never heard of like broccolini, broccoli raub, and quinoa (pronounced keen-wah).

I'm not a cook, but Clayton and Cassie go to town in the kitchen lately. Cassie, at 24, already has quite a cooking background (as her mom is quite accomplished). Clayton and I didn't grow up in families that cooked together, so we don't have a large variety of meals we prepare. Clayton did learn at a nutrition class at our company's Leadership Center that 75 to 80% of your plate should have COLOR, so he focuses on that during meal prep.

Watching those two in the kitchen is great. They get so excited about the meals they are preparing. Here are a couple of pix of some of the recent meals they've prepared. The first one was last night's dinner. It was a bed of quinoa, with broccolini, chicken tenders, sweet pea sprouts, pine nuts, and carrots. The chicken was cooked using coconut oil. We had never used it before, and, man, was it awesome! It was not only healthy, but it was DELICIOUS.

Here's another. This one is meatless, and I don't have to tell you what's in it. Just click on the picture, and you can see it enlarged. YUM.

Just so you know, we are not giving it all up, but we are trying to eat 80 percent healthy and 20 percent a little less healthy for now. It's great. Try it. :-) I feel like I have to make some healthier choices if I want to keep this cancer from coming back.

July 21, 2008 - Heels and Wheels Charity Ride

I had a pretty good week. There was more weight loss, which I can't understand, because I think I eat pretty well. I'll talk to the doc about it today. The neuropathy in my feet drives me crazy, so I walk more than I did before. The fatigue is still hanging around. Thank goodness there's only one more chemo treatment. I hope the radiation treatments aren't too bad.

This was a pretty amazing weekend. My buddy, Tracey, is involved with Ventura Harley Davidson, and VHD sponsored a women's Harley ride on Saturday. A portion of the proceeds went to benefit http://www.amazonheart.org/, which is an organization that focuses on helping lift the spirits of young women with breast cancer (among other things). I had offered to volunteer to help Tracey with set-up for this ride months ago, so my daughter Cassie and I made the trip to Camarillo early Saturday morning and we had a blast. It was great to see about 150 motorcycles in one place - all driven by women! It made me and Cassie want to ride it next year!

The 70-mile ride started at the dealership and ended at a place called Poinsettia Pavilion on a hilltop in Ventura, where we all had lunch and watched a video of rides from the previous 2 years. At one point during the luncheon, Tracey got up to speak and she asked all of the women who were breast cancer survivors to stand. At least a dozen women stood up, and my heart sank. I had been conversing with some of these women earlier that day, and I had no idea that we shared 'survival status'. I just wanted to pull all of them in to a room and start sharing stories.

We left there at about 2:15 and were home by 4:00. I'll volunteer again next year, cuz that was just plain fun!

My sis and my nephew came over on Sunday, and we played Rock Band for WII and my nephew nearly beat my hubby at pool twice, but it seems the guy just can't be beaten. I think he should give some folks a break now and then. :-)

Have a great day!

July 15, 2008 - 7 Down, 1 to Go, Then Radiation

I had my 7th chemo treatment yesterday. I asked for Jill when I got there, but I ended up with Chris for some reason, with no explanation. I didn't complain because I had heard he was good... and he was. He got the needle in the first time, and I was good to go for the next 5 1/2 hours. I got there at 11:15 and was finally finished at 4:45. Thank goodness my neice just moved to HB and she was able to pick up Parker for me! Thanks Nikolie!

In my Crazy, Sexy, Cancer Tips book, Kris Carr provides a recipe for a juice made of kale, brocolli stalks, cucumber, and celery. I had to add part of an apple to sweeten it up. But I finished it. Now I'm bouncing off the walls. Gotta run to get my Neulasta shot this morning.

Parker turned 11 on Saturday, and he got spoiled to NO END. OK, there was an ending, but it seemed like the fun just kept going and going and going. We started with breakfast at the Park Bench Cafe with our dogs. We thought it would be a disaster, because they are so high strung, but after the first 30 minutes, they calmed down and we enjoyed ourselves. We followed that up with a trip to Balboa Island, where we had lunch at BJ's and we rented one of those 6 seater bikes. Parker begs us to rent one every time we pass one, so we decided his birthday would be a good time to finally give in. Parker tried to ride the bungee trampoline, but one look at the brace on his arm (from a kid stepping on his thumb earlier in the week), and they wouldn't let him ride. Then we went to Best Buy where he spent some gift cards on a fishing game for his WII. We went to dinner at Buca di Beppo, went to see Hancock (loved it!), got home at 11:00 pm and he opened his Rock Band for WII. He and his sister set it up, and we played drums, guitar, and sang until 11:45. Whew. Needless to say, we all slept in on Sunday - oh, except that golf-aholic husband of mine. He was on the course by 5 am. Crazy!

Do your self checks! Have a great day! Oh, and notice I'm wigless in the afternoon, and wiggin out at dinner. Ha!

July 10, 2008 - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably numb? Not exactly. I've been experiencing numbness and tingling in my feet lately. It used to come and go, but today it's sticking around all day. I'm about to go for a walk to see if that helps. I've also got tingling in my hands. It's mostly in my right hand, and it's not fun trying to do metrics for work - UGH! I despise metrics days. Fortunately metrics only have to be done a couple of days per month.

Other than the numbness and this cold (did I mention the lingering cold? Ha!), all is good.

July 6, 2008 - Just an Update

Happy Birthday to my sweet daughter, Jenny Benny!

We had a nice, quiet 4th of July. We did a small version of the annual Bev Snow 4th of July Memorial beach party and BBQ. It was difficult to plan anything big when I didn't know how I'd feel. We set up camp at the little beach at the harbour around the corner from our home. We stayed there and watched the kids play in the clay. Strange, I know, but it is clay. Some folks kayaked, while the others rested. Then we had our annual beef brisket (made famous by Bev Snow) and turkey dogs and potato and fruit salad at the house. Yum.

I still can't shake this pre-chemo cold. Right now I have a pretty bad sore throat, but - hey - I'm not coughing today! This chemo regimen causes occasional fatigue. I had never experienced that feeling before. Not fun. Fortunately it comes and goes, and I don't have it constantly, and Tylenol helps.

I'm looking forward to a pretty good week. Hope yours is good. I'm also looking forward to being done with chemo -- just two more treatments. Yay!

I hear I will get tattoo'd for my 7 weeks of radiation therapy. Gee - I hope it's a flower, or something prettier than a big X. :0)