Wow! It's been a while. I wanted to start blogging again, or at least make an attempt to it. My life has changed so much in 6 months, or even a year.

I know my blog is not something big or something to brag about. But I hope to learn new things to make improvements. I have some many things that I have been learning about health, cancer, and nutrition that I want to share! I feel everyone should have the knowledge to help themselves feel better. The great thing about the blog is I can share them with people who want to know about it. I know not all my Facebook friends and family may want to hear my opinions or may not even care to know the things I learn about. (People, not everything should go on Facebook!)

So heres to a new life, and sharing it with those I love.

Viewers Needed

I hope this post finds you well on New Years of Eve.
I have a request that may seem all too simple for some which have been blogging for quite a while, but I would like to see my viewership increase. I know that I cannot expect a whole lot being that it is a tiny piece of my heart and brooches a subject that not everyone is comfortable with hearing. I first started this little thing as an information train for my family and friends. Finding out you have been diagnosed is horrible then to have to tell people is another. Everyone wants to hear your condition and prognosis and I was just not up for telling the stories over and over again. I thought this would be better.

Then after Chemo started and I found different side affects and I had to look them up, I came across some great sites that help and great information that might just help someone in your list of family and friends. Let me tell you when going through Chemo there is just about nothing you will not try to stop some of the side effects.

I want this to be a place where others want to comment. Please if you blogg, message me suggestions to make it better. I am not saying I won't contact you to ask you to help me figure out especially while I have Chemo brain! I want to be fun, informative, shocking to some extent and a place where I can bear my heart and you can too. I want links of wonderful sites i have found to help me get through this all.

So my proposal. I will be sharing this on FaceBook, Google+1, and email. I have a goal to have 100 viewers join by January 5. I think this could be done. Anyone joining now till midnight of that night is eligible for a homemade gift sent by me to the person coming the longest way away! Just be sure after you join, post at the bottom of this post a note to me. I will message you for your address.  Another gift will go out to those who go on an read some of my past posts since October of this year. You will need to leave a message under the post that you had read it. There will be a drawing for several small gifts to those who read the most. This again, the deadline is midnight January 5th.
Happy Reading! And share, share, share!

November 27, 2012

Jennifer my advocate called me after work today. She said that they had been reviewing my pathology report and my margins were not all clear. What this means is they did not get all the cancer. On Wednesday when I meet with Dr. Holloway he will make the decision to go back in again or to see if chemo will do the job.
On a positive note I was accepted into a group study at Texas Tech on women and Breast cancer Cancer. It should do me some good.
Love to all.

Oncology visit 11-21-12

Today was a visit with Dr. Reddy my oncologist. Let me give you a run down. If you have questions, please post them. I will try to answer what I know. If I don't know what the answer is, maybe it is something I need to bring up to Dr. Reddy.

The Sentinel Node biopsy showed no cancer in the nodes. However there were traces of cancer going to the nodes. Because of this they can not say that I do not have cancer in my bloodstream. This is not good news, but it is not the worst. All means is that I do have to have chemo. They said with that and because of all the other circumstances like my being young and no reason for cancer, I need the chemo. Without any treatment and just the surgery the cancer would definitely come back. With radiation and hormone therapy only I would have a 70% success rate. If I have chemo, radiation and hormone therapy I have a 90% success rate. 

He did remove all the tumor. There was  a complication other than the brackets being broken inside of me. The tumor had started to wrap itself around a nerve in my breast. They had to remove that nerve. Who needs feeling in their breast right? No, he said it was one little nerve, not going to make a difference. With what was removed it was not considered a lumpectomy, it is listed as a partial mastectomy. 

They want me to rest a bit, so chemo starts December 4th. It will take the longest due to them wanting to do it slow as an introduction. They fully described how each visit will be with blood work to make sure my white cell count is ok (or no treatment until it is) then the process will be 2-3 hours at a time. The next day I return for steroids and injections to keep my white cell count up. This will go on, a treatment every three weeks for 12 weeks. So I am very lucky only 4 rounds of chemo so far. We will countdown! 

After that we will rest for a couple of weeks then it will be radiation every day for 7 weeks. After that hormone therapy for five years. 

Here is a good thought! I will keep my PICC line and that is how I will get chemo. He said that is how Chemo was originally given before a port was introduced. So every week I will go to Texas Oncology and they will clean my PICC line and change my bandage until we are through. So keep your fingers crossed that this holds.

They gave me tons of reading material on what will happen like between the first and second round I will loose my hair. I am going to go soon and get a super short cut so I will not be so traumatized with it falling out. I keep hearing stories of women driving down the road or cleaning house and having to clean their hair up along the way. I don't think I could handle another meltdown. However I am sure there are more to come.

My advocate Jennifer is trying to get me into a study group through Texas Tech. They are studying the effects of women with Breast Cancer. She thought it would help because I would speak with them and other women and it might help me sort through something personally in dealing with the big C. So lets hope the grant they have been given will be able to provide for me too. 

Well that is all for now. I want you all to know how much I love you and you mean so much to me. I apologize if I have exploded at you (TIM) and will try harder to get better as it goes down the road.

Happy Thanksgiving.