Third Chemo treatment

First off, I need to give a BIG shout out to Jan and Alyce from Goldendale, WA.  They have taken the time to get my mom connected to my blog.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  They print it out daily for her to read. So kind of you.

Well, it's time for chemo treatment number three. Kind of hard to believe. It's going by darn fast. I am doing pretty good. This darn cold that I have has been a real bummer. I can't tell you the last time I had a coughing cold. It sucks!! It would be terrible if they cancelled by treatment today because of it. So please pray for this cold to leave me and also that my treatment moves forward today. Funny huh, I want treatment. Weird. Got to get er done though.

Our house has settle down from the company of our grandkids and big kids. It was so wonderful having everyone home for this holiday season.  I really miss you all! My grand babies are the cutest and the best kids. They really are so good. Good job Tami and Sam Kazdahl!

I was able to work this week, but only worked 6 hours Tuesday and Wednesday and just a few hours Thursday. I got home yesterday by noon and was able to take a bath and rest up all day for today. So, I am all rested and ready to go get my red poisen pumped in me.

I am really excited because my best eeees Nancy and Jody are coming to hang with Danno and I at the hospital today. Shaina is going to stop by and say hi also. I think Tami might pop in for a quick hello too. Going to make it a good day.

Amazing day.....

Look what my beautiful friend Shana did today....

 Can you believe this?  Shaina is a co-worker of mine at Harborview. Love her!!! She told me she was going to shave her head so I knew she was going to do it. She left for lunch today and came back looking like me :) Thank you Shaina!!! I guess it's time for me to embrace this bald head that I have. If Shaina can do it I can do it. Bald is beautiful when I look at Shaina :)

I am feeling pretty good this week. My cold has still slowed me down a little. I am trying really hard to get all well by Friday. I don't want them to cancel my treatment. Not that I am looking forward to treatment, but we got to do them to get through them, right!

Karley plays tonight :) can't wait to watch her on my big screen.

Christmas weekend......

The weekend started with Karley getting home on Thursday night :)

 She was so excited to be home. She was glowing from her trip to Hawaii. She was so beautiful. She loved the decorated house. It was so great to see her. It was also the first time she had seen her mommy with no hair. She loved my bald head and kissed it just like she said she was going to. I wasn't feeling well so I couldn't go with Dan to get Karley, but her best friend Joanna was in town and went in my place and surprised Karley. It was great! Then we got to enjoy Joanna over night and some of Friday. Love you Jo!

Friday, my beautiful friend Peri-lyn...

 Set up for her friend to take professional family photos of us. It was so wonderful. We haven't had professional photos ever. Haley met us at the house and we all headed to Peri-lyns to take photos. It was great! She has a barn, a tree swing and just cool scenery to take pictures.

Then Friday night Dan and I just spent the evening resting. It was really nice. 


Christmas Eve we went to our great friends Merle and Bettie's. It was so nice. I got to meet Hank Edelbrock :) Courtney's son just born November 30th. We got to see Marcus and Becky. We also met Dr. Bob and his wife Gloria. It was just a great Christmas Eve. I did end up totally crashing before dinner. Got up had dinner and headed home. It was still a good. I am learning that when you are a cancer patient you just can't do everything you used to do.  Some pictures from the evening.....

Me and Bettie

Marcus and Becky...

Wade and Courtney....

Karley and Hank...

And one bald head to another....

Christmas Eve night Sam, Tami and the grand kids came back to our house to stay so the kids would wake up and open up their Santa gifts and have Christmas morning. It was so wonderful having them all here. We just loved it! Dan fixed us all breakfast.( Even though it was his Birthday. I am going to celebrate his Birthday this next weekend in Portland ) It was so fun watching the kids open up their stockings and gifts. Haley came out and later in the afternoon we all went to to Todd and Dawn Ackley's to spend Christmas with more family. 

It was a totally stress free relaxing Christmas spent with family and friends. Thoroughly enjoyed ever minute of this Christmas :))

Christmas morning....

  
And then finally Christmas night we celebrated Danno's Birthday....

Yep....you see it correct a half a Birthday cake. We are so lame. Sorry Danno. I am going to make it to you next weekend.


Happy holidays to you all!!!!

Duct taping my head.... Our day and THE WIG!!!!!

Just in case you guys wonder what Dan and I do in our spare time these days......

 Yep, duct taping the remaining hair off of my head. Anton told us we needed to get the rest of the hair off my head other wise it could cause some sores on my head.  Totally gross isn't it. Eeeewwww.... We were sitting listening to Karley's ball game as she is socking up sun in Hawaii duct tapping my head. They won!!!

So today started out to be a pretty good day. Dan and I got up early to try to do something for Christmas, since I have done nothing. We made it to one store and to get a bit to eat before I had to quickly get home. Got home and I was pretty sick. I definitely have had a case of the headache, achy I don't feel good all over.

Jenni I cast my magic won, and it didn't work. Dang it!!

 Haha......

THE WIG!!!!! I know you are all dying to see my wig. Well, I wore it out today :) Dan and I are going to work on it tonight to try to get a part and get the part on the side. It felt pretty good to go out and not feel like a cancer patient.  Thank you Bettie and Merle. I will be looking smoking hot when I get to your house on Saturday. :)

Hi all......

Sorry I have not sent you all an update post in to many days. I am doing okay. It's been a rough couple of days. I am struggling with my wig. That is really stressing me out. I have caught a cold and that really sucks. I haven't been feeling really well and I am soooo tired.

The wig....Bettie and I picked it up yesterday and I didn't have the energy to even attempt to fix it until today. I got really frustrated and did not like the front at all. Dan and I took it back and they have made some changes, but again I haven't had the energy to fix it yet. Maybe tomorrow.


I am definitely feeling less energy and spunk this round of chemo compared to last. I didn't make it to work today and I am sure I am not going to make it tomorrow. I just need to rest a lot more. The nausea is still pretty under control, as long as I take my medication.

Over all, I am still doing really good. Things are very tolerable. My body just needs to rest a lot.

Video of my hardest day being a cancer patient.....

This starts with the day I realized I was loosing my hair. Then moves into when my friends met up with me at Anton's Salon in Bellevue. Then my sister and I went to Swedish for my second treatment. Katy Mowrer and Jenni Coles came to visit me at Swedish :) 

Peri-lyn, my lovely boot camp instructed brought us taco soup and salad for dinner once we all got home. It was so great!!

Karley is in Hawaii with her basketball team. So the love in the sand is from her. Love it!!

Thank you all so very much for sharing this very emotional time with me.  Thank you also for the amazing support, encouragement and love you ALL continue to give to me. And Dan, thank you for being the most wonderful husband a woman can have. I love you

Thank you all for loving me through it.....

Emotion, exhausting day......

The day started out by going to Anton's Salon to get my hair cut :( My entourage was with me. Dan, Bettie, Shelly, Nancy, Amanda and Jody. Thank you all for spending this time with me. Once we all arrived Anton took us back to the salon chair. He and Curt started taking pictures of my hair, front, back, side and the part. Next Anton started cutting/shaving my hair. It was very sad for me. I cried the whole time. Of coarse my wonderful friends were telling my that I have a beautiful round head. That I am so brave. I didn't feel any of those things. I still cannot look at my head in the mirror with out crying. I know this will get better. I will embrace this head eventually.

Next my sister and I headed over to Swedish hospital for my chemo treatment. Everything went really well. My blood work was great. Dr. Kaplan said I was doing well. I told him how  things went these first two weeks and he said things should be pretty similar these next two weeks.

Katy Mowrer  and Jenni Coles came and visited me during my chemo today. Was great to see you both!!

I am totally exhausted so I will finish this post tomorrow, I have some wonderful photos and more to share

Head shave day :(

The dreaded day has came. I must shave my head today. Boo hoo!!  I am doing pretty good. I am excited that my amazing, beautiful friends are going to be with me through this crazy experience. Off to Bellevue we go. We will be going to Anton's Salon first, he will chop my locks off.  I can not even picture leaving Anton's without my hair. Weird!!  Then we will head to Seattle for my chemo treatment. Then back to Bellevue to pick up my wig that will be made with my hair. Going to be a long day.

The eve of my hair cut.....

Well, I am still freaking out about getting my hair cut. I made it through my work day. Glad it was a really busy day. My sister picked me up from work. It was so nice to see her. I have an appointment to get my hair cut at 8:30 in the morning :( I have called my friends Bettie, Nancy & Jody. They are going to be at Anton's in the morning with me. So, I will have an entourage with me for support in the morning.

My sister brought me some totally cute hats...

 
We are having fun trying them all on. I am looking pretty cute in hats ... haha  I have never been a hat person with my curly hair. That is all changing as of tomorrow.

MY HAIR :(

I am freaking out ..... my hair has started falling out this morning. I cancelled my appointment to get my head shaved and wig done for tomorrow, but Dan thinks I need to go ahead and do it. I don't want to. I am really sad right now.  I am going to call Anton's Salon today and ask them if I should do it tomorrow or if I can wait until Monday.

I am bawling like a baby right now. I need to get it together because I have to go to work soon. 

A surprise for me

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ........

 soothing foot balm, relaxing foot soak and a foot polishing brush.


On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ......

two nail polishes and a top coat.

It's a GREAT night!!!!

I feel SO good tonight!!! I worked ALL day today :) felt so good. And, I just feel good. I almost feel totally normal.

Having a wonderful evening with My Man. Watching Karley on the big screen play Western Oregon. We connect our computer to the TV and we see her on the big screen. Next best thing to being there :).

I must say though, that I don't want Friday to come. The cycle will start over again :(  It's okay though. I must push through this and I can do it!!  Ever since Monday (the day I really started to feel pretty good) I have been dreading Friday...ughh. But, I still have my hair :) and I feel fabulous so lets enjoy right now!!!!! 

Go Vikings!!!

Go Karley!!!

Official first "off " week of chemo

When you are doing chemo treatments like I am right now you have your chemo week (the week you received your chemo) then you have your off week. This week is my off week since I do not have another treatment until Friday. I am hoping that I will continue to feel the way I am feeling now. I still get very tired by the end of each day, but feel pretty good every morning and a lot of the day. My plan for this week is to continue getting a lot of rest. I should be able to work each work day and maybe even not have to leave early.  We will see how that goes.

So far I am doing so good. They say each treatment can and will affect you differently. We will just have to wait and see. 

My next treatment is Friday the 16th. I am excited because my sister is going to come and stay a couple of days with me and take me to my treatment. 

From the information that I have read and heard, this week will probably be the week I start to lose my hair. Going to be hard for me when that starts to happen. I can handle it though, it's just hair right. It will come back and most of the time it comes back the way it was before. Lets hope God doesn't punish me for all the times I said I hate my hair. hahahaha :)

Today was a good day....

 Today was a really good day. I felt better today than I have the last couple of days. It's weird how as the day goes on I seem to get bothered by this darn nagging headache and just a touch of nausea. But, totally tolerable.

 I made it through my work week. So happy for that.

I do feel like I might just sleep the whole weekend though :) If I do, so be it.  haha

I need to shout out to my good friend Kathleen Desmarais. Kathleen's daughter Juliet and my daughter Karley went to school together since the first grade. Kathleen coached the kids in soccer and I coached the kids in basketball. Kath works at Harborview, as I do. She has worked there for I believe 20+ years. She is an RN at the Rehab clinic. Anyway.....Kathleen donated 80 hours of sick time to me to help me out as I need to take time off from work.  Woo Hoo!!!!  That is such a blessing. Kathleen, thank you SO much!

My friends are amazing......

So, I get home today about 5:30ish. The house is cold and dark so I turn the heat up and start turning on the Christmas lights.  Now that the house is decorated I do love it. Sure didn't want to do it this year :) As I pass the front door and flip the switch to the Christmas tree, I notice these on my porch...

I am thinking what the heck?  The packages are from our lovely friends John & Lila deWeber and Jody Bellamy a high school friend and classmate.  I bring them in and remove the mail packaging and this is what I see....

 Beautiful......

I open the packages to the most touching heartfelt words and gifts...

the pink scarf is from the deweber's....the card reads "celebrate this holiday season with hope, LOVE and joy". Written says...may the pink remind you of Strength and the comfort remind you of God's arms around you!  Thank you John and Lila SO much!


the purple and gold scarf ( my school colors) is from Jody Bellamy. We were teammates from the 7th grade all through high school on the volleyball and basketball team at good ole Goldendale High School.  The card reads "thinking of you...because you're someone very special"  written says... Here are some FIGHTING COLORS FOR YOU!  Thank you thank you Jody!


So so thoughtful! 

I will wear these scarfs and think of the special people that took the time to think of me.

I love you guys!

A tougher day today :(

Hi all! I worked the better part of the day today. As the day went on I started to feel really tired and have been plagued with a headache. I have been able to keep nausea pretty under control. I just get really tired as the day goes on. Tonight, I just don't feel really well. It makes me feel sad. I don't want to be sick. I am still doing really well. I just don't feel normal. I really want to make it to work tomorrow, then I have made it through my work week.

Si and Vonnie brought us dinner :)

Our friends Si and Vonnie Smith came over and visited us last night. They brought their yummy chili and corn bread. We had such a great visit and dinner. We hadn't seen then in way to long we all realized after we started chatting.

There daughter Alyssa and Karley played basketball together and against each other all through middle school and high school. Now they both play in the Big Sky Conference. We are proud parents :) Alyssa plays for University of Montana.

I loved how Vonnie had so many questions. As I know many of friends have.  We talked about my diagnosis. How I found it. All the test I have been through. And, just how we are doing. We laughed we cried. I just enjoyed every minute of the evening. Thank you Si and Vonnie so much.

Of course I had to get a picture for my blog. I looked like a big leopard sitting in between them on the couch haha. It took Dan a few photos before we found one we all liked.

We love you Si and Vonnie :)

 

Day 4 & 5 of chemo and I made it to work :)

Day four of chemo was pretty uneventful. Yay!  I stayed home all day and just finished decorating my house for Christmas. I must say, it has been a bit hard to really get into Christmas so far. I did have to lay down and rest a couple of times, which is just weird. I am not one to ever take a nap during the day, so to truly feel the need to rest is just different.

Then just before I went to bed I got out the "tlc" (tender loving care) American Cancer Society catalog and ordered some head coverings for my soon to be bald head. This is going to be really hard for me guys. I just can't even wrap my mind around having no hair. Dan is amazing, he keeps telling me how beautiful I am going to be with a bald head. Love him so much!  I have an appointment to get my hair cut on Friday the 16th of December :( 

Today, day five of chemo I went to work. I was so happy that I felt good enough to go to work today. I made it through most of the day, but did leave about one hour early. I all of a sudden had a wave of nausea, tired, heat, sweaty, ill feeling. Just needed to get home to my couch. 

I am now home on my couch :) I feel very tired and just a little off. But doing okay.

Our beautiful friends Si & Vonnie Smith are bringing us chili and corn bread for dinner tonight. I am so excited to see them and eat their chili. It's the best!!

Day 3 of Chemo

I am doing really well. I am surprised at how good I feel. Maybe just a little nauseous, but not really. I had a little head ache for a couple of days, but not to bad. Today we are putting up our Christmas decorations and My Man is complaining as usual that I have to much Christmas stuff. How could that be? Guys just don't get it. hahaha
So, very happy to report that our house is very normal today. YAY!!!

First "big" week a success

I am still feeling really normal. Maybe a little slow, but no nausea and no fatigue :) Please God lets just keep it this way haha.
Big thank you to Nancy, Sammy and Amanda. Loved your visit last night. Was just great!

I need to share with you how wonderful my daughter was this week. Its been difficult for me and her because she is a college athlete and just doesn't have the time to get home very often once season has started. So, on Wednesday I got my port in. I'm thinking no big deal, get this port in and head back to work, right? Well, no. It kicked my butt so Dan brought me home after. I get a call from Karley. She is at Harborview with a surprise for me. I was so sad and glad at the same time. Felt horrible that I wasn't there for the surprise and to see her. So glad that she would take a day and drive eight hours just to see me. Makes me cry again just thinking about how special that was and she is. Thank you so much Karley. I love you so so so much.
These are the flowers and the beautiful card (that also makes me cry every time I read it) that she brought for me...

She is going to be mad at me for putting up the card because she signed it in the car and she didn't like her hand writing hehe 

                                                Love my girls so much....

I also need to add that my neighbor Tonya has been the sweetest neighbor ever. When we got home yesterday from my chemo treatment she had beautiful flowers on my door step. Was so sweet. Also her boys help us out all the time. Thank you Tyler and Kyle. Tyler is our new handy car mechanic and many other handy things we ask him to help with. And Kyle is a little stud that came up and helped Dan get our couch up stairs the other day because I am a total woos and have no arm strength. Thanks Kyle for making it look like it weighed two pounds. :)  The whole Moser family is truly a blessing to have as neighbors and Dan and I appreciate every little or big thing you do for us. Oh I must not forget Jon was the mastermind that assisted his son Tyler in tearing our boat motor into a million pieces that I could not even look at because I thought it would never be the same. It was. We boated this summer. Thanks guys. Love you all


These are Tonya's, Karley's and Paul Kulits office flowers. The scarf Ms. Sammy brought me last night and the BC bug is from my man Danno.  Thank you all so much!!

 

My beautiful friends came to be with me

Nancy, Sammy and Amanda came over to visit me tonight. They brought Olive Garden for dinner and it was yummy.  I guess I better still enjoy eating what I like because I may not have an appetite in a few days. 
Sammy is so excited because "how the Grinch stole Christmas"  movie is on.  I love it!  So, we are all watching the "Grinch".
 Dan had to go to a wrestling match tonight and we had no idea how I was going to be so I am so glad my friends are here

                         Me and my beautiful friends

First chemo treatment

So, my day started with Dan waking me up and telling me to check my phone because so many people were already wishing me well. I looked at my phone and couldn't even read them because I started to cry. I moved on to getting ready to head to Seattle. Dan fixed me breakfast and made me eat it. He's so mean...haha  Later on I checked my phone and got these wonderful photo's from my grand kids.
Are these the cutest pictures you ever seen or what......

 Love these!!!! Thank you Jack and Reese. These poster put a big smile on Nana's face.

Then we headed to Seattle to Swedish Cancer Institute. We met with Dr. Kaplan last night and he is a wonderful Doctor. He made us feel very comfortable. Swedish is where I will be getting my treatments.

I was very emotional all the way here. Once we got here things have went fine. It is so weird how I still feel totally normal. I am almost done receiving my chemo. We have been here about five hours. The first treatment takes a little longer, because they do a lot of teaching. My remaining treatments will take about 3 hours or so.
Just before we walked into the clinic

My nurse Stephanie getting me all hooked up

 We will be heading home shortly.  Sounds like I should feel pretty normal until Sunday then things could change.