Hello out there!
Well lots of things happened within the next few months. First, typical cancer and NIH style, I was in the hospital as soon as I got home from NIH with a fever from chemo. Though I was only in the hospital for 3 days....it is just case and point for the life I would be leading for the next 4 years.
School is now in session and I am not there. I know this is what is best as far as being able to dedicate myself completely to beating this disease. It is still hard to watch everyone else being able to go and live their lives and pursue their dreams. My life is on hold, forced to live a life of needles and rat poison. Granted it is not all bad; I have met some amazing people....and I get to spend a lot of time with my family. Also, while everyone else gets to worry about exams and papers I get to just hang out...typically a persons dream; to be able to get by and do nothing. I decided that I would go a little stir crazy if I did nothing all the time so I started to work full time at the doctors office I worked at before. This is another way to distract me from focusing on the situation that was consuming me.
I continued my treatment with 6 weeks of radiation. I was not scared or anything in the beginning, it was more a curiousity. Shirley went through radiation before I did and she had to wear a head basket it seemed like. Her cancer was in her mouth so they had to make sure her head didn't move. It was a very interesting piece of equipment. She didn't have many side effects so I was able to see a little of what I would be experiencing. I never got really tired, until the last week or so. Just like with chemo, I would go play volleyball Tuesday nights with a pick up league. This was my way of continuing to play. Radiation went great, I had a spot on my chest and back where the radiation went in but really those are just battle wounds. I really don't care what my body looks like at the end of this...scars are cool and they show that you are bad mama.
My hair is starting to come back because I have not had chemo for about 8 weeks. It is the most perfect fuzz. Soft as a puppy's fur.
At the end of radiation I got scanned...the results could not be better. The largest tumor in my lungs went from 5cm to 2cm and the tumor in my glute was gone. AMAZING. Could this be the start of a break? The next step is a stem cell transplant in January. My sister will be the donor...amazing that my mom had 2 kids and we are a complete match!!!! That is god working! About a month after the initial post radiation scans I got a pet scan.....my tumors were dead; nothing lit up!!! I just couldn't believe it. I knew better than to get to excited but it is really hard sometimes to not think about the excitement of the end. Especially when I have Shirley around. As usual though, with the good comes the bad; I had pnemonia.
I went up to Frostburg to see the volleyball girls. When I walked in I noticed that they all had the number 6 on their left sleeve. They had dedicated the season to me. I was so surprised. It is amazing to have the support that they give me. The game went great; though it was unbelievably hard to watch and not play. I stayed up for the weekend...because I don't have any responsibilities at home. Somewhat of a gypsie I was.
Dan and I were perfect He came down to Gaithersburg and we went to a drive in theatre (another thing to put in the scrapbook).
Meanwhile, while all this excitement is going on, I still had school to figure out. I received a medical leave of abscence and I still had one more class to finish; and don't you know I have about 0 motivation to finish.
I did however, in the end of October, get to speak in my friend Stacy B's class about my story. This is when I first realized what I wanted to do. I realized I would love to be able to share my story; why else would I be going through this?
It was now the end of November. I started the rest of my chemo cycles. This chemo gets followed up with a few doses of prednisone. I notice that by the 3rd day of taking the pill I am ready to break at the drop of a hat. The feeling would really come on like clock work, I would get sad over a particular situation that was really not a big deal and mom would ask me how long I had been on prednisone.
I also met a new girl Amy. She is almost 18 and such a bright light. I think we will be good friends. Shirley is done with her treatment. We had a "no more chemo" party for her. It is a great thing to be surrounded by a success story. I will make my own success story as time goes on.
Well lots of things happened within the next few months. First, typical cancer and NIH style, I was in the hospital as soon as I got home from NIH with a fever from chemo. Though I was only in the hospital for 3 days....it is just case and point for the life I would be leading for the next 4 years.
School is now in session and I am not there. I know this is what is best as far as being able to dedicate myself completely to beating this disease. It is still hard to watch everyone else being able to go and live their lives and pursue their dreams. My life is on hold, forced to live a life of needles and rat poison. Granted it is not all bad; I have met some amazing people....and I get to spend a lot of time with my family. Also, while everyone else gets to worry about exams and papers I get to just hang out...typically a persons dream; to be able to get by and do nothing. I decided that I would go a little stir crazy if I did nothing all the time so I started to work full time at the doctors office I worked at before. This is another way to distract me from focusing on the situation that was consuming me.
I continued my treatment with 6 weeks of radiation. I was not scared or anything in the beginning, it was more a curiousity. Shirley went through radiation before I did and she had to wear a head basket it seemed like. Her cancer was in her mouth so they had to make sure her head didn't move. It was a very interesting piece of equipment. She didn't have many side effects so I was able to see a little of what I would be experiencing. I never got really tired, until the last week or so. Just like with chemo, I would go play volleyball Tuesday nights with a pick up league. This was my way of continuing to play. Radiation went great, I had a spot on my chest and back where the radiation went in but really those are just battle wounds. I really don't care what my body looks like at the end of this...scars are cool and they show that you are bad mama.
My hair is starting to come back because I have not had chemo for about 8 weeks. It is the most perfect fuzz. Soft as a puppy's fur.
At the end of radiation I got scanned...the results could not be better. The largest tumor in my lungs went from 5cm to 2cm and the tumor in my glute was gone. AMAZING. Could this be the start of a break? The next step is a stem cell transplant in January. My sister will be the donor...amazing that my mom had 2 kids and we are a complete match!!!! That is god working! About a month after the initial post radiation scans I got a pet scan.....my tumors were dead; nothing lit up!!! I just couldn't believe it. I knew better than to get to excited but it is really hard sometimes to not think about the excitement of the end. Especially when I have Shirley around. As usual though, with the good comes the bad; I had pnemonia.
I went up to Frostburg to see the volleyball girls. When I walked in I noticed that they all had the number 6 on their left sleeve. They had dedicated the season to me. I was so surprised. It is amazing to have the support that they give me. The game went great; though it was unbelievably hard to watch and not play. I stayed up for the weekend...because I don't have any responsibilities at home. Somewhat of a gypsie I was.
Dan and I were perfect He came down to Gaithersburg and we went to a drive in theatre (another thing to put in the scrapbook).
Meanwhile, while all this excitement is going on, I still had school to figure out. I received a medical leave of abscence and I still had one more class to finish; and don't you know I have about 0 motivation to finish.
I did however, in the end of October, get to speak in my friend Stacy B's class about my story. This is when I first realized what I wanted to do. I realized I would love to be able to share my story; why else would I be going through this?
It was now the end of November. I started the rest of my chemo cycles. This chemo gets followed up with a few doses of prednisone. I notice that by the 3rd day of taking the pill I am ready to break at the drop of a hat. The feeling would really come on like clock work, I would get sad over a particular situation that was really not a big deal and mom would ask me how long I had been on prednisone.
I also met a new girl Amy. She is almost 18 and such a bright light. I think we will be good friends. Shirley is done with her treatment. We had a "no more chemo" party for her. It is a great thing to be surrounded by a success story. I will make my own success story as time goes on.
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