Highest Point on this Roller Coaster

Hello out there!!

There I was....lower then low.  Christmas came and I couldnt get my hip replaced because I was going to start chemo.  The doctors wanted me to wait until after Christmas to start the chemo....but then I wouldn't have felt good for New Years. I decided to start chemo the week of Christmas.

This chemo was by far the hardest group of medicines I had gotten.  The drugs tore up my stomach and made me nauseous and have horrible bowels.  Detailed I know....but when you have been around this stuff for years, describing your symptoms really is no big deal.  The chemo really didn't catch up with me until I was almost done with the 5 day cycle; then I would be bed ridden for 2 days.  I would get 2 weeks off and then start all over.  New Years was not a very exciting holiday; I would eat when I was hungry but eating would make me sick....horrible cycle.  About midway through January I was done with the 2 cycles of chemo.  The doctors would wait a few weeks and then scan.

I returned to school to begin my last year semester in grad school.  Time was definately flying by.  The only negative was that Dan took a job in Wisconsin so that he could have a job with benefits and a salary.  He works at an indoor baseball facility scheduling tournaments and doing lessons.  It is REALLY hard to be away from him, especially since there is so much up in the air with my cancer.  I told him that if he wants to go he has to come back for anything important and at least once a month.  I know this is what needs to happen and I will be able to join him when I am done with school.

It was time to be scanned.  The scan showed that there was no change in the tumors.  This is a great thing!!!!  Though it would have been nice to see some shrinkage, no reaction is good too.  The doctors returned to the original theory about this maybe not being cancer.....so we  did a biopsy.  It took about 2 weeks for the results, which was not typical and drove me crazy, but the results could not have been better.  It WAS NOT CANCER!!!!!!! I knew deep down that it was never cancer....but what else could it have been.  Turns out that it is a fungal infection from all my lung surgeries and tubes in and out last year!!!! AMAZING.  I was completely happy....nothing could go wrong.  I was tumor free! 

A couple weeks later I got a call from my nurse saying that I should get my hip replaced.....I scheduled the surgery the next day.  I did not want to let anything make me miss the opportunity to get my life back.  The pain was unbearable by this point....so I would get a new hip in 2 weeks. 

I had my hip replaced on March 10th.  I was instantly better when I woke up.  Walking without pain, climbing stairs, anything I wanted to do.....the world was mine again!!!  Getting my hip replaced allowed me to "not have cancer anymore", I was winning the battle now!  Before, the pain was a constant reminder that my life was not mine anymore...and I was just living through it.  Rehab has gone perfect!!!!  I really don't think I can get any happier.  If only Dan were here to see it.  The weather is getting perfect and I am free to go wherever my little heart desires!!!!  SOOOOOOOO NNNNIIIIICCCCEEEEEE!

I only wish my granddad was here to see me.  I know how much it bothered him to see me with a cane and in so much pain.  Though he is the reason things are going so perfect right now!!! He is my direct connect to the man in charge!  I know he is watching.