Difficult few days

Its been a difficult few days. The medication that they gave to me to build up my blood cells sent my bone marrow into over drive resulting in intense pain. I have also developed thrush, so my tongue is covered with a lovely white sweater and is totally numb. Good news though they have medication for all of these side effects. Now for the side effects of the meds to cure the side effects. Bring in on!!!!

These are the lovely ladies that filled me with the poison the other day. Very sweet girls. I didn't catch their names. Next time.

Really tired

I felt great this morning. I need to be up walking and drinking water to flush this poison out of me so I went to the club house and walked a mile in about 20 minutes. Really stupid thing to do. I had to sit by the pool for about a half hour to get enough strength to walk back to the condo.

Geo and Ted took Georgie to the airplane museum in Odgen so they were not here all day. Mom and Julie went to town so I went with them to run some errands. I did pretty well til the last stop but then I had to go to the car. I'm sure that if anyone saw me walking to the car they thought I was drunk. I would zero in on the car but then it would be in a totally different spot and I would have to redirect my feet. Freaky feeling.

I have been kind of in a haze all day, not really asleep but not a wake either. If this keeps up I am going to have to have some take Georgie for me when Geo is working cuz that would be scary to have him terrorizing the world and me totally out of it.

First Chemo

Surprisingly I feel fine. they gave me a bunch of anti-meds. The best of which was Benedryl. It knocked me out for the whole three hours and then some after we got home. I have eaten and slept the day away. I don't know what the night or next coming days will bring but they have given me more anti-meds to fight it so I am hopeful that we will be fine.

They admonished that sick people stay away, so don't feel bad if I don't want visitors. I would appreciate calls or texts. My cell is 435-790-7955. You could also send cards or letters and of course there is always facebook. Thank you so much for all of your messages. They have helped to cheer me and to know that I am thought of and loved. Thank you.

Zoo Adventure

I don't know about you guys but when we have gone to the zoo in the past there was really nothing to write home about. This time was different for us. It was as if someone was going before us and telling the animals to put on a show for us. All of these critters are the ones I always look at and they all did stuff for us. It was really cool. These pictures were really taken on June 30, 2010 not April 30, 2009 My date stamp must be off. Sorry.


This little elephant was a new baby this year. She is so cute. Elephants are one of my most favorite animals. I don't remember her name so if you know it please write it in a comment. Thanks.









Usually when I have seen a turtle in an exhibit their butts are too me and they have their heads sucked in to their shell.










This guy not only pulled his head out but he looked right at us. It was way cool.
























Ostriches are ugly birds. But we always go to look at them.

I had no idea that their feet are made up of two toes. Who knew?

This is my beautiful mother. She is a wonder to me. I love her so much. I hope I can be like her some day. Oh and that is Georgie's little head.

Giraffes are cool animals. They have the same amount of vertebra as we do. At least that is what my step-dad said.

I really thought this was all we were going to get out of the tigers. They are always so aloof. Way too important to look at humans. Now that they have their new habitat they are really important.

But while we were looking at this little princess. I am not sure what she is. She looks like a bobby cat that should be in the house but she is an amazon cat I guess. At first we thought the cage was empty but then she got out of her den and walked up a log and into the bushes and them down a log and them back into her den.

When I turned around to see what the tiger was doing. This is what followed. It was the best thing I saw that day.

Sorry my pictures don't do it justice. I am not a photographer.

I thought this guy was a prop. He was so still I thought there was now way it was really. Geo said that he was waiting patiently for some thing to land in his mouth.

We stopped to see the bird show. I have never been to one in my whole life. It was fascinating how that have been able to train those birds to do so many things. Not to mention the little critters that just made an appearance at the back of the stage. The rats, chicken, etc. I was impressed.

This little guy jumped from his perch and spread eagle between the window and his tree when my niece Breck and my son Zach walked up. He must have wanted a better look at that pretty girl and handsome boy. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. Really funny.

Orangutan's are another of my favorite critters.

"Right turn Clyde." Isn't he cute?

I started the steroids this morning, Dexamethason. They make me feel crappy. Water tastes really funny, almost like it is full of clorine. It burns my tongue. My voice has changed as well, it is very scratchy. Almost like I am getting a cold or something. This stuff lowers my immune system, so all sickies please wear masks and wash your hands really well, if you really need to come over:). Thanks.

camping season is over

We went to the mountain today, packed up the camper and brought it down. I doubt we will be back up there again to stay this summer. I guess we could have left it up but then Geo would have put it down with out much help from me and I like to do things my self and he knows it. So we will just have to be content to fishing with out camping.

Yesterday I had my hair cut off. Miquel put it up in little pony tails and then we went to see Emily who cut the little ponytails off and then cut and styled my hair. I am donating my hair to locks of love. It had to be 10" long to be able to donate it. Most of it was. But now I have a really short do til it all falls out. The day before it is suppose to fall out I think I will shave my head so I don't have a bunch of hair everywhere.

I guess it is best to start at the beginning.

I found a huge lump in my left breast in February 2010. I had recently weaned George when I went to work at Wal-mart so I really thought it was just mastitis or a clogged duct. I called my mid-wife and she started me on a few herbs. I took them faithfully for about a month but nothing really happened except my breast got larger and sore. So I called her back and she started me on a few more herbs. The swelling went down and the soreness went away. My mid-wife came to see me and during her visit she could see that I was scratching my head and looked puffy so she had me add a few more herbs to my list and admonished me to watch my diet. NO sugar, more fruit and veggies.

Immediately we had results. The swelling went down, the soreness was totally gone and we were left with a walnut sized rock hard lump. I continued to take the herbs but let off of the diet. A little sugar wouldn't hurt me, or so I thought. The lump never changed.

In June I had a dream that I had Geo call Dr Wold and make me an appointment. Dr Wold is a doctor who used to be in Roosevelt. He delivered Miquel, Vinnie and Aaron. But before I could even go to my six week check up for the birth of Aaron, Dr Wold moved to the Wasatch front and I never heard from him again. I had no idea where he even was. I thought the dream was dumb and didn't act on it. But I kept remembering it and decided to look Dr Wold up on the Internet.

Dr Wolds office is two blocks from moms house in American Fork. I called and made an appointment. June 22, 2010 I was reacquainted with Dr Wold. I don't think he remembered me. It has been 18 years, I have gained a lot of weight, and changed my name. But he tried to remember me. I don't know why we needed to see him other than it put us in to a pool of doctors and hospitals that I would not have had here in Vernal. All of my doctors are two blocks from moms house.

I was impressed with his response. He wanted me to have a mammogram and see a surgeon. They tried to get me into a doctor but she was out of town. There happened to be an opening for Dr Clark Sheffield. They made me an appointment for later that day and scheduled my mammogram and ultrasound for after lunch.

When I got to moms house they had called and the surgeon wanted to see me right away. We left right then and went to his office. He spent a good hour with us and suggested that when they do the ultra sound they also get a biopsy.

So our first official day of our cancer journey was June 22, and on that day we saw an OB, saw a surgeon, had a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy. All we could say was that angels were helping and guiding us to get things done as quickly and easily as possible.

The next week we took the boys out to the zoo. On our way there Dr Sheffield's office called and they said they wanted to see us. We cut our zoo visit short so we could be in their office before they closed for the July 4 weekend.

I have infiltrating lobular carcinoma. It is a rare cancer of the breast. Not necessarily harder to treat just more rare than ductal carcinoma. We would start by having a lumpectomy and then radiation. At least that is what I heard. Geo says now that there was more to the treatment plan than that but I chose not to hear it. I was in major denial. An appointment was made to see the oncologist and the plastic surgeon for consecutive weeks.

The next week we met with Dr. Wendy Breyer, oncologist. She is a cute little asian girl with beautiful legs. She changed our treatment plan. This really knocked my feet out from under me. I was able to deal with it pretty well til CHEMO came into the discussion. Again Geo says that it had been mentioned before but I had never heard it. So anyway, treatment became Sentinal node discetion>Chemo>mastectomy and oophectomy>radiation and hormone therapy.
She also did the genetics testing, ordered ct scans of my chest and abdomin and a bone density scan.

All the tests came back clear. It is not genetics, even though every person who has ever died in our family has died from cancer. So that is good news to all my sisters. There is no sign on the CT scans in my lungs or liver and I have very good bone density. I am as healthy as a horse, I just have cancer.

To date we have had the Sentinal Node Disection. Cancer is present in the nodes. They have installed the porta cath, which is a device under the skin that will allow the doctors and nurses to access a main vein. They will be able to administer all meds and do all blood draws from this little device. I am very sore and terrified to start the chemotherapy.

I have made major dietary changes. NO meat, NO sugar, No dairy. Meat is a little hard to give up but the others I have been working on for a long time. Not to hard to give them up.

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