Monday, September 24, 2007

"911, what is your emergency?" (not what you think!)

So John is upstairs folding laundry and Rachel Rose is . . . 'helping'. His cell phone is lying on the nightstand. RR's been playing with it. In a little while, he hears her talking, "Hello, Aunt Jan!" He looks down and she's got the phone to her ear. Thinking she's just pretending, he goes over to her. Then he hears a voice on the other end. He grabs the phone, "Jan, are you there?" But the voice answers, "No, this is Forsyth 911. What is your emergency?" RR has somehow dialed 911. He immediately apologizes, hangs up, and scolds her about pushing buttons on the phone. But the bad part is, this is not the first time she's called them!
As for me, I am LOVING not worrying about dinner. To those of you who are helping out - God Bless You and will you share recipes! My kids are eating better than when I cook myself! I am sooooo thankful for the food!
I did go back to my oncologist today. Yesterday was a yucky day. I ran a low fever, was nauseous, and my incision began leaking (sorry, it's gross - but at least you didn't have to see it!). They had me come in today to take a look. He said it is showing signs of infection so he put me on an antibiotic. He also changed my painkillers since the others were upsetting my stomach. I have felt much better today. Hopefully, yesterday was the hump I had to get over and it will only getter better from here on.
Tomorrow he is presenting my case to a "tumor board" which is a group of doctors who consult with each other about their patients. They each give their opinions on treatments. He is anticipating them to agree with the 6 rounds of chemo, but he will call me tomorrow to let me know theirs and his final decision. Actually, it's my final decision, just their recommendation. But I would prefer to suck it up and do the chemo and be more confident that I did everything possible to cure it. 18 weeks is no big deal! He said I will probably have my first treatment the first week of October. I'm hoping for Monday, the 7th. John is off that day anyway and that frees up the weekend before to go to his club's big end-of-season gala. I get to wear a pretty dress! What goes well with blonde?
I'm pretty sure I will be bald by Halloween. I've heard that the hair loss with Taxol (the chemo drug I'll be taking) happens 14-21 days after the first treatment. I've been thinking of Halloween costumes I could wear and Uncle Fester keeps coming to mind. Bald head, black gown, lightbulb in my mouth, easy!
I am going to start looking for hats and scarves as soon as I feel like it. I tried on a bandana just to see if I knew how to tie it. Rachel Rose came up and said, "Mommy, you a pirate!" Then she ran to get me an eye patch! Arrrgghhh!!!
-Melinda

Friday, September 21, 2007

Great news!

I just got home from the hospital and couldn't wait to post this message. My pathology reports came back early and out of the 12 things they took out and biopsied . . . all were BENIGN! The cancer has not spread anywhere else in my body. That one little 4mm spot is all there was. No lymph nodes, no nearby organs, nothing! I am a stage 1A. And if it weren't for the fact that the spot is a grade 3, highly aggressive, I wouldn't even have to have chemo. But of course we don't want to take any chances that the mean little sucker might have some friends lurking somewhere microscopically, so chemo it is. My dr said that after this surgery and the 6 rounds of chemo, I will be over with all of this. He thinks it is very unlikely it will recur. Of course, we know there are no guarantees, just look at my mom. But the odds are in my favor, at last!

Thank you all so much for the prayers. God is good and so are family and friends!

Hallelujah! Praise to the Lord!
-Melinda

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Surgery in the morning

Surgery got moved up to 11:30 tomorrow morning. Good! Get it over with sooner!

Testing 1 2 3 . . .

Welcome to my new blog. I have no idea how to do one of these, so this ought to be interesting. Hopefully, you will be able to check here for updates on me. Right now the only update I've got is that I'm now a BLONDE!!! You can see from the photo to the left that, yes, the cancer has made me crazy and I've chopped off all my hair and bleached it as light as I could get it. Actually, since the chemo will make it fall out anyway, I thought I'd have some fun with it before it goes. The strangest reaction was the anesthesiologist at my pre-op who said I made him think of Bette Midler (Whhaaat???). You can check out more photos at the link to the left - Blonde shots.

My surgery is on Wednesday and Tuesday I have to begin preparing. All day long, I will have a diet of only liquids and laxatives - yummy!! Since they will be exploring my entire abdomen, they need it as empty as possible. Should be a fun day!

Surgery is at 1:30 on Wednesday and will last 2 hours. They've told me to expect to stay at the lovely Gwinnett Medical Center for 3 to 5 days, but you can bet I'll be bugging them to release me as soon as possible! John has been able to take off from work and he's a better nurse than any professional! Bless my dear sister, Jan, who will be taking care of my girls on Wednesday and my mom who has been doing my laundry! Like she's got nothing on her plate!!!

And bless all of you for all your well wishes. Hopefully, I'll still feel as cheerful after surgery and without any hormones. Anybody got a fan I can borrow?

-Melinda