Overall Mortality Rate...

... is still hovering around 100% for humans as a whole.

Got your attention :)
I'm trying to get better about posting and it's been a week since the last.

Yesterday was the last of my long treatments, this is a blessing mostly.
A little scary as in 2 weeks chemo is done completely.
This has been my crutch, there is only about a 1% chance of cancer growing while on chemo...
So in roughly 13 days the crutch is gone completely.
However in about 60-75 days the side effects will subside almost completely as well.
I'm VERY ready for this to happen!

They were running behind yesterday so I was there until 5:30.
Mom and I had a dance party towards the end, it was great! :) 

My cold is almost gone, whew that kicked my butt!
Chemo sucks but that stuffy nose got the best of me for a few days, to say the least.

I went to a support group last night to talk about Tamoxifen (the pill they want me on 10 years).
There was an Oncologist there to answer our questions.
Lucky for me there was only me and one other lady there.
She didn't have many questions.
This left 75 minutes of just me asking question after question.
This was very helpful and I feel a little better about my options.

Back to where I started this post.
No one gets out alive anyway so make sure you have plenty of fun and laughter along the way.

My advise:
Make sure to remove toxic relationships from your life to help alleviate the stress those cause.
That can be hard but they will bring you down faster than almost anything else in my opinion.

Find something everyday to be positive about.
Don't take things too seriously. One example that comes to mind from a few years ago... I was driving to the airport. I was on the phone with my mom. Something flew up and hit my windshield. It cracked right away. "SHIT" I said and then continued my conversation in a calm manner. Mom wondered why I wasn't more upset. There was no need to be, it happened, I couldn't change that and being angry about it wasn't going to change anything, it happened. It wasn't life altering either. So it rolled off my shoulders and I had actually completely forgot about it until I got back in the truck when I got home from the trip and saw it.

Do something small for someone else daily.
The little things add up and will always be more important and better memories than the big things in the end.
Did I mention I REALLY miss coffee :) (Not for the coffee either.)

I truly believe that I've been doing so well, at least emotionally, so far because of the great senses of humor around me.
I'm very grateful that I have Eric here everyday to make me laugh and smile.
This is one of the best medicines!

 Tomorrow is the first day of October, where did the summer go?!

Poll:
My birthday is on the 28th... Do I celebrate my 28th on the 28th or just stick to my original plan of doing 27 over again?

The Day of A Lifetime

Wow.
Where do I even start?

I've always disliked when people say "It was the best day of my life".
If this is the case what else is there to live for?
So, please try to start saying 'so far' after these types of comments.
With that in mind, Saturday September 13th, 2014 - Cruisin' for Cleavage - 1st Annual Poker Run was one of the best days of my life, so far.

People have birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, babies being born, engagements etc. They are all memorable, but I'm not sure anything will compare to the memories of yesterday.

The amount of people and support was amazing.
The mix of different types/groups of people all coming together made everything that much better.

We had 145 registrations come through. I didn't count but I feel like there were many more people than that.

I didn't go to registration but I was at the first stop.
3 people beat me but then I stayed and watched everyone else come through and play the game.
It took almost 3 hours to get everyone through. It was great!
I left with one of the last groups of people and road to the next stop.
Wasn't there long and I left with a different group of people to the next stop.
On the way my heart sank, a bike had gone down.
I heard mixed things about what happened but I did find out the rider was ok over all.
He ended up with some broken bones but no head or organ damage.
I was grateful to hear this news.
Sad that someone came out for me and ended up in pain themselves though.

I met people that have read the blog and followed along this whole time. That's was a little weird at first but good at the same time.
I'm glad people are following.
That is nice to hear!

I had one lady say she is following and knows someone who was recently diagnosed and the blog has helped them so far with what to expect next and to realize that it isn't the end of the world. There can still be laughs and positive attitudes!  I'm glad I've helped someone, even if it's just one person, it's worth it. (PS, when you're reading this if you have ANY questions feel free to email me.)

I heard some sad stories about lost family and friends to this shitty disease.

Those were a little hard on me, but I understand that's what some people needed to get off their chest that day. (still no pun intended) :)

Lots of tears, stories and laughter were shared on Saturday!

I've been told that Kelsey is pretty bad ass, but I did see tears of amazement and joy on Saturday. It took everything I had not to shed a few myself.

Now the hard part... How do you repay someone who devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to put something like this together? The only real way to pay them back in the same fashion would be if something terrible happened to them as well. 

Of course I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. 

With that in mind I will be ever indebted to my sister Kelsey.

Kelsey, be proud, you did a wonderful job!  

Not to discredit what anyone else did but none of this would have happened without her.

A lot of this wouldn't have happened without the additional volunteers and bars to help as well.

The monitary turn out wouldn't have happened without the generous donations of various companies and individuals throughout Northern Colorado either.

A big, warm, THANK YOU to everyone that helped put this together.

The final numbers at the end of the day was just over $9,000 with $700 in prize payouts.

(I have random 'entry fees' still coming in from people that couldn't make it, when I get a grand total I will update this post)

This was hard to believe and didn't sink in until the next day and I just wept on my couch.

With this and the previous financial donations the weight of medical bills for 2014 and I'm 90% sure the medical bills for 2015 will be taken care of in total.

Without this stress over my head I am able to focus that much more energy on my success at kickin' ass.

I cannot say thank you enough for everyone involved that donated their time, energy and opened their wallets to help as well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We will be putting in an order for more t-shirts this weekend.

If you want one and missed out please let me know asap.

We will be collecting money before ordering.

There are grey or pink shirts and pink tank tops.

$12

Everyday should be filled with joy, laughter, happiness, love, human touch, and honesty.
--- Post coming about this soon.

Sorry it took longer to write this post than it should have.
I came down with a terrible cold last week and didn't have the energy to write.
I'm getting better now!
I apologize.

When this was first planned I said I wanted to pay it forward and help someone else next year, with that in mind;

We will have a 2nd Annual Cruisin' For Cleavage Poker Run next September, recipient to be decided.

Can't wait to see you all there!

Cruisin For Cleavage September 13th!

Kelsey has been BUSY!

The poker run is coming up in just over 2 weeks.
So far looks like we're going to have a lot of great people there, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!

There are quite a few that will be doing the ride as a drive in their cars/trucks.
We're happy to see this as well, you don't have to have a bike to have fun!
There will be games at each stop, silent auction and one more surprise at the end.

Come join for the fun before it snows!
If you have any questions please let me or Kelsey know.

There is a link at the bottom to download the PDF as well.

Description from Facebook event:

We are cruisin' for Cleavage!!

Registration will begin at 10:00 am in Severance, CO at Bruce's Bar. Last bike out by 11:00.

Cost- $15.00 for a single rider
$20.00 for a couple

Starting at Bruce's bar in Severance
1st Canyon Grill, Ft. Collins
2nd Wind Jammer, Loveland
3rd Derby Grille, Berthoud
4th Office Lounge, Loveland

The top two best poker hands will win cash!! 


Link to download the PDF:
Flier PDF Download

When you get to the new page click "Click here to start download from sendspace"
Don't click on any of the other advertising BS!

New Chemo and Radiation Decision

It's been almost 3 weeks since my last post.
Sorry about that!

I ended up in the ER 2 weeks ago (Sunday) for a few hours.
Blood counts were low.
Had to go for more blood tests Monday and Tuesday.
Weird, you go to the ER because you're loosing too much blood and the first thing do is take more blood.

I'm better now though.



Last Monday I started new chemo, Taxol.

This is every Monday until October 20th. (12 treatments)
Every third week I also have Herceptin and Perjeta. (These are antibodies, not chemo)
I will have Herceptin every third week until August 2015.
Perjeta just until October.

While this chemo takes much longer the side effects aren't nearly as bad as the AC I was on before this. I'm very thankful for that.

The first thing they do is give me Benadryl.
I'm back to involuntary naps now. :)
Then steroids and stomach meds.
Then Herceptin (90 min)
Then Perjeta (90 min)
Then Taxol (90 min)

All of the meds are put in saline and 'delivered' that way, makes me very cold!

The first treatment that included all 3 I was there from 9:30-4:30.
I'm glad Mom was there to help get me food and watch me sleep.
I would be very appreciative if I could get 'volunteers' to maybe help bring food on the long days.
I do sleep and work during treatments so I don't need people to sit with me the whole time, but I do get very hungry!

After all this is done I will have a month 'off'.

Then I have decided with the help of others that radiation is the best idea for me.
This will start around November 20th and will go for 5 weeks.
I will get 25 treatments in that time.
Going there everyday is going to take a toll on me I'm sure but we feel it's the right thing to do.

Hope to see everyone on September 13th!

10K Views and the Last Slurpee of my life

WOW!
The blog has received 10,000 views.
Reached 30+ countries. (Estonia being second after the US for views)
Made it to a few Latvian websites.
and more!

I'm currently sitting getting my last RED DEVIL chemo treatment.
I think I have drank the last slurpee of my life too.
I don't think I can ever even look at one the same again.
Never before did I believe it was possible to get nauseated just from the thought of something.
Guess I've learned, anything is possible!
(In case I didn't cover it before, during 15 minutes of the treatment you have to keep your mouth as cold as possible to avoid mouth sores. During the first treatment they suggested chewing on ice. I didn't want to do this because it hurts my teeth. Not thinking, I got a slurpee instead.)

Not much else to update.
I'm still bald.
Haven't lost anymore weight, haven't gained any back either.
Still miss being able to have coffee every morning. :)

My sister, Kelsey, is putting together a fundraising event for September 13th.
Details will come sometime in the next 2 weeks but please save the date!

Round B of chemo is 12 weeks long.
This starts in 2 weeks, July 28th.
It is going to take 6-8 hours, going to be a long day!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and happy Monday.

Chemo process

Ok, in my last post I promised I would let you know how a chemo treatment goes so here it is:

Monday

11:45 visit with doctor about how things are going and address any questions.
12:00 sit down in the chemo area (this time I opted for a private room)
12:15 nurse comes in and introduces herself and taps the port
12:30 port flush just to realize it's 'clogged'
12:45 put in meds to flush port, wait 30 min
13:15 still clogged, wait 30 min
13:50 ok, it's good to go, draw blood to be tested (if the counts aren't high enough there is no chemo)
14:15 everything is ok start steroid drip
14:45 start anti nausea drip
15:15 flush
15:30 start chemo 1 (red nasty stuff)
15:45 start second chemo
16:45 flush
17:00 DONE - what a day.

17:15 Get hair chopped off since clumps are coming out.


Tuesday
15:00 Sit down in chemo area
15:05-15:15 everyone comes looks at my hair :)
15:15 Start IV hydration drip
4:30 get immune system shot (this is what messes up everything for the next 2 days!)


What a time consuming process!
I have a faux hawk now. When the rest falls out I'll post all the pictures, sometime later this week I'm sure it'll happen!

Thanx for stopping by.

Scolded by the oncologist

Whoops!! Somehow I lost 13lbs in a week so.... who wants to go out to eat this week? :)

Other than that no bad news at the docs today.

I seem to be almost back to normal feeling today, bit tired this morning.
Hair is supposed to fall out by Sunday, 4 days sooner than I was ready for, but guess it's time to brush those wigs!

I did get a FaceBook message today telling me it wasn't appropriate for me to post cancer stuff there.
Any guesses what happened after that?
Oh, I have one less FB friend.

That's all the updates I have until chemo on the 16th, hope everyone has a great week!