When chemo is postponed....

When chemo is postponed and the weather is hot!

Well when chemo is postponed and the weather is hot, make do with what you can!

Like hit the river with friends!

We found an awesome spot along the Bow River where we could take all the dogs, play music, having some drinks and nobody bothered us! Two days in a row with awesome friends! A coffee table was even made out of river rocks and we have named our new spot "The Living Room".

Definitely a great time, great friends, great weather!

JM helping Mike cross the river because he can't get his foot wet

Perfect!

The infamous rock coffee table

Fanny pack buddies for life!

Twinsies!

So for the past week and a bit I had to wear the world's most annoying Fanny pack with that lovely machine that was constantly pumping those nauseating antibiotics into me. I thought I was the only person in the entire world having to endure this annoying thing....but low and behold...who goes and gets an infected bug bite?? My best bud...Michael Anderson!! Now, I know he said he randomly got bit by a mysterious bug..but we all know what a good friend he is and he didn't want me to suffer alone! 

Love it! It definitely made us laugh and laugh and laugh...and hanging out together with our matching bags and machines made this terrible thing totally (somewhat) acceptable!

We had an exclusive club...

Chemo back on track!

Chemo is back on track!

Well after a week of having to wear my gorgeous fanny pack and having antibiotics constantly pumped into my system, I am finally free from it and chemo is back on track and scheduled for Monday August 10th, 9:00am.

I strangely am happy to get it going again. Sure, I say that now..I'm sure during day 3, 4 and 5 I will be taking that back but knowing that I need the chemo to kill the cancer, waiting to get it going again gives me a bit of anxiety. I want to get it done and over with. 

I will be flying to Oliver BC on Tuesday to do my recouping there. Excited to see Mom and her new little kittens and the comfort of that cold dark basement! Makes a HUGE difference!

Look Good Feel Better

Look Good Feel Better

On Tuesday I took a free course at Wellspring called Look Good Feel Better. Once a month this group comes in and they give you a HUGE bag of free makeup, creams, etc and they teach you how to put on makeup, ways to tie scarves etc. It was awesome! There was about 12 of us there. Some who have already copleted treatment, some going through treatment and some who are just about to start treatment. All different ages. It was awesome! The makeup and cleansers they give you was incredible! High end products such as Vichy, Clinique, Mac, Neutrogena etc. I highly recommend this to anyone going through treatment! It was a fun time!

They get their products by donation from The Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart, etc and it really truly helps women during the low times in their lives. Its amazing what makeup can do to lift the spirits!

Update!!

A much needed update

Well it's been quite a while since I last updated this page. So much has gone on and I believe you all deserve an update. I finished my first round of chemo and recuperate at my moms in Oliver which was great.
I went back to Oliver and Kelowna again and spent some time with friends and family, swam in the lake and made the most of my mini vacay. It was frigging hot but so worth it!!!

Giant Cedars Boardwalk Revelstoke BC

NOM NOM NOM!!!! 

 

Kal Lake

My friend Kristen's adorable daughter Denver! 

40 degrees, anything to cool off! 

Family campout at Mom and Jo's in Oliver BC

Even made time to hit up the Calgary Stampede

After I came back I had my PET scan and was hoping I would not have to do any more chemo. Well the chemo is working but not as quickly as they hoped. I did my second round of chemo and stayed in Calgary for that round.

Chemo Day

My view for chemo day

TBCC now offers a free service where paramedics come to your house and give you an iv of fluids to help ease the nausea. Lucky me got the hottie paramedic Colton!

Three days into my chemo my PICC line became very sore and I wasn't feeling good at all! My arm was extremely swollen. I went into emergency with a heavily swollen arm and was told by Doctor Dolittle that I had a minor skin infection near the picc site. Fast forward 9 days later and I am finally discharged from the hospital from having a gigantic blood clot a staph infection and being septic!! So much for a minor skin infection!!

My companion for 9 days.. Antibiotics and a giant syringe of morphine! 

The nurses on unit 42 were FANTASTIC but I was going crazy being in there! I had no choice but to get another picc line and it was horrible! They freeze you but you can still feel them piercing through your veins. Shout out to my amazing nurse Cailey who calmed me down and came with me to get it done!

Obviously not me, but exactly what it looks like getting a PICC line inserted. Not sure why this girl looks so happy.... 

I have been put on heavy antibiotics to tide me over the next two weeks and hopefully clear this up. In order for me to go home, I had to meet with the HPTP Clinic (Home Parenteral Therapy Program) and am hooked up to a machine 24/7 that continually pumps heavy antibiotics into my PICC line. It's a pain in my assignment cause I have to wear this gorgeous fanny pack all day all night and have tubes wrapped everywhere. Oh well, the price of being home!!

For the next 6 months I also have to give myself a shot of blood thinner everyday to make sure the blood clot goes away for good. All I can say is thank God for work benefits. The cost of the blood thinner is $197.00 a month and without benefit insurance it would cost me just under $1000 per month for the medication!!

While being in the hospital I met some interesting characters outside. I observed a group that would come outside between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. to have their smoke and their tokes. I learned that the psych unit lets people out between those hours and I am assuming that is where those people came from. I don't understand how they are able to smuggle in gigantic glass bongs. Oh well whatever helps them get by! You also hear a lot of alarms going off, usually code Red on floor 2 which means someone on the "special" unit has started a fire LOL!!
I have to do 3 more rounds of chemotherapy and will be going back to my moms in Oliver after each round because it is easier to recuperate there than being here by myself. Once the chemotherapy IS done in mid September, I will have to do 25 rounds of radiation therapy. It will be once a day 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Lucky for me though they are allowing me to do my radiation at the Kelowna Cancer Center so I will be spending 5 weeks in Kelowna.

A huge relief and major thank you to Maureen and Randy for taking care of my fur babies and taking care of me as well :)

Not much more to update other than I really want this to end. Oh and I have one long gray hair that is growing on the side of my head and I usually pluck the grey but this one I am trying to keep as my little pet!
I also met a new wonderful friend at the Tom Baker who just finished way more gruelling intense chemo than me! She is an awesome support and I see a long forever friendship with this beautiful soul!

I also was sent this picture of a wonderful gift my good friend Alex Draper made for me! It is a light and I can't wait to light it up!! 

Thank you!!!!! 

I will not be going back to work until I am able to work full time so more than likely it won't be until end of October maybe November. I will try to update this page more and keep you all in the loop.
FUCK CANCER!

Roseanne

Time for an update on the old Bloggity Blog!

For starters, yes I have been lacking in the update department on here. During the week of chemo I am pretty much dead to the world and am barely awake enough to even make my way out of my house.

Chemo weeks SUCKS. SUCKS SUCK SUCKS!! The first two days are pretty non eventful and are easy to handle and I fool myself each time thinking "Hmmm maybe I won't be sick this time!" And then..BABAM!!! It hits me like a Mac truck. Down for the count!

Sleep becomes your closest and dearest friend...well that and also all those wonderful anti-nausea meds they send you home with!

 By day three the taste buds decide that this sucks and they peace out.

Food has no flavor, coffee is disgusting and freezie pops are the greatest thing ever!

Daytime TV becomes your life. Just an FYI..Deja View shows old Roseanne episodes at 10:00am and 10:30am Monday to Friday and a marathon Saturday!

Days four and five and six...well you pretty much feel like nothing could be worse! You already tell yourself that you are NEVER doing chemo ever again...fuck it!

You shuffle around the house, haven't touched makeup in almost a week and feel like death. You feel so shitty at one point that you are told to go to emergency and get pumped with fluids. You do and it makes you feel so much better! Like a deflated balloon getting filled back up with air!

(Shout out to my awesome nurse at Foothills, Candice!!!!)

I 

Up to six pokes now! 

Day seven....something magical happens...you wake up and you suddenly feel a bit better...you don't want to jinx it though, so you take it easy...you put on some war paint (makeup) and make a small attempt to go to the store for some food with flavor..cause guess what!? The mini vacation your taste buds were taking have decided to come back home! Food taste real again!

By Day eight, things are definitely on the up and up! You still feel wonky because all you have been doing for the past week is sleep. You're not totally sure if you're still sick or just over tired. You then decide, HEY, that wasn't TOTALLY horrible...it's only total hell for one week. You can do this!

Life gets back to normal and you feel like yourself again! Your energy is back, the color in your face has turned from green back to a nice Italian olive color and your spirits are back up to where they were before this all started!

I came to the realization that I can't do the seven to eight day hell here. I want to be back home with family. Yes I have dogs, but Rocco still hasn't gotten his licence so getting to and from the store for gingerale is difficult.

I am doing my next treatment on May 28 and will be flying to my mom's the next day.

Relaxing in Oliver BC, with her and her dogs and cats will be better and will make this next round of chemo definitely a lot more bearable!

It will be two weeks this Thursday as to when I had my first round of chemo and if memory serves me correctly, I started to lose my hair exactly two weeks to the day last go around last year. So I was proactive this year and shaved my head before it started to fall out. To be quite honest, having hair is a really pain some times! Not having hair saves me about twenty minutes every day and saves me money on products :)

After feeling back to my normal self, I decided that I needed to get out of the damn house!

The long weekend was coming up and hanging out with my awesome group of friends made me feel AMAZING!

Shout out to J.M.Bertolli for taking the plunge and shaving his head too :)

#TWINSIES!

Being around such a positive, supportive and HILARIOUS group of friends really makes you realize how lucky you are and how seven days of hell really isn't the end of the world and you aren't in it alone, amazing people are there for you and care and that is the best feeling in the world!

PS: I met some awesome Drag Queens this past weekend! I am in AWE of them and what they do and how fucking amazing they look! Their make up, their hair, their style! So much fun!!!