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!!! 

Who would have thought that one day in December when I sat across this wonderful person at Kelly O'Bryan's Kamloops that he would move to Calgary and we would fall into a beautiful friendship!
Had I not been at Kelly O'Bryan's that day and had not striked up a random conversation with Michael Anderson I would have not had this beautiful soul in my life! I have never laughed so hard over random things and would have never seen a house turn into a giant smiley face!

I also would have not met Jon-michael Bertoli. Another amazing person that came into my life at the most perfect time!

Throughout the years people come and go. Breakups happen, those who say they love you leave you, those who say they cherish friendships lie. But I know that having these two amazing men in my life are going to be there forever! For better and for worse!
My two brothers from other mothers!
Also, to find out that Micheal's dad dated my mom in the 70's is so random and what a crazy connection! My mom and Jim were best friends with his parents. And now I'm friends with their son! Again, had certain things not happened we would not have met. Everything happens for a reason!
Thank you to JM for the awesome care package he had waiting for me when he picked me up!
I love you both to the moon and back!!!!

One down, two to go! 

FUCK CANCER! 

Ahhh the TBCC, my home away from home! Last year I was upstairs at the special services building and had a bed and room alone in the dark which I LOVED! I was able to get a great sleep for six hours. This go around I am in the chemo day care unit on the ground floor and kinda have my own room, more like a cubicle and instead of a bed I get a chair that reclines. Not bad, at least I can lay back but the sleeping isn't as comfortable. Oh well, I really am not complaining, just explaining! 

I took a chance on wearing the Fuck Cancer shirt and it was a hit! Who really can complain... We all feel the same about this nasty fucker!! 

My nurse today was Chelsea and she was great! The needle poke (yes, I'm on to poke #4) really wasn't bad! 

I was given benadryl which made me so tired and woke up a few hours later to the Paclitaxel being dripped into my body. That is the longest drug that I take. The second drug, carboplatin only takes half an hour. Yep I slept through that one too. I asked Chelsea if I had been snoring and she said no... But we all know that's a lie! I am my mother's daughter, we always snore! Right mother??? 

Then a 15 min drip of fluids to clean out the lines and I was done! 

So just like that I was done this round and so far feel pretty normal. Guess we will see what tomorrow brings... Crossing my fingers! 

I've also changed the settings on here so feel free to leave comments! 

Port time... Would have preferred the drink instead! 

On Tuesday, my wonderful friend JM drove me to the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of town to the new South Calgary Hospital to get my port installed. Beautiful hospital, felt like I was in a scene from Grey's Anatomy minus McDreamy and McSteamy. I didn't even have a chance to sit down before I was called to the next room and had an iv put in. Within minutes I was walking into the surgery room and being prepped for the port. The room was so state of the art! 

I didn't need to be put fully under but they gave me enough drugs to calm my nerves and make me feel nothing. Always a good time to be high as a kite under doctors supervision! Within 15 min.. I think.. It was over and I was in recovery where I sat for two hours. I was in at 830 and out by 11:15am. 

Now what exactly is a port you ask? 

Well since I have little to none veins, a port is inserted into my chest and a line is fed up to my collar bone through a vein and down near my heart. Basically now when I get chemo they just puncture the spot where the port is under my skin and voila! Ready to rock and roll! 

The first few days have been tough, sore.. But we'll worth it! Once completely healed I will be able to swim and not worry about infection because it is completely sealed under my chest. 

I love all these awesome new techniques that I get to experience. Painful or not, it pretty amazing what can be done! 

Ps: I'm up to 3 needle pokes :) 

The Final Countdown....

Went for my chemo consult today at TBCC (Tom Baker Cancer Clinic) and it looks as though the start date of my chemotherapy start Thursday May 7th. In a way I am excited, which I know is weird. I want to start treatment and get it over with sooner than later! I am NOT looking forward to losing my hair agin..but the thought of not shaving for the next 2-3 months is kind of a bonus!

My chemo cocktail with consist of Paclitaxel (the lovely drug that makes me lose my hair), Carboplatin and a new one add to the mix this go around, Bevacizumab.

I have been prescribed Aprepitant for the nausea which works AMAZINGLY as long as you take it BEFORE the nausea begins. Once the nausea starts, it is pretty impossible to get under control. So this is an important one!

Another drug I have to take is Dexamethasone which is a corticosteroid that prevents inflammation and allergic reactions.

Next on the list of goodies is Granisetron. This is also used to prevent nausea and vomiting. VERY IMPORTANT! Nobody likes a puker!

Last but not least is Metoclopramide. This is used to treat certain types of stomach problems that can arise during chemo treatment. It helps move things along in your stomach, increases your appetite, helps with heartburn and of course, helps with nausea. I think you can see the common theme here...you do NOT want to get nausea!

My last three treatments of chemo were the exact same except for the new addition of Bevacizumab so I am pretty confident that I know what I will feel like. I never had any issues with nausea and I believe it really has to do with staying on top of the meds they give me.
6 sleeps to go and the torture/healing begins....

PS: Had poke #2 today..I am going to keep track this go around of how many pokes I get...

My home away from home

Poke #2

Some light reading in the "Welcome to chemo!" package they give you