All Late Update

Septemeber is  National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month!
i will be trying to wear teal finger nail polish all month long...trying, haha.


now for the update.
yes i know, i haven't updated in a long time.
and unfortunately cancer has been a main event in my life this year again. but not how you think.

first my update. in march i started feeling a tightness on my right side (where i still have an ovary). since i don't mess around with not feeling right anymore i went straight to my family doctor. he didn't want to mess around either. he didn't feel anything on my ovary but wanted to make sure and ordered every ultrasound under the sun. thankfully they all came back normal. when i saw my oncologist he wanted a CT scan just to be sure and that too came back fine. we still can't figure out what is making my side so tight (they think it might be a muscle) but at least it isn't a tumor!

now for the rest of my cancer filled year. my dad went for his first routine colonoscopy earlier in the year. they found some tumors and he had surgery to have them removed. we found out that they were in fact cancerous but luckily they got it all with the surgery and no other treatment was needed. so now he has to have a colonscopy every year and my sister and i will have to start having them once we hit 40. fun.
moral of the story, START HAVING COLONSCOPYS WHEN IT IS RECOMMENDED! that goes out to all of the people who don't go to their routine check-ups.

march was one of the hardest months ever. if you have read my posts you know my friend Kelly helped me a lot during my chemo. she is a high school friend who had breast cancer and knew what i was going through. she had a recurrence when i was going through chemo, so we talked about our treatments and made cancer and chemo jokes to each other because we knew no one else would understand. we even saw the movie 50/50 together and had a great time. in march her cancer progressed to a point where there wasn't anything else they could do and she went into hospice care. i went to visit her in the hospital and then about a week later she passed away. i miss her dearly. this october i am going to remember her by doing the Making Strides Against Breast Care walk here in town. i did the walk with her and a few of her friends last fall. i will post more about that later.

then in august the one thing i never wanted to happen happened, my sister Erica was diagnosed with uterine cancer. i swear for a family who never even thought about cancer until 2 years ago we are sure making up for lost time! anyway she had to have a full hysterectomy. as of right now she is still recovering from that. she sees her oncologist next week to make her chemo radiation schedule. they got all of the cancer in surgery but are doing treatments to make sure it doesn't come back.
i truly never wanted anyone i love to go through this. i was hoping that since i went through it, no one else in my family would have to. i guess that was wishful thinking.

so that is my months and months worth of updates. i'm going to try to keep this more update. i swear.

End of year update

Well it's almost the end of 2011 and I have to say this year has been better to me then last. I can't even compare this time last year to now. In 2010 I was fresh off my chemo treatments and still feeling the effects (and did until early summer).

This year I have been in remission, my hair is finally back to normal (with just a few more curls), and energy is back.
I have started to Zumba twice a week and also started an etsy site that has been doing alright (store name Young and Wiley if you want to look it up). I also achieved reading over 25 books years. Way past my goal.

I want to thank all my family and friends who made this year great. Cancer is part of my life but it is not me, and you all remind me of that everyday.

I do not have another doctors appointment until February. I will continue to update.
And a reminder the relay for life is just around the corner ;)

PET/CT results!

originally posted on my facebook on Tuesday, March 8, 2011

dr.method said that my scan results looked great. no sign of anything in my pelvic or abdominal area and that my cancer is in remission. he did however find a spot on my lower left lung. he doesn't believe it is a sign of my cancer spreading because it was only one spot that is not near any lymph nodes. it is a spot where some rare infections can happen (my body must like rare). he said that PET/CT scans are very sensitive and can pick up a lot of things that are not cancer. he wants to keep an eye on it so i will see him again in 3 months and from there we will schedule another scan.
i asked him about when i will stop being tired and he said for every day i was in treatment, it takes 3 days to recover so since i was in treatment for 9 weeks along with recovering from a surgery for 2 weeks before that...lets just say i'll be tired for a little while longer.

so it's good news mixed with some sucky i guess.

chemo done, now we wait

originally posted on my facebook on Tuesday, December 14, 2010

i had my last chemo treatment december 6th and had my follow up appointment with my oncologist today.  he said my counts look good.  i will get blood work done again next week and then that will be it until march.  i will have a PET/CT scan done in 12 weeks to see if there is still any cancer.  we have to wait 12 weeks because the chemo is still effecting my body and they want to make sure the chemo is out before they do the scan.  after that there will be another PET/CT scan in a year.  i will need 3 years of clean scans before i am considered cured.
he also said that the chemo after effects could last for another 4-6 months.
so now i just have to wait.

chemo is a crazy thing.  right now i still get extremely tired (i fell asleep last night at 7:30!) and my hands are swollen and sensitive (i can't even open a bottle of water).  i will still get short of breath once in a while and my energy level is still down but getting a little better.  even though they said i handled the chemo very well it is still something i would never want to do again.  but on a positive note my friend kelly (who unfortunately has been through this) told me her hair started to grow back a month after treatment so i'm looking forward to that :)

almost 2/3 done with chemo!

originally posted on my facebook on Saturday, November 13, 2010

Hi everyone. Only 4 more weeks of chemo left. As many of you know I lost my hair about 2 weeks ago. I wasn't too upset about it since I figured it would happen. I'm still not use to it but at least i'm getting some cool hats :)
my white blood cell counts have been up and down. My 3rd week in I had critically low counts and had to wear a mask whenever I went out in public and had to get this shot in my arm that makes my bone marrow produce more white blood cells. The shots worked but they cause the worst bone pain I have ever felt in my life :( hopefully I wont have to do those again.
I keep saying that chemo is making me old. I'm bald, go to bed before 9pm and wake up at 6am and I usually take an afternoon nap. Haha.
As far as work goes we have figured out that I will be able to take my vacation so I will have the rest of the year off. By the time I would be done with chemo and all my follow up appoints it would be the start of the holidays so I will take those weeks to recoup and spend some time with my family. Then I will come back hopefully healthy and back to my normal energy levels in January.

I would also like to announce that my online design store Bloody Brilliant Apparel has added a “eff cancer” section. The profits from these designs will go to my medical bills not covered by insurance. There are buttons, stickers and keychains. And since I know some of you are too polite to say “eff cancer” I have also made a design that says “for becky” :) and if people want I will add other products (like shirts, mugs, ect). I will post the link below. And there is almost always coupon codes.
http://www.zazzle.com/bloodybrilliant/gifts?cg=196313599027922653

chemo week 1

originally posted on my facebook on Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hi everyone. Most of you know that I have finished my first week of chemo treatment. I went for 5-days straight. So far the only side effects I have are being extremely tired, headaches, tender stomach, low blood pressure and having a odd taste in my mouth. My doctor has been very proactive on the anti-nausea meds so i'm VERY thankful for that. I'm sure as time goes on more side effect will start coming but i'm thankful for a ok first week :)
I have had a picc line placed in my right arm so I do not have to be poked for an iv everyday and they can also draw blood from it. This will stay in my arm until my treatments are done. It's basically a line that travels in a vein through my arm to almost my heart. I know it sounds weird but it is WAY better then getting poked several times a day.

for those who would like to know, here is how my treatments will be going. I will do this schedule 3 times:

1st monday – this is my long day. I am given a 4 hour iv bag of fluids (to help my kidneys), a 15 minute iv bag of pre-med, a 15 minute iv bag of bleomycin (which is the really nasty chemo), a 1 hour bag of etoposide, a 1 hour bag of cisplatin and then another 4 hour bag of fluids.

Tuesday-friday – I am given a 4 hour fluid bag, 15 minute bag of pre-med, a 1 hour bag of etoposide, a 1 hour bag of cisplatin and then just a bit of fluids to help the kidneys.

2nd & 3rd monday – I believe I am given fluids and then bleomycin. Not sure how long since I haven't done this one yet. On these 2 weeks I only go in for monday.

And then it starts all over again.

and the test results say....

originally posted on my facebook on Tuesday, October 5, 2010

immature teraroma, which in normal persons terms means cancer, technically ovarian cancer.  my oncologist says i'm in between stage 1-2 cancer with a tumor grade of 3.  i'm going to start chemo next week.  the treatment is called BEP.  it will be in 3 cycles.  my first day of treatment will be 8 hours and then the next 4 days it will be 5 hours.  then i will have a few weeks break and then repeat the cycle another 2 times (hence 3 cycles).  we are still talking with our insurance to see where i'll be having the treatment.  it will either be at st.joe or (hopefully) at michiana hematology oncology.

for more info on my treatment here is a link:
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Treatmenttypes/Chemotherapy/Combinationregimen/BEP.aspx

info on immature teratoma:
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Ovary/Aboutovariancancer/Typesofovariancancer/Germcelltumoursoftheovary.aspx

90% of women with my type of malignancy can be cured.  just so you know :)