CELEBRATION TIME - FINAL ROUND OF CHEMO COMPLETED!!

TIME TO CELEBRATE!! I had my FINAL round of chemo on June 10th. Oh what a WONDERFUL feeling!! I got my Certificate of Completion and I am so hopeful that I will NOT have to EVER do this again! I have been to Hell and back and I now know what it means to be a CANCER SURVIVOR!! Nobody said it was going to be easy ~ only worth it!!

After my chemo treatment on Wednesday, June 10th, I was noticing that I was more tired than I normally am after a chemo treatment. I could hardly move. My arms and legs felt like lead. I could hear my heart beating in my ears ALL the time, and when I did get up, I was really out of breath. I made it through the next four days and on Monday, June 15th, I went to the lab for another blood draw. To make a long story short, I didn't have enough red blood cells. The doctors office called and told me to go immediately to Good Samaritan for another cross type and match. The normal range for Hemoglobin is 11.5 - 16.0 and I was at 5.9! No wonder I was feeling so rotten! They were able to give me two units of blood which helped me start to feel better right away. I am now at 8.4, which is still under the normal range, but they think that my body will start making more red blood cells now that I am no longer having chemo. I have to keep drawing blood once a week for the next four weeks so they can monitor my recovery.

In the next two weeks, they will do a PET scan. I am looking forward to getting this done. I am praying that the chemo did it's job and that there are no other "hot" spots in my body to worry about. I will have to see my doctor every three months for the next five years so they can monitor me. My doctor and his staff (including the hospital staff) were wonderful and I am so grateful to each and every one of them for their knowledge and skills.

I am going back to work on Monday, June 29th!! I am so excited to get back and am looking forward to NORMAL everyday living. My office has been so supportive to me and is the BEST group of people you could ever work with. They have been right by my side during all of this, and are willing to take me back after being gone for 6 months! Thank you so much for your patience!!

I will update the blog as soon as I get the results from my PET scan and will also let you know how I am doing once I get back to work! I know that I need to be patient with myself because it will take about a year to get all of the chemicals out of my body and to look and feel normal again. I will remember that when I feel unwell, that the same power that made my body knows how to restore it to its original state of well-being. "When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need!"

Blessings to all!

~Sheree~

I CAN SEE THE LIGHT - MY FINAL (hopefully) ROUND OF CHEMO!!!

Today I feel like an expectant mother waiting for a child to be born.  I have a lot of excitement along with anxiety.  Excitement to know that this is hopefully my last chemo treatment and anxiety knowing that I will feel sick. But, I also know that the only way out of chemo is through it.  Just like childbirth.  No, I will not be taking home a new child, but I do have this "new life" that I have been given.  Yes, it has been a fight, but I have a new found lease on life!  I do not take anything for granted.  Like they say, you truly don't appreciate everything you have until its gone or someone tries to take it away, or it gives out.  Then you wished that you would have taken better care or been more aware, instead of being so busy with the trivial things, that you let the most important things slide by.

 

I guess that this journey that I have been on, and will continue to be aware of, the rest of my life, is that "Life is too Short to be anything but Happy".  Every morning when I wake up and the "Gift" of another day is given to me, I feel so blessed for everything that I have. Even though times are tough in the world around us, I am so grateful for the little everyday things in life that surround me, as well as the big things that I have been blessed with. 

 

On June 3rd, I will be having chemo, the 1st day of my last round, which also happens to be my 35th wedding anniversary.  No, this isn't what we had planned for our 35th anniversay, but having my husband by my side, like he has been for the last 35 years, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, is all that we want, just to be together, hand in hand, and being given the gift of more time together!!  That is what life is really about.  The people you share it with, not the "stuff" that we think is important.  I have my life and my family to enjoy ~ and it has been worth the fight to keep that!!

 

June 10th, will be my last injection of chemo (day 8 of round 6).  I will get to wear a crown and celebrate with my new found friends that are also celebrating their new lives~ and are also cancer survivors!! 

 

I want to thank all of you, my family, friends and co-workers, for your prayers, e-mails and beautiful cards, but most of all for you taking of your time to think of me and help keep me uplifted.  You are truly my "Angels" here on earth.  You know the people that truly care about you in times like these, and are there for you while you "dance in the rain" waiting for the "storm to pass". 

 

I will keep you posted after the "grand finale". I hope to be released and back to work around the end of June!  In the meantime, "Simplify your Life".  Learn to play, rather than work your way through it!!

 

Hugs, Kisses and Happiness Wishes!

 

Sheree