Scripts & Scraps from a Survivor

Apparently, keeping my blog up to date is NOT one of my strengths.  This time it’s because I was having too much fun (Ok….and it’s been a hard medical year).  Last week in chemo, I saw an article called RESOLVE and I thought what a great idea for a scrapbook album and for 2008. So…one of the items on my list is……yup….to keep this up to date.  For those of you who know me personally, I guess it would be nice to know what’s up with me and what’s going on and my real hope is for those that don’t know me and who are going through cancer, that you will find some inspiration here to know that you CAN survive STAGE 4 cancer for YEARS.  It’s been FOUR years for me and although this last year was one I’d like to forget, I’m still here and fighting and the recent test results look really promising.

 Ok…enough said about that.  So (you ask) what have you been up to?  Well…the most exciting thing is that I reached one of my “long term” goals on August 22nd.  I walked my twins into kindergarten. Something a few doctors (not my current one) thought that I wouldn’t be here to do. 

It took me a few weeks to figure out what to do while all three kids were at school. I was a little bit lost for a while and would arrive at school about 35+ minutes early just waiting to pick up the kids (I know…PATHETIC). Well….that only lasted a few weeks because all of a sudden, I realized HOW much fun I could have. I went to Glazed Expressions one day and made a blessings bowl (the words inside are - faith, hope, love, family, children, friends, memories and joy).  It was so therapeutic to sit there and paint while listening to my IPOD.  I highly recommend it.

 October went by fairly quickly - with football, soccer, etc and we even had a Halloween Craft party here for 20+ children.  The kids had a ball.

 Then comes November.  Everything was going so well and then….bam.  I end up in the hospital again. This time with a fractured neck - it’s a pathological fracture which from my understanding means that the cancer grew in place of the bone that holds the two sides of my neck together. It’s tiny - it shows up on a CT but not on a plain xray, PET or MRI.  I spent 4 days at Mercy (and I am  a HORRIBLE patient at the hospital - I just hate it there) and am still in a brace.  The best thing of that week is that my brother DJ flew in and surprised me.  My first thought when he walked into the room was….am I dying???? LOL But after that thought, I was so happy to see him and oh my - my kids were SO happy to have Uncle Don here as he spoiled them as usual.  There were tears when he left.

 I’m really well organized for Christmas this year - must be all this time at home without driving priveledges.  If you didn’t get a copy of my Christmas letter, here’s the good part:

I am so happy to report here that 2007 is almost over.  This has not been the year we planned but we are very hopeful that 2008 will bring us new joys and better health.  In Christmas spirit, let’s recap the 12 pains of 2007: 12 rounds of Xeloda 11 rounds of Zometa10 days of radiation to my left hip9 doses of Gemzar8 doctors 7 scans (MRI, PET/CT, etc)6 trips to the ER (not just me, Matthew helped with this number)5 flu shots (whole family)4 days admitted to the hospital3 months of Tykerb2 surgeries1 fractured neck And….A Partridge in a Pear Tree. J Now do you understand WHY I’m looking forward to 2008. (laughing)  DJ and I wrote this together on Thanksgiving night and we were laughing so hard, we were crying.  We thought it was so funny but not everyone took it that way so…..when you read it, PLEASE try to find the humor in it. It was a long year but it was FUNNY. LOL  Today, I’m off to chemo to get my Gemzar - so far it’s been working.  I was off for a few weeks while I did radiation but I started back last week and we found out yesterday that my tumor markers dropped another 10 points so I’m headed in the right direction. Today, I’m going bearing gifts.  Gifts for all the people that help me from scheduling to the nurses to the parking attendants.  I LOVE giving gifts to people.  It’s amazing how happy it makes ME. Well…that’s it from here for today.  More this week on my new craft room and new projects. One of the greatest things about having all this time to myself is I’m able to get so many little projects done and still have time to volunteer at school, etc.  I’m also starting to volunteer at Mercy Hospital where we are setting up a scrapbook program to teach kids on the pediatric ward how to scrapbook. I’m so excited to start this program.  I really miss fundraising through the Crop for the Cure but it just wore me out every year - this is still a way to share my love of scrapbooking and to help people as well.

Hope everyone has a happy, productive day.

Deb

P.S. This was written back at the end of December.  Never posted though. Finally getting this blog updated.