Scripts & Scraps from a Survivor

On Friday, I had my CT scan to confirm that my tumor markers were correct. They had gone down three months in a row but since my liver enzymes have been out of whack, there was some concern that it may have gone to my liver.  After waiting all weekend, we found out that my organs are STILL CLEAR so I still have bone only disease!!  I feel so blessed and so lucky that after 5.5 years of fighting stage IV breast cancer that my results are still showing that.  I was so relieved when I got the news but also shocked because I had convinced myself over the weekend that I was going to get bad news. Trust me in that, you didn’t want to be ANYWHERE near me this past weekend! LOL To say I was edgy would be the understatement of the year! LOL:)

 As I had mentioned I feel so blessed in the fact that the chemo is working. I know how lucky I am and I am so grateful every day.  I decided at the end of ‘08, that this was going to be my year for remission. I’ve always had surviving as a goal but never remission - it always seemed like too much to ask for.  I feel like I spent ‘08 finding out what wasn’t going to work (stem cell, living in IA, etc) and now that I’ve figured that out, I can now focus on what WILL work.

I also thinking moving back to MA to be with my family is one of the BEST treatments I could have.  There is so much laughter in my life right now.  Leave it to my crazy, Italian family to make me laugh! LOL :)  I told the kids my plan for ‘09 and they spent a day in December putting together a list for me on how I was going to get better.  The list is adorable and I have a copy of it in my planner and on the wall in our bedroom to remind me every day!  The best thing they added to the list was hugs and kisses! :)  Mari has been a bit of a drill sargeant with the list - when she gets home from school, she immediately asks me how many fruits and vegetables I’ve eaten that day (the goal is 9).  She has taken this remission thing VERY seriously.

I’ve also gotten back into scrapbooking. I’m taking a class a BPS called Get Organized and Be Inspired and scrapbooking has become fun again. I can actually locate what I need so I can now do a layout in about 30 minutes - part of the problem I had before was searching for a particular thing (which kind of takes the fun out of creating). So far in ‘09, I have finished a ton of projects (ok…3 mini books - that’s a ton for me! LOL ) and have done 8 12×12 pages.  I tried to post pics but I can’t get them small enough so…you’ll have to wait for another day for those.  I’m actually wondering if I can link this blog to flickr to post them. If you know, can you email me or leave a comment. There’s gotta be an easier way to do this.

I was really missing everyone from IA and then I got an invite to Facebook and well…..it’s almost like being there now. I kind of thought I was too old for facebook but there is a TON of moms on there and I can now keep up with everyone instead of emailing everyone individually.  The only downside with it is I’m spending more time on there than I should be! LOL It’s kind of addictive.

 Life is GOOD here.  I start back on chemo on Thursday. I think it will be easier to deal with the side effects now that I know it’s working. They took me off on Dec. 17th to start radiation and then we were waiting to find out if I was going to have my back cemented (I know….it’s amazing what I’ll do, right???) Since they haven’t made a decision yet, I’ve asked to restart chemo as I feel like it’s been too long off (although I have enjoyed the increased energy). Crazy when someone is ASKING for chemo, right??? LOL:)  That’s me, the crazy one!

Sorry I’ve been so bad about blogging. We had to update the software and when we did, we lost everything so it’s taken a while to get everything back up and running but we should be good now.  I still have to make it look pretty but….it’s kind of low on my list so…hopefully you just enjoy reading it and maybe some pictures when I figure that out.

Hope everyone is doing well and has had a fantastic start to ‘09!