Kicking Cancer's Ass

Thursday, May 14, 2009

7:10pm: I had been looking forward to going to Ladies' Night Out at Kaufman Stadium for weeks and weeks. It did not disappoint. This year, a portion of the ticket profits from the game went to Susan G. Komen, so OBVIOUSLY I had to go. It is my organization of choice these days. Heather, Katie, Kristen, and I had a little too much fun culminating in Heather asking our "waiter" (we were in Diamond Club seats where they go get your food and beverage for you...very fancy...huge thank you to Kristen's parents!!!) to go find us frozen blue margaritas. We're pretty sure he had to run to a concession stand far far away, but sure enough...it 15 minutes, he was back with frozen blue margaritas.

Basically, we went to a baseball game, but were surprised by the score every time we remembered to watch the baseball game. You can see this for yourself if you're savvy when it comes to finding videos on the internet, as we were on Sports Center the next morning. The Royals were playing the Orioles and our seats were directly behind home plate...so, every time they showed the batter, you could see us....not watching the game! It was beyond enjoyable! We must do it again.


Friday, May 15, 2009

10:45am: I went in for my every other week follow-up appointment with the oncologist. I was hopeful that he would do the physical exam, take the silly little measurement, and look and me and say, "Well then, that's amazing progress...let's take it out now." That didn't happen...well, at least not the last part.

My report was great though. My doctor said he's really pleased with the progress and that he likes what he sees in terms of the tumor shrinking. He also has determined that we will wait until August to do the surgery. That will be after the completion of all 8 chemo cycles. Tough that means I will have to be patient knowing that it's still in there all the time, at least now I know when to expect that portion of it.

I also asked him to talk me through the genetic test results since it had been the nurse practitioner who gave me the results the first time. He basically told me what I reported here last week...I don't need to have my ovaries out and there is no reason at all to do a bi-lateral (double) mastectomy. I already knew that, but I needed it verified!

Lastly and MOST importantly, he told me that I get to go on both the vacations that I have planned in June!!!!! They had both been booked before March when this business began and I was worried that he wouldn't let me go...particularly since one of them is to Mexico. But...he has told me I get to go! This is fantastic news. Now I just need to keep my white blood cell count high and stay healthy so I don't end up having to stay home at the last minute while everyone else still gets to go! We're working my treatment schedule around the trips and everything is looking good.

Basically, all of this means that I'm kicking cancer's ass one week at a time and doing it successfully so far.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

In totally unrelated to cancer news...my best friend, Regan, who I grew up with and who now lives in New York, is here to visit. She got in yesterday (Saturday) evening so we went to dinner then came back to the apartment so she could change before we went out. Well, we never actually left again, mostly because we started drinking margaritas...then we drank more margaritas.....then we had one more.

This morning, I am pounding back water and trying not to move my head to0 quickly. I have a horrible headache, not so much brought on by the chemo, but by the tequila. Below, I have included some of the silly fun that we had last night. The pictures of Regan and Joe are taken with them in the same wig as the one I'm wearing above. Oh my....