Sunday, February 20, 2011

What a GREAT weekend!

I got the results back from the biopsy--- no cancer was found!!! It is amazing!!! I feel so grateful and blessed, a weight has been lifted off of me and I feel like I can see hope.
Because of the results (and the blood tests and the PET/CT scan and scope) I have decided not to do the surgery. As you know this is still going against what the drs recommend even though all the tests are good. I will have intense monitoring every 8 weeks to check for any reoccurrence. (I have gotten 3 drs--oncologist, gastroenterologist, gyn-- who agreed to follow me even if I don't do surgery.) I have a pelvic ultrasound scheduled for next Wed just to get another baseline so they can compare things as time goes by, just like they will do with the PET/CT scan pictures. And I will have cancer markers (a blood test) the beginning of March.

Also, thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for me since this cancer has a very high reoccurrence rate and I pray I get time.

That was Friday and then on Saturday I went to my son's gymnastic meet where he did wonderful, of course! He got two 1st places and one second place and 3rd place all around. He also had another personal best score. This was a big and hard meet so this was a good showing.

Also, in an exciting college men's gymnastic meet Saturday night our Iowa Hawks won against a higher ranked team and beat them by a huge margin and posted many high scores. It was an awesome way to end a great weekend of great news!

I feel so great right now, like I can see light and sun. I hope and pray it lasts.
Please continue to pray. Thank you!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Trooper's Milk-breastmilk, since he is not a baby calf :-)




Here is a picture of all the breastmilk I was able to pump in a few weeks time before I had to wean my baby and do chemo treatment for the next 7 months. I remember when I was pumping it took forever to get 2 oz and yet I had a full supply and a baby who was solely on my milk. My baby could get the milk out but not the pump. I remember thinking, at first, wow look at all of this milk that I saved up but then quickly realized it would only last a couple weeks.

As you know I was so blessed to get milk donated for my baby by my friends. I have had one mom who was able to give me a constant supply of milk as she even still feeds her baby. I am SO SO SO THANKFUL for every drop of it! I had thought I would save my milk that I pumped for when I had run out of all the donated milk and my milk would be the last milk he got. I called it his "weaning milk". Well now beyond my wildest expectations I STILL have donated milk for Trooper! It is amazing and such comfort that he has gotten something I could not give him myself but others gave it to him knowing how much it meant to me and for him.

Trooper is now 17 months and still loving and drinking his milk (and of course eating solids). Some might think he is too old or why does he still need it. If I didn't have cancer I would still be nursing him. It is recommended for breastmilk be given by the World Health Organization for at least 2 years (with solids). The benefits of breastmilk don't go away at some certain age. Recently Trooper got sick for 6 days with a high fever, no other symptoms, wasn't sure what was wrong, he was just tired, cranky, didn't eat solid food. That whole time I was so glad we still had breastmilk for him during this. It is easy to digest and provided much needed calories and nutrition since he wasn't eating. Cows milk would have been hard on his system and water wouldn't provide anything except hydration. I felt so comforting to know he had the breastmilk and I am sure that it kept him out of the drs office or hospital because he was still able to drink breastmilk.

So now since I still have donated breastmilk and my milk is getting "older" I will start to use up my milk for Trooper and then go back and use the donated milk since it is "newer".

Friday, February 11, 2011

Of course nothing is ever simple!

Had the scope today, thought I would know for sure if I would do surgery or not based on that. Nope! They did a biopsy, they had said they were not going to do a biopsy. So now I will go and do the pre op set up ALL DAY LONG on Valentine's Day Monday since I will not have the biopsy results back by then.

Valentine's Day will be horrible spending a day at the hospital.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

What's happening, at least at this moment

After sitting with this decision more days, I still feel like I am not going to have the surgery. I went back to the local GI dr and he agreed to follow me. So first thing is I will have a scope on Friday to get a base line of where I am. So unless this shows something horrible I sticking with the no surgery decision. This was the first dr visit that I have had that the "d" word wasn't used. He didn't try to talk me into to doing surgery or anything. Maybe it was because of the way I presented myself, who knows. He sounded very interested in doing the scope after seeing the pet scan results and the what the other dr had said about the exam he did. I think he is wondering if it is really that good of results or not.

So anyways the new plan is see chemo dr every 2-3 mths for blood work and scans, see GI dr every 3 mths for exam and 6 mths scopes (not sure totally he will look more into to see how often on scopes), see GYN dr every 2-3 mth for exams.

I really hope the gyn dr will take me and feels comfortable watching for cancer because she was super nice to me and helpful other times (she was the one who helped turn pumpkin), she is also knowledgeable and supportive about other issues that are important to me and I trust her. So the GI dr has talked to her about what is going on with me (I haven't yet) so we will see next week when she is in the office if she says yes.

For now I will stick with my same chemo dr even though we have had some rough patches with him. The GI dr thinks (and others) think he is one of the best in the area.

So after having all this lined up Iowa City GI dr calls to say they need to change the surgery date (it was penciled for Feb 25) to early March. Uh Oh! Deep breath I have to tell him what is going on! I hadn't canceled the pre op set up appts yet since I want to wait till I do the scope and make sure everything looks ok and then I would cancel it. Well, so I let him talk first and then I tell him all of this. And then a pause. And he continues almost if I was going to still have surgery. He then says "Am I nicer, see I didn't make you cry or get upset" "I'm trying a different approach with you. Does it make you want to have surgery more or less now?". I let out a huge laugh! It was too funny! I think the gyn dr must have talked to him. Now I KNOW how much he must want to do my surgery! And plus the gyn dr said the gi dr is so excited to do it. At least, I figure, I am in great hands should I ever do surgery!