I had a birthday. Monday, December 12, I turned 40. It wasn't that bad. I happen to share my birthday with a friend of mine, Heather Jeffreys, so Mitch and I met her and her boyfriend & family members at Ricatoni's. I had been dreading turning 40, but after being diagnosed, my outlook has changed a little and it wasn't so bad to turn 40 afterall.
I went to Nashville on Tuesday, Dec. 13 and met with my kidney doctor. He was awesome. He pretty much told me not to worry about my kidney issue. We are just going to watch it for the next 6 months. He said the only way to take care of the kidney issue is surgery and that would mean stopping my chemo, which we don't want to do. He said the lesion is so small, he isn't going to worry with it at this time and they would just keep an eye on it and if any changes develop, we'll deal with them then.
I then met with Dr. Meyer, my oncologist. She went over the biopsy results of my spine. Seems the spot on my spine IS related to the breast cancer, so that puts me at Stage 4. Not curable. :( From that point on, everything she said was kinda foggy. I was really hoping NOT to be Stage 4. Well.. it is what it is. She mentioned I would have to be on some sort of treatment from now on. (I assumed CHEMO, which would mean NO HAIR EVER, but my dad pointed out that she never said it would be chemo.. it could just be a pill or something. There I go, assuming the worst. lol) She changed my regiment from ever week for 6 weeks to once a week for 3 weeks then take the 4th week off. Then start over. She also mentioned that she might be backing off one of my chemo meds since I seem to be responding so well already. Since I have triple negative, its harder to find meds that the cancer responds to so she pretty much said she'd rather back off one of the meds now, than keep me on it and then in a year or so, be scrambling around trying to find another medicine I'll respond to. Makes sense, I guess.
I had a benefit on December 17 at FloBama. Our friends Mike Current (Puppy) and Brenda Aldridge & Blaine Cantrell planned it. Several of my friends put together a silent auction. I made a speech. (LOL) A "famous" called on a local sports radio show agreed to be the Emcee ... I was honored to have The Legend there. Several musician friends agreed to perform. Byron Green. Blaine Cantrell & John Crosslin. My husband, Mitch, and Toby Aderhold. Max Russell & the Shakedown Kings, and The Alabama Blues Brothers. After the Blues Brothers, it was sort of an open jam session.. Mitch and Bobby Aday did a few. Mitch and Jeff Moore did a few. It was a long night, but it was a good night. It was a night I will always remember. My friends really went above and beyond to make it special. My best friend from Memphis came home. My uncle from FL drove up and my cousin from New York was there. My cheeks were sore from smiling so much. I wore my long wig and as uncomfortable as it was... I was able to leave it on the whole night. lol
We raised a little over $4400 with donations, T-shirt sales and the auction.
The next day, I slept. Til 2pm. LOL Talk about EXHAUSTED.
Monday, my uncle and cousin were still in town so we went to a little place in Sheffield called The Box Car Cafe. Its my favorite breakfast place. They have the best hash browns ever. They are more like fried potato shavings.... not some frozen hashbrown patty dumped in a fry daddy. YUM. We then visited the Helen Keller Birthplace. I don't see how I've lived here all my life and never visited this place. It was quite interesting. I was unaware that Helen Keller had 14 books published in 50 different languages and graduated from Radcliffe with honors. ( I went to UNA for 3 years and never finished.... lol) I am also glad we didn't get escorted off the premises after my cousin unlocked the gate and had his picture taken with the famous water pump. LOL
I woke up this morning not feeling well at all. It started about 3am. I took an extra nausea pill around 6 and slept it off until around 1 today. I have experienced severe stomach problems, headaches, fatigue, taste bud changes and most distrubing... hair loss. :( The hair I had left is now coming out at a pretty fast rate. I now LOOK like a cancer patient. Mitch said I look like a baby bird. LOL For some reason I just can't bring myself to shave off the rest. I wear my black hat around the house just to keep from shedding hair everywhere... I guess if this keeps up I will just go ahead and bring out the clippers. :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RLCGSSNJwo&list=UUQnSLqnaKn1fJQM3SMlFNmw&index=1&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPUmbEk6mp0&list=UUQnSLqnaKn1fJQM3SMlFNmw&index=3&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa3q2xVu0oc&list=UUQnSLqnaKn1fJQM3SMlFNmw&index=8&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqC5k2_MLEM&list=UUQnSLqnaKn1fJQM3SMlFNmw&index=4&feature=plcp
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