Here I come, Into the Stretch...

So it's been brought to my attention that I have slacked off on my blogging (thanks Steve) and I have so many things to tell you guys!  On Sunday, April 10, 2011, at about 10 am, Doug and Carrie had the twins.  I became an aunt to a little boy, Landon Joseph (1 lb 5 oz) and a little girl, Rebecca Frances (1 lb 14 oz).  They were extremely premature born at 24 weeks.  Sunday night, at around 7, Landon passed away.  The doctors did everything they could for him but God had different plans.  It is very hard to pray for God's will to be done sometimes, knowing you may lose something so precious and innocent.  You find yourself asking why a lot, but there is a plan.  God planned this to happen from the beginning.  This is where our faith comes in and we have to trust that he knows best.  On Saturday, April 16, we laid Landon to rest.  He will never be forgotten, but now we can focus all of our energy on getting Rebecca better.  My brother had a good point.  Landon knew he had to come out, and he waited absolutely as long as he could because he knew Rebecca would have a better shot the longer she stayed in.  I truly believe God helped Landon hang in there as long as he did and his job is done.  He can finally rest and not have to worry about breathing and heart rates and blood pressure anymore.  I know he a better place than all of us and my grandma has him wrapped up and in her arms rocking away! 
Rebecca is doing VERY good.  I got to touch her last night!  She has tiny tiny hands (current weight 1 lb 15 3/4 oz.) but long fingers!  They were able to turn her over and let her lay on her stomach for a while.  Her little head is perfectly round now and she is so flawless.  I have never seen a baby that small.  Even her premie hat is too big!  And the little diaper she is wearing, it's like a doll diaper!  She is such a little miracle.  Let me stop and say that the nurses and doctors at Baptist have been wonderful to Doug and Carrie and Rebecca.  It is so nice to not have to worry about the care you are receiving when you are in a helpless situation. 
I know you locals have heard of Craws for a Cause.  Baptist Health is raising money to buy 2 Giraffe-OMNI Beds.  These are they type beds Landon was in and Rebecca currently is in.  I encourage all of you to attend  this event!  It's a fun way to give back.  It will be a great time for a good craws...I mean cause.  I suggest buying tickets early though.  We went down there last year and they sold out of tickets before we could even move in line.  Here is the website

http://crawsforacause.com/

On to cancer news.  I'm cured!  Well, I'm cancer free, so I consider that cured.  I still have to go through radiation though, which should not be near as bad as chemo.  I go in next week for a consultation to see how long and how much.  I'm assuming every day for 4-6 weeks, but I could be way off.  My counts were still low, but they should steadily start to rise.  Watch out Asian buffet, here I come!  I've been missing that place!  I also still have my hair! Well, some of it.  Just the crown of my head is pretty see through (hair wise).  However I found this AWESOME hair piece at Sally's, which is just a headband with hair coming off the back side of the headband.  It matches my hair perfectly!  It has really made my life much happier! 

Thank you all for your kind words and prayers during our rough time.  It was a crazy start to 2011 but things are starting to look up (i hope).  Bring on the sunshine! 

Better Late Than Never!

Well, I'm a little late on this blog, but here it goes!  So last week was number 3!  Can I get a Woot Woot?  Counts were very low, but for the most part, everything went well...until Thursday.  I woke up, did some laundry, did some dishes, then didn't make it off the couch the rest of the day.  Thank goodness my Dr. tried to be proactive with all the nausea medicine, because it sure came in handy!  I would hate to think of the condition I WOULD have been in had I not had it!  So Thursday and Friday were pretty bad, but thankfully those were (and have been) the only days I've felt, well, like poop.  Well, Saturday was not great, but for a different reason.  I think the time has come for me to say adios to my hair.  :( Not bald yet, however, Saturday morning was quite a shocker when I took a shower.  So we called Cara (at Halo Salon-give her a call for all your hair needs!) and she met us to do the 'chop off'.  This is my stage 2 out of 3 haircuts.  Stage 3 will probably be all gone.  This turned out to be a pretty good system though.  It really is less traumatic to see your hair come out if it is shorter.  At least for me!  I think I got all my tears about it out on Saturday though.  I'm so thankful to have such a great support system.  Funny story-I called my mom to tell her that I was going to get my hair cut and since I was upset, she got upset.  So when she got off the phone, still crying, her friends called.  They said 'We'll come get you and take you with us to cheer you up!  We're going to Hot Springs'.  Well, they get out here and come to find out, they are going to a FUNERAL!  Nice cheer up huh?  So...on the way, they see an estate sale, and for those of you who know momma Wanda, her car is trained to turn at garage sales and estate sales.  So they stop, low and behold..it is a sale..in an apartment..for a little old lady...who had just passed away.  I'm just glad they didn't try to cheer ME up!


Well, I meant to get this note posted yesterday before my Dr appointment, but no such luck.  I'll just include that appointment too!  2 Birds..1 Stone.  Counts are back up a little, not near normal though.   She did tell me that if it was any other type of cancer we would halt treatments, but since it's Hodgkins, we are pushing on through.  Next week will be (hopefully final) number four.  Then we have to schedule another PET scan to see where to go from there.  Could be more chemo, could be radiation, we shall seeeee!!

Until then...I'm going to keep my soon-to-be bald head up and keep on keepin on.
Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL week.  By the way, has anyone seen Spring?

Two Down, Two to Go, hopefully.

Well Monday was my second treatment and went, well, pretty much exactly like the first.  I did however find out that my blood counts were pretty low so my Dr. wants me to take extra precautions to not get sick.  This does involve me wearing a surgical mask when I'm in crowds, so...if you see me in WalMart or Target, I didn't just get a medical degree, it's dr's orders.  For now though, I'm just going to try to stay away from crowds period.

As of right now, I still have hair!  yay!  They said day 10-14, and we are on day 17 I think, so I may just be running behind.  I would love to think that this is a sign I will be one of the lucky ones who don't lose it, but I have to be prepared for reality.  I told Zach last night that I noticed my head hurting a little, but I can't tell if it is just me being paranoid about it or I actually am having little pains.  Either way, I have my hats and scarves on stand by.

On Tuesday, we laid my grandmother, Mary Hay, to rest.  The funeral was beautiful and I know she is in smiling down on us now.  I know how ready she was to see her brother and all of her sisters, especially my Aunt Margie and of course, my Poppa.  She will be greatly missed, but we all know she is in heaven.

I'm noticing my notes are getting shorter as I go along.  I know some of you are probably glad! The only reason is because my weeks are pretty boring (thank goodness) now that treatment has started.  Especially the week of treatment, I pretty much sleep it away!  Hopefully next week my counts will be back up and I can get out and do something!

Short and Sweet.

Hoping for a normal week. Went in for a checkup this morning, blood work and all.  Everything looks good.  My white blood cell count is a little low, but not bad low,and expected. So I just have to stay away from crowds and sick people.  Shouldn't be too hard.  I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow.  Still not sure if I am going to lose it, but I am planning on it.  The plan is to cut it shorter, that way when it happens, maybe it won't be so traumatic.  Humphh.  So much for long hair.
On a non cancer note...I did feel the earthquake last night.  However Zach didn't. Weird.

Hopefully this will be a good feeling week. Even though I wasn't sick last week, I pretty much slept through it.  This week should be back to the norm.  Then we start all over next Monday!

No sickness but *YAAAAWWNN* boy am I sleepy!

Well, here it is Thursday and I haven't been sick yet.  I would like to think that my body is just 'handling it well', but I'm pretty sure it is all the anti nausea medicines I've been taking!  Along with the anti nausea comes sleepiness though.  Yesterday I pretty much slept all day as well as last night, which was good.  However I did make time to squeeze in making a 'Happy Wednesday Griffin' cake.  You know, what kid doesn't need a Happy Wednesday cake?  Before you all think I'm crazy, this was an attempted cake gone bad and I had to salvage something out of it, so it just resulted in a little round vanilla cake, Griffin size.  Also, he started Mom's Day Out today.  Didn't even shed a tear.  I sure thought it was going to be emotional though!

Anyways, Doug and Carrie had their check up yesterday, still two babies!  It's just a waiting game now, still developing, still very little fluid.

There really hasn't been much change in my grandmother.  She eats a little, but mostly lays there.  We all visit her as much as we can and she knows we are all there for her.

Thanks again for remembering my family in your thoughts and prayers!   

Chemo Treatment Number One...Check

So that was it.  Yesterday was my first treatment.  As Zach said, chemo wise, we are 25% DONE.  All of my blood work came out fine, so we promptly got started.  They gave me some bendryl in one of the medicines so I pretty much slept for 3 and a half hours, other than that, I pretty much felt nothing.  It was a pretty emotional day for me though.  I found out that I probably will be losing my hair.  It should happen in about 10-14 days.  That was one of those things that no matter how much you expect it, I don't think I will ever be prepared for it.  And the waiting absolutely sucks, but I refuse to shave my head just in case that small percentage pulls through and it just thins a little.  One of the drugs, Adriamycin, the A in ABVD, is what makes it fall out.  They call it the 'Red Devil' and boy is it red.  Most of the time when you have an IV it's clear fluid coming in, but this was as red as blood and can burn if it even gets spilled on the skin.  Also, they say that my hair could come back a different color or texture or curly.  Now THAT is cool.
We did prepare for hair loss yesterday by going wig shopping.   This was an experience.  Short, long, curly, blond, red, brown, you name it, they had it.  I came home with 2, one from the Cancer Society and one from an actual wig shop. 

Today I went back in for fluids and anti nausea meds.  We are trying to cut the nausea off before it even has a chance to set in.  We'll know tomorrow or the next day if it works.  I'm not planning on being sick though, I've soooo got better things to do!

Also, Doug and Carrie's appointment went good last week.  Still have two babies!  They go in again tomorrow I believe for another checkup, so please remember them as well!

I'll try to keep you guys posted as things develop!
Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!

STILL counting down to Chemo...

by Becky Jackson on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 9:24am

Well, I went in for my treatment yesterday, sat in the office for a few hours, only to find out that I wasn't able to start treatment yet.  Had I started treatments, I would have had an awesome support group though!  Zach and Lisa K went with me to keep me company.  They did do lab work and all of it came back normal.  We also got the results of the PET Scan.  Stage 2A!  Woot Woot!  This means that the cancer is in 2 places above my diaphram.  It is in my chest, where about 90% of the mass was removed, and in the lymphnodes under my left collarbone.  Let me take a moment and be Momma Becky here, if you ever EVER feel a weird lump or bump...anywhere...it's worth having it checked out.  Even if you're hard headed (like me). I felt the one under my collarbone a while back, however, I thought it was just a tight muscle.  It felt good to stretch and rub it, and then it wouldn't hurt.  Who knew?

So back to not having treatment.  Since I just received the Lupron shot (see Countdown to Chemo) last Friday, and it needs to be my system for at least 10 days, we will start NEXT Monday.  It was a good thing I mentioned that in the oncologist's office yesterday because THAT fertility Dr. sure didn't emphasize that.  That would have been a fine howchado. Also, people have been asking about if I will lose my hair or not.  The simple answer is 'we don't know'.  Dr. Gentry says it could thin, it could come out, or it could stay just like it is.  I've already decided I'm going to give blonde whirl if it comes out!  (but we are hoping it just stays like it is :)

Anyways...let me tell ya, I definitely felt the love on Valentine's Day though!  I received so many 'thinking of you' texts and comments from all of you guys!  I had a couple of Chemo Care packages (thank you Amy and Lisa K!) and Carrie was even baking Chemo Cupcakes!  Thank you everyone!!  I'll re-read those next Monday!  Along with a charm bracelet and flowers, Zach got me a bike.  Now those of you that know me may be thinking 'what the...she HATES biking'  True.  I do, however, not on this bike.  It is a beach cruiser!  I may look like a big dork out there, but my butt doesn't hurt and my back isn't sore!  Maybe I found a new hobby.  Probably not, but it would good for me.
Probably will not be posting until next week, unless I come up with something different to post about.  Maybe I'll have a bike riding story ;)

Also additional prayers are needed for my family.  First off my grandmother is in the nursing home and it's really a up one day, down the next type situation.  She's comfortable though, kind of in a big daydream.

Also, my brother, Doug, and his wife, Carrie, are expecting again!  As of right now, they are twins.  One of the babies is kind of a iffy situation. It is about a week behind in development than the other, but it is STAYing a week behind so that's a good sign.  It doesn't have much amniotic fluid.  We know the healthy one is a girl.  The little one is still a mystery.  Thoughts and prayers would be apprecitated for their situation too.

It's been a rough start to the new year, but hopefully things are starting to look up! The other day, Lisa K gave me a bracelet with a little quote on it so I'll leave you guys with this thought...

Don't tell God how big your storm is, tell your storm how big your GOD is.