Long day!

Went back to work today. It was a long day at work. My right arm was hurting pretty bad, I could hardly use it. I had to switch my mouse to the left side. Thankfully, I didn't have to write to much. Everyone was very helpful at work, helping me carry my stuff and coming by to check on me. I love my co-workers and my job!

My friend, Rene B, came by and give me a blanket to use while I am having chemo and a book to help with this process. She has been such a wonderful friend. Thanks to my friend Terria for introducing her to me. LOVE HER!

Getting my port put in for the Chemo on Friday. I am a little nervous..not crazy about having another surgery (even if it is just a minor surgery) so soon after the other one.

Going to bed, have a great night!
Hugs,
Yolanda

YAY!

Quick note- Got the other 2 tubes removed today! YAY!! Mean's I will hopefully be able to sleep. My surgery to have the port for the chemo put in will be on Friday. I will be going back to work on Wednesday. Really tired, think I need a nap.

Hugs,
Yolanda

P.S. Thanks to my friend, Catherine Perkins. Just figured out the chicken spaghetti was in the freezer...yes!! Thanks Catherine :D

Fun Night!

Had a great time tonight with the family! My brothers and their families came over and we watched a movie and ate banana splits. The boys had a great time chasing each other. Missed my nephew Mark...but he was practicing for his first real gig on Wednesday night...so if you aren't busy...go check out his band- Oh No! The Radio! They will be at Redeyefly on Wednesday night June 30th at 9 P.M. They are good, so I hope you enjoy the show.

I am starting to feel a lot better. If I can just get these stupid tubes out, I will feel even better. I have to call and schedule my surgery to have the port put in for the Chemo. Probably for next week some time.

I got a hair cut yesterday. Kind of short..it will make it easier to shave off once I start Chemo.

Abel is going back to work tomorrow. He has been home taking care of me for 2 weeks. So thankful he was able to do that. He is probably ready to go back to work after all the hell he has been through in the last couple of weeks. LOL!! Love you baby.

Also wanted to thank my friend, Jane for bring food and magic cookies...it was awesome! and for our friends..the Kromers for sending us BBQ plates - Delicious!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives! Thank you!!

Special thanks to my baby girl, Devan. You have been so strong for me, thank you for taking such good care of us baby girl! Love you. Matt has been doing better with everything. We talked for about 30 minutes about what is going on, he asked about the Chemo, my surgery..does it hurt. How many more surgeries, when am I getting better.......etc. It was good, I think it helped him to finally talk to me about everything.

Hugs,
Yolanda

Chemo

Went to the Oncologist yesterday..My Chemo will start 7/13. I have to call my surgeon to schedule my appt to have the port for the chemo put in. I will have 6 months of Chemo. A drug called AC one time every 3 weeks for 4 cycles. A drug called Taxol weekly for 12 weeks. After I am done with the Chemo, I will have to see the Radiation Oncologist to see if he wants to do radiation. Since my Chemo will be starting soon, I will be getting a haircut this weekend, as I have been told I will be losing my hair within the 1st couple of weeks. I will be shaving my head, yeah shaving it, pretty soon after that. I am not going to let cancer take my hair. I will do it myself.

I went to the surgeon today. He pulled one JP tube out. Still have 2 more, one on each side. ARGH!! I wish he would have been able to take them all out today. He is going to call me on Saturday to see if he can do it then. They were still draining to much for them to come out today.

I am supposed to go back to work next Wednesday, the 30th. The time has gone by so fast. I hope I feel well enough to go back to work then. Thankfully, my friend Sanaa is going to be driving me to work, so I don't have to worry about falling asleep on the way home. By 2pm, I am exhausted! Part of the reason is because I am so uncomfortable at night I have a hard time sleeping (that's why I am up blogging at this time of night/morning :-) )

Had a great visit from friends from work today. Thanks for the flowers and the card...they made me smile!
~
Asta manana Amigos!
Yolanda

I'm back...sort of

First let me thank everyone for the continued prayers and support. For all my friends and family that came to visit (especially the ones I don't remember seeing, but was told came by :-) ) and for all those wonderful people who brought food to help my family with dinner when I was in the hospital and when I got out....Barb Edwards, Tina Guerrero, Tia Dolores, Tia Lucy, Melissa Smith, Mona Sarate and Janet Calhoun. To our nieces Melissa Ragsdale and Cathy Garcia..thank you for coming down for the weekend and helping out. It was great seeing you. For my mom, Teresa, what would I do without you. Thank God you are here to help Abel and the kids.

You are all a blessing to me and my family. Words cannot express my gratitude.

It has been a rough week and 1/2. The surgery itself went well, double mastectomy with the right lymph nodes all removed. 2 of the 19 had cancer. I had 4 JP drain tubes inserted, two on each side. One of them started coming out on Saturday, so had to go get that taken care of. I still have the other 3. I did okay for a few days, but then my blood pressure went up and I had a horrible headache..they couldn't get it to come down, so I had to stay a few extra days. I won't go into the gross detail, but let me just say...if you are ever going to have surgery...take a stool softener. It is the worst thing if you don't. I think that and everything that comes with it has been worse than the surgery itself.

I am starting to feel better though. I am having trouble sleeping at night because of the tubes but hopefully those will come out tomorrow. I have an appointment with the Oncologist today at 4:00. I will find out what my treatment plan is. My surgeon suspects I will have to have Chemo for sure since the cancer was in the lymph nodes, not sure about Radiation. I won't think about it to much till I get to the appointment.

I know I have a long road ahead of me and I know that I am very lucky to have the support of my family and friends and most importantly..I know that I am on this road that God chose for me. There is a reason this is happening to us again and I know that He is with me.

Hugs,
Yolanda

P.S. Happy Birthday baby brother, Vic...you are the best! Love you bunches!

Surgery update

Hey everyone!! This is Devan, yolandas daughter - my mom is doing great. She has to stay another day in the hospital because she has problems with her high blood pressure. The doctor said she can hopefully go home tomorrow if all is well. Thanks for the well wishes and prayers!

A new beginning...

Hey everyone!!! This is Devan, yolanda's daughter, just wanted to say thank you for all the prayers and well wishes from everyone. She is doing much better and might be able to go home tomorrow. Again thanks for everything and talk to you all soon...

Yolandas Update on her Surgery!

Hello everyone, This is Abel, Yolandas husband. I just wanted to update you on Yolandas surgery.
Yolanda had a 3 hour long Double Mastectamy today June 14, 2010. Her surgery went well and she is
recovering fine at Round Rock hospital. She wanted to express her gratitude with everyone that has prayed for her and wished
her a fast recovery from this surgical procedure. Please continue your prayers for us and especially her fast recovery.
Thanks
Abel Vasquez

Count Down to Surgery...

My brothers and their families came over tonight, and my sister in law, Chris, came in from Houston. We had a nice dinner, Tortilla soup, thanks to Barb Edwards. It was delicious!!

About to get to bed. Surgery is in the morning at 10:30am. I am nervous about my reaction after the surgery, but, I will trust in God to help me get through it. One step closer to getting this cancer beat!

Thanks everyone for the prayers and those of you who have signed up to bring meals, I really appreciate it.

Devan will be updating my blog for me after my surgery and she will have my phone if you need to call.

Hugs!
Yolanda

Long day

My friend, Rene, brought me a gift today. It is a Legacy gift. The idea behind it is when you receive the gift you keep it as long as you need it. When you no longer need it, you give it to someone else that is in need. I think it is an awesome idea. It's beautiful! The note attached said- It's like life, beautiful, yet fragile.

It was a long day at work today. I did not feel very well this afternoon and it got worse as the day progressed. Just really tired and I have a headache. Think I will get to bed early today.

Hugs,
Yolanda

Getting Nervous :-(

I have been having trouble sleeping..Mom says it's because I am thinking and stressing to much about next week. I don't know, but not even Tylenol PM is helping. I wake up about 2:30 or 3:00am and then it takes me forever to fall asleep again. Then I get up at 5:45am to get to work by 7am. ARGH!!!

I am getting a little nervous.. I'm not worried about the surgery, just what comes after. Lot's of people have told me that the surgery won't be too bad, but the depression will be! I can't imagine it being worse than thinking about this stupid cancer in my body now!!

I was invited to join the Pink Cowgirls (Thanks Rene) . The administrator of the group, Runi, sent me a message that she would bring me a camisole or pockets to hold my drains post surgery....WHAT!!??? I hadn't even thought about that. I guess it is kind of like the drain that Abel had last year after his cancer surgery that was to 'suck' the fluid out of the pocket left by the tissue they remove. So thanks Runi!

Some of you had email me offering to bring meals by after my surgery (THANK YOU FOR THAT), so my friend Barb Edwards asked me to let everyone know, if you wanted to bring meals by you can follow the information below to sign up. Thank you :D

===================================
The HELPER logon is used by family and friends
that would like to sign-up to help a loved one.

To access Yolanda Vasquez 's personal CareCalendar site,
visit http://www.carecalendar.org/logon/42328 and enter the following
information in the appropriate spaces:

CALENDAR ID : 42328
SECURITY CODE : 2366

===================================

Hugs,
Yolanda

You're really that sick????

I think it finally hit Matt that I am having surgery because of the cancer. He asked me today if that was what I was having surgery for. I explained the whole thing to him again and he said he didn't realize that I was that sick??? Guess it hadn't really affected him because he hadn't really 'listened' to me the first time I told him what was going on. He told me he would take care of me :D Hopefully, he will remember he told me that next week..LOL!!

I have been working on getting information together for my work so they can figure out if I will be able to get some time from the sick leave pool. I haven't been working long enough to have accumulated enough hours to cover my surgery and then whatever treatments I end up having after. My reconstruction surgery won't be for a few more months, so I'm hoping I will get enough hours to cover that time off too.

Some of you have asked to help us out by bringing meals after my surgery and during my treatments..one of my friends, Barbara Edwards, has graciously offered to handle arranging this for us.....her email is - gbaypack@sbcglobal.net if you would like to do this.

Feeling really tired today...hope tomorrow is a better day.

Hugs -
Yolanda

Surgery scheduled

I went to the Plastic Surgeon today. I don't know why I was more nervous going to see him than when I went to see the surgeon and the oncologist????? We discussed my options and I decided to have a Diep Tram Flap (take my own skin and make new breast) instead of Breast implants. I just feel more comfortable having my own skin up there than a foreign object. I know, I know...it's crazy..but that's how I feel. Abel is feeling a little sad..he says he is going to miss 'the twins' LOL!! Really, he has been very supportive and said he just wants me to be okay- with or without 'the twins'. The only bad thing about having this type of surgery is that I will be flat chested for a few months. I'll be honest..that freaks me out a little. I mean, I haven't been flat chested since I was 11!!

I then went to my Surgeons office/Dr. Walzel. My surgery has been scheduled for June 14th @10:30. I will have a Bilateral Mastectomy. Dr. Walzel will also check my lymphnodes that day to see if the cancer had spread into the nodes too. I did get some good news today...my BRCA test (blood test to see if I have the genetic marker for certain cancers) came back...I am NOT genetically predisposed to breast cancer. If it had come back positive there would be no way of getting out of the Chemo. Thankfully, it came back negative so I don't have to worry about Devan and Matt having the gene too.

So now, it is a waiting game. I read that Christina Applegate had taken some pictures of her breast before she had her Double Mastectomy....it's funny..I thought of maybe doing that too. Of course I would never... you never know where pictures would end up, but I wonder how different I will look when this is all over. Abel says, he doesn't care..... Twins or no twins he still loves me. And that is why I married him :-D

Here we go again..

I tried using a different blog, but I couldn't log in anymore - so here we go again..hope this one works :-D

On Sunday, May 2nd, I noticed an indention/dimple on my right breast. I saw my OBGYN doctor, Dr. Paul Murphree the next day. He sent me to have a mammogram. The mammorgram was clear so the radiologist did an ultrasound. It didn't show a mass either, but because there was obviously something causing the dimple in my breast she recommended a Core Biopsy. I had that done on May 20th. On May 24th, I received a call from Dr. Murphree. It was cancer. He then referred me to Dr. Jack Walzel, a surgeon. He schedule me for an MRI so see how big the cancer truly was and also schedule a visit with the Oncologist/Dr. Kocs on May 28th. He took blood for the BRCA test to see if I have THE genetic marker for cancer. He also schedule a CT Scan for June 3rd. Results were clear no cancer anywhere else. I have an appointment with Dr. Staebel/plastic surgery for reconstructive surgery. I will be having a double mastectomy. I had a mammogram 11/2009 - it was 'clear'. My mammogram on May 4th didn't show anything, neither did the ultrasound. The biopsy was performed only because the radiologist was still suspicious of the indention..she knew something was causing it and she suggested the biopsy.

I hate that my kids are having to go through this again...My husband was diagnosed with cancer last year in January - DFSP (Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans). He is now cancer free. He finished his radiation therapy a few days before Devan graduated from High School.

I set this blog up so my family and friends can - Laugh with me, cry with me, share your thoughts and advice with me. I love my family. I love my friends. I love to do things for others and make them happy - for a little while, I'll need someone else to do this for me. Thanks for supporting me through this journey.

Today I am Scared, Frustrated, Angry, Thankful.
Scared about the future. Frustrated that there is nothing I can do to speed this up. Angry that my kids are having to go through this again, after just having dealt with their dad's cancer last year and thankful that it is me - not the kids or someone else in my family that was diagnosed with cancer.

Yolanda