Happy Birthday Matt!!!!

Matt's Birthday was yesterday.  He is 13 now!  I can't believe how quickly time has gone by.  I love you little man. :-D  It was a fun weekend.  We went to my brothers (both of them) and had BBQ & cake.  My friend Margaret came over and Cathy (our neice) came in late from Lubbock but was still able to join us.  Mark sang us a few songs - he was great!!  He and his bandmates have a gig at EMO's, sometime in September, which apparently is a really big thing for their type of music- so congrats to the group,  Oh No the Radio!!  Here is a list of their upcoming gigs in case anyone can make it out to support them -

Oh-No-The-Radio on Facebook

RED7 August 17th 9:30 FREE show any ages. 611 East 7th Street

REDEYEDFLY August 19th 9:00 5$ for adults 8$ for minors. ALL AGES. 715 Red River Street

Went to work today.  I felt pretty good, a little tired, but pretty good.  I had to leave a little early to see my surgeon.  Still retaining fluid in the right surgery sight, so I am having to go in and get it drained.  Next appointment for that is Thursday!  ARGH!  The plus side, I love my doctor--if you ever need surgery go to Dr. Jack Walzel!  He is awesome! 

I am hoping I will feel well enough to work the whole week, since my next round of chemo is next Tuesday.  I did fairly well with the chemo except that I was tired, pretty much the entire cycle.  I never throw up, just felt like a few times.  I took the meds the Dr gave me so that helped a lot. The worst I felt was the first weekend after the chemo..I had major heartburn.  It was awful, worse than when I was pregnant with the kids. I went by the doctors office and got some good meds for that too.  I go tomorrow to get my labs done so they can see where my white blood count is.  Last week it was just a little low, so the Nurse practitioner said it would be lower this week.  I don't know what they do if it is too low??

Have a great week!
Hugs,
Yolanda

P.S. Good luck to my lil sis - Yvonne - Hope you did well on your exam!

Not feeling well...again!!!! and Thanks!

^#*%$(%)  The chemo had made me pretty tired, a little nauseous.  I had major heartburn this weekend...according to my Oncologist- it was his fault :-D  He said the steroids he gave me to help offset the chemo were what did that to me.  Then I started feeling nauseous tonight, can't sleep.  ARGH!!!  I was going to try to go to work tomorrow, now, I don't know what is going to happen.  Dammit!  I am so sick of this crap!  Took some of my million meds, hopefully that will help.

Okay, enough of the pity party!!  I shaved my head this weekend, rather my little brother shaved my head this weekend.  I was sad, I cried, I think we all did in our own way.  I look weird (I think I do), guess it's mostly because I am not used to seeing myself without any hair. Mom kept telling me not to cut my hair, to wait and see if it would fall out, but the doctor had already told me it would be happening, I didn't think I could handle seeing my hair falling out.  I don't think Matt would be able to handle it either.  Anyway, NOW...my head is cold!! LOL!!! 

Big thank you to my wonderful friend Janet Calhoun and her friend, Sandra Bennight for bringing food for us tonight and for tomorrow.  What a blessing to have such wonderful friends.

While I am sending out my thank you's...please visit and contribute if you can to my friend Barb Edwards, as she walks to raise money to fight breast cancer. Barb's Komen 3Day blog

And, last but not least...I thank my family.....
Abel, honey thank you for taking such good care of me every night especially, when I complain about the sheets not being straight or that it's too hot, and rubbing my back. I love you!

Devan-for being the second mama in the house. Taking care of your brother, handling appointments, making sure his chores are done and for taking care of the house stuff.  I would be lost without you baby. I love you!

Matt-for getting me fresh water everytime you come around me and checking up on me and being nice to your sister. I love you sweetie :-D

Mom-for being mom.  For taking care of me, trying to make me feel better and telling me everything will be okay. I love you.

Cathy-(our niece) for making sure I take the right meds, making me breakfast, taking me to dr's appointments and helping your uncle and your cousins...I love you!

Vic-for doing something that I am sure was very hard for you to do, but you did anyway.  Shaving me.  I love you baby. 

Noni-for talking when I just need to talk and vent.  I love you!

Sorry it was so long tonight....it was this our give in to the temptation to throw up....   :-D

P.S. Congrats to my friend Michelle Vanderwalle- She is pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugs,
Yolanda

Sleep-ramblings for the day

I feel like all I have done is sleep.  I am so tired.  Today, I have been feeling a little nauseous today.  I hadn't felt this bad all week.  YUK!!!  Going to get my head shaved today...I'll be damned if the cancer is going to take my hair too! That's going on my terms!! My little brother is going to come help me and Abel.  I imagine that it will be really hard, but I don't know that I can handle the alternative. I don't think I could handle seeing my hair on my pillow or in the shower and I don't know how my kids would re-act to it either.

Nothing tastes good today.  I am sort of hungry, but scared to eat.  I don't have a taste for anything in particular...I want something cold, maybe a popsicle?

I wanted to go back to work tomorrow..I don't know if that is going to happen.  I feel so tired all the time, I don't know how much I will be able to accomplish at work.  I hope I don't feel nauseous tomorrow too.  ARGH!  This is so frustrating!  Oh yeah, and I have been a big ball baby all weekend.  Anything  can set me off, the f'n commercial, Matt smiling at me in his silly way, Devan laughing.. What the hell is wrong with me???????? I have heartburn from hell...who knows what I was able to eat that caused that!

Obviously, today was not a good day to post, so I hope you all have a better day.  I love my family and my friends and I thank you all for the wonderful thoughts and prayers.  Special thanks to Barb Edwards for the wonderful meal Thursday.  It was delicious!!

Hugs,
Yolanda

Not to bad....

Considering all the horror stories I had heard.  My first two days of chemo were relatively light.  I slept pretty much all day yesterday and take some extensive naps today too.  I did feel a little nauseous tonight, but I took some medicine so hopefully that will help.  I got an email from Runi/BCRC she says to take it easy because Friday through Monday could be rough....what does that mean???!!!  Now I am panic mode reading through all my papers to see what I should expect!  OH well, nothing I can do about it right...so I'll just go on.  I was so stressed about the Chemo, I forgot the Camera so I could take pictures of my first day.  I was nut case anyway, so I can imagine what they would have looked like :D

One of my BFF's Mona, brought over a cake for me.  It is sooooooooooooooo goooooooooood!!!!  I don't know what it is called but I will try to describe it.  It is yellow cake and the center and frosting or made out of coolwhip, ?mandarin oranges and pinable chunks.  I don't really know but it is the best cake.  Cool and refreshing.  Lately it seems I want cool and refreshing.  So thank you Mona for bring over the delicious cake!!  Couple of other friends brought food over - Ida Saaverda and Debra Kromer.  Thank you so much, it was very thoughtful and really helped us out a lot. 

I tried to find a scarf or a cap or something today so that I can wear after I shave my head and had little luck.  I am not really sure what I am looking for what, but it wasn't what I found.  Oh well, I'll figure it out when I get to the point. 

Matt's been coughing a lot lately. He is going to have to go to the Dr.  I am afraid that they will tell me I have to stay away from him.  Do some people just not understand how hard it is to keep away from your kids???????  My friend Alma, had to be quarantined form her kids when she went through Chemo, I can only imagine how hard that was. ARGH!!

HUGS,
Yolanda

Chemo tomorrow.......mood-nervous

Sorry it has been a while since I posted anything on here.  I had my port put in on the 9th for the Chemo, tried going to work and couldn't do it. Worked for part of the day on Monday and came home early. Then I was out Tuesday, Wednesday and finally went back on Thursday.  I had a lot of fluid build up on the right side where the cancer was and the lymph nodes were removed, so I had to get that drained.  The left side has healed pretty well and the port side is doing better.  On Friday, I woke up with fever, a massive headache and my face hurt like HELL!  I called the Oncologist and he called in a Big Gun Antibiotic called Levaquin for my Sinus infection.  I don't know if he is going to let me start my chemo tomorrow or not since I had the fever.  I suspect he gave me the Levaquin instead of Zpack so I could start tomorrow, but I don't know.  My fever finally broke last night and I tried to go to work today, but just didn't feel well.  I had Abel come pick me up early from work.  I called my surgeon office.  I went in and had over 300cc's of fluid removed from the right side.  I had so much fluid in there I looked like I had a deformed breast on the right again.  Gross...I know.   I feel a little better now, but I have a lot of swelling on the right side and it is really hard.  I don't know if that is normal.  I am going to call them again tomorrow.

My first round of chemo tomorrow. Honestly, I am pretty nervous about it.  You can't imagine all the wonderful 'tips' I have received!!  Some were good, others were....well, let's just say - I will just have to take the poison as it comes-cause there is NO WAY I AM DOING THAT!!! LOL! My friend Rene gave me a blanket that she was given when she started her chemo...she said it was handed down to her with love so she was now handing it down to me the same way.  She also gave me a book for after I am done with my treatment.  I am so thankful for her. 

I have been blessed with so many wonderful people in my life and they say--you know who your true friends are when you go through a real crisis.  I am thankful, that most of the people I call friend....have been true friends.  Many of you have told me to ask for help especially while I go through my treatment, so I am going to ask.  If you can help I will appreciate it, if you can't I love you anyway...

What I would appreciate - 

Meals- ( nothing with sour-cream please) Here is the link - 
HELPER LOGON
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Scarves/cool hats - you can never have too many of them right???....they don't have to be new...your old favorite one would be awesome, or a fun, crazy, wild one.  Which reminds me- CRAP....I never went to get any and next week is when I shave my head - yikes!! better get my butt in gear.

Prayers- please continue to pray for me...that I will have the strength to fight this and know that God is with me.

Hugs to you all -
Yolanda

Port is in..

Had my port put in today. It wasn't too bad. It is feeling a little bit sore and I am a little bit tired, but otherwise I am pretty good. I came home and slept for about 5 hours after I got home. I'm not excited about the chemo, but I just want to get it over with. I know it doesn't make sense..but, I am so ready to get back to some normalcy and not think about this stupid cancer anymore. Some days I just want to scream! I am so done with this crap already! Today marks the 3 month anniversary of when I found the dimple. It has been a long 3 months and I am only about a quarter of the way. ARGH! Enough of that.......

Went to work 2 days this week. Wow, I didn't realize how exhausting it would be. It isn't like it is hard manual labor!! LOL! Being gone 2 weeks was hard. I felt like I forgot everything! Had my Quarterly evaluation, pretty good even though I had been out for 2 wks. Good sign :D

Today was my nephew Mark's birthday. He is 14! I can't believe it! I remember the day he was born :-D Happy Birthday Marky! Love you bunches. He and his band, Oh No! The Radio, played at RED EYE FLY Wednesday. They did really well. So well, they got paid! And...they were invited back AND there was a band there that wants them to open for them when they play near Austin!!! So excited for them. Congrats Marky!

Hugs!
Yolanda