MYJOURNEY THROUGH CANCER

      The dreaded word cancer had hit our family again.  I found out on Feb 1, 2010 that I had cancer.  I had waited all day for the phone call.  I had had my partial mastsectomy  on Thursday and taken off two days to recover  plus I also wanted to take off for Dennis' birthday so I was home waiting for the phone to ring. When I didn't get a call by five o'clock I didn't think I would hear about the results from my biosphy that day.  Boy was I  wrong.  Dr. Abraham called at 5:30 and told me she had good news and bad news.  Bad news I had cancer and the good news was that it was non-invasive and that when I when I went to LR  to have my stitches removed Dr. Abraham would walk us through the next steps.  It was a long week.  I went back to work on Tuseday and started reading everything I could find and understand.  I had gotten a wig book from my beauty operator and I had been reading up on Chemo.
     Dennis took off work and we went down for my consult.  I had Ductal Carcinoma in situ (DCIS).  If you are going to have cancer then this is the best kind to have.  I couldn't seem to get cancer off my mind, that was all I thought about.  I knew God was incontrol so I tried not to worry.  I  was scheduled to start six weeks of radiation as soon as I got a call from the doctor here in Russellville.
     I read about the side effects of radiation and mostly it was about getting tired.   How would I know if it was the side effects of the radiation or my fibromyalgia or the cancer.  It didn't really didn't matter because all I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
     I did not journal every day, in fact I didn't journal at all.  I just wanted to record some of my thoughts.  First of all, when I told my family members that I had decided to do radiation, Gina, my daughter-in-law was noticeably upset.  Later that week my son Mike called and we talked for a long time.  Gina sees the effects of radiation everyday and she was so concerned for me.  She mentioned to Mike that she didn't feel I could even hold up for six weeks of radiation.  I started researching and I called Dr. Dickinson, my nephew.  He said he always recommends a total mastectomy in my situation.  That is when I decided to reevaluate my decision.  I called Dr. Abraham my cancer doctor and talked to her at length.  After our conversation I decided to have the surgery.  I got the call to set up the surgery and then things began to move fast.
     Surgery went ok. An eight inch incision had been made and one lymph node was removed.  I thought that I would be over the surgery in six weeks.  Boy was I wrong.  I was off work twelve weeks and could have stayed off another week if I had had the time.  I went three more weeks without doing much.  I went to work and then as soon as I got home I went to bed.
     Dennis was wonderful during this time.  He was able to do the nursing  care and the housework and still go to work each day.  I know that he got tired but he didn't complain.  We ate out a lot once I was able to go somewhere on the week-ends.  I couldn't drive for twelve weeks so every other Monday we went to LR to the doctor for drainage to be pulled off.  On the week-ends Dennis would take me out to eat. I sure looked forward to getting out.  I couldn't even go to Walmart because that was too big of an outing.  It was a big adjustment for both of us but we made it through the tough times. We had someone walking with us during that time and sometimes he even carried me.  My faith in God carried me through the tough times.

Get Ready, Get Set, Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited.  I got my Blog up and going and I did it by myself.  Now I am feeling a little overwhelmed.  I have been thinking about what I would share and I  plan on sharing my love for reading, scrap booking, sewing, amateur photography and my grandchildren.