Great Weekend

I was ecstatic when my best friend for the last 10 years called me Friday evening to let me know she was coming on Saturday....(she said we discussed it last week, ha I don't remember even talking to her)! Sad, I know.  But what a breath of fresh air.  It was a good two days of non-stop laughing and reminiscing on all the funny (and stupid) things we've done.  Sunday (today) we decided on a whim to go to the Fort Worth Zoo!  I walked the entire time!  It's never felt better to exercise as my legs have been so weak  but not today!  Rebecca couldn't believe how big our zoo was, because in Austin the zoo has like 5 animals all together haha (not kidding)!  Then we rode the train around Trinity Park, I haven't done that since I was a child, so relaxing and a perfect 71 degrees with a little wind.  So sad she has to go but I know she'll be back soon enough.  My transplant was moved to March 16th,  I'm kind of glad it's not on the 15th (the Ides of March) lol...the 16th is a good date, Ryan and Rachel were both born on the 16th so that's a special date for me!  This coming week we will be getting Ryry and Rachel and thanks to a generous donation and my sister Jenn's idea, we will be taking them to Great Wolf Lodge (a hotel with a huge indoor water park)!  Surprise Babies!  This will be the last time I see them before I go into the hospital on March 9th to be prepped for transplant.  More chemo, breathing treatments to prevent pneumonia, radiation (which I've never had...yet) then transplant (Happy Birthday new immune system!)  This is the last leg of the journey (tough part) then I will be able to say I "HAD" Cancer! Praise the Lord!  He has pulled me through this far and will continue to be by my side even though I have a little apprehension...(who wouldn't)?  But I trust in Him wholeheartedly and know success is only a few weeks away now!

Feeling Great

It feels so good to feel good after being sick for what seemed forever!  Now I just need to stay well for two weeks and two days! That's when I go back to be prepped for "my new birthday" March 15th.  As far as I know being prepped consists of 3 days of radiation twice a day and chemo....I'm over chemo, my body is not handling it well at all now, I have severe neuropothy in my hands, I take medicine 3 times a day for it but it doesn't do much =( , blurry vision, I now have places on my thighs that are numb..its very weird, my legs feel very weak no matter how much walking I do at the hospital to keep the strength up, my back spasms now from where I've had intrathecal chemo I guess, whatever it's from, it wasn't there before chemo!  It amazes me how the body can handle all of this. But all in all, I am strong and well right now. I'm grateful for my life no matter what obstacle I now have to live with, God is good!

Getting Close!

Well it's time for a good update, so much has happened.  After getting out on Superbowl Sunday, the very next day I was unable to hold anything down.My stomach and throat burned pretty bad. Luckily we had a doctors appointment the very next day.  I still lost more weight aside from the six I already lost the week before. Dr. Vance took one look at me and my counts and said he was putting me back in, news to my ears because I really wanted to have testing done to fine out why I have vomited now for three weeks!  Sure enough all tests came back negative....good but I still didn't have the answers I wanted, they concluded that the chemo caused toxicity in my intestines, stomach etc. It would just have to run it's course. Now that my care has been transferred to Baylor in Dallas, it's not easy for everyone to just come and drop by to see me any more.  I didn't realize how bad this would make me feel, but I sure get lonely. So I called my dad and he had no hesitation to drop everything.... and come see me for a few days. He did exactly what dad's do, made me feel better, we shopped together, oh and yes when we woke up one morning dad said "hey kate, let me see your hair brush" with out even thinking....we both looked at each other and laughed up a storm...its moments like that I will remember forever. So Dr. Vance came in shortly after to give us news we've been waiting for...March 15 will be my new "Birthday" or transplant day! yay!  so on March 8th I will start the radiation. The babies were here for Valentines Day visiting me in the hospital. Ryan lost his first tooth so that was the highlight for him lol.  Well that's all I've got right now!

Methotrexate and ARA-C

I started getting sick on Thursday after Mom and I ate at Friday's restaurant.  I vomited from then until Sunday when I finally came to the hospital clinic which luckily is open on Saturday and Sunday.  They determined I was extremely dehydrated and admitted me to the hospital then instead of Tuesday which was the original plan to start my last round of chemo. I finally saw Dr. V on Monday. He said he believes I got some weird toxicity to my A round which is like 5 different chemos. I still get a severe reaction to vinchristine, severe pain in my legs they don't believe is linked to the nulasta or nupogen and I cannot feel my fingers at all at this point.  That's cool because I've had my last A ROUND EVER! Woo Hoo! And in fact this is my last B round ever as well!  So just 48 hours of ARA-C and chemo is done, now onto transplant! I got out Superbowl Sunday, Mom came yesterday morning and "sprung" me. All the way home we saw cars decked out with either Green Bay or Steeler fan memorabilia. The Green Bay people all were nice and waved at us...that's how we deciced who to go for this year since our beloved cow girls didn't do so well. Being at home is nice....I get extreamly bored but it's still nice. We have an appointment tomorrow with Dr. V and hopefully he will tell us when our exact date of transplant is, we would all like to know. While in the hospital this last week, I went through a battery of tests, blood tests, EKG's, ECG's, etc...all were negative.