On the other side of the news...

It has been a tough few days with some harsh news this week  - my good friend Cathy's mother passed away from a form of Leukemia.  She fought a hard fight over the past few months since her diagnosis, but of course it is never easy when we lose a loved one.  My heart goes out to Cathy and her family this week.  In addition, a friend of mine, who is a few years younger than me, was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She is handling the diagnosis with incredible strength and I admire her courage.  Being on the receiving end of this kind of news is something I haven't had to work through, and I am finding it hard to manage my emotions.  Mostly, I am just angry that this disease has wreaked havoc on another family.

On a positive and more personal note, things have been going great for me.  I have had little to no side effects from this last round of treatment.  I was worried that I would continue to feel aches and pains, numbing and tingling and that may have meant a reduction in the chemotherapy drugs which I am not wanting to do.  I want to get as much of those drugs in my system as I can to make sure we get it - and I know my body is up for the challenge.  I've also been to see the Naturopath again, and we are working on an even more solid supplement program to get rid of any cancer cells that might be lingering around - and prevent any more from forming.  I am feeling great, and have no doubt that this plan of attack will do the trick!  I am also noticing my hair starting to come in so that makes me smile!

As for our little bundle of joy, is weighed in at 13lbs 11oz last Friday so she is probably over the 14lb mark today.  She is changing so much.  It is so true what they say about how fast the time flies.  She will be 4 months old this Saturday - where has the time gone?  She is now jumping and bouncing in the jolly jumper - she loves to be "free".  She sleeps a minimum 7 hours at a time now, and gets mostly through the night.  She usually clocks out around 8pm and wakes around 4am.  Now we just need to keep her up until 10pm and get her sleeping until 7am...that'll work great for Mommy and Daddy!  We had some great family photos taken a few weeks ago, so can't wait to see those! We do have to go meet with a physiotherapist to help with the flat head our munchkin is getting.  She sleeps on her right side so we need to find a way to get her alternating sides, so that appointment will happen in the next few weeks.

What's next?  I am now taking supplements by injection - mistletoe 3x/wk and vitamin C weekly (both function to improve my immune system) - and will continue to do so for the next year. My next chemo session is on November 30th. We meet with the plastic surgeon on December 16th, and my last full day of chemo is on December 21st.  After that, I go every three weeks (for the next year) for a 90 minute session to receive Herceptin, a chemo drug to treat a cancer gene I overproduce called "HER2".

Tummy time...not my favourite thing to do!

Do you like my new hat?