Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's Christmas was awesome! Just what they expected it to be. Mine sure was. :)

Every Christmas Eve Mom and Dad give everyone a book. This year I got 'Captain, My Captain.' By Sunday afternoon I had already finished it. :) Christmas Eve was nice and relaxed. We had some people over, played some games, ate some food, received our books and candy canes and celebrated Christ's birth. :) 

Christmas Day was filled with fun, laughter, and happiness. We had a yummy waffle breakfast before heading off to church at 9:30 a.m.. I didn't eat any lunch so that I would be nice and hungry by dinner time. :) People started arriving for dinner at 3:30. There were a total of 16 people for dinner. This year's Christmas dinner was a lot smaller than last year's because the married couples with kids were doing their own things. It was nice to have a bit of a quieter year (not that we don't love you guys! :P). The food was AMAZING!! :D I cheated on my diet, but I figured that one day of unhealthy eating is not going to kill me. ;) Everyone was assigned to make a dish so it was quite easy and Mom didn't have to make all the food by herself. Mom made the turkey but she was actually sick on Christmas Day so Jenn and BA made the gravy for her. Rachel made really amazing scalloped potatoes. I did the veggies and I made roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. Elyse made the popovers. :) Everything was over-the-top amazing! :D 

One year ago on Sunday Felicity was born. She's a Christmas baby. :) 2000 yrs. ago Christ was born to save us all from sin and death. 

my brother Ethan and Felicity on Christmas Eve :)

Me and Zachary (my nephew)  on Christmas Eve singing Christmas carols

BA and Jenn making the gravy :)

Christmas Day ended with a bang. I vomited. What's the matter with me?!? boohoo.

         On Boxing Day the malls were packed with angry shoppers. The parking lots were overcrowded with people and cars. I didn't have much luck buying anything but I did buy a t-shirt that cost me only $2.79. :) 

Chemotherapy Day was yesterday!! Elyse took me yesterday because Mom had a really bad cold. They drained out my tubes yesterday (the ones inside of me) because they were all clogged up. I was like a vampire...I didn't have any blood. :P They used something like Draino to clean them out. It took about 2 1/2 hrs.  By the time I started my chemo it was 3:30 p.m.. We watched the older version of Beauty and the Beast. It was Elyse's first time watching it. It's quite a cute movie. So far I'm not feeling sick. I didn't have any of that anticipatory nausea like last time. Thankfully. 

Elyse has been an amazing sister. She has helped out a lot with hospital stuff. She saw me get accessed for the 1st time yesterday. She even watched me de-access myself. :) It makes me feel useful when I pull the needle out of myself and it doesn't hurt so it's fun. :) I know I'm weird but whatever. ;)

I haven't made any New Year's resolutions yet. I don't usually but maybe I will this year. 

Nehemiah 8:10 -- "The joy of the LORD is your strength."

Isaiah 28: 3,4 -- "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You. Because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH, the LORD is everlasting strength."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all experience God's love this Christmas season and that you will be blessed and will feel peace and joy. 


I love the Christmas season! 

In my last post I wrote about anaphylactic reactions. Thankfully God spared me from all of that. I did have a slight panic attack so they gave me some Gravol and I slept through the whole thing. 

As for this past Monday..now that is a totally different story. I got 'anticipatory nausea'. It meant that I started to get sick even before I left the house for the hospital. By the time I got to the hospital I had already vomited twice. :/ This is not what is supposed to happen. I am supposed to be getting used to the chemo. Not dreading it more and more every time. 

So far Phase 4 has been going fine. It hasn't been going great and it hasn't been going horrible either. When I'm on the steroids I get extremely exhausted. I could probably sleep all day if I wanted to. Thankfully I am off all steroids this week and I'm happy that I get to feel really good for Christmas. 

Thursday was a bit of an off day for me. I vomited twice. The weird thing was that I didn't feel sick. I still ate and was hungry all day. It was odd. 

getting ready for tomorrow

That picture was from today. As you can see my hair is getting quite long...according to my standards at least. :)

Thank-you for praying for me and supporting me these past 5 months. It has been a great encouragement to me and to my family. Time has really flown by for me and I'm sooo happy that I only have 4 weeks left. :D God bless you this Christmas season! Merry Christmas! :D

:)

Phase 4 has begun! Yesterday I began my new treatments. The drug I had yesterday made me feel very nauseous. I wasn't expecting to be nauseous already on the first day. Today I'm feeling a little bit better. On Thursday I have to go in for a couple hours to get a drug. There is a slight possibility that I will get an anaphylactic reaction. :/ Hopefully not. At least I  can be happy about the fact that this is my last intense phase. My oncology doctor, Dr. Rod Rassekh, is really pleased with the way everything is looking. He is not sure yet if I will be having another PET Scan at the end of this phase.

I'm really happy that Christmas is on a weekend this year considering the fact that I never have to go to the hospital on weekends. Dr. Rassekh is letting me have Boxing Day off! Shopping here I come! :) The fact that my b'day is also on a weekend is nice too. Even though my b'day is a little over a month away I still like to think about it. :)

I need to take a picture of my hair and show it to you all before it falls out again and makes a big mess everywhere. I should also show you the baby blanket that I crocheted last week. Yesterday two ladies gave me a really cute baby pillowcase that they had made. 

Normal-ish life isn't too far away now. It makes very happy to say that. I hope and pray that the next six weeks go by quickly. 

Hallelujah!

Guess what?!? Phase 3 is officially over! :D This makes me very happy. Also the fact that it is finally December and Christmas is on its way. We are decorating the house today :) 


I had a great week. I figured out that my body is becoming immune to all this chemotherapy. My side effects just seem to become less and less every time, which is an answer to prayer. On Dec. 12th, I start phase 4. There are 10 weeks in phase 4...if all goes well I will be finished mid-February. I love it when time flies by. 


On Wednesday I had an Echocardiograph and a heart ultrasound. I think everything went well. The final results haven't come back yet. I had this done because the next drug I'm going to be taking affects the heart. So before taking it, my heart needs to be checked to make sure that it is working well.


All in all, my week went quite well. My hair has been getting really long. In about three weeks or so it will fall out again. :( The funny thing is that it doesn't even feel like real hair. It feels like feathers...it is not coarse like boys' hair. 


This next phase is really going to bring my blood counts down. It is flu season and it wouldn't be good if I got an infection.  Please pray that I won't get set back in the next phase and that my body will be able to withstand all germs. 


:D :D 


P.S. the Canucks didn't come. boohoo. :(