February 25, 2022

Hi y’all – I am sorry for the late night post but I’m on a steroid high so you know what that means – I’ll be up for awhile so why not bring you guys up to speed with the day.

Officially, today was my 11th Taxol chemotherapy infusion and my 15th chemotherapy infusion overall.  If you recall, I did 4 doses of AC first (remember I called it Red Delight) and I have a total of 12 Taxol chemotherapy to complete – today was #11.  Can you believe it?  Honestly, I’m sure many of you are thinking “Man, it seems like yesterday that Tracy was sharing with us that she had cancer” or “Boy, time sure has flown hasn’t it?”  But for me, it feels like “Damn it – I am almost done” and “I can’t believe it, I am going to make it through the 5 months of chemo” because clearly for me, I remember hearing from the MD Anderson Oncologist that I had 5 months of chemotherapy to complete before anything else and I remember thinking to myself “There is no (effing) way that I am going to be able to make it through 5 months of chemotherapy – but look at me!  Making it!”

Today’s treatment went like all the others.  I had my port accessed, blood drawn, appointment with the PA to review my blood work, and then chemotherapy.  For the record, my blood work is holding pretty steady.  I still have low WBC counts but not “critical” low, I’m still anemic and my liver and kidney functions are all normal.  In fact, they are quite impressed how my blood work seems to be holding it’s own and doing well.  (PRAISES!). I will admit, upon the recommendation of my amazing acupuncturists, Yvonne, who if you recall is an 8 year TNBC Survivor, I started taking Sesame Seed tablet supplements because they work to “build the blood” and it’s working.  God willing, with all the new tricks I’ve learned, I might even be able to come off my high blood pressure meds sometime in the future – who knows?  But that is a task for a later date.

My amazing chemo nurse, Brandi was training a new nurse today, so, of course, I had to ask if she had replaced the good steroid with the generic version like she did a couple of weeks ago.  Of course, that then lead to the story of my blog and how I said that Brandi had taken my good steroid and given me the generic version because I was so tired.  That honestly may be one of my favorite Chemo room stories.  It’s always good for a laugh.  I want everyone to not worry – I’m wired tonight so let’s all say a big THANK YOU to Brandi for leaving the good stuff for me.  It’s kind of a highlight of my week – I get two days that I get a lot of stuff done and feel absolutely amazing before that train leaves the building and I’m wiped out.  Officially, Fridays are now Steroid Fridays in my book.  Well, till next week that is… then it will be interesting to see what the new reality is.  Don’t worry, I’ll write about it. I’m not going away anytime soon.  

The infusion room is really a quiet and sad place for many, until I came along of course.  There are a variety of people in their getting treatment and quite a mixture of age groups.  There are those who come in and settle in with their blanket and pillow and fall asleep, there are those who have their computer/phone/iPad and are working or watching movies, and occasionally there are some that may talk to the person next to them or across from them. Then there is me.  I feel like from the beginning, I bounced in there and during infusions when I didn’t have to ice, I was walking around, getting a drink, talking to the nurses, or anything just to be active.  I was blogging, working some times, texting friends, you name it but I was LIVING and I was focused on LIVING and I was determined to change the way I framed the situation to always make sure that my statements and my FAITH was focused on FIGHTING and CURING my cancer and having a couple of laughs along the way.  Honestly, I am SO EXCITED that next Friday is my last chemo infusion, but I can tell you that I will be very sad to no longer get to hang out with Brandi and Erin on Friday mornings.  Brandi is an amazing chemo nurse and has been my cheerleader, celebrating my wins, following my blog, and enjoying a few laughs with me along the way.  Brandi adopted my positive outlook and framed my journey in that manner which allowed for no negative thoughts to invade my space.  Brandi is a believer, which is good, because I’m sure that she needed prayer through this journey taking care of me.  Gotta love her. 

Since after next week, I will no longer see Brandi every Friday morning. I proposed that we meet at least once a month in the afternoons for Happy Hour.  If we pick the right place, think about it, it may look like the infusion room – some people sleeping, some people working, some on their phones, well – you get the picture and then us laughing and cutting up!  So here’s to future Friday Happy Hours with my chemo nurses – Brandi, and of course, Erin.  I’ve adopted her too.  Erin is not my weekly nurse, but she helps me out when needed, Erin is also a Marine (remember you can never say former Marine because there is no such thing) so of course, she’s family with Mano and I.  Mano hit it off with Erin (all Marines do) and Erin thins the fact that I ride my own Harley is cool.  Well, because it is.  So she can hang with us!  (Side note – I can’t wait to ride again!!!)

I thought about this today, God tells us to ask for what we ,need and for my fellow faith followers, I’m sure you know by now that God also has a sense of humor, which means you have to be VERY specific in what you ask for or he will give you what you’ve asked for but usually not in the way you saw that happening in your head.  Trust me, I can recall times in our lives where Mano and I needed answer to prayer and I can say that we did receive that answer to prayer but in most situations it was later than we expected and often costs us a lot more money or some other lesson and the results in the end were a little different than we expected, yet it still fit the bill for what we had prayed for.  Trust me when I say that my prayers are very, VERY, specific.  I pray to be HEALED completely.  To have a full recovery which means NO CANCER and NO NEW CANCER in the future.  I pray for PCR a Pathological Complete Response and to hear that I have No Evidence of Disease (NED) after this is over.  I pray for NO COMPLICATIONS in surgery.  For a SUCCESSFUL RECOVERY and I pray for my body to continue to CARRY ME through the next part of my journey:  surgery and then radiation.  (These are all PRAYER REQUEST you can add to your prayers if you feel so inclined).

In closing, I want to say, I am thankful for all of you – my village.  You all continue to walk this walk with me and lift me up in ways that you will never understand or possibly know.  I am BLESSED beyond my greatest imagination and I want you all to know that I do not take that fore granted. I am so glad that the first part of this journey is coming to an end so I can focus on the next part, surgery, which has been scheduled for 04/05. I have made my surgical decision which I will share and blog about soon.  Let’s get through chemo first, then we can talk surgery and the plans around that – lots of good stuff to come.

Have a great evening everyone!

Xo,

Tracy