June 18, 2022

Happy Saturday everyone – I hope that y’all are having a wonderful day so far.  I am currently sitting at Austin Airport waiting to board a plane and head to Florida to visit my Dad for Father’s Day.  The decision to go home is a two-part decision.  The first part is that I wanted to go see my family before I start the oral chemo Xeloda because there is a possibility that my white blood cells (WBC) will drop again and I won’t be able to be around anyone for the next 6 months and the other reason is that I accepted a new position with my company and my team is flying in to see the Ceridian Co-CEO, Leagh Turner (link here) speak in the St. Petersburg office on Tuesday.  Thus I will get to meet many of my new team members AND visit my family.  I just couldn’t pass on the opportunity to do so. 

As you can imagine – Mano is NOT too happy that I’m leaving again but he certainly understands why.  I can also share that my dogs wouldn’t even come to say goodbye to me this morning.  In fact, the look on their little faces was one of despair, as if, I could see the words in their little brains saying “Are you serious?  You’re leaving AGAIN?  The NERVE….”  Oh well…. I guess everyone will need to get over it.

Now – let me apologize in advance that I won’t be running around to visit everyone or even having a “get together” to see a bunch of y’all.  Please know that I would love to come by and visit each and every one of you, however, I am still trying to take precautions of not being around a bunch of people and catching COVID before I start this next regime.  This visit is primarily for me to visit family and for work.  Please don’t be offended that I am not going to visit everyone this time.  You can bet that on my next trip home, post final chemo treatment, I will find time to have a get-together for us all to get together and CELEBRATE!  What a party that will be.

I am also excited to announce on my blog that I accepted a new position within my company.  My official title in my new role is Customer Relationship Executive.  For those who are not familiar with this role let me tell you a bit about it.  I am now in a customer-facing role where I will be aligned with Enterprise level clients from a pre-sales perspective and I will be their advocate through their implementation and post-Go-Live journey.  I’m super excited about this role as I have a passion for helping our clients.  I hope that my previous experience in my Implementation and Professional Services roles will benefit me greatly as I transition into this role.  I am SUPER excited to be meeting some of my team members this week and collaborating with them.

More importantly, though is visiting family.  I’m sad that I will not be with Mano and the boys for Father’s Day but SO EXCITED to be spending it with my Daddy.  Mano and I have been married for over 12 years now and in that 12 years, this is my first trip home for Father’s Day.  I will also get to see my brother, Brick, sister, Nicky, and her family (Phillip, Kendall, and Tanner) and I am going to be spending some time with Scott and Hayden as they are joining us for Father’s Day.  Scotty has always been and will always be family to us.   Know that I LOVE YOU ALL – and promise to see you all in 2023!!!

Next topic – how am I feeling?  I am slowly recuperating from radiation.  I have noticed this week that I am more “tired” than I have been in the past, however, I expected this to happen.  It’s a completely different tired than chemo tired, but still tired all the same.  I’m sure this week will be exciting but also challenging for me as my stamina is not what it used to be.  (Can you hear the song “The Old Gray Mare… playing in the background?) My skin is looking good.  There are some areas that have discolored and turned a bit brown and other areas that are still red and bumpy.  The hair follicles that are aggravated by the folliculitis are still extremely agitated.  So if you see my lighting scratching my chest you will know why.  I promise that I will rest where I can this week.  I swear – I will.

My next steps are to meet with my oncologist (Dr. Beth Helerstedt) on Monday, 6/27.  It will be at that meeting that I found out when I will begin Xeloda and what the weekly protocol will be going forward.  I’m expecting at the very least weekly blood checks and symptom management visits.  I did some research and found out that if you’re someone who has a DPD deficiency then your body can’t tolerate Xeloda.  In fact, if you have that deficiency taking Xeloda can be dangerous, even life-threatening.  There is a very small percentage of the population that has this deficiency, however, knowing me and knowing that I am an overachiever in all ways, I asked for a blood test to assure that I do not have that deficiency.  That test was done on Wednesday and currently, I am waiting for the test results.  I’ll keep y’all posted.  My plan for taking care of myself when I begin Xeloda is to continue going to acupuncture three times a week, take my supplements, keep doing my meditation, walk each day, get plenty of rest, eat well, and lots and lots of prayers.  Any prayers you can send my way for the next six (6) months would be greatly appreciated. 

In closing, I am posting a photo from our evening last night – this picture is of Peter, Lauren, Mano, and myself.  Lauren, and now Peter, are family to us.  I hired Lauren to be my house/dog sitter more years ago than I can remember.  Since then I have watched her graduate college, get engaged, buy a home, and even helped her to get a job with my company, Ceridian.  Peter of course is also now part of our family, in fact, Lauren swears that the dogs like him better than her.  I’m not so sure about that.  Mano and I shared a blessed evening with these two last night.  We got caught up on all the house stuff, family stuff, wedding planning and so much more!  Big shout out to these “kids”  – Y’all are doing life RIGHT!  Side note – that’s what I call them even though they aren’t kids anymore.  It drives Mano crazy.

Happy Saturday y’all sending you each a lot of love!

Xo, 

Tracy