September 18, 2010

The port is officially in, and it kinda looks like I’ve got a bumpy purple alien under my skin. I’m not going to lie, I was sort of a whiny baby the first day b/c it really hurt and I really didn’t like it. I didn’t go so far as to throw a temper tantrum or anything, but I did say a few choice words under my breath (sorry Pastor John!). It is actually doing a lot better today, still bruised and bumpy, but not near as sore.  I talked to the nurse yesterday and she called me in a prescription for some numbing cream that I can rub on it right before they do my chemo to help with the needle pain. That made me feel a lot better, b/c I was really nervous about starting chemo when it was this sore. I told her at this point, if someone tried to shove a needle in my bumpy purple alien I might step on their toe and run!

OK, so funny story break...my boys are in Chillicothe this weekend, so mom and Kelsey came over to help me take a shower (I can't lift my arm and I can't get the incisions wet). So we have the great idea to just wrap my chest in saran wrap to keep the water off. So here I am, half naked with my purple alien boob hangin' out, my mom and sister wrapping me in plastic wrap (which makes you really hot, by the way) and the stupid door bell rings! Really?! Who is coming to my house at 8:00 at night?! So mom hands the roll to Kelsey and we're just standing there twiddling our thumbs, I mean what kind of conversation do you have to pass the time in that situation? "So, how 'bout them Chiefs?!" Anyway, mom comes back a few minutes later and it was the boy scouts selling popcorn!! Lol! I told her she should have said, "sorry, we are a little busy...wrapping my kid's alien boob in saran wrap so she can take a one-armed shower!" Nice.

Anyway! Back to the blog...I’ve attached two pictures, one is what my port looks like, and it’s a Power Port Duo Lumen, which means it’s got two sections; one side to put the drugs in and one side to take blood out. That way they don’t have to find a vein every week to test my blood. The second is my scar! So I’ve never been one for bragging about war wounds, but with all the cutting they are going to be doing on me, I figure I better start! :o) The top hole is where they put the catheter in that goes to the vein in my heart, and the bottom cut is where they put the port in. The port is actually about an inch underneath where the long cut is.

Dr. Burt (my oncologist) called me on Thursday as I was sitting in the waiting room to get the port to give me the results of my echocardiogram and my PET scan…I couldn’t believe they were back already! She said the echo looked great…my ticker is in perfect health! The PET scan looked really good as well, just two very small spots. The PET scan works by “sticking” to any quickly dividing cells and can identify cancer spots as small as 4 cm in size. The two spots they saw were both 1 cm each, so they can’t say whether or not they are true “cancer” cells, or just some rowdy cells having a dance party or something! She said they were not going to change my stage status (typically if your cancer has metastasized, or moved to an area of your body other than the originating source, you will be considered a stage 4) so that is good news! The two areas they found were, one, in the lymph nodes of my chest wall and two, in my right hip. They did an x-ray of my hip just to see if they could find anything in the bone, but other than that, she said they were just going to keep an eye on them both.  If they do end up being cancer cells, the chemo will kill them both!

Speaking of chemo…for those of you who haven’t heard, I am starting my chemo on Monday instead of Tuesday. Dr. Burt said there is no reason to wait another day, and she wants to get this thing started. I go in at 8:45 in the morning and will be there for about 6 hours. She met with the tumor board and they did decide to go ahead and do the expedited treatments. My first round of chemo will still be 4 treatments; however they will be every 14 days instead of every 21. I will go in every other Monday for the chemo and then I’ll go back the next day to get an injection in my stomach that will help build up my bone marrow and my white blood cells. I know I will also have to have my blood drawn every week to check on my white blood count, but I’m not sure yet what day that will be on.

That’s about it for my news for now, but I do want to take a quick minute and say a huge THANK YOU to all my friends and family! You guys have been so wonderful through all of this, and I couldn’t do it without you! A lot of people have asked what they can do to help, and it’s really hard for me to answer because I feel like there are so many people in the world who need more help than me! What I’m going through is really small in comparison to what a lot of families are dealing with and I just feel blessed that I have so many people that love and care about me! However, my mom has set up a “care calendar” that has places where you can sign up to do stuff and my friends James and Heather have set up a Facebook page that has events and fundraisers posted. Prayers are definitely the number one thing that I need, but if you feel like you want to do more, then those two places would be a good place to start. The info for the care calendar is http://www.CareCalendar.org/logon/50618 (Calendar ID: 50618, Security Code: 8893) and my mom can answer any questions you may have about it. Her email address is nschifferdecker@gmail.com and yes, she should win an award for the longest email address EVER! The FB page is just called “Tasha” and you can find it on my profile under my “likes”. If you want to have something added to it, just leave a post and either James or Heather will get back to you.