ONE DAY TO GO!!

Yep, that's right, only one more day of treatment & I'm done. The biggest side effect I've noticed is I'm tired. But recently, my sick girl has been swollen & sore, I'm back to icing her down, hour on, hour off. I really can't be snivelly about it, I only have to do this for 5 days versus 30. My doctor is still awesome, the nurses are always cheerful, nice & usually have a great sense of humor, there's only one fly in the ointment, a physicist who takes himself way too seriously. But I'll figure a way to get him to lighten up tomorrow.

Any other boobie songs out there? Tomorrow at 3:45 is the beginning of my last treatment, so get your 2 cents in now. I'll check for comments tomorrow before 2 pm to get your suggestions.

Hello everyone!! It's me, I'm back from surgery & have had GREAT news. My 2 little sentinel lymph nodes were clear & the MammoSite is set very well so I started radiation treatment today. This morning I went in & got my first "seed". See what they do is check the balloon part of the Mammosite to make sure it's inflated, take a Geiger counter to make sure I'm not leaking or any residual radiation is in the room, then they shut me up in it all by myself. Now the weird stuff starts, they feed the seed into the MammoSite, it feels like a little bug walking/crawling back & forth under my skin, there's a little pressure & it heats up, then I'm done. It takes longer to prep me, check the site than the actual treatment. For your information the seed is a piece of radioactive material that sits in there for a prescribed amount of time based on location, stage, size and strength of the radioactive material. The older the seed the longer the exposure time...kind of like everything else.

Now I only have 4 more days to go with a week end in between, which is great, Mike & Mary are taking me & mom up to their cabin by Blue Mesa. Mom & Mary get to change my dressing & Mary will get a peek at my hardware (as Stefanie calls it), it's not hardware, it's a tube with a cap on it sticking out of chest. Mom grimaced when she saw it, Stefanie's not going to change my dressing or go in when they do it again but I've had to check it out a couple times. It's rather interesting to see what they did & why but I don't think I'll be showing these battle scars often.

While I'm in the room they have me on camera & miked up so I can talk to them or let them know if I feel anything strange or uncomfortable. So I think I'll sing them a little song on my last treatment...

Do your boobies hang low?
Can you swing to and fro?
Can you tie em in a knot?
Can you tie em in a bow?
Can you through them over your shoulder
Like a continentinel soldier
Do your boobies hang low??

If anyone else has a boob song, send it my way. I'll try to serenade them a couple times. I think the people who work in this area need some humor, so help me out.

Quincy came through her surgery very well and as far as we know at this time the lymph nodes are clear. The final report will be here Wednesday when we go to see the surgeon. Not many people can say that their right "girl" can make a Geiger counter go off because she is "hot" (Q's words, not mine--I'm not that clever).

We feel very blessed to have had such a good Christian surgeon perform these procedures and we give God all the praise and glory for a good outcome.

Quincy is in quite a bit of pain but up and about some and has good drugs so will be mouthing off again real soon.

Thanks to all for your prayers, please keep them coming for a few more days until we get the final report.

Tomorrow is the big day. My mom, Janet Fox, will have my cell phone & will update this blog to let y'all know how things turned out. I plan on being very, very high therefore unable to communicate with anything other than my dog.

This will be the start of my 8 second ride with the Lord serving as my rope as I ride this bad ass bull!! Stomp down my hat and yell OUTSIDE!! YEE Haw!

What Cancer Cannot Do

~~~~~~~~~~

Cancer is so limited...

It cannot cripple love

It cannot shatter love

It cannot corrode faith

It cannot eat away peace

It cannot destroy confidence
It cannot kill friendship

It cannot shut out memories

It cannot silence courage

It cannot reduce eternal life

It cannot quench the Spirit

~~~~~~~~~~

This was given to me from a friend, Lynn Metz, who had the same cancer I have now. For everyone sending their prayers, love, emails, cards and encouragement, thank you!

Some people have made comments about my positive outlook on this whole experience. Well it’s not attitude, it’s faith!

You hear the “C” word & you do get a bit of a jolt but truthfully, I’m not fearful. I attribute the lack of fear to my faith. I can’t imagine how I would deal with this situation without my Lord & Savior. I am so very blessed to have my family, so many wonderful friends & complete strangers praying for me. I feel His love & their prayers all around me like a big, soft quilt, cushioning me, protecting me.

The eternal God is your refuge,
and his everlasting arms are under you.
Deuteronomy 33:27

The cancer was caught early and with all the advances made in this area, I’m very comfortable with my prognosis. Also, I have confidence in my doctors, I haven’t met my oncologist yet but I’m please with the my treatment to date, consultations and planned treatment. Another reason I’m so sold on my surgeon is she’s a Christian, too.

Science is nice but the Lord does so much more!

I truly feel so very sorry for anyone who has to contend with this kind of situation without a solid foundation in Christ, a house filled with family and landscaped with friends...

Quincy's Journey

As you know me and the girls are going on an adventure, one not planned but there you go. To avoid answering the same questions, I've created this blog. I will try to update as much as possible.

For more detailed information on some of the procedures &/or treatment options go to www.breastcancer.org, a great website.

I had a lumpectomy on May 15 & was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma in my right girl. They removed the cells with good margins, I am stage 1 & prognosis is excellent but we have some things to do.

Schedule of events:

June 19 ~ Stefanie, Kyle, Destrie & I will be participating in the Survivor Lap at the Grand Junction Relay for Life. This isn’t my idea but I’m going, I’ve been told by a gal at work, who had the same kind of cancer I have, I have to go. She said it would be good for me but I can’t bring Gracie.

June 22 ~ Surgery to remove some lymph nodes to check for additional cancer & HOPEFULLY get the MammoSite system "fake" implant (the rest of the schedule is base on this radiation treatment option). A quick explanation of what the MammoSite system is, it’s a balloon implanted near the site of the cancer with a catheter tube which delivers the radiation treatments. It reduces the radiation treatment for 6 weeks to 1 week.

June 23 ~ Dressing change

June 24 ~ Meet with my radiologist, Dr. Miller, who reminds me of my Aunt Berta (Aunt Berta is responsible for my moniker!). Not only does she remind me of Aunt Berta, she’s the only doctor approved to perform MammoSite radiation treatment in the Grand Valley. Then if everything looks good I’ll go to my surgeon’s office to have the implant swapped out with the actual MammoSite devise.

June 25 ~ Dressing change, check MammoSite placement & healing
June 26

June 29 ~ Radiation treatment 2 times a day for 5 days
July 3

July 4th
My Independence Day!!