My Mom's Final Surgery is Scheduled / More Updates

It has been over a month since my last post.  I have been extremely busy and haven't found time to write.  My mom's final surgery is scheduled for January 30th.  She will have the expanders taken out and the implants will go in their place.  The first set of twins will be here before the end of the month! =) 

I have been celebrating since my final treatment.  Steve, Olivia and I celebrated on the 19th of December (my final treatment day) with my parents and our good friends, Travis, Michelle and their son Paxton.  I had so much adrenaline because I was so excited to be done.  We went to dinner at Mi Mi's Cafe and I had my first glass of wine since March.  I only had a few sips as it didn't taste that good to me but I still got to do a toast to ending my cancer treatment journey.

Back: Travis holding Paxton, Michelle, Me, Steve
Front: Olivia, My dad and mom

I spent some time with friends,

My friend Megan with Olivia
We try to go to lunch every other week.

Our friends, Jerid, Lyndsey, Haili and Lexi came over 2 days before Christmas.
We played ate dinner and played games all night...Wii Bowling was a hit!
Here is a picture of Olivia and Haili.


Getting Ready to celebrate Christmas at Papa's shed

My cousin Leah with her Grandma Laura and her daughter Leona.

Aunt Linde with baby Leona 

Surprise!  Mr. and Mrs. Claus paid us a visit!

Reading Christmas Stories

 Chad getting it all on video!

                                                                          Uncle Terry

                                                                Papa with Santa

                                                             Charlie with Santa

                                                All the kids with Mr and Mrs Claus

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents:

                                            Olivia opening a present from Nana and Papa

Papa just finished reading T'was the Night Before Christmas

                                                         Nana and Olivia

Christmas Morning we opened presents from Santa and headed to Remsen to spend Christmas with the Pottebaums!

I had quite a few more photos to post but my computer is so slow it would take me all day to upload.  =)

Steve and I spent New Year's Eve celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary with very good friends.

I had my first event for the charity I started Auntie Em's Angels.  (http://www.auntieemsangels.com/) We raised over $6,000 from our first event and helped Brea Nelson and her family to help pay her medical bills.  Thank you to Brea who had a hand in catching my cancer before it reached stage 4 and which helped catch my mother's cancer before it spread to her lymph nodes.

I find out in March when I have my final surgery and will have body scans in February to keep a close watch to see if the chemo and radiation helped in fighting my cancer.

I can't thank you all for all your love and support...it has helped me continue to be strong, positive and to pay it forward to help other cancer patients in need. 

Chemo #6 / Update on my Mom

Thursday, August 4, 2011

I woke up this morning and had to paint my eyebrows on with Anastasia's eye brow kit.  I don't know why I got so upset but I started to cry.  Then when I wiped away my tears along came most of my eye lashes.  Ugh!  I was just starting to get use to my bald head now I have to get use to my new face.  I would put on fake lashes but when you undergo chemotherapy your skin does not renew itself and is ultra sensitive.  If I did put on the lashes I would be afraid it might take my skin with it.  So I am experimenting with make up to try and make myself feel and look "normal".  I got it totally wrong today when I tried the darker color for my eyebrows.  I looked like a clown and my mom agreed with me.  Slowly I am learning how to apply my new brows and liner.

I had chemo round 6 today.  My friend Ruth Schneider was so kind to drop me off and my friend Lyndsey stopped by when she was out and about and brought me back home.  My oncologist cut my Benedryl dose in half this time so I wasn't as nauseous as I was last week.  When I got home I was sawing logs until around 9 p.m. This made me stay up all night watching TV because couldn't fall back asleep until 4 a.m.  This made it extremely hard for me to get up at 6 a.m. to watch my sister's kids.

Friday, August 5, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend EMILY GARDELS!

Today was my last day watching the kids.  I decided it was time for me to focus on my health and getting better.  I am not the same energetic person I use to be before chemotherapy.  I require more sleep and small tasks like getting meals ready, doing laundry and making beds makes me exhausted, throw in five kids for 10 hours a day and I am beat.  I will go back in January or February when my chemo, radiation and final surgery are complete.  I have to wait an entire month after radiation to have my final surgery to remove the expanders and put in implants.  So we were thinking after the New Year I will have my new Ta Ta's.  It will be a 3-4 week recovery as well.

My mom made her final decision today.  Her team of doctors are:

Dr. James Reilly
Methodist
General Surgeon

Dr. Marie Montag
Cosmetic Surgeon
Aesthetic Surgical Images

Click here to learn more about my mom's procedure.  We won't know if she will need chemotherapy or radiation until after they operate.  We are still waiting on the pathology reports to get a stage of cancer and her surgery will be scheduled 2-3 weeks from Friday.  I will post as soon as I know.  Please keep my mom in your prayers to give her the much needed strength to get through the double mastectomy and pray she will not need chemotherapy or radiation.

My mom is hanging in there and has a sense of humor about this whole situation.  You almost need to have a sense of humor to get through times like these.

Thank you to:
Emmy and Nolan Reilly for the hand bag and Christmas ornament!

Jim and Mary Czyz for the delicious Red Velvet Cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes

Marilyn Johnson and Mel for the gift card to Up Stream.  It is one of our favorite restaurants!

My cousin Leah and Aunt Linde for the cleaning lady.  It is so nice to come home to a clean house and I didn't have to do any of the cleaning!  =)

Thank you to all our family and friends who have been there for us.  We are looking forward to PARTY for POTTEBAUM on Saturday, August 13th.  I will have a sneak peek for you on Tuesday at some of the raffle items.

Surgery #4 / 4th of July Weekend

I strategically planned my surgery for this Friday and two weeks of recovery so I can make the bike ride next week in Remsen and enjoy the 4th of July weekend.

My friend Emily Gardels was so kind to fly in from Chicago to be with me for my last "bad chemo" but since I needed surgery we can enjoy the weekend a little.  No chemo side effects. This week was for surgery #4 to repair my hand. Walking into Midwest Surgical the woman who brought me back to get prepped for surgery showed me her tatoo. It was a symbol for breast cancer and said that she has been a survivor for five years. She broke in to tears and wished me luck on my journey.

After my gown was on the nurses had to put in my IV. This is a lot harder then you think. They can't put the IV in my left hand because my lymph nodes have been removed. They couldn't stick me in my right hand because that was the hand they needed to operate on. So they went for the foot. I had a past experience with a foot IV and it did not go well. This time was not any better as they had to stick me four or five different times because they couldn't find a vein. OUCH!!!!! It freakin' hurts. When it was all said and done they didn't even use the foot they decided to use the port I use for chemo.

I also learned one of my nurses grew up in Remsen and the other nurse grew up close to Remsen. Small World!

Dr. Tiedemann came in and said he was going to look at the nerve to see if it was cut or bruised. If it was cut he was going to try and repair it and if it was bruised then he would remove the scar tissue to help speed up my recovery time. If the nerve is cut I might not get my hand back.

I said my good byes to my friend Emily and husband Steve and drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up I was extremely nauseous and had two or three nurses asking if I wanted more nausea medicine. I kept saying “NO MORE DRUGS!”

Thank God the nurse gave me a puke bag because as soon as I got in to Emily’s car I got sick. I just felt awful. When I got home Chris and Heather McQuillan stopped by to drop off a meal and catch up.  I couldn't even hold a conversation because I got sick two more times while they were there. Needless to say I didn’t get to eat the Runza casserole Heather prepared. Steve ate it and said it was delicious!

We got to celebrate the 4th of July weekend at my parent’s lake and my aunt and uncle’s lake. It was nice to take a break from chemo and get to spend time with family and friends.

We FINALLY got some good news!  The median nerve was not cut so my hand will heal on its own.  It could take a year but it will heal! =)

Thank you to:

Stacy Nelson for the gift card to the Gap!
Kiana Baker for bringing us dinner - I think it has been 15 years since I have seen Kiana.  She was so kind to bring us dinner.  We did a little catching up...hopefully when this is all said and done we can go out for drinks and catch up more!  =) 
Heather and Chris McQuillan for bringing us dinner - sorry I couldn't hang out longer. =(
Emily Gardels for coming in to town to take care of me....=)  Love you!!!!
Thank you to my parents, aunt Linde and uncle Terry for the fun parties.  It was good to get out of the house without having to worry about getting sick! =)

Emily and I at Ginger Cove 3rd of July Party!!!
I had a LOT of gauze from sugery wrapped around my
 right arm so I tried to cover it with my sweat shirt.

Chad and Charlie

Steve and Olivia

Baby Paxton!

THANK YOU to all our friends and family for all your love and support!
 
XOXO

AHHHH! I AM COMPLETELY BALD....

BUT my boobs are bigger then they have ever been!  I go and get my weekly "fill" each Friday.  It's like going to the spa to me.  Instead of a facial I get a big needle with saline solution to blow up my ta ta's.  I have FINALLY hit puberty.  After 33 years it is about time!  This week instead of filling them 25 cc's like they have done since my surgery, I told them to double it and fill them 50 cc's each time.  My ta ta's are now at 175 cc's a piece so this will add to my weight gain and chest size.  150 cc's to go!  Holy cow is Steve excited...I kind of am too!  I have never had boobs before!

Now on to the hair thing...again!  My hair started falling out more about four days after my first big hair cut.  I would take a shower and get so freaked out to wash my hair because it would just rub off.  YUCK!  On top of that it was making a mess!  I am a clean freak and hair every where was driving me bonkers.  Once again I had it shaved down to a buzz cut.  Steve was so brave to shave it this time.  That lasted a whole 48 hours until I had to use my own razor and spend an hour in the shower shaving the rest of it off.  I am now completely bald!  Don't you dare tell me I look good bald!  My head is in desperate need of a tan to even itself out with my face shade.  I am revealing my beautiful, untanned head, with NO make up on....at the end of this blog.  So make fun of me all you want...but I am pulling the cancer card on you for this one...you will feel guilty afterwards!

After I shaved my head I put on some make up with the Jessica Simpson wig I received from my friend Angie.  I LOVE it only because it is a new look.  I already fooled a long time friend of mine, Mike Holm and his wife Emily.  I was at HyVee on Saturday and they walked right past me and did not recognize me.  I laughed the whole way home.  I can get use to this! =)

My Jessica Simpson Wig with my new hat!
Thanks Angie for the wig, Emily and Nicki for the hat!

Olivia just got home from fishing with her dad!

I go in on Thursday to meet with a neurologist for my right hand.  My index and middle finger have been numb since my surgery in April so we are going to get to the root of the problem.  Please pray it is only a temporary injury and my nerves will come back sooner the later.  I WANT my right hand back!

I also start round 3 of chemo on Thursday.  Hopefully I will only have 13 more rounds to go as I will find out if I have the HER2 receptor which will require more chemotherapy.  Please pray I do NOT have the HER2 receptor.

Thank you to:

Bob and Sue Peterson for the Olive Garden gift card
Heather McQuillan, Heather Terry, Elizabeth Norris and Sara Recker for the Victoria's Secret Gift card
and Pete and Kaye Bataillon for the Papa Murphy's gift card!

Thank you to my cousin Leah, her husband chad, my aunt Linde and uncle Terry for setting up the cleaning crew.  It is so nice to have one more thing off my plate.

Thank you to all our family and friends for your continued support, love and prayers.  You make us stronger everyday.

YIKES!  I need to tan my head!

xoxo

Thank You

I can't get over how generous you all have been!  Thank you to:

Brian and Emily Penke
for their generous cash
donation!  Brian and I go
way back!  Our parents went
to high school together and
many moons later Brian
and I went to high school together!

Lyndsey, Jerid, Haili and Alexa Foster
For dinner, the cookbook and company.
Thanks for checking in to see how I am
feeling and coming to my 2nd chemo
treatment.  I have written more on
Lyndsey and I growing up....coming soon!





Thank you to Betty and Bruce Bode.  We loved the chicken and rice dish and will enjoy all the soup you made for many weeks to come!  Betty you always think of everything!  Thank you for taking the time to make all the food.  Thanks for bringing it over Bruce!

Thank you Deb Bothof!  Deb brought us meat to last the entire memorial weekend.  We LOVED it!  I ate almost all the rice krispy treats which was probably a good thing...I need to gain some weight.  I love the journal you gave me...it is amazing how it relates to my own life.  Thank you!!!

Thank you to Emily Klaur and Nicki McMahon for the comfy clothes and adorable hat!  I hope we can have a play date soon!  =)

Thank you to my Aunt Linde and Uncle Terry who dropped off the best bacon!  OMG!  I LOVE it!

Ruth your enchiladas were a hit!  Steve and Olivia loved them.  I can't wait to try them later on in the week.  We have not dug in to the brownies yet, but I plan to bring them to my sister's to share with the kids. 

Thank you to Gretchen and her mom Nancy who dropped off a fruit platter, lasagna and dessert.  Gretchen just found out she is having a BOY!  James will make a wonderful big brother..he is adorable! 

Thank you to Sasha who gave me the Sex and the City movie...we need to make a date night to watch it Sushi!  =)

Thank you will never be enough and I want you to know that your kindness is helping me and my family get through this "cancer" thing so much easier. 

XOXO

My 21st Birthday was much worse...Chemotherapy will be a breeze!

Sunday May 15, 2011

Our good friends Michelle and Travis baptized their son Paxton!
Olivia had to get in the photo...she thinks Travis is her boyfriend.

The week before my first chemotherapy session I wanted life to be back to normal as possible.  Avery and Addison have their dance recital on June 4th but had rehearsals this week.  Don't they look so cute?

Addison and Avery with the Auntie Em special
HAIR and MAKE UP!

Olivia wore her Dora ballerina outfit..she thinks she is going
to be in the dance recital ....to bad she will have to wait 2 more years. :)



Here are all the little munchkins!

Thursday May 19, 2011
1:45 p.m.
Midwest Cancer Center

Me and Steve

Steve took me to my first chemo treatment.  We met with my nurse navigator Nicole and Dr. Thome.  Then I was introduced to my nurses Ethel and Darcy.  Loved Them! They explained everything that was going in to my body and what effects it will have on me.

I watched Oprah and ironically it was about a mother who passed away from breast cancer.  She made hundreds of video tapes for her daughter to watch over the course of her life.  Ethel started tearing up and said "This will not be you!"  Duh!  I know that!  =)  Ethel is such a sweetheart.

After my first treatment I stopped off on Lillian street to say hello to some friends.

Nicki and Brea!

Brea - Thank you for my new plant!  It is out on my deck blooming beautifully! =)

I was expecting to relive the day after my 21st birthday after my first chemo treatment.  If you were with me that night I had a fantastic time but when midnight hit, so did my head...directly on to the table.  My friends hauled me off to go back home to recover.  Let's just say the next four days after my 21st birthday SUCKED.  I was hugging the porcelain God (aka toilet)  and could barely lift my head.

I did not experience anything close to my 21st birthday after my first chemotherapy treatment.  A little nausea and fatigue.  I have definitely felt worse....so I will get through my chemo treatments.  Ironically, today is my Birthday and I feel much better then I did on my 21st birthday. The only things that are sitting well with me are yogurt, cottage cheese, eggs, Chocolate Ensure, BLT's, frozen fruit sticks and apple juice.

Thank you to:

my husband Steve who took care of me and Olivia all weekend.  Steve has been there with me since the beginning and reminds me daily he will be there with me to the end.  Steve has been doing both our jobs and I have never once heard him complain.  It is extremely hard, but I try to model myself after Steve on a daily basis..he makes me want to be a better person.  I LOVE YOU MORE THEN WORDS CAN SAY! =)

my mother and father for helping out with the kids and my birthday present.  Mom, Thank you will never be enough for all the time you have generously donated to taking care of the kids.  Dad, Thank you for being the designated driver to and from events.  I LOVE YOU!!!

my aunt Patty for another generous cash donation...THANK YOU!

my mother and father-in-law for my birthday gift.

My God mother Linda and her husband Wendell Quist for the Carrabba's gift card.

Bruce and Betty Bode for the fabulous meals!  We all LOVED your spaghetti with meatballs.  It was so good our friend Travis joined us for dinner.

Dancing after dinner!

Kathi and Sabrina Scherzberg for the chicken casserole.  Steve loved it!  I didn't try it...only to save my stomach.  I had to stick to the Sierra Mist you brought.;)  It was nice meeting Sabrina. We need to get the girls together for a play date this summer.

Emily Gardels for the Pink Flamingo...(see below)

 

Ikaika is in Hawaii right now with Emily (Gardels) and her boyfriend Nick.

This is Ikaika the breast cancer flamingo. I found her in the dollar section at Target:) and thought it would be fun to send her around the country to different friends. I thought it would be something fun to do while Emily is going through treatment, so she knows we are all thinking about her! So, if Ikaika comes to you please take her out and do something fun with her. Take pictures, send them to Em or post them and then send Ikaika along to Emily's other friends and family. I chose the name Ikaika because it means Strength in Hawaiian. Love you EM!!!

How Fun!  Thanks Emily!  I can't wait to take Ikaika on a trip with me once I am done with my treatments.

Crystal - for bringing over chemo friendly food.  Love the rice with chicken broth. 

My aunt Patty and aunt Vicky for the lovely flowers

Ruth for the beautiful flowers for my birthday and my favorite cookies!

My aunt Linde and uncle Terry for the Barnes and Noble gift card and the chicken noodle soup. It is in the freezer ready for chemo #2.

Sasha for the adorable picture of me and my God daughter.

My cousin Leah, Chad and Charlie for the beautiful bracelet from the Chocolate Peacock.

Leah and I have celebrated our birthdays together since I was three years old.  Leah's birthday is May 22nd and mine is the 23rd.  Leah had a birthday party this weekend I had to miss.  Next year we will celebrate all night!  I would also like to congratulate Leah, Chad and Charlie as they will be adding to their family in November.  Yay!  Something else for me to look forward to!

LOVE YOU!