Birthday and Pacing Myself

Lovely yoga time with my friend.
Special entrance to the fitness club.

Well. Already wrote this post and everything was lost... rewriting is a little brief.
Days have flown by.

Birthday treat.

I'm alive.
I'm swallowing food, mostly, mornings are hard but by dinner I'm doing better. Couldn't swallow my supplements this morning.
Today was a little challenging.
My body reminded me to stop. right. now. today when I went to a conference.
I enjoyed a morning workshop, presented about creating a reading classroom community and booktalked 70+ books in 55 minutes, and then I enjoyed watching wonderful authors receive book awards and share wonderful thoughts... After an hour, sitting in a chair was not agreeing with me. Very frustrating. I got up while the keynote speaker shared. No resolving pain or exhaustion. Went and found a couch on the other side of the building. Laid down. Took about an hour to feel ok. A catering staff person brought me water. Another person asked if they could call anyone. Then they gave me lunch early... I ate a little bit and felt a tiny bit better.

Special birthday flowers from a friend.

Special birthday flowers from family.

Went and said hi to a few beloved authors and quickly got in my car and drove home. Felt strong enough and wasn't in as much pain/exhaustion by that time. Rested pretty much the rest of the day.
Got thru the past 9 days ok. On Monday I saw a genetic counselor (mostly a waste of my time, useful for my family hopefully) and also my naturopathic dr. He didn't have much to suggest for me with the swallowing and such, just wants me to get to another oncologist to get a second opinion, that's happening in a few weeks.
Enjoyed work even with training interruptions. Appreciating not just being a cancer patient there. I'm a valued staff member. Most of my coworkers know how I am with the medical situation but they don't dig too much, just a good caring group. Love that kids are smiling when I come in the room now to teach... Also appreciated a birthday serenade from a class of first graders- good friend made sure people knew it was by birthday... I shared it with anyone I was walking around with, never been one to be quiet about celebrating my birthday.

Birthday dinner time with my love.

Enjoyed family dinner time. Went to Pastini's and actually ate everything on my plate. Including tiramisu cake...
The next week is full of medical stuff.
I'm seeing a radiation specialist on Tuesday and Thursday I see a gastro-enterologist and oncologist. Then Friday I get Avastin again.
Still learning how to read my body and be patient with myself... since my body seems to be changing, I feel a bit unpredictable.

Love my present from a former student who runs Cranes of Hope.
Lovely blessing for my car.

Thanks for journeying with me as always...

Gettin' along

Buzzy smiling bees this time!

Well.
Been a over a week.
Doing better now.
Harsh lesson.
Don't be stubborn.
Don't be stoic.
If you are nauseaus and feeling shaky/weak for many days, something is wrong. Waiting just one more day to see if it goes away isn't wise at all.
I went after 8 days feeling terrible to the doctor.
She lectured me about simply calling and getting advice at least.
She told me that I needed to even email if I need help.
Sigh.
I know this.
I'm capable of asking for help.
Do I do so? Sometimes? NO. I'm darn stubborn.

So, anti-nausea medicine is a godsend when needed. As is cough medicine when needed.

I'm actually sleeping ok and stomach isn't terrible- it doesn't love anti-nausea meds but that's life.
Pain is actually ok overall. Sort of like arthritis pain in my chest and back. I can deal with it and if I'm hurting? Tylenol has simply been enough in the past days.

My dr. thinks I might have heartburn so we're trying a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar at night to see if that will help me.

Also drinking warm happy lemon water with honey thru the day to help my throat out.

Chemo/Avastin went ok. Bruise from the needle looks hideous. Thank goodness it is long sleeve weather. Shall bring up what happened next time. Harumph. Haven't had a bruise like this in a long time and I honestly know exactly what went wrong.

My sweet snuggler

My dog is doing ok. She's gettin' along and snuggling with us like the beautiful soul she is.
My kiddo is settling into school ok overall. Grateful.
My husband is dealing with many job interviews. We have hope.
Birthdays are upon us. Husband's is first, which he really doesn't want to celebrate much.
Then mine next Friday. I'm all about saying HELL YEAH I'M STILL HERE AND LOVING LIFE!!! Here's to turning 42 without chemo or a hysterectomy on my birthday. Seriously. I'll take a peaceful, happy birthday. Enough already with the drama.

Feeling stronger on my end. I wrote my 1000th blog post on my Styling Librarian site. Feeling accomplished. Happy with what I do there.
Tired and know I am grateful for where I'm at...
Found a new massage therapist who specializes in cancer patients- pre/post/fighting, etc. She's lovely and likes essential oils, hooray.

New massage place

Appreciate the naturopathic dr. I found and the 20 mg. of Melatonin he prescribed me. Sleeping so much better than the past few years.
Enjoyed a new qi gong instructor and look forward to another class with her.

Grateful for my mom's support at chemo.
First time she could come with me.

My acupunturist said tonight, you're really getting your healthy ducks sorted out!
I also met with a Breast Friends support group. Lovely women. Good talk. Appreciated them telling me about the Dougie Center. http://www.dougy.org/  Not that we're dealing with death but they also deal with children who are affected by severe illnesses. Nice to know a resource, not that we find a need at the moment, but good to know it is there.

Still waiting on Foundation 1 testing on my tumor sample. I waited 3 weeks and then emailed since I was frustrated... they said they'd send when they knew anything.

Can't believe we've been home over 11 weeks and I'm not on anything I was hoping to be on. I'm happy I'm doing Mannatech and I have faith that it is helping heal my immune system, but man I'm annoyed with delays here in the US.

Hope everyone is gettin' along and finds those moments of joy all over their days!
Thanks for journeying with me...

Favorite book arrived from Hong Kong