It has been fun to receive messages and phone calls in response to Sunday's article. It looks like the paper is running new stories each day about different breast cancer patients, so I don't think I'll get any more coverage. I could ask Ashley, though. I like Susan's idea of having "breast buddies." Up until now, I haven't even attended a support group, though I have been to see the counselor at the clinic. Now that I have a new oncologist, I'll have to find out more of the programs they have in Salt Lake.
Basically, up until now, I was too busy living my life and working and juggling my family responsibilities and telling myself that I could do everything if I just tried hard enough. The time has come, because of the dangerous liver tumors and because of the severity of the chemo drugs, that I need to let others take care of the business around me. I need to concentrate on myself and on making it through each day.
Today, my sister in law, Jennie, came to help. She drove me to the lab for a blood test. I wanted to find out if I need a blood transfusion, as I've been feeling short of breath. She also took me to the store, where I rode the cart around and got some groceries. When we got home, I got a call from Dr. Shehadeh. I like the fact that he calls me himself, instead of having his staff do it every time. He said that I don't need a transfusion at this time. He said he wants me to have one more 3 week cycle of the Ixempra/Xeloda before I get a scan to see the results. He asked about my pain level and I told him it has been getting better, then he told me "Happy Halloween!" He must be pretty Americanized by now to be getting in the spirit of this American holiday.
Tomorrow is my last day of taking Xeloda. I am glad to be feeling better and to be up and around more. Sometimes, little things don't get done unless I am there to mind them. For example, in my pile of clean laundry were two badly stained white shirts of Nathan's. They had gone through the washer and the dryer and the stains were pretty set. When I asked David about it, he said he didn't have any bleach. Well, I walked out in the garage and came back with a gallon of it in my hand. "Oh," was his reaction. I guess it is mostly moms who worry about these things, like having their child wear a clean-looking shirt to school. (My kids wear uniforms to their charter school, so Nathan can only wear a navy or white shirt each day.)
I feel grateful for even more offers of help with the children, a friend to visit with, a flight for a caregiver, and more support because of the publicity of the news article. Every one of those helpers is a hero in my eyes, because they are literally coming to my rescue when I cannot do everything myself. Thank you today to all you heroes out there!
Emilee
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2 comments:
Hello Emilee,
This is Roger and Terrie Hovey. Elaine told us of your recent struggles and mentioned how your article would be in the newspaper. What a super write-up. Your courage is amazing! We didn't know all of the recent big hurdles you have been facing until a couple weeks ago when your Uncle David mentioned it to us. We need to stay in better contact even though we are in Nebraska. We will be down for Thanksgiving with Terrie's family and we told Elaine that we would drop by to see her and Len on the Friday after. Our prayers are with you continually. Hang in there and we hope that better days are on horizon for you.
-With love from the Hoveys
Hi Emilee, we are back home after a frustrating week in Weston. We dealt with the hospital visits and also my daughter Anne-Marie's physiotherapy and doctor appointment as well as discovering that she needed 4 new tyres on her car. So the week was mostly spent in her car, our car, at the hospital, doctor and the tyre depot twice and making sure she had food supplies in stock as she can't drive and her husband was away on a business trip. During this time the weather was wonderfully warm and sunny. On the one day we were in and out of our car taking people various places it poured with rain!! I had a catastrophic perm before we went away. I phoned people we were due to see in advance to warn them to expect a cross between a poodle and a dandelion gone to seed. Today I saw my regular hairdresser who giggled as I opened her salon door and said "Help!" Not a lot she could do but she did apologise for using products on my hair designed for those with frizzy hair. Serves me right for being too proud to wait for my hairdresser and I to return from holiday and going to a different salon. It has taken me some time to catch up on your blog entries and also read the newspaper article. The letter you wrote was fantastic; I doubt I would have had the courage to write as you did and hope that women who read it will sit up and take notice of their bodies. I was blessed with the gift of enough money to buy a new computer; sadly my old monitor's cables were incompatible to the new computer so we had to buy another monitor. I needed ink for my all in one printer/copier/scanner and was shocked that because of the printer's age the ink was now extremely expensive. In fact only £17 less than a new printer/copier/scanner. So we came home with a new one of those as well. At least the ink will be cheaper!!! It has taken a bit of getting used to this new machinery as I am a techno phobe but hopefully this will reach you. You have a real uplifting look on life which encourages others to see that they may be a little selfish and so make changes in themselves. Thank you for that. Take care. Love Ruth
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