January 13, 2016

Since this will be my first post, I want to start out with a prayer. I think that it is am important to do when you are starting something new.

My Heavenly Father,  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reach out to others. I want this blog to touch the hearts of those who do not know you at all, or to those who are struggling with their relationship with you. God, I am a vessel and I ask that you will use me to show others of your unfailing love and never ending hope, and that you freely give it. God, I ask that this will help others who are just getting a devastating diagnosis, or is going through the treatments. May they feel Your overwhelming peace like I have, and that it will bring them comfort.        In Jesus’ name, Amen

It’s the first day of chemotherapy and I am not nervous! How is that? Well, the peace of God has been never ceasing throughout this. Me and Jonathan have been in awe of it all. You always think that when you hear the big “C” word, that your world just falls apart. Now let me tell you, it has been really rough at times, and I’m sure there will still be days like that, but we have been able to continue living our lives. I promise I will go back and tell you my entire journey, but I wanted to give you the latest update.

I had to meet with my  oncologist before starting chemo that day, so we could discuss my complete treatment plan. Last time we talked, I was told I had Triple Negative Breast Cancer and we were waiting on the MRI results to see if it was in my lymph nodes. Depending on those results, we may need to have surgery first. Thank you God, it is not in my lymph nodes! So chemotherapy first. I will have 16 doses of chemo over the course of 20 weeks. There will be 8 cycles. This first 4 will consist of 2 chemo drugs on week one, followed by 1 chemo drug the next 2 weeks. This will repeat 4 times. The last 4 will be 2 chemo drugs every 2 weeks, a total of 4 doses. Hope that makes sense. I will then have a double mastectomy, followed by possible radiation (the cancer is deeper then they expected), then reconstruction.

I had to have blood drawn from my port and that wasn’t too bad. It was way better than getting stuck in my reluctant veins. My arms are bruised from all the previous blood drawings. I was then given all my pre-medications and a bag of fluid. That took about 1 1/2 hours and then it was time to give me the Benadryl. I started feeling the effects as she was still giving me the stuff. That Benadryl high is no joke! It was then time to give me my first chemo drug, which was Taxol and would take about 1 1/2 hours to give me. It was a little weird to have the nurse actually stare at me for the first 5 minutes. No really, she never took her eyes off of me. I finally fell asleep and didn’t wake up when she changed me over to the second chemo drug, Carboplatin. I remember waking up to see my favorite guy right beside me. (On a side note, you will probably get tired of hearing how much I love him and what he means to me.) After I finished getting my poison, as I like to call it, we went home and we had our friends come over and bring us dinner.

All in all, the day went really well, considering what was taking place. Again, I can confidently say, we felt God’s presence with us all day. I can’t wait to share with you how I can look back and see how He was preparing me for this journey.