Ring My Be-e-ell, Ring My Bell (Now everyone can have that song in their head)

Whoohooo! What a fabulous day!! My last chemo treatment! The end of Phase I is complete! It was an unbelievable experience. I knew of course, Kevin and my sister were going to be there to share in this great milestone, but as I awoke from a Benadryl stupor I saw a cowboy hat out of the corner of my eye. Dad? Is that my Dad? Holy crap, it is! And that cute little woman? My mom! And that giant purse? That’s Martha’s giant purse! My aunt Martha! (HaHa, sorry Martha, couldn’t resist, I wanted in on the teasing.) I can’t even explain the shock and complete happiness I felt when I saw them! (And the shock when I learned my sister had known for over a week and hadn’t told me.) That just made this day so much better! Watching the drip of my final Taxol was like watching a pot waiting for it to boil. D….R….I…P. Slow! We were all so anxious for it to be over and we just kept looking up at the bag of necessary evil. Finally the last drop dripped into the IV and I was done. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. So I just laughed no need in making everyone else cry which I know would have happened!!! I was unhooked, everyone grabbed a handful of confetti to throw at me and my mom was handed my diploma. (I will say, I have a Master’s Degree and this was by far harder to earn!) Confetti was thrown and the nurse said “Don’t forget to ring that bell.” Everyone laughed as if to say “Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head nursey nurse, that’s not going to happen.” We gathered up our stuff and my group of paparazzi cheerleaders followed me to the bell, cameras in hand ready to catch the moment. Kevin had the video camera and said, “go”. I reached up to ring that bell I had spoken so much about, ready to hear that well deserved ding, ding, ding and the eruption of applause in the infusion room…and guess what happened? Somehow, some way, I managed to miss the gosh darn bell. Had the ringer in hand but missed the bell. Yep. But it wouldn’t be me if that didn’t happen. I got it the second time though! And that felt great!

We took our party to the parking garage where we continued to laugh and hug and take pictures. I decided it would be a great idea to do a cartwheel! Keep in mind, I have never been able to do a cartwheel even as a kid. And, as everyone learned today, I still can’t. But it was fun anyway. After I embarrassed everyone with my failed attempt at a cartwheel, we journeyed on to lunch at one of my favorite places, Jorge’s. My bro-in-law Jim and nephew Nolan met us there. When Nolan got out of the truck he had a big smile on his face and was holding his hands behind his back. As he walked up to me, he took his hands out behind his back and handed me a dozen pink roses and said, “Happy last chemo, Aunt Turtle!” Oh, melt my heart why don’t you. How I made it through that without crying the world may never know. That owl guy can add that to his how many licks and tootsie roll pop file. We made our way inside and sat down to a great joyous lunch. Back out in the parking lot, I was also given a box of brownie bites (which I have eaten already thank you very much mean steroids) that Jim and Nolan had gotten me to go with the roses. Hugs, kisses, and “thank yous” just didn’t seem enough to tell everyone how much I appreciate all of their support today and always. But, I did do a cartwheel for them earlier. Everyone piled into their vehicles and headed home in different directions and while I was very sad to see everyone go, my heart was filled with love and joy of the knowledge that I have some incredibly loving, wonderful people in my life and because of their support and love, I will make it through this with flying colors. Add the morphine from surgery, maybe even flying colors and unicorns if I’m lucky!) I am one special gal…special in the love I am surrounded by.

 

So Phase I has ended and I am ready to move on to Phase II, The Demolition. Which by the way, I did schedule today from my infusion chair as soon as my oncologist gave me the go ahead. The surgery will me August 26 at 11am. That gives me two weeks to rest my body and prepare for the big day.
Once again I want to thank everyone for their love, support and prayers. I can’t express it enough. Love to all.
By the way, this is what is written on the plaque below the bell and on the diploma I received:

YOUR TODAYS AND TOMORROWS

For all the time that has passed since you first came to us,
For all the fears and doubts you have experience along the way,
For all the days you felt so badly and had to sacrifice things you wanted or needed to do.
Looking back and looking ahead,
TODAY is the day that you have been working toward.
From all of us to you,
May all your TOMORROWS be what is in your heart and dreams.
We celebrate today with you.

CONGRATULATIONS!
The staff at Texas Oncology Cancer Center

 

Phase II...The Demolition

I met with the surgeon today to discuss what I call Phase Two of my treatment, the demolition of my boobies. The bilateral mastectomy. She is the same one who performed the biopsy, placed my port and tested and removed my lymph nodes so I already know her. In fact, she is the one who called to tell me I had cancer. Despite that, I think she is wonderful. She explained the process and recovery to Kevin and I so now we have a better understanding of what to expect. And of course I took my little pad and pen in with all of my questions. Surgery will be scheduled sometime after my last chemo treatment on August 11. As long as my WBC is good we can schedule it as soon after chemo as I want if my oncologists agrees. My WBC has been in the threes since I started Taxol and ended the AC treatments which the surgeon said would be fine but last week it was 1.4 which would not be ok due to risk of infection. Hopefully they will go back up and stay there. I would like to move on to Phase Two as quickly as possible. The quicker I can get that done the quicker I can start radiation, Phase Three.


She is doing what is called a skin sparing mastectomy. She will go in and remove all of the tissue from my breasts but will leave the skin. This won’t look pretty but in the long run it will be better for Phase Four Reconstruction…Operation New Boobies. I choose the same hospital that I delivered Kaia and Caleb in because I know they have a Frullati Cafe in their cafeteria and I love their smoothies! That’s a good reason to choose a hospital right? She said to expect an overnight stay in the hospital. The pain will be so bad that I wouldn’t be able to control it at home so they will keep me to give me morphine. All right, all right, all right. Smoothies and morphine. Then they will send me home with some pain pills and of course those lovely drains. If you recall I had a drain when my lymph nodes were removed. For this surgery I will probably have at least two. I hate the drains. They will stay in from a week to three weeks. Restrictions are no driving or heavy lifting for a week. She said to rest but still go out and do things like shop and have dinner. I swear to you she said shop. My sister thought I made that part up but Kevin was there to hear it all! I have a witness. Then by week two I can start doing more. I just have to be careful if I still have the drains especially with the kids and I still have to take it somewhat easy. Once I recover from surgery I can start radiation, Phase Three. My wonderful mom is coming up to help us out during my surgery and recovery which will be a huge help. All though I’m not looking forward to having no boobies, I am ready to get on with the next phase. I don’t meet with my oncologists this week so I will have to wait until the 11th to talk to her about her thoughts on scheduling. She told me when I first started that I shouldn’t have to wait long after chemo to have the surgery. Come one counts, don’t fail me now.

Love to all.

I Get Knocked Down…But I Get Up Again…Your Never Gonna Keep Me Down

Remember that song by Chumbawamba? Here's the link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5uWRjFsGc  Great song! But I don’t think they meant for people to sing it to cancer but I do. Oh how I got knocked down. But I got up again and still kicking this cancer’s ass. It’s been a while since my last post and I have a lot to say so I broke it down into sections.

Sick…Sick…Better…ER Visit…Better…Sick…Better – Stupid Round 9
What a rollercoaster ride the past few days have been. Friday morning I woke up and felt fine. My sister and I had planned all week to take Kaia and Nolan to the lake to swim and picnic. Around 9 I started feeling a little achy. No big deal though. I just thought it was the normal aches and pains of chemo. Usually, I can just carry on about my daily activities and it works itself out. Oh foolish Crystal. We had a great time at the lake and it was actually very restful and relaxing because really all we did was float in the water so I didn’t do much. But when it got time to leave I started feeling worse. I was freezing cold and drank several bottles of water already. I just couldn’t get enough water. As we drove back home I went downhill quick. The aches were horrible and I had big time chills. As soon as I dropped off Doodle and Nolan I called Kevin. He was home shortly after we got home and I showered and went straight to bed. My temperature was at 100 degrees, not enough to warrant a call to the doctor. Saturday I woke up still feeling miserable but no fever. I took Tylenol throughout the day for the hideous pain I was in. Sunday I woke up and felt tired but good. No aches, no fever. Great! I’m better. Not so fast, there was more sickness to be had. I didn’t take any Tylenol and by mid morning my aches and pains were back along with an excruciating headache. I didn’t want to take Tylenol though because I didn’t want it to mask any fever that may come back. Fever is your body’s way of fighting infections and my doctor needs to know if I develop a fever. So I toughed out the pain. And by toughed out I mean I laid on the couch and moaned and groaned and complained about how bad I felt. Sure enough the fever came back. It still wasn’t high enough to call the doctor but since I had chills and it had been around since Friday, I called anyway. The on call doctor called in an Rx for a strong antibiotic and told me that if I still had fever in 24 hours to call back. Then my temperature started going up. It got to 102.5 and I decided I just wanted to go to the ER. I was miserable and just didn’t feel right about waiting 24 hours. Kevin loaded up the kids and Doodle meant me at the ER. They got me right in and we didn’t have to wait long at all. By this time my temperature was 102.7. I had the same doctor and chest x-ray tech from my last visit a few months ago and they both remembered me so I was relieved to have folks there who were familiar with my situation. (And the fact that they are both good looking helped too!) During the examination there were about three nurses in there and they are going over their usual billion questions. Then they come to, “Do you have any scrapes or cuts on your body.” Yes, scrapes on my knee. A nurse looks at it and says, “Oh, bike accident.” I say yes but it’s not as exciting as it sounds because I was just standing there and fell off. I see my sister shaking her head as they laugh. “Any more?” Yes I have a cut on my right foot. “What’s that from?” I cut it with my toe nail from my left foot.” Doodle says, “You really need to come up with better stories.” Anyway, after being there for a few hours and getting blood work, pee work, fluids, chest x-ray, having to keep Doodle away from the equipment and buttons on my bed, they tell me there is no sign of major infection so it is either a virus of some sort or just the damned chemo. (I threw in the damn, the doctor really didn’t say that but it would have been cool if he did.) So alternate Motrin and Tylenol for pain and fever and rest. Back home I go. They actually gave me the option to check in but everyone knows you can’t really rest in a hospital and there are sick people there, I can’t be around sick people. Plus, there was nothing they could do for me that I couldn’t do for myself at home.


Monday came and I still felt like crap. The meds were taking the edge off the pain but it was still there. No fever though. I laid around all day and then started feeling better. All right. Good deal. Which was great I was able to get off the couch because Caleb decided to walk for the first time that night!  I would have done some serious cussing had I missed his first steps. Went to bed feeling good. Then Tuesday slapped me in the face. This I think was right there with Sunday. I was miserable once again. Crying, moaning, miserable me. Called the doctor as soon as they opened but didn’t hear from them for a few hours. My oncologist is on vacation so another doctor was taking her patient calls and of course he has his own patients and was super busy. In the meantime, I tried to sleep because I was just so exhausted but the pain (and Kevin and Doodle texting me every 20 minutes, you caring bastards) didn’t allow that. When they called back I was told to keep taking the Motrin and Tylenol. My fever was at 101 something but since I was already on an antibiotic that wasn’t a major concern. Once you start antibiotics they look for a temperature .2 degrees over what the highest was before you started them. In other words they would be concerned if mine went to 102.9 or higher. They would consider that a new infection and that would be cause for alarm but this was just that same stubborn fever. I already had my round 10 chemo scheduled the next morning so unless anything changes, they would see me then. Right on. I can go back to sleep, I really didn’t want to go anywhere. On to round 10.


Round 10
Woke up Wednesday morning feeling fab! Not 100% myself, still weak but certainly much much better. I even felt well enough to drop the kids off myself. That was something I hadn’t done this whole time. Yay me! So I meet with the physician’s assistant and we are going over all of the past few days’ events and my symptoms. Then we get on the subject of the neuropathy. I’m currently taking meds for it 2 times a day and it is controlling the tingling. I mention I still get tingling but not that often but that yesterday my feet started freezing. I thought it was part of being sick but it was still there. They are so cold they hurt. She informed me that was actually worsening symptoms of neuropathy. No bueno. So she tells me on average most people only make it through 10.8 Taxol treatments before they have to quit due to neuropathy. Don’t want permanent damage. She needs to confer with the wonderful and fun Lisa (the person I normally see when doc isn’t available) to see if I can even continue chemo. She walked out of the examination room and I totally panicked. I so don’t want it to end like this. WTF? Kevin and Doodle are supposed to be there, the nurses are supposed to throw confetti at me and I am supposed to ring that bell! I’m texting Kevin like the crazy woman I am totally freaking out. You would think I would be happy to end it and I will be but this was just a shock. Kevin sent me a text that said, “Go ring that freaking bell anyway!” That made me laugh. Mainly because I had visions of the them chasing me as I ran toward the bell and them tackling me and escorting me out. They would never do that. In fact, they did tell me they would have let me ring the bell anyway but I have a very active imagination. The PA came back in and said what we will do is up the meds to 3 times a day and see if that helps so you can still have chemo today. YAY! “But we are still waiting on your blood work. Go ahead and go to the infusion room and they will get your results over there.” Off to the infusion room.


I sign in, wait a few minutes and get called back, fill up my water bottle, pick out a chair by the window and start to settle in. As I’m pulling my lap top out of my back pack Derrick (one of the nurses) yells at me from across the room, “Don’t get to comfortable woman, your white count is low, I have to check with the doctor.” Well balls. So a few minutes later he comes over and says the doctor ok it. A count of 1.5 is required and mine was at 1.4 (I have been in the 3s since I started Taxol) but since I was already on antibiotics they were comfortable with continuing. Just wash my hands often and stay away from sick folks. Done and done. Let’s get this party started, bring on the Benadryl. Another nurse comes over and starts to hook me up. Her name escapes me now but she is freaking hilarious. Always announces to everyone that I have been pole dancing when she has to come untangle the tubes from the pole that holds the bags of meds after I have been pushing it around to get more water or stretch my legs. She gets me hooked up and nothing. No drip. The tubes are broken. I say, “I think the universe is trying to tell me not to do chemo today. This is the third obstacle.” She shakes her head and says, “No Crystal, this is the universe telling me this tube is a piece of shit and needs to me changed. “ See, love her! Tubes changed, meds started, play on computer until I can’t see straight and then sleep.


Today is Thursday, almost one week since the sickness began and I feel great. Still a little tired but I’m taking it easy. I have two more treatments left so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that taking the meds three times a day will keep the neuropathy at bay.

Upcoming Surgery
Since chemo is almost done it is time to schedule the bilateral mastectomy. I meet with my breast surgeon on Monday to discuss specifics and should know more then. She does the demolition part and then another doctor will do the reconstruction part 6 months to a year after I am done with radiation. I’m starting to shop now for clothes and pjs that I can wear after surgery. I won’t be able to lift my arms for a while after so I need stuff that I can either slip up over my fat ass or that buttons up. I’m also planning a trip soon to Petticoat Fair here in Austin for post surgical bras and prosthesis. I’ve talked to some folks who have gone through it and have done some online research but if any of you have been through it or know someone who has I welcome advice. Especially about products or clothes that are “can’t live without” or “don’t waste your money”. I will update you guys after my appointment on Monday.

On another note, my hair is growing back.  I look like a fuzzy duck.  But my eye lashes are almost gone and mostly white.  Very odd.  And I have tiny white hairs all over my face.  Seriously?  Why?  I still haven't shaved my arm pits.  It's like baby hair so I'm going to leave it and see how long I can get it.  :)


Lots of hugs and a very special thank you to my fabulouso sister/best friend and my fabulouso husband/best friend for all of their help and care during this round of yuck.
Love to all!

My Date with Round Eight

Whoohoo! Round 8 is done! The cloudiness and fatigue seem to increase more and more on the actual day of chemo but with a great husband and his understanding work folks I am able to come home and rest well while he takes care of the kids after school. He's been working so much lately that his time with them as been limited so I thought of this as a little gift I would give all three of them today.  Hehe!  :)  They are doing excellent by the way. Kaia had some kind of illness this past weekend and early in the week but seems to be fine now and Caleb, well, he’s our little mischievous chunky monkey that gets into everything. What a lucky and blessed family we are!


The neuropathy still comes and goes. I was told today at my appointment to start taking two of the pills for it a day. I am going to have a practice round tomorrow after I drop the kids off at school. I normally take one at night right before bed but they may or may not knock me out so I will test them tomorrow when I am at home alone to see how that works. Stupid side effects. “May increase appetite.” Yep, that’s just what I need. I’ve already gained weight (yeah, yeah, I know better than having cancer and losing it. Whatever.) As a matter of fact, Texas Oncology just got a new computer system and is switching to a paperless system and this new system thought that it was necessary to point out that I have had a 5% weight gain since I started. I have a very great relationship with the PA and I didn’t hold back the few choice words I had for that POS computer. She of course thought that was hilarious (I was not joking). It’s not bad enough I have cancer; the computer has to taunt me with “fatty fatty two by four”? She then mentioned how unfair it is that most breast cancer patients gain weight (I looked it up when I got home and she wasn’t just saying that to make me feel better as I originally suspected.). I told her, “lost my Kaia weight, got preggers with Caleb, lost that weight and got breast cancer.” She asked how much weight I gained with my pregnancies. 50lbs with each. Yep, you heard me 50lbs. She said she can guarantee me I won’t gain 50lbs with cancer. At the rate I’m going, I just might. But I don’t think she said that as a challenge. Bastard cancer. I know it’s due to the drugs and probably has something to do with the chemo induced menopause but all of that is because of the cancer so it gets the blame. So what do we tell that cancer, Steph? SUCK IT!

So a few posts ago I briefly mentioned my beef with the phrase “lost his/her battle”. If you use this phrase please don’t feel like you need to stop or you will offend me (only big mouth computers offend me). It is simply a personal thing for me. The reason I don’t like it said that way is because I think the only way cancer ever wins is if a person lets it to break their spirit. If cancer is allowed to take over your life then yea, it wins. And I don’t mean getting sick or having sad days, I mean allowing it to break your spirit on a regular basis. We all have days when we cry, scream, cuss and get pissed off at the cards we have been dealt but then we realize “it’s how we play the hand” (Randy Pausch) and we pick our asses up and move on. And people can keep that spirit through their dying process. Many people do so on a daily basis. When my cousin’s grandmother passed away from cancer she said something like “gained her angel wings.” (Sorry if I misquoted and I am not giving this person credit because I didn’t ask if I could use her personal experience before I posted this. But trust me, she is a very wise and strong ass woman.) I like that saying and I am looking for more ways to dignify someone’s “loss of battle”. So if you have your own, please share, either in comment or a personal message to me. However you feel comfortable if you want to share at all. Below is a poem that is posted all around Texas Oncology and I am sure many cancer centers around the world. Many of you may have already seen it but it is always good to read again. I reread it every time I get off the elevator on Wednesday mornings, just as a reminder. If you have never seen it, I hope you enjoy. And I think you can substitute many of life’s bummers for the word cancer and it still works. As always, love to all.

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited…
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
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.

Just Tingling with Excitment (Not really, its just neuropathy)

Round 7 is done! I’m still doing really well. My fingers, hands, arms, toes, feet and legs started tingling last night but it was gone this morning. It is a common side effect of the Taxol so we knew it was probably coming. I started noticing last week that I had trouble typing and turning pages in books so I figured it was on its way. It kind of feels like you feel when a part of your body falls asleep. That pins and needles feeling. At first it was a pretty cool feeling but after about 5 hours, it sucked! It wasn’t too terribly painful but I did notice my feet started to hurt after a while. I called the oncologist this morning like the good little patient that I am and they prescribed some meds for me that should help. The worry with the neuropathy (fancy word for the pins and needles) is that it could be permanent if not controlled. It could cause issues with doing regular life events like driving and walking. So we will test out these meds. If they don’t work we will either lower the dose of Taxol I get weekly or stop the treatments early. While stopping the treatments early sounds mighty fine to me, I hope the meds work. I want those little bastard cancer cells to die a miserable death and I don’t want them to get excited if we quit early. So if you see me stumbling around and fumbling when I am trying to pick things up, I promise I’m not drunk. Well, no, I don’t promise that but I do promise I will blame it on the neuropathy.


Love to all!

The Chemo Made Me Do It!

Until recently, doctors didn’t really recognize the existence of what is known so lovingly to us chemo patients as “chemo brain.” Now, there have been enough studies on the subject that doctors are coming around. The American Cancer Society defines chemo brain as a mental cloudiness that is caused by changes to the brain that deal with memory, planning, putting thoughts together, monitoring thought processes and behavior and inhibition. Now most people have issues from time to time but I’m here to tell you folks, this chemo brain is no laughing matter. Well, wait, yeah it is actually. It can be downright hysterical sometimes. So here are a few things I have done that I would like to blame on Chemo:


• Left the front door wide open for who knows how long. I only noticed it was open because Kaia came up to me and said, “I don’t think you are supposed to leave that door open because I could get out.”

• One night I knew I had gotten two nighttime diapers out for the kids but couldn’t find them anywhere. The next day while doing laundry, I found them in the dryer.

• Now, my sister can probably tell you more about this but I have a horrible time telling stories and forming my thoughts into actual sentences when talking. Many times when talking to her, I’ll try multiple times to tell a story and finally in the middle just say, “Forget it, I’m done with that story.”

• I found myself standing at the front door trying to lock it with my car alarm. Had the alarm pointed to the lock and was pushing the lock button over and over again. Finally, the repeated honking of my car brought me out of my fog and I realized what I was doing.

• Here’s one that everyone can relate to because I am sure it has happened to you. It happened to me before chemo but now it happens about 100 times more often. I get to a room and can’t remember why I went in there. I start to do something and then in the middle forget what it was I was doing.

• The latest thing I have done is put my book in the fridge. I looked all over the house for it and then about an hour later I went to the fridge to get some OJ and there it was nice and chilled.

So as funnier things happen I will let you know but for now if I do something stupid around you, you know it’s the chemo. :)

Love to all.

Are you a Tigger or Eeyore?

Round four done – only eight more to go! I have been doing really well with the Taxol. I have pretty constant body and muscle aches but nothing that prohibits me from going on about my day. I get pretty tired by about 6 or so every night. That actually works out well because we put the kids to bed at 7 so by the time I am wiped out they are going to bed. The nurse that gave me my third treatment said that the doses of Taxol I am getting shouldn’t cause hair loss so my hair should start growing back soon. However, that was a bunch of crap. My eye lashes have started to say fall out. When I met with Lisa (she is who I meet with when oncologist isn’t available) she actually noticed my eye lashes. She is the first person who has noticed. Well, the first person who has said anything anyway. Who knows how many people have actually noticed! Anyway, I told her what the nurse said and she disagreed. She said it would take weeks after the Taxol for my hair to grow back and while it is unusual that you lose your eyelashes or eye brows on Taxol when you didn’t on AC it does happen. I reminded her that not much about my cancer falls in the “usual category” and she said, “Well, let’s not be surprised about your eye lashes then!” By the way, she tells everyone the story about Kaia asking if I was mommy or daddy when I shaved my head. Kaia stories are everywhere! So I’m not really bummed about my hair. I would like to enjoy the short getting ready time and the hassle free head cover for a while longer anyway.


I just finished reading Randy Pausch’s book The Last Lecture. I actually picked it up before my diagnosis believe it or not but I was just able to finish it. It is a fabulous book and I highly recommend it. He was diagnosised with a terminal cancer (he died in 2008, I don’t say “lost his battle because I hate that phrase which I will probably blog about some day) and the book is a great inspiration to all. Many of you may remember the video that was circulated around the web a couple of years back of his last lecture. Here is the link to the site, you can watch the video if you are interested by clicking the link on the bottom left of the screen: http://www.thelastlecture.com/. Anyway, as I said it is a great book and I wanted to share something in it with you all. He talks about how people need to decide if they are a “fun-loving TIgger or a sad sack Eeyore.” Now I love Eeyore as much as the next person and I have enjoyed celebrating his birthday at an Austin festival on a couple of occasions but I don’t want to live my life like him. Why waste your life being a sad sack and complaining about everything and acting as if the world has it out for you, blaming everyone else for your “problems”. “Problems” in quotes because I think sad sack Eeyores make their “problems” 100% worse by having a feel sorry for me mentality and rarely do anything to change their situation. However, fun loving Tiggers bounce back from whatever life throws at them and they are always looking for fun in things and stay positive. That’s the way to be. I can’t imainge why anyone would want to be am Eeyore. And I also think it is important to surround yourself with other Tiggers. Eeyores just bring down those around them. (All the Eeyores out there are now blaming me for them not having any friends because I suggested you stay away from them.) I’m not saying we always have to be Tiggers, we can occasionally slip into Eeyore mode, just don’t stay there long. A great quote from Pausch’s book: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

I met a mother and son today at chemo. He is 22 and was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. 22! He’s already had surgery to remove one testicle and now has started chemo. He is a ball of fun and energy. His mom is the same way. And guess what? His mom is battling ovarian cancer for the second time now. She too is in chemo. They go opposite weeks so she can be sure to take care of him. Mother and son both battling cancer. I was impressed by them and am lucky to have met two wonderful Tiggers. If they can be Tiggers, we all can.

Love to all!