Tissue Expansion and Options

Today I had a great appointment with my plastic surgeon, Dr Shale at McKay-Dee hospital. I had my tissue expanders filled again after almost 7 months! I couldn't have them filled while I was receiving chemo because my white blood count was too low ( and also because Dr Miranda said "no" repeatedly!). I will probably have just one more expansion to go- yay!! We also spent a lot of time discussing options for the actual reconstructive surgery. I have heard other women say that reconstructive surgery is actually worse than the mastectomy- and I didn't really believe them. I am less than impressed to report that Dr Shale told me the exact same thing today!! Basically I have a lot of information to consider before I make a decision. He told me I am "lucky" that I am not a "skinny Minnie " because it leaves us with more options!! Ummmm.....thank you??!!  "Lucky" is definitely not the first adjective that leaps to mind as I consider my fluffiness!! I really do feel lucky to have such a marvelous plastic surgeon though! I have been doing well since my last post. I have returned to work and plan to be full time in a few weeks!! I fatigue easily and am struggling with the neuropathy and numbness in my fingers so work is a bit challenging right now. I am frustrated that I am not 100%, but everyone has been very understanding. I am realizing how much we take for granted each day. It is absolutely staggering to me !! I am thankful for the reminder of what is truly important. I am ridiculously excited to be out of solitary confinement!! I can hardly contain myself when I get to run to the store!! I feel like a sunbeam that can finally do things " by mine own self !!" Thank  you one and all for your continuing love and support. We love you all and are so grateful for the many prayers that have come our way. My "blessings list" has grown and continues to grow each day! ~ Melissa

Happy News! 😃

Greetings dear ones! Today I had an appointment with Dr Miranda (oncologist) and thought I would update everyone. First of all, my lab results mostly look awesome! My liver enzymes were not even elevated a tiny bit- woohoo!! My blood counts look ok for the most part too. My vitamin D level was low so I am now taking an oral supplement. That level will be checked again in a few months to see if the pills are sufficient or we need to add an Iv infusion to protect my bones. This time my tumor marker number is considered a baseline. It will be checked in 3 months to see how it looks. We hope it remains the same or even drops. It's not so much the actual number as it is the trend of rising or falling that is significant. If the number rises it could indicate new growth of cancer cells- that's why we are keeping a close eye on it. In other news, I was scheduled to have a repeat brain MRI on Monday, but that had to be cancelled due to my tissue expanders. Apparently the magnets in my expanders might make me or the machine blow up. That minor detail will delay the MRI until the expanders are removed. The removal is a surgical procedure that will take place during reconstruction. I found out today that my port a cath can be removed at that time as well. Yay! Dr had initially told me that my port had to stay put for at least 6 months (preferably a year) but due to increased risk of blood clots we get to pull it earlier. The other exciting(?) thing that happened today is that Dr wrote my prescription for tamoxifen. This is a pill that blocks estrogen. This is because my tumor was shown to be estrogen receptor positive. Basically we are trying to create an environment that is hostile to cancer growth. I will be on this medication until the end of time- or maybe even longer! There are new guidelines that pre-menopausal women take it for 5 yrs, then if they are still pre-menopausal they take for 5 more years, then switch to a different med. wow that seems like forever! Hopefully I won't have too many side effects- my track record with medications is less than stellar! Overall, an excellent appointment today. I have such confidence in my dr and his marvelous care! What a lucky girl I am!! I am also now sporting lots of fuzzy whitish- gray  hair!! Less than desirable color, but I'm so excited that it's coming back so fast!! My sweet co-worker today told me that it's not old lady hair, it's angel hair. I LOVE that!! I am planning to work part time for the next couple of weeks. I am hoping to be able to be mostly full time by the first of August. Hopefully my body will cooperate! I am feeling so blessed, and hugely thankful for all of you! Love and hugs to all! ~ Melissa

Many Dr Visits to Come

Greetings dear friends and family. I have had a few people gently remind me that no updates have been posted for a while- sorry! I have spent the last several days feeling yucky and lots of bone pain from the neulasta and taxol. That is pretty well cleared up now- hooray! Now I am feeling gross because my blood counts are low- blech. That makes me super weak and dizzy and pale. My pasty complexion really brings out my white and gray fuzzy hair- lucky me!! I'm so excited that my hair is coming in so quickly- just not thrilled about the white and gray. What kind of nonsense is that??? The good news is that my counts should rebound soon and I should start to feel human- ish in the next few days. I am very excited that this is the last time of experiencing the side effects and low blood counts associated with chemotherapy! Oh happy day!! I have labs and an appointment next week with Dr Miranda. We will discuss the results of my labs and the necessary next steps. I will have monthly appointments and lab work for the next 6 months. It is reassuring to know that the dr is keeping such a close eye on me. On the 10th I see my neurologist Dr Steffens. He will repeat my brain MRI and check my neurological status. This is to see how the chemo has affected the lesion on my optic nerve and also to better determine the neurological deficits from chemo. Then the following week I will head to Utah to visit with the plastic surgeon. Lots of dr visits but no more chemo!! A huge and heartfelt  thank you for all the love and support we have experienced. Words can't begin to express the depth of gratitude we feel. Our Father in Heaven has watched over me and my precious family every minute. God is good!! ~ Melissa

The Last Neulasta!

Hello everyone! I am feeling mostly lousy right now, but so excited to be DONE with chemo!! My last treatment was much less eventful than the time before, so that is great news! I received my neulasta shot late yesterday so I am feeling the effects this morning. I must admit that I won't miss the "bones breaking from the inside" feeling at all! A big thank you to Gramita, who helped me run my Iv and to Grandpa Lynn, who took me for my shot. Eli tagged along too because he wanted to meet my "Iv therapy friends". Today Tyler doesn't work until 3 so he will help with my Iv. The boys freaked out about that idea yesterday, and Alexa is gone to girls camp - good thing I have other helpers! I will have my labs checked in a few weeks and hope that everything looks good. This time we are also checking my tumor markers and checking my vitamin d level. The d level will help determine the health of my bones. We will keep a close eye on my bone density and start on bone protecting infusions if necessary. This is due to the chemo itself being hard on bones and also the early menopause. Not good to have osteoporosis before age 40! I am feeling profoundly grateful this day. The Lord's hand has been evident in every single step of this journey. This has truly been a faith promoting experience, and I have been blessed with an abundance of love and support. I was talking with a friend yesterday about help that comes on both sides of the veil. I truly believe that angels have rallied around my family and brought peace and comfort to our home. We have been truly touched by all the marvelous acts of kindness that have been extended to us. Please know how very thankful we are.  Our prayers are full of thanks for all of you!!  ~ Melissa

Last one:)

Today was the last day of chemo treatment:) We went to the hospital and got ready, they started off with the normal premeds including Benadryl but just 6 instead of the regular 50. And they were keeping an extremely close eye on her both the IV therapy and pharmacy were present. They were also able to give her an additional 6 with only a very small reaction of itchy hands. Were able to begin the Taxol treatment. She started to have a small reaction to the Taxol and we debated giving her a little bit more Benadryl but decided to try to slow the Taxol treatment down and see if that would help. Fortunately she was able to begin to feel a little bit better without any more additional Benadryl through the treatment. She is looking forward to having her last Neulasta shot tomorrow, as it has caused her more discomfort then the Taxol treatments have. As usual we received nothing but the best of care.

When we returned home the kids had painted a pretty sign for Melissa that said " You did it". They also had given her a couple of balloons and a pretty shirt. Of course I'm sure this mostly had to do with grandma B helping them out. Her good friends from the IV treatment center also had given her a small gift. The funny part was it was in a spotted bag that Eli says matches her hairdo.

We would like to thank everybody for the prayers and your thoughts that we received the last couple of weeks after the last treatment did not go so well. Of course a special thanks to those who have provided meals the week of treatment. The kids tend to like everybody else is cooking better than mine.

A special thanks to Nicole Jensen who normally does all the posting on this page. This week she is gone to girls camp and has showed me how to post. So hopefully when she returns later in the week we can get some more postings put on there that actually are spelled correctly and have a good punctuation. Plus we will be adding the couple of pictures of the items Melissa received when Nicole gets back.

Today I had my labs checked and had an appointment with Dr Miranda. My lab values all looked excellent- woohoo! My liver enzymes were only elevated a teensy bit so that is very exciting!! Everything else checked out at my appointment so that means we are good to go with chemo on Tuesday. Due to my adventures with the last round, the plan for premeds is going to change a bit. Hopefully this time around rapid response will NOT be part of my care team! I am SO excited that this is my last treatment!! In some ways the time has really flown by, and in some respects it has seemed to drag on forever! The next phase will involve me having monthly dr appt and lab work. Hopefully these 8 rounds of hard core chemo have done their job and there are no naughty cancer cells still roaming around. My lab work will involve monitoring tumor markers, so if those numbers start to climb, we will immediately hunt those rogue cells down!! My port will stay in place for about 6 months- mostly just in case we need to do a few more rounds of chemo. I think they will utilize my port for surgery as well. I will be able to visit Dr Shale (my fabulous plastic surgeon) in about a month to have my tissue expanders filled once again.  I have to be completely done with chemo and doing great for 3 months before reconstructive surgery can take place. I'm guessing that surgery will probably take place sometime in October. Lucky me- a new chest for my birthday :)! I'm actually quite  anxious to get these dumb expanders out. They are pretty uncomfortable (they are made of metal and plastic) and let's just say they provide a less than natural appearance!! I am trying to practice the virtue of patience!! This week I have returned to work for a few hours every day except Monday. I have struggled a little more than usual with fatigue and the neuropathy (nerves that are angry and sometimes feel like ants are biting my feet) in my hands and feet. This last round also seemed to aggravate some of my neurological issues. My vision has been weird and I have had trouble with some double vision as well. Not my favorite thing, but hopefully just a temporary annoyance! I am hopeful that the chemo brain fog and the neuropathy in my hands and feet is just temporary as well. Dr has been painfully honest in letting me know that sometimes those things are permanent. Only time will tell- I think I suffered from chemo brain BEFORE I started chemo (heehee)!! Tyler will send the update and post to the blog next week because Nicole will be gone. Hopefully all will go smoothly! We send huge love and thanks to everyone!! 

Feeling Better (not awesome, but better)

Hello everyone! I am feeling better today I so wanted to pass along the good news! I am glad that the past few days are behind me- I really felt like a giant hunk of junk. Today I am still quite sore and super wiped out but not barfy and completely out of it. Some would argue that I am out of it most of the time, but I REALLY hate that feeling- yuck!! Good thing my sweet family loves me and is so good to me- they could seriously take advantage of me- yikes!!  It seems that my medication reaction just intensified the usual side effects that I get from each chemo treatment. I threw everyone for a loop because seriously - who has a reaction like that to Benadryl? The whole reason they give me such a high dose of Iv Benadryl is to prevent an allergic reaction to the taxol. Apparently I'm just an overachiever and my body reacts early!! Anyway it was kind of a spooky thing to have happen. All is well now- the only not so great thing is that my left arm is very sore and my hand is a bit swollen from the BP cuff. Hopefully that is all there is to it! Tyler already thanked all the people that helped but he was awesome too. He stayed very calm in a stressful situation- kudos to him. He has done a great job taking care of me and I so appreciate it! Alexa has also been fantastic at jumping in and helping. She is great at recognizing when I need help or something needs done and just doing it. She doesn't need to be asked, she simply does. She has had to help with weird and embarrassing things like helping me get dressed or helping me out of the tub a few times and I can't thank her enough. She will be 16 on Thursday and is wise and mature and compassionate far beyond those 16 years. Plus she has helped me put my underwear on, so she deserves extra credit for that!! Eli ran a 5k Saturday as a fundraiser for relay for life. He ran a fantastic race and finished in 3rd place overall(2 adults had faster times). Not bad for an 11 yr old!! He was excited to run "for you mom" and has been very interested in helping with fundraisers and cancer awareness. He and Tyler are both letting their hair grow a bit as I now have a TON of fuzz! I keep trying to get a picture but it doesn't show up because it is so light- I'm afraid it's old lady white but Alexa calls it platinum blonde. (Knew I loved that girl!!). I also must mention my Jonah here. He prefers to stay in the background and hates having his picture taken so he can be easily overlooked. He also tells people "I don't know" when they ask how his mom is. He has been a marvelous helper and a hilarious and entertaining friend through all this. He doesn't want people to know what a tender heart he has, but sorry Jonah boy- the secret is out! He helps me go on my walks and doesn't complain that he has aged 40 yrs in the time it takes me to get down the driveway(that's MY complaint!) My tall and handsome 14 yr old helps me walk outside IN PUBLIC and holds my hand or my arm to support me. Do y'all realize what a big deal that is to walk in the cemetery where people can see you holding your mom's hand? I also might add that the mom is probably in her jammies with a dorky hat or bandanna on her head and is also probably wearing a mask- and slippers!! I can't imagine a more true act of love!! Oh and just to clarify, for those of you who don't know, I live next to a cemetery and it's the perfect place to walk. I didn't want anyone to think I had developed some morbid fascination with cemeteries since starting chemo - that's just weird! Anyway the plan for this week is to feel better!! I'm off to a good start! I meet with the dr on the 12th and will have labs checked at that time. I'm guessing the game plan for my FINAL round of chemo will not include Benadryl! Right now that treatment is scheduled on the 17th. As always that will depend on my blood counts, liver enzymes, and dr approval. I am SO excited to have 1 round left- woohoo!!!! I'm not sure when I will be able to return to work full time, church every Sunday, and that kind of "normal life" stuff.  I will discuss that with the dr at my appointment. I love being to attend a portion of church every few weeks. I miss the spiritual and social perks a ton when I can't attend. This is a pic of me in my new Mother's Day outfit - I couldn't go on that day but a week later worked too! Gramita and Alexa did a great job making me look (and feel) like an actual girl! Thank you to everyone for your never failing support and love. I love you for running this marathon with us- a sprint would have been easier - but the support has never wavered. There are truly no words to express how deeply I have been touched but please know how thankful we all are. We are inspired to love others more because of the love we have been shown. Thank you x infinity!