A new day & feeling good!

Good Morning to all - it's a new day and I am feeling pretty good so far! Yesterday was a good day too overall. I took it easy yesterday because I was terrified of getting sick again like I did the Friday in my second chemo session. I did manage to go to the mall for a little bit with my mom and bought another new pair of boots. Yes, I'm kind of obsessed with buying boots right now. It makes me feel better! :) And then after the mall, I was feeling a bit tired so I went back to the house and just relaxed for the remaining of the day. My appetite was pretty good and my mom made a very good dinner consisting of broccoli, mashed potatoes, and chicken. I was feeling pretty hungry, but didn't want to overdo it, so stuck to a pretty small portion again. Apparently, the special chemo drugs suck some iron out of you - gosh, who do these drugs think they are? Anyways, moral of this story is that my iron levels are pretty low and I need to incorporate more iron into my diet, which red meat can give you. I tried giving up eating red meat after I was diagnosed because I convinced myself that certain types of food could be a reason people get cancer. (The million dollar question, why do people get cancer? Please text me the answer.) Anyways, I then discovered grass fed meat at Whole Foods, where the cows are not fed any grains and are hormone free. Since then, I have been eating only grass fed meat, when I do decide I want it. So, I highly recommend it if anyone wants to try something new. Sorry to my vegetarian friends who just read that, I know if you are anything like my friend ,Chelsea, she gags at the sound of hearing about meat.

About my white blood cells - well the shots that I received for 3 consecutive days boosted my cells up to something crazy like 20,000. I know, it is kind of excessive. But apparently that is the level I was supposed to get at the last round of injections. See, the chemotherapy is like Pac-Man. It destroys all rapidly dividing cells and can't distinguish between the good and the bad cells, so it likes to KILL all of them (hence, the cells that produce hair...grrr...stay away from those). I used to play Pac-Man as a kid, but never thought I'd use it in an analogy when I was describing my cancer experience in my 20's. Anyways, I need as many white blood cells as I can get to fight off infections (remember my immune system is not so hot right now). And, if chemo starts to get crazy and eats away too many white blood cells, I can't get chemo. I am getting a blood test on Thursday to check my levels because we don't want to delay chemo. No, no, no.

To end my posting for the day, I will answer what everyone really wants to know - what am I going to do today? Hmm, I suppose I need to change out of my pajamas and take a shower. That's a step in the right direction. I also need to go on a walk and get some oxygen into my cells. Tonight, it's one of my best friends birthday parties tonight - the big 25. (Happy Birthday Dana, I know you don't read my blog, but I am saying it anyways to you on here!) :) I want to try to stop by the party for a little bit. Hopefully, I have enough energy to do so.

Have a lovely day everyone! Next week I go back to work and get to be normal! :)

Session 3 / Day 4

A new day it is...and feeling slightly better, but please emphasize on the term slightly. Still kind of feeling down, mostly because my energy levels SUCK right now. I just don't have much motivation to get up off the couch this week. Stupid chemo is trying to take the best of me, I just know it. I hate that I am kind of letting it win right now, but it doesn't know that I am going to be making a comeback really soon, because let's face it, there is only room for one winner, and that's me. My goal of the day is to take a shower, go on a walk, and not be Debbie Downer. I think I can accomplish it. I have to get one more shot today for my white blood cells, so I guess I have to include that into the agenda.

Side note, I just watched Marley & Me, I thought it was so cute! Of course, I teared up a bit, but it's definitely worth watching. My sister begs to differ though. :)

Hair update for the day: Still in tact. Approximately 15 strands fell out today, but no signs of baldness or chunks falling out. Yayyyyyyyyy!

If you are reading this, send me loads of energy and strength. Thank you much.

Session 3 / Day 3

If I could describe today in one word, it'd have to be - gross. I felt gross all day long. It took me forever to just get off the couch. I didn't feel like doing much at all and my appetite pretty much sucked today. Everything sounded, yep, you've guessed it - gross. I did manage to eat though, but mostly because I knew I had to. I decided to finally get up around 2:30p.m. or 3:00p.m. and take a shower and go on a walk with my parents. But I just didn't have that much energy today to do anything. I was also kind of moody for some reason. Sorry for those that have been texting or calling me, I haven't been in the chatting mood this week and I'd rather not be mean to people that don't deserve it!

Anyways, I guess today wasn't the best of days. I'm hoping tomorrow is better and brighter!

I need some extra special prayers tonight pleaseeeeee. :) Thank you, love you, goodnight.

Session 3 / Day 2

Dear Cancer,

I've decided that you are rather annoying. I'm not sure why you have decided to come into my body and create mean cells, but you did. You are kind of disrupting my normal life. I think you are getting mad because your other cells friends are dying and well, let's face it, majority of them are already dead. Which they should be dead because I am not only getting drugs put into my body to kill you, but I am nourishing you in a way that you don't really like. And don't bother trying to communicate with my healthy cells and attempting to manipulate them, because they aren't interested in playing with you or multiplying in a way they are not supposed to - they know better than that and they happen to like the good nutrients. Looks like you should just pack your bags and leave my body and don't bother coming back again in the future because you probably won't have any friends to play with and you simply don't fit in. And also, can you do me a favor and leave other people alone too? Their healthy cells don't care for you much either.

Sincerely,
Lauren

Chemo Session 3 / Day 1

I know I am posting a bit later than I typically do on chemo days, but I was so incredibly tired today! I did my routine thing this morning, which is me and my sister (sometimes brother-in-law) get up SUPER early and head over to my parents house for breakfast! I eat a little bit of flax oatmeal and some of an orange. It's been "my thing" since my first session, so it makes me feel a bit better that I stick to my routine. I started chemo today around 9:00a.m. and ended a little after 12:00p.m. I came home and just sat around. I managed to watch the movie, The Proposal, and it was pretty funny!

Okay, now to give everyone a medical update. After speaking with the doctor, my family and I decided that we are going to wait until I get a PET scan until after I complete my second session, which is a total of four treatments. So, that pushes the scan back to the week of November 9th. I apologize for those I text earlier and stated my scan was October 26th, we changed the date just as I was leaving. I also am going to try some new anti-nausea meds this week. We'll see how it goes! I start them tomorrow morning for a total of 3 days. Also, my white blood cells dropped a bit low again and I have to get the shots of Neuopogen again, sorry I may not have spelled that right and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. I know, very unlike me. But I am going to get 3 shots of Neupogen starting tomorrow and then get a blood test to see if I responded well. Then it will be re-evaluated to see if I need more.

I do have to go for a pulmonary function test to ensure my lungs are not getting all crazy from Bleomyicin (one of the drugs I get during chemo). That will probably be next week sometime. Don't worry I am not going to be going to the first pulmonary doctor I saw, I am being referred to a new one!

That's all for now. I am off to play Monopoly on the Wii and just relax. No walk tonight, it's too windy in the lovely Vegas area this evening. Twister is coming (maybe not so much?) Anyways, I'm sleepy and beginning to not be so sure of what I'm typing right now. Too much chemo cocktail (on the rocks) today.

Goodnight everyone....

Weekly update!

I know I haven't posted all week, but I decided to not bore anyone with actually what I do in a normal life (not involving chemo). No, I swear - my life is actually really exciting. I go to work, I watch TV shows, go grocery shopping, workout...jealous yet? :) Okay, all jokes aside, I am doing well! I have been LUCKY to live my normal life and do things such as grocery shop and I'm being very sincere when I say that. I have had a great week at work and have enjoyed seeing my co-workers, they always cheer me up. I have worked out pretty much everyday since Sunday and tonight I even ran on the treadmill for a short little spurt in my workout routine. It was definitely a bit harder, but I haven't ran in over one month, so it was a good little push for me.

This weekend I will be getting my massage that I was forced to reschedule due to not feeling well last Saturday. I am going to go to a haunted house tomorrow night and I'm so very excited for that. I love haunted houses and feel that it's a must to go to one during Halloween season. So, just so you are aware, when I'm 90 - I'll be going to one. I will also be making a homemade organic apple pie...yep, I'm a professional baker now - my dad and I make a great baking team! And I will end the lovely weekend with a visit from my beautiful sister...and we will be going on a hike on Sunday!

There's the weekly breakdown and I will update next week more frequently since it's time for chemo session number 3 on Monday, October 19th! Oh, in case you were wondering, I still have hair. The strand has now become plural - strands are coming out. I'm not shaving it until I begin to go bald in areas or begin to leave clumps of hair in places - that would just be embarrassing and have to admit, rather gross! :) But I'm staying positive and am going to stick to voting my hair will just thin during chemo.

And yes, how could I forget - chemo session number 3 is a big deal because I'm getting scanned after this session. The scan is going to tell how many sessions I need and how effective treatment has been to date. So yes, my vain side wants you to pray I don't lose my hair, BUT I do want you to pray MOST IMPORTANTLY that chemo is KILLING THE CANCER CELLS in my little body and will NEVER return. Thank you and goodnight - I send my love to everyone! <3

Clearly bored :)

So, I've changed my blog appearance and am doing weird things to stay busy. It's kind of nice and refreshing to me to not do anything, because I usually accomplish a day's worth of activities by 10:00a.m. everyday. I cannot stand to sleep in and waste days away...large pet peeve of mine. Moral of the story is "being sick" gives me the opportunity to do things unlike myself. And hey, maybe that isn't a bad thing because I don't find myself as stressed out as I used to be.

I'm feeling SO MUCH BETTER! Oh my gosh, Friday and majority of the day yesterday was spent feeling super icky. Yes, I said the word icky. I am going to get myself out of the house today and do something fun and I am going to go on a walk...and cannot wait to get a little bit of exercise in me!

I decided to be silly and post this picture to make everyone laugh since my postings lately have been so Debbie Downer-ish. So, everyone knows I have a minor obsession with Britney Spears, don't judge, I bet you dance to her still too. Anyways, my friend Jen made this picture for me a long time ago with her fabulous photo shop skills...I think it's funny and would give everyone a much needed laugh, and I feel like laughing today.