Just a quick update to let everyone know that because my platelet count was a bit low (80 and they want it to be at least 100), they have postponed my chemo to next Tuesday...disappointing but the safe thing to do I suppose.
Thanks again everyone for your support!
x
Jodi
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Monday, May 25, 2015
Chemo 4 - Tuesday, May 25th
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| Teresa and Carolyn with yummy almond muffins. |
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| Teresa making magic in the kitchen. |
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| Magic mineral broth ready to cook. |
I have also enjoyed lots of great walks with friends - including Jenn who came to visit for a few days! My thanks to walking partners Yonie, Debbie, Gale, Jenn, Eric, and Sasha (who was here visiting me this weekend from Santa Cruz!). Yesterday my dad arrived for a visit. We went on a 5 mile walk today to the beach which I am hoping helps me sleep tonight as I seem to have trouble sleeping these days. It is crazy to go to bed so tired and to then not be able to sleep...it seems as unjust as getting wrinkles and still getting pimples! But I suppose that it isn't totally unreasonable to have a lot of (often cancer related) stuff running through my mind when I go to bed.
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| Sasha - trying on my wig! Wig twins... |
My dad is here until Thursday and he happens to be a very good cook - lucky me! He made me dinner tonight - another real treat for me. :) He will be going to chemo with me tomorrow and we do have a bald photo planned while he is visiting (he is my bald buddy - so I thought it would be good to post a photo of the both of us with our bald heads - so stay posted for the previously promised photo of me bald!).
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| A typical lunch. It's not easy being green. :) |
Thanks also to Matt and Marie-Anne for sending me the novel Pillars of the Earth which I am thoroughly enjoying! I have also signed up for the Sunday New York Times (I figure that New York is a nice midway point between Santa Barbara and London). All of these things will hopefully help me avoid chemo brain...
On the medical front, I will be having an MRI next week to see how much my tumor has shrunk. This will be interesting (please think VERY small tumor thoughts for me)! I also had a consultation last week with Dr. Cotter, the radiologist I will be using in Santa Barbara. The appointment reminded me that I still have a long ways to go in treatment. My radiation treatment will be for 6.5 weeks - every day, Monday - Friday for 15-20 minutes a day. Deep breath! I will start my radiation about 4 weeks after my surgery (another deep breath). So please try and stay with me for the long haul - as I know that I will be facing some moments of medical treatment overload. So remember, I love your silly photos, stories and jokes you send to me to help fill my smile and laughter prescription (seriously, they make me feel so happy!).
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| Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts Sally! |
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| Sally running the Race for the Cure in London! |
Thanks again everyone for your love and support - see you on the other side of Chemo 4!
Hugs,
Jodi
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Post-Chemo 3 Update
Chemo 3 was one week ago. Chris was here with me for my chemo (as you can see!). Everyone at the Cancer Center liked my bright pink wig! It kept making me smile as well. Chris's one-week visit was punctuated by regular doctor appointments: An extended consultation with my oncologist, Dr. Kass; a consultation with a reconstruction surgeon; a consultation with an oncological surgeon; blood tests; and a full day of chemo! So now you all know a cancer-cation is not as glamorous as it sounds! But we did also find time for walks, a few meals out and even two movies - so a heavily medically themed week - but not all cancer focused. :)
My Chinese herbs (see photo) continue to help me manage chemo side effects. Would you believe that the blood test that they did just before chemo 3 showed that my blood count is normal?!
So my immune system looks to be hanging in there. I am convinced that the combination of my Chinese herbal tea, diet, positive attitude and regular exercise are all making a big difference! My spirits are kept high by all of the supportive messages I am receiving - so thanks to all of you for helping me stay strong.
Day 7 and 8 after chemo seem to be my roughest days - this is when the carboplatin (one of my chemo drugs) peaks. Today is day 7 and I slept for nearly 11 hours last night! I plan to go to bed early tonight as well. My mouth feels a little bit funny and water has a metallic taste. I now "spike" my water with cranberry juice (unsweetened of course!), lemon juice or lime juice. That seems to do the trick and helps ensure that I get the high volume of liquids that my body needs.
I won't say too much about our consultation with the reconstruction surgeon, but we learned that when you have radiation treatment after surgery it makes reconstruction more complicated. It is still totally possible to do, but there are more risks due to the way that radiation affects skin and can affect implants (40% of woman develop complications). We saw a few photos as well and they strengthened my thinking that no reconstruction is likely a better bet for me. I am going to talk with some women who are my body type who have had, and have not had, reconstruction and see how that influences my thinking.
We also met with a highly recommended Santa Barbara surgeon, Dr. Grafton. We really liked her! Interestingly, she let us know that they are keen to learn what I am doing to fare so well in my chemo because 40-50% of women have very serious problems enduring my chemo regime - with a number of them having to abandon their chemo. So I am very lucky! We are crossing fingers that the chemo completely wipes out all of my cancer - both of my tumors and the stuff in my lymph nodes (this happens with about 30% of patients). The Santa Barbara Cancer Center also assigned a nurse navigator to me - whose name is Sam. She joined us at our appointment with Dr. Grafton (As an aside, what is great about having a nurse navigator is that she helps me coordinate treatment, get questions answered, joins me at appointments if I want her to, and is available to help me with whatever). I wouldn't get this at UCLA! Thank you SB Cancer Center! Dr. Grafton also talked to us about doing a less traditional surgical approach with my lymph nodes (since they have found some cancer there I will need to have surgery there as well). We still need to read up on it more (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01901094) but essentially, they traditionally take out a small section of lymph nodes (which carries a number of risks). But a newer approach is that they take 3 sentinel lymph nodes during your surgery (rather than 10-20 lymph nodes) and check the sentinel lymph nodes after the surgery to see if there is any cancer. If there is cancer, then they go back in and take out some lymph nodes, if not - no more lymph nodes are removed (hooray)! So this all seems very promising...
As some of you may know, Chris sometimes thinks of me as his slightly wacky California wife...but he is getting into the California spirit now and letting loose. As you can see in the photo, Chris let me put my baseball hat wig on his head! I convinced him to do this by letting him know that it would make me laugh - and of course laughter is part of my therapy so he said OK. And it did make me laugh!! I don't know about you, but I think he could pass for a local (we just need to put a skateboard in his hand and make sure he says "dude" a lot). Excellent, party on.
I went out today bald for the first time. It felt pretty good. I promise to post a bald photo for all of you - but am trying to get a bit of sun on my scalp first so that I don't blind anyone!
xx
Jodi
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| Chris with his crazy pink wife. |
My Chinese herbs (see photo) continue to help me manage chemo side effects. Would you believe that the blood test that they did just before chemo 3 showed that my blood count is normal?!
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| My Chinese herbs or what I like to call - stinky tea! |
Day 7 and 8 after chemo seem to be my roughest days - this is when the carboplatin (one of my chemo drugs) peaks. Today is day 7 and I slept for nearly 11 hours last night! I plan to go to bed early tonight as well. My mouth feels a little bit funny and water has a metallic taste. I now "spike" my water with cranberry juice (unsweetened of course!), lemon juice or lime juice. That seems to do the trick and helps ensure that I get the high volume of liquids that my body needs.
I won't say too much about our consultation with the reconstruction surgeon, but we learned that when you have radiation treatment after surgery it makes reconstruction more complicated. It is still totally possible to do, but there are more risks due to the way that radiation affects skin and can affect implants (40% of woman develop complications). We saw a few photos as well and they strengthened my thinking that no reconstruction is likely a better bet for me. I am going to talk with some women who are my body type who have had, and have not had, reconstruction and see how that influences my thinking.
We also met with a highly recommended Santa Barbara surgeon, Dr. Grafton. We really liked her! Interestingly, she let us know that they are keen to learn what I am doing to fare so well in my chemo because 40-50% of women have very serious problems enduring my chemo regime - with a number of them having to abandon their chemo. So I am very lucky! We are crossing fingers that the chemo completely wipes out all of my cancer - both of my tumors and the stuff in my lymph nodes (this happens with about 30% of patients). The Santa Barbara Cancer Center also assigned a nurse navigator to me - whose name is Sam. She joined us at our appointment with Dr. Grafton (As an aside, what is great about having a nurse navigator is that she helps me coordinate treatment, get questions answered, joins me at appointments if I want her to, and is available to help me with whatever). I wouldn't get this at UCLA! Thank you SB Cancer Center! Dr. Grafton also talked to us about doing a less traditional surgical approach with my lymph nodes (since they have found some cancer there I will need to have surgery there as well). We still need to read up on it more (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01901094) but essentially, they traditionally take out a small section of lymph nodes (which carries a number of risks). But a newer approach is that they take 3 sentinel lymph nodes during your surgery (rather than 10-20 lymph nodes) and check the sentinel lymph nodes after the surgery to see if there is any cancer. If there is cancer, then they go back in and take out some lymph nodes, if not - no more lymph nodes are removed (hooray)! So this all seems very promising...
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| Looks Californian to me... |
As some of you may know, Chris sometimes thinks of me as his slightly wacky California wife...but he is getting into the California spirit now and letting loose. As you can see in the photo, Chris let me put my baseball hat wig on his head! I convinced him to do this by letting him know that it would make me laugh - and of course laughter is part of my therapy so he said OK. And it did make me laugh!! I don't know about you, but I think he could pass for a local (we just need to put a skateboard in his hand and make sure he says "dude" a lot). Excellent, party on.
I went out today bald for the first time. It felt pretty good. I promise to post a bald photo for all of you - but am trying to get a bit of sun on my scalp first so that I don't blind anyone!
xx
Jodi
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| My paper flowers from little Charlotte! |
Monday, May 4, 2015
Chemo 3, May 5th: Pink Tuesday
I have been a bit slack with my blog posts - but I seem to stay very busy with my treatment regimen! I can't believe that my next chemo is tomorrow (Cinco de Mayo). We have been trying really hard to keep my diet a strongly anti-cancer one! To this end, I highly recommend a cookbook called the The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen cookbook by Rebecca Katz. Regardless of whether you or a loved one has cancer, this book is a wealth of information about plant foods that have cancer fighting properties - which is good for anyone who wants to be healthier. Wow! The book is so very interesting...and has helped really widen our knowledge of how important diet is in maintaining optimal health. It is an empowering book and I highly recommend it! In fact, Teresa and Carolyn came over for a cooking session where we made a few of the cookbook recipes with my mom (when I say "we cooked", I sat on the bar stool watched and just provided moral support! It was one of my rougher days, but having these lovely ladies hanging out in my kitchen really lifted my spirits!).
So my other health news is that I am now on a regime of Chinese herbs - we are big fans of Dr. Han here in Santa Barbara! I take his prescribed tea three times a day and it includes things like - Bamboo Shavings, Lyciium Root Bark, Salvia Root, Poria, Pinelia etc. (yum yum, yes, it tastes as good as it sounds) and I can honestly say that the tea has really helped curb my unsettled tummy, reduced my fatigue issues, and improved my appetite. He is a long-time, well-respected doctor here in SB, trained in both Eastern and Western medicine, so we felt confident going to him!
Chris is here visiting now. Hooray! He continues to be so very supportive! And I have to admit that although many people tell me how strong I am and what a great attitude I have (which I think is generally true), Chris is the person who knows that I do have my moments of frustration and sadness - and he helps me through - and the moments do pass. But I would be grateful if you could all help me convince him to be a little more generous with the foot rubs (I am convinced that if he rubbed my feet every day, that my occasional moments when I feel bleak would completely disappear!). Please feel free to let him know if you agree. :)
My mom and dad headed back to Arizona over a week ago. Can I just say again what superstars they are! I am so grateful for their love and support. And I was so happy to have my beautiful niece Morgin visit for a few days! She brought all kinds of good energy and smiles into our home during her visit! She also spoiled me with a variety of fun things such as - an apron (since I spend a lot of my time preparing food in the kitchen, a cool black hat, and some movies and TV shows) - thank you Morgin for making your visit happen.
I also continue to receive lovely notes and gifts from friends (Johana and Delphine thank you for my books and Emily I love my scarf from India)! It is very exciting to receive cards and little packages in the mail. And when Chris arrived in Santa Barbara, he came armed with thoughtful gifts from some of our friends in London! Emma & TC, Kerryn & Jason &Taylor & Tristan, and Sara & Jeb, thank you for sending your love and making me miss all of you and London even more!). We will have a proper celebration with all of our London friends when I am back (Meerlust Rubicon all around)!
Finally, my friends here in Santa Barbara are still nothing less than amazing! Our fabulous friend Regina came and stayed with me for a few days and I loved having her company. She helped me feel calm and cooked some fabulous food for us (although we were naughty and made some vegan, almond flour, chocolate chip and cherry cookies - of which only a few remain and Chris and I will be polishing them off tonight!), and most importantly Regina made me smile and laugh!
So tomorrow, May 5th is my 3rd chemo here in SB. Chris and my mom convinced me to wear my new pink wig! So stay tuned for a photo from chemo that is sure to make you smile - and perhaps even laugh (this is my gift of laughter therapy for all of you!). And as always it is great to get emails from you during chemo - anything uplifting, silly, or downright funny is welcomed!
Chris and I will see you on the other side of chemo 3!
xx
Jodi
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| My wonderful kitchen crew making chickpea burgers! |
So my other health news is that I am now on a regime of Chinese herbs - we are big fans of Dr. Han here in Santa Barbara! I take his prescribed tea three times a day and it includes things like - Bamboo Shavings, Lyciium Root Bark, Salvia Root, Poria, Pinelia etc. (yum yum, yes, it tastes as good as it sounds) and I can honestly say that the tea has really helped curb my unsettled tummy, reduced my fatigue issues, and improved my appetite. He is a long-time, well-respected doctor here in SB, trained in both Eastern and Western medicine, so we felt confident going to him!
Chris is here visiting now. Hooray! He continues to be so very supportive! And I have to admit that although many people tell me how strong I am and what a great attitude I have (which I think is generally true), Chris is the person who knows that I do have my moments of frustration and sadness - and he helps me through - and the moments do pass. But I would be grateful if you could all help me convince him to be a little more generous with the foot rubs (I am convinced that if he rubbed my feet every day, that my occasional moments when I feel bleak would completely disappear!). Please feel free to let him know if you agree. :)
 |
| Morgin, Mom and me trying my wig in public for the first time (happy to report no wig mishaps (wig in soup etc.) |
My mom and dad headed back to Arizona over a week ago. Can I just say again what superstars they are! I am so grateful for their love and support. And I was so happy to have my beautiful niece Morgin visit for a few days! She brought all kinds of good energy and smiles into our home during her visit! She also spoiled me with a variety of fun things such as - an apron (since I spend a lot of my time preparing food in the kitchen, a cool black hat, and some movies and TV shows) - thank you Morgin for making your visit happen.
 |
| My sweet nieces Morgin and Delaney, with Delaney's boyfriend Tanner and Mom and Dad at Hendry's Beach. |
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| Hey, that is a wig baseball hat! |
I also continue to receive lovely notes and gifts from friends (Johana and Delphine thank you for my books and Emily I love my scarf from India)! It is very exciting to receive cards and little packages in the mail. And when Chris arrived in Santa Barbara, he came armed with thoughtful gifts from some of our friends in London! Emma & TC, Kerryn & Jason &Taylor & Tristan, and Sara & Jeb, thank you for sending your love and making me miss all of you and London even more!). We will have a proper celebration with all of our London friends when I am back (Meerlust Rubicon all around)!
Finally, my friends here in Santa Barbara are still nothing less than amazing! Our fabulous friend Regina came and stayed with me for a few days and I loved having her company. She helped me feel calm and cooked some fabulous food for us (although we were naughty and made some vegan, almond flour, chocolate chip and cherry cookies - of which only a few remain and Chris and I will be polishing them off tonight!), and most importantly Regina made me smile and laugh!
So tomorrow, May 5th is my 3rd chemo here in SB. Chris and my mom convinced me to wear my new pink wig! So stay tuned for a photo from chemo that is sure to make you smile - and perhaps even laugh (this is my gift of laughter therapy for all of you!). And as always it is great to get emails from you during chemo - anything uplifting, silly, or downright funny is welcomed!
Chris and I will see you on the other side of chemo 3!
xx
Jodi
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