Enhertu #12: Aka The Last One Before I Move. + Zometa

It can be sad to leave a place you have grown to love.  Weird, that I have positive feelings for this place,
but the people are wonderful and have worked wonders in my life while I've been a patient here.  What better way to help them never forget me than showing up with a bunch or party boxes of cookies?

Today was the normal schedule of things.: port accessed, meet with Dr. Cole, head to the other side for the infusion, wait for pharmacy drug lord sloths to approve and mis my drugs. I've only been on this exact treatment 11 times before.  CAUTION! Patient might have a life-ending negative reaction this time. We must check and double check everything to save patient from her oncologist....just in case.  

With my last appointment with Dr. Coolio, the cancer part of it all was all good news.  My labs today and vitals are looking to be in top-too shape.  Everything is in normal range!

The scans results also look great. 1)Nothing new in my brain.  Only saw residual from previous radiation there.  2)Abdomen looking good.  Lesion previously found on pancreas is nearly undetectable.  Everything else is also very tiny or no longer seen with CT 3)Results are mostly unremarkable.  Fix noyivr the remnants of something un my lungs, but most likely left over from inflammation (not cancerous).

Not too shabby of a last report from UT Southwester Richardson/Plano!

This will be the last time I'm escorted to the patient room to meet with Cole or Alisa or any of those nurses.  When I strolled in with boxes of cookies, calling out "It's Cooper's last day!" some thought that it was my very last day of chemo.  No...just at this place in this state! 

All hooked up and ready to start.  Use in room 1: We might for the first time for the last time, and I'm sorry that you didn't want a cookie because you didn't want to ruin your healthy lunch.  I wish you good luck.  

I've been through all the seasons with this view once. (All two of them that seem to exist here--three days ago, it was freezing, and I was scraping ice off my windshield; today it's trying to reach record highs with 3- mph winds and gusts up to 40 mph!)  It will be a new adventure at a new setting with new hospital staff to meet.  I accept the mission ahead.  

And suddenly you just know it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.-- Meister Eckhart

As our move from Texas to New Mexico draws closer---5 days from now to be exact---I think about all the comments I've received and gasps of shock and concern about all the things that need doing before a moving.  

"Why there?"

"Will you be close to family?"

"What about your cancer treatments?"

"What about your boys and their schools/friends/sports?"

"Do you have a house yet?"

"Did your house sell?"

"Are you nervous?"

Yes, I'm nervous.  Who wouldn't be?  I'm headed to a new state, setting up another home, starting up with my FOURTH oncologist, registering three boys into new schools and sports teams and going to a place I've only driven through a few times in my life on the way to somewhere else.  I am nervous, but also excited.  When this opportunity became an actual offer, Stephen and I looked at all the positives and negatives.  We pondered and prayed and partitioned our parents for advice. It all came down to feeling at peace with this new path,  There is some purpose in thiexperience. I know it.

In addition to my plan for striving to stay alive for at least one year at a time to allow new chemo to come way, I also believe there is a purpose in me living Whether it is just for me to continue to experience the world, or being a mother to three children and a wife to my husband, or to inspire, uplift, teach and shine light on the unfair and unexpected troubles that come to all, while attempting to be an example of faith through affliction, I'm not sure.  I could just be lucky, but all the miracle sI've seen through this journey tell me that's not all.  There are countless reasons  for me to stick around. 

Hopefully,  some of those reasons for this new adventure will become clear soon, but if not, I will keep fighting.  

For anyone thinking of taking their own new first step into an adventure, here's some words that others have shared:

 .     

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

Ernest Hemingway

You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong.

Sue Fitzmaurice

If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.

Rachel Wolchin

One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.

William Feather

“Then one day, when you least expect it, the great adventure finds you.”  

Ewan McGregor

Last Scans in Frisco

 It never fails.  Every time it comes time for scans, someone asks if I'm nervous/worried.  

I'd be lying if I said that bad results were never on my mind, but I prefer to focus on the positive.  There have been great scan results in the past and terrible ones, too.  But, I hold on to the hope that things will work out fine.  Whether these come back still clear or with news of a new tumor growth, I know that I will face and fight it with faith.   

The techs have come and gone over the last few years.  Only one of my two personal favorites, Dan and Suzie, remains.  Dan has moved on to a different hospital, and Susie shared that he asks about me every they meet.  They have made a great impact in my journey.  After hearing this bit of information, my mind pondered on how I have made an impression on them, as well.   Why do some people come in to our lives for such a short time, but leave a lasting influence? I'm not sure why or how it all works, but I do know that kindness and smiles do wonders.  

The scans went well.  I feel at peace, either way the results come out.  I know that I have support and love from so many sources that I will be empowered to continue fighting.  

I had lunch with one of these sources, this week.  This friend has been an incredible example of strength and faith in the face of hardship.  She has endured great trials and kept up her fight in all the hard things and is beyond strong. And, she told me to not give up the fight.  She helped remind me that "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." (Phillipians 4:13) When I believe this and become this, I feel that I am truly strong, like my strong friend, and can keep fighting.

January 2022 marks NINE YEARS that I have been on this journey!  I joked in the beginning, that I just needed to keep living a year at a time, and the next new drug would be released.  As I think on my gratitude for this year, my mind knows that all the wonderful memories from this year are because of this new drug I have been on, and doctors and nurses and family and friends who have ministered to me.  And, they are all , whether they realize it or not, acting in God's name.  

And, this love, service, and charity is what this time of year is all about.  I have the hope and faith to keep on fighting and kicking cancer to the curb.