My Cancer Story

January 2011 I started chemotherapy.

My first round of chemo was described as follows:

My first week of chemotherapy was very... scheduled. My mom typed up a schedule and taped it to my computer so that when I woke up in the morning, I could follow it.

1. Wake up on empty stomach
2. Take Kytril (anti-nausea med)
3. Wait or go back to sleep for 30 minutes
4. Take Tremodar (chemo med)
5. Wait or go back to sleep for 1 hour
6. Eat, take other medications, etc.

Surprisingly, I was very good at remembering the schedule every morning. And yes, I was lucky and somehow managed to get pill chemo. And hey- if you have to have chemo, this is the way to go.

Days 1 - 3 were easy-peasy. I spent most of my time at the Ray (family)'s house hanging out with the kids in the family. Their daughter Kristina was about to head back to college, so I spent as much time as possible there. They thought it was funny how good I was feeling and they would make jokes, but I was thinking "Hey... I lucked out! Pill chemo, and no side effects?! Holla!"

Then I woke up morning of Day 4, and I felt like crap. I was nauseous and tired and just felt awful. I felt sick all day, and that continued day 5. Those side effects even carried over to the first day after chemo. It was no fun because I was hungry, but I couldn't really eat anything.

Since then, I have been feeling pretty good, just hungry. As I try to explain it, it's like you literally feel full but you're starving. Confusing? Welcome to my life.

I had been sick but compared to what came next... It was nothing.

The second month of chemo, I took a trip. On my trip to Utah I got really sick. I weighed myself, and I was down to 111 pounds, which is underweight on the BMI scale and really scary for someone who is already skinny enough. I got so sick that I was constantly nauseous and had zero appetite. Nothing sounded good. Everything made me sick--so sick, in fact, that I stopped eating all together. That was bad news. I started getting very very weak and felt like I was gonna faint. I called my mom and explained what was going on. She told me that if I didn't get liquid and some food in my system, I was going to have to be hospitalized to get the nutrients I needed. I was totally bummed out. My aunt Carol stopped by and told me I had a fever and that I did not look well. She told me to pack my bags and that I was going to stay with her. So, I stayed at her house for a week where I had vitamin water, oranges, bananas, applesauce, bread, and other good foods like tomatoes :) My aunt made sure I ate 3 meals a day and made sure I was getting protein (peanut butter goodness), and after a week, I started feeling better. Not great, but better.

The next 4 months were much better. I was home and my health could be monitored. It was quite similar to my first month just gradually getting a little bit worse every month.

Then I got the most incredible news. News I had only dreamt of hearing at this point.

Yesterday I had an MRI. The MRI was to determine whether or not I would continue with 6 more months of chemotherapy. Today I met with my Oncologist, Dr. Patel, to go over the MRI. She went over the results and let me know that my MRI was clean, and that I am officially in remission! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this time. I am officially a cancer survivor!

I could not have been happier in that moment. And although I have MRIs every 6 months, I will take that over having to go through cancer again. I am one lucky lucky girl. 

- J