Helpful hints to all the sisters out there

Just the other week while waiting in the oncology reception area I saw, if you like, a new graduate class of cancer victims waiting with bandanas, beanies or scarves for their chemo treatments. I flashed anyone who caught my eye a reassuring 'I know I have been there' smile and then pondered the last 11 months.
Next month I will have completed and won the first year's battle against breast cancer with many many mixed emotions both good, bad and down right hilarious!

A wonderful work colleague I met years ago just the other day sent me an encouraging letter and the book, Surviving Breast Cancer by Carolyn Weston which I devoured in one night. I got so much out of reading the living stories of breast cancer survivors I couldn't put it down and would thoroughly recommend this to others out there who have come face to face with cancer!

I think it would be timely to include helpful hints for women out there who are about to embark on the most bizarrest trip of their life!

1. Be kind to yourself (why put yourself through the stress when you don't need to or it) and take to heart the old saying, 'one day at a time' and practise it

2. Keep a positive attitude because there is always someone else out there that is much worse off than yourself

4. Cry and don't hold back even when the kids look at you sideways and the neighbours can hear

5. Surround yourself with good, strong, honest and crazy people

6. Rockburn Pinot Noir or Falling Waters (Chi'i with 42 Below Vodka Feijoa flavour & if you have time a slice of cucumber) in moderation of course...buwahahahaha

7. Ask every specialist you see 101 questions because it is your right and your health

8. Tell your loved ones when you are having the day from hell and need 'head clearing' space

9. Accept help from everyone that offers it

10. Take someone with you to all your appointments particularly if you are having chemo for a good chinwag and someone to drive you home (applies to radiotherapy appointments as well)

11. Expect to have meltdowns throughout the entire journey - even during the 11th month - and don't beat yourself up for it either, just get up and get on with it.

12. Take a chill pill and decide not to stress the wee things that don't really matter in the bigger picture

13. Don't expect too much from your partner and remember you will get through it all - together whether it be kicking or screaming

14. Cancer doesn't make your family immune to 'teenage dramas' or life in general so pick your fights carefully and reserve your energy for the unexpected

15. Celebrate every milestone and share your experience with others because I know those that shared with me helped me more than they will ever come to realise.

***PERFORMING ARTS FUNDRAISER***

No I.O.U's or excuses peeps just put your money where your mouth is and come and support my Herceptin fundraising event. The last concert we held was fantastic so this one promises to be another fantastic night of fabuloso (as Mariah Carey would say) entertainment.

Once again Kelston Boys High School have come to the party and allowed us the use of their premises. The Kelston community have gotten behind me all the way since day dot, you guys just freaking ROCK!!!
The committee have put together a performing arts fundraiser this time, so come and check out Kiwi's home grown talent in the form of Lil Saints, Legacy and more.
Nesian Mystik's will grace the stage with their unique poly sound - thanks guys! And Dawn Raid Entertainment have jumped on board with the likes of Mareko and more fantastic talent!!
All this will be happening at Kelston Boys High School on the corner of Archibald and St Leonards Rds, Kelston on Friday 26 September and kicks off at 7.30pm.
For those working, studying or on your way to Friday night drinks in town, tickets can be purchased from Real Groovy Records in Queen Street OR contact either Las 021 2643164 OR Epe 021 1524832 with your name, number and the number of tickets that you require.
General Admission: $21
Family (2 adults & up to 4 kids 6-12yrs): $60
5yrs & under: FREE
Door sales: $25 (Limited door sales)
Doors will open at 6.30pm and for one night of the week NO ALCOHOL PERMITTED (buwhaahaahaa)

There has been loads of time, heart, sweat and soul put into organising this night and it would be fantastic to have you all there to witness, be a part of the support network and fill the hall to absolute capacity....so grab your rallies and mates and come out to scream the house down with us!!! And if you were at our last concert the adorable and hilarious Yolande Ah Chong will be Queen of Hosts for us again...bless ya gal..!!

I've aged 20 years since Oct 07...

I've been preoccupied with other areas of life to be blogging lately however this is no means the end of my trials and tribulations or joys and truimphs - pull out the violin's.
But it would be quite timely to mention that cancer does not exclude the trauma stages of teens nor does it make them take the easy road to adolescence out of love for a mother with breast cancer.
I had hoped that my family could have escaped the terrors of teens but just as I did not escape cancer nor have I escaped the troubled teen stage - sigh or shite as has been the case of late.
Again I figure that if I could live through a mastectomy, chemo treatment, radio treatment, side effects and tonnes and tonnes of yucky tests then it should have toughened me mentally and emotionally for other parts of my life and many times throughout the past months I have survived the day without cracking - just.
Anywho, with everything else that has just snowballed in our lives lately, I haven't forgetten the kindness people have shown in our time of need nor would I intentionally not mention the hard work people put in for my Herceptin. Far from it, it really is a case of tending to other matters that is not cancer related even though I would liken it to cancer sometimes...LOL...I wish that chemo could kill some of the behaviours of our teens and radio would burn out their desire to grow up too fast - and I heard all the mum's out there say 'amen'.

I begin Herceptin in 6 weeks. I'm not looking forward to the needles or the bloods but I will be looking forward to 2009 when I will look back and sigh with relief that I got through the cancer treatment and I survived another year in one of the hardest roles in life...parenting (through cancer).

DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE YOUR $5 TICKETS FOR THIS HAMPER (Alcohol, choclates & meat vouchers)

This hamper will give some lucky person several last minute birthday or xmas pressies or you can crack open a bottle with friends over a few winter dinners!!

ALCOHOL HAMPER (valued at over $250.00)

Includes

1 x Bombay Sapphire (Gin)

1 x 42 Below Feijoa (Vodka)

1 x Jim Beam

1 x Alize (blue)

2 x Lindauer

2 x Cabernet Sauvignon

1 x Sauvignon Blanc

1 x Chardonnay

1 x Deutz Marlborough

Plus a delectable variety of chocolates

AND

$100 meat vouchers

(kindly donated by Mad Butchers with an expiry date of October 08 hence the addition to our wonderful hamper !!)

Tickets ONLY $5.00

If you would like to buy a ticket email all4sarvs@yahoo.co.nz (subject: hamper).

Drawn under Police supervision the winner to be notified by 1st September 2008

Che che & thanks for ya support,

Demons, Sunday roast and piddle patch

OMG we have been slogging it for nearly 8 months now and when updating the 'What's on the board Miss Ford' section, the number of treatments secured doesn't seem to have increased for months which is probably because it hasn't and the total amount is still daunting not to mention an absolute pisser...LOL (well hey what else can you do aye?). It hasn't been without effort because the effort has been huge and the support has been undying.
My committee on the face of it has changed somewhat but the commitment is still there. I've been absolutely blessed by the ongoing work from them while I have silently challenged the demons in my head and slowly lost my marbles....!!
Not only fighting demons, I unfortunately still have many many senior moments (does being 40 qualify for 'senior moments'?).
One Sunday before heading off for an afternoon nana nap, I prepped our Sunday roast. Oven turned on ready for the beef, potatoes, kumara, parsnips, pumpkin, garlic...mmmm...anyways, prepped it all and headed off for my nap. Ashamedly, I ended up napping for 2 1/2 hours!! Fortunately I didn't burn the roast or the trimmings because unfortunately I forgot to put it in the oven...sigh...
Another time, Ice our pup did a bit of a wopsie on the floor unbeknown to me. Heading towards the piddle patch my husband stopped me and warned me Ice had had an accident so don't step in it. So I don't step it but I plonk my handbag right in the middle of it....hastily picking it up I walk off to wipe and clean it off annoyed with Ice. Not finishing what I needed to say to my husband, I drop my handbag away from the piddle patch and then bloody stand right in it...I'm not annoyed anymore, but in hysterics at myself!
My brother inlaw kindly loaded the pics from our golf fundraiser on his work memory stick - months ago...I put it in a safe place, so bloody safe that not even I can steal it because I don't know where the safe place is...sigh...
Hand over heart, laughter is truly the best medicine. Even the demons in my head that come out occasionally have to go away and laugh!

I AM SO PEED OFF...!!

To watch a fairly young caucasian male and an Asian women with Dr as her title, sit in front of the nation including women with families and friends who are struggling to fundraise for Herceptin and lie to our faces that their idiotic and pathetic excuse to yet again decline women with HER2+ breast cancer the full 12 months of Herceptin and then have the audacity to lie and pretend that it has nothing to do with money absolutely infuriates me to no end. How dare they put my family and friends under so much stress and pressure. I could guarantee that one of their annual salaries could comfortably pay for majority of my Herceptin treatment too.

I watched the news with my family and I knew that they would be disappointed but I didn't realise that the reaction from my teens would be so strong. We don't promote swearing in our home but I knew they wanted to and for the first time I wouldn't have batted an eyelid if they had. The spokespeople for Pharmac did not even sound or looked convinced themselves - WTF!!!

My vote is going to National and I am sure that many of the women with HER2+ breast cancer and their families and friends will swing their votes this way too because as they said Herceptin has now become a political issue, and Labour hiding behind the skirts of idiots who at Pharmac can kiss their votes good bye.

Labour and Pharmac will be held responsible for all the women in NZ who have HER2+ breast cancer. Cancer is cancer.

So where to from here...

More freaking fundraising...sigh...for more treatment...sigh...but on the plus side I could even try to get my fat thighs and ass to the gym eventually to start shredding some of the chemo kilos. Okay who am I kidding, teensy weensy baby steps first. I will continue to take our puppy out for walks in the afternoons firstly to oil the almost ceased up bode and then progress s-l-o-w-l-y back to recommence my fitness programme that I had started before I started chemotherapy back in January.

Ice, pictured on the right (our pitbull cross dogo puppy who is now 4 months) took me for a power walk today and when I say power walk I mean he flexed his power (brat but oh so cute puppy) on me by pulling me along our street. I must have been a sight in my ware-whare designer gummies, beanie and long jacket trying to stay balanced...LOL! Of course having had no strength training on my right side or either of my sides for months (okay, years) I used up all of my energy and what was left in the reserve tank trying to be the boss....and failed....and I kid you not, almost fainted at our doorstep when we got back home. Umm I have to confess we live in a very big like fish hook avenue and I only managed to get halfway round it before I had to turn back - we live at the top of the hook end...pathetic I know!....

Alright, this week a call to the oncologist to discuss when I start Herceptin, blood tests for my PVT and results (which I am meant to have at the beginning of every month but I forget or have managed to talk myself out of going to the bleeding room - naughty I know) and finally bring myself to not just book my breast clinic appointment but also remember to attend it for my ultrasound and check up on the new boob. I still have my $1 pocket diary for appointment entries trouble is I forget to enter the bloody appointments....ahh sigh...

DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE YOUR $5 RAFFLE TICKETS FOR OUR HAMPER!! thanx

Nuked no more...

I was nuked for the last time yesturday. There was a feeling of excitement, relief and sadness.
Excitement and relief that another phase of my treatment plan had been completed - another chapter closed.
And sadness. Every day for 5 1/2 weeks you allow yourself to become involved to some degree with a team of specialists formed not by choice but for my convenience and my welfare.
My MV4 Radio team made everyday as fun and as seamless as possible. Obviously the necessary qualifications and skills are needed to be there in the first place but you also needed to have that 'x' factor personality to preoccupy, entertain and nurse patients through radiotherapy treatments. Sadly, I will miss them and it will be totally weird not getting called to change into the sexy hospital gown and having them move, shift and mark me up for treatment ever again!
Plus the warm friendly greeting I would receive every afternoon. I will miss Selina with the lolly jar (or was it Serena, oh gosh forgive me, I'll blame the treatment!!!!)

Fatigue. I managed to cope with this through treatment and it has been a different type of fatigue to the chemotherapy fatigue.
Radio fatigue has been constant because good cells were being killed daily and the energy needed to replace the good cells - well it completely overcame me; early on in the piece I gave up fighting it and learnt to listen to my body. So when my eyes could no longer physically stay open, my brain mentally started to shut down and the body went from lethagic to a comatose state, um it was a clear sign to rest completely and my household stopped....hahahaha! Apparently I am to expect to continue to feel the fatigue for another 6 - 8 weeks.

The visible side effects came in the last week of my treatment by what my daughter describes as a huge as hiki - charming! The areas where I've had treatment are clearly visible now and looking like I have been burnt it is also irritable and sore to touch. Time again will heal.


Next chapter, Herceptin.

Angela, Andrew and Dominic - thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Happy memories banked for life

Toilet bag packed.
Travel bags packed.
Gummies cleaned and packed.
Checklist checked again and again, just in case.
Thunder and heavy rains would not get in the way of this trip. And this time it was not to Acute Oncology at Auckland Hospital!

After a very turbulant 45 minute trip from Auckland to New Plymouth I had finally escaped the daily reminder of cancer. Away from the hospital appointments, oncologists, radiotherapy treatments, blood tests and fundraising for Herceptin.
Actually the only thing that came close to the pains of cancer was the daily Clexane injections for my blood clots but other than that the fantastic group of parents we travelled with, the great netball games witnessed from the sidelines, the enjoyable relaxing evenings over wine, cheese and crackers with the groupie parents, the constant laughter, the snow and our Wellingtonian family who travelled up to New Plymouth to see us too...aaahhhh I didn't want the great feeling of triumph, freedom and happiness to end....and it didn't. Our U15 Netball Waitakere team coming 3rd out of 37 teams and having three of our players selected for the U15 Tournament Team 2008 definitely truimphed over the minor health issue that I encountered in New Plymouth.
I lived for every minute in the moment and it was just the best, the absolute best!!

Many happy memories banked for life - thank you everyone...

Week 3, radiotherapy

Regularly I feel nauseated, there is tingling and numbness in my right arm (which is not from radiotherapy and more than likely from surgery and chemotherapy), tenderness around my right breast and for crying out loud I have an almost rock hard cement pocket for a breast but it is normal while going through radio and normally subsides and goes back to normal sometime after radio is finished - phew coz it cost a bit that new boob job!

My longsuffering hubby or my darling mate Treez pick me up from either work or home and drive me to and from radiotherapy treatment. I had all intentions of driving myself there and back BUT am very grateful that I don't (and so will Auckland commuters) because immediately after treatment I am doggone tired and can bearly keep my eyes open!

The reason for the fatigue I have been told is because radiotherapy kills the cancer cells from the original site but also kills off the good healthy cells (didn't that think I would have any left after chemo) so my body is using a lot of energy making good healthy cells again. When I get home my family no longer ask what's for dinner because I have already hit the pillow and fallen off to sleep.
I listen to my body a lot more since cancer because this is my second shot at life so I want to preserve and look after me a lot more. It's not selfish and I've learnt to be much kinder to myself.
Far out it took cancer for me to treat me right, look after me better and to be much kinder to me and while it might appear to be all about me it isn't really in the end because if I am not well then my family suffers. So if you look after numero uno, numero uno can be there for everyone else.