My First Radiation...

I went for my first radiation treatment today and I sure hope it gets better :( First of all, they couldn't find one of the tattoos, they even used a flashlight to try and find the dot, but ultimately couldn't. I know they marked me, I felt it the other day and the lady even swore she did it, but for some reason it just didn't show up. Sooooo, they had to tattoo me again on the left side :( ouch. Other than that, they had to do a lot of x-rays (which took about 30-40 minutes) of laying in the same position. Remember...my back hurts, so it was really hard to lay flat and still for that long :( I took two vicodin before going in, but they didn't seem to help at all. I managed to get through the radiation and they promised me that from now on it'll only take about 15 minutes...I sure hope so. After we were all done, they went over skin care with me, and how I should apply some aloe vera gel to the affected area and also some lotion afterwards. They also mentioned that I may have some trouble with nausea and vomiting. Since we've already gone down that route for a year with chemotherapy, I wasn't concerned in the least. Well...half way home, my stomach started to get upset and by the time we got home, I was running for the bathroom. I haven't vomited like that in a very long time :( I even managed to take some anti-nausea meds on the way home, but couldn't catch it in time. Oh well, like I said, I'm hoping for the best!

On a lighter note...my son Johnny got his driver's license today!! Yahoo for him. We're so proud of him, he's such a good kid.

Today is a day of new beginnings. Good luck Johnny, I pray to God that you are safe out there on the roads. I pray that not only are you careful behind the wheel, but that others around you are just as cautious.

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving was quiet, yet sweet at the Mark household this year. We usually spend the holiday in San Jose with John's family hosted by his mother and step-father, but since the passing of his mother changed all of that, we chose to stay home. Thanksgiving actually came upon us quite suddenly and we hadn't made any concrete plans as to which house we would be attending and at the same time, we had the usual obstacle of John having to work early the next morning. So we decided to stay home, all alone. Although that sounds sad, it wasn't. John loves to cook and has even brought up the idea of hosting next year so that he can do it all over again. We did miss the family, but we texted and called all day to keep in touch with everyone :)

Tomorrow starts my radiation journey. Although it's only two weeks, I'm not looking forward to driving across town every day for my treatment. I hope the time flies bye :) And of course I hope it doesn't hurt! I spoke w/my brother Jeff the other day and he said that Sheryl's brother (his brother-in-law Mike) actually works on the radiation machines and has offered to give me a tour sometime! I'm fascinated by how it all works, so that sounds like lots of fun. Anyway, he went on to tell me some interesting tidbits about the process and how although the doctors say there's a slight chance of injury to some of my organs, he says there's a slim-to-none chance of that ever happening. He says that they are so precise nowadays that if you happened to have cancer on the end of your eyelashes, they could actually zap that w/out harming your eye!!! Now that's incredible :) Just hearing that put me at ease...so thank you Mike!!

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

Radiation Consultation...

Friday was a long day. John and I went to my Radiation Consultation at 9:00 and although I was very nervous about getting started, it ended up not being so bad after all. It took a couple hours to position me exactly on the table where it wouldn't hurt (with wedges underneath my knees) and my arms positioned above my head holding onto a bar before we finally got the right angles. When everything was all aligned perfectly, the technician marked my skin with a sharpie and then followed it up with a small tattoo! I had heard somebody mention that they would tattoo my skin, but it still came as quite a shock for some reason. She ended up tattooing a spot on my stomach and one on both hips. Although they're planning to do radiation to my spinal area, they apparently go through the front and sides of me to get there. There is a very, very slim chance that my organs will be damaged as a result of radiation, but that is always a risk. I guess when you're in a position like this with cancer, the good outweighs the bad by far. When they're actually performing the radiation, a large arm of the machine will go underneath the table to zap my back. I'm very curious about all of this. I'm sort of lucky that my radiation is only 2 weeks (because we're zapping the spine & not the breast) because usually radiation to the breast is 6 weeks :(

During this process they naturally asked me lots of questions and one of them was when I started on chemotherapy and after giving it some thought, it was exactly one year ago to the day! Isn't that odd?! To start Radiation on the same day a year later sure makes it easy to remember!

That afternoon, I went for my last chemotherapy (for a few weeks). This marks chemo #39 and after the radiation Dr. Hui will determine whether or not we'll be returning to the Gemzar or starting on a new chemo. This chemo has been very easy on me. The only thing that I'm suffering with right now are my sinuses. However, with a little over the counter medicine, I'm good to go :)

I wish you all LOVE, PEACE, and HAPPINESS today!! ♥ Love, Genie

Allergic Reaction...

This past Friday I went for my chemotherapy treatment #38. Since it was late in the afternoon, I believe there was a scheduling issue and they couldn't give me one of the usual drugs I receive once a month to protect my bones, it's called Aredia. Anyway, Aredia is usually a 3 hour treatment and because I've had an allergic reaction in the past while they were administering Aredia, I'm automatically set up for a 4 hour drip instead. Since it was late, they rescheduled the Aredia for Monday @ 9:00. Well...6 1/2 hours later and 2 attempts to get the Aredia in me, they ultimately stopped the drip and called it a day because I kept breaking out in a rash. Apparently they were able to get 3/4 of my treatment finished. Holy cow, it was 3:30 by the time I was walking out of there!! Besides the Aredia and the wonderful rash that it causes me, they also gave me some Decadron steroid that keeps me up all night :( You would think I would be used to all of this by now, but nope. I don't like change much and going in on Monday after just being there Friday, rocked my routine. Oh well, it's all good now. Ultimately, they will probably have to switch the Aredia to an alternate drug (which I forget the name of) because I am the only patient that they can ever recall having a reaction to this particular drug. Lovely. They even had the pharmacist try and research if anyone had ever had a reaction to Aredia and she couldn't find anything!! It figures....LOL!!

John is still recovering from Hernia surgery. He had to officially report back to work today. He did go in this past Saturday, followed up by two days off, so it doesn't really count. This is his first day of an entire workweek, I hope he's able to hang in there and not overdo it! I hope he reaches out and asks for help whenever necessary.

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

Girl's Day Out...

Yesterday Jordan and I went to get our hair done! (Sorry no pictures attached) It's almost been a year and a half since I last had my hair done and it felt SO good. First of all, Jordan had about an inch taken off, layers around her face and some low-lights put in. For those who aren't familiar with low-lights, it's when you have blond hair and want to put in dark streaks. I on the other hand, had her do an all-over base color (getting rid of the gray) and I had her add high-lights. My hair is still too short for a haircut, so we didn't cut any off. She touched up my neckline and left the rest alone. It looks so cute, almost back to the way I used to wear it! I'm so excited. I think a lot of the look has to do with the fact that she blew it dry and I haven't blown it dry since it started coming in, and now I am. It sure added a lot of volume and I don't feel as bald anymore. It's still a lot thinner than it used to be, but it's coming in just fine. Next time I'll get a haircut. I know this may not seem important to some people, but just the feeling of "normalcy" is awesome. Maybe I can get Jordan to paint my nails and I'll really feel like a glamour girl :)

Peace to you all ♥

Love, Genie

P.S. I would like to send along some prayers to my good friend Sonia who's mom has finally lost her battle with cancer and other health issues. May she rest in peace. All I can imagine is her dancing with the angels up above, shining her beautiful light down on Sonia and her family.

Our Weekend...

This past Thursday John went in for hernia surgery. I guess the only way to stop him from running around is to put him under the knife, because he is finally relaxing. Poor thing, apparently it really hurt at first. Now that it's been four days, he's up and "slowly walking" around. It's so hard for him to sit still, but he's trying.

Friday night was Johnny's final high school football game. If you recall, he dislocated his shoulder mid-September, so he's been recuperating since then, and hasn't played in any games. That is, until last week. So....he got to play in two games the entire season of his senior year in high school. How sad is that?! He did REALLY well Friday night and he personally thought that he played better than he ever had. Unfortunately, we lost 26-27, but it was a good game. It was also Senior night, so the families of the seniors walked out on to the field and we were recognized with our son as they presented him with a small plaque. It was a very special night. For those who are wondering, Johnny didn't always wear #50, but it was a last minute change the coach made and he was just happy to play, it didn't really matter what number was on his chest.

The final thing that happened this weekend was that we had some banking to take care of. Apparently last week somebody obtained our ATM/Debit card information and made a purchase in Vista, California at a Chevron station in the amount of $220.90. Thank goodness it wasn't for more, but at least we caught it in time and took care of it. Chase listened to our situation and refunded our total amount, which was fantastic. The reason I'm telling you this is because I want you to watch out. I THOUGHT we were careful, but apparently you can't be too careful these days. We tend to think that either a waiter/waitress took down our information (out of eyesight) or somebody installed a "skimmer" at a gas station and when we swiped our card at the pump, all the information was taken. From now on, we will walk inside to pay at the gas station, and try to always carry cash to pay in a restaurant. Be safe!!

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

World Series Champions...

Do me a favor and log off right now if you're not a SF Giant's fan because that's what this blog is all about. I won't be offended, we can just agree to disagree :)

Over the past week or so I've been a nervous wreck, my stomach has been in knots and although I've wanted to blog, I just couldn't put my finger on what the problem was and so I stayed away. Well, that feeling is gone now and it's because I was nervous for the San Francisco Giant's. Although my family LOVES the funny group of misfits this year, we still walked around holding our stomachs, wishing that they could pull it off. Honestly, we really never imagined that they truly would. I mean...the freakin' WORLD SERIES baby!!

Let's start with John...boy I love this man and his dedication to his loyal G-men :) I think John bleeds orange and black, I truly do. He would wake up every morning and watch the Ashkon video religiously and walk away with a tear in his eye, just dreaming of the day in which they'd win the pennant! Between texting and phone calls, John and his sisters, brother-in-law, and step-father would communicate non-stop throughout the games leading to the world series. Once it started to get real serious (when we could truly envision it), they would stick to just texting, no phone calls allowed. After the games John would post inspirational messages on Facebook for all to enjoy :) Like I said, I love this man!!

Now there's Johnny who wore a Giant's shirt once when they lost, so the entire series he decided not to wear any Giant's garb for fear of jinxing them. He showed his dedication in a different way :)

Then there's Jordan who went for Halloween as a Giant's Fairy and wanted to "make all of their wildest dreams come true" and she did!! She doesn't sit and watch the games, she listens from the other room as she plays on the computer, but when her favorite's are up to bat, she walks in and cheers them on :)

Then there's me...I love them all. I got sad when John was talking about some of the players being "free agents" and how we may lose some of them next year. What?! No!!!!! Between The Freak (or The Franchise), Fear the Beard (or B-Weeze), MadBum, Uuuuu-ribe, Panda, Pat the Bat, "emergency appendectomy", rally thong (or Huff Daddy), Chez, Javie, Shotgun Cain (or Workhorse), Buster, MVP (Renteria), Smiley, etc. I've grown a little attached. This season has meant so much more to me than just another year, it's meant A LOT. With the loss of John's mom (whom we swear has been the angel in the outfield a lot lately) and with my cancer, there hasn't been a lot to look forward to...and so THANK YOU San Francisco Giant's for making us smile and laugh again. Thank you for a wonderful season of America's favorite pastime, and thank you for making me feel whole again. Here's to the San Francisco Giant's ~ the World Series Champions!!!!!

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie