Under the Weather...

It's not that I haven't wanted to blog, it's just that I can't remember ever being as sick as I have been lately. This is the 3rd full week of me vomiting, not even keeping water down. The doctor's think that during radiation they could have possibly hit either my intestines or some nerves. All I know is that I'm miserable. If I'm still in this condition next week they're going to consider doing some scans to see what is going on. Yay, a month of puking my guts up...fun!! Just to lighten the mood, I can only think of my weight watcher leader (Teresa) and think..."it's all about weight loss!" LOL.

If I'm not up to blogging again before Christmas, I sure hope that each and every one of you have a joyous holiday filled with love and laughter.

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

All Done...

Yahoo...radiation is over! Although I am glad that I no longer have to drive across town to Rancho Cordova (which is about 40 minutes away) everyday for treatment, a tiny bit of me is sad that it's over. I met some very sweet ladies in radiation who are obviously going through similar journeys of their own. I met one lady who has anal cancer and not only had to have radiation near her bottom, but also around her vaginal area as well. I felt so bad for her, she's such a sweetheart. Then there were a couple other women who were there with breast cancer who were having their breasts radiated. I also met some of the technicians there that I will miss, they were extremely pleasant and made it a more comfortable atmosphere. Forgive me if I've shared this before, but I leave there with thoughts of my mother-in-law (believe it or not) because she gave me a bracelet that sums it all up, which reads:

Cancer is so limited...it cannot cripple love...it cannot shatter hope...it cannot corrode faith...it cannot destroy peace...it cannot kill friendship...it cannot suppress memories...it cannot silence courage...it cannot invade the soul...it cannot steal eternal life...it cannot conquer the spirit.

Yes, believe it or not, it's very tiny writing, but it's on my bracelet that I wear everyday :)

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

Two More Days...

Two days left of radiation...yahoo! I don't mind the actual radiation itself (heck, it's quick and easy), but it's the way I feel afterwards that I can't stand. My stomach has been on the verge of vomiting for the past week and a half, and I'm so sick of it. Now that I've started taking Zofran on a regular basis, it's helped me to keep the food down, but it hasn't helped me feel much better. I don't know what is worse, vomiting and getting whatever is upsetting your stomach out, or always feeling like you're going to vomit, but you don't. Well, I'm on the ladder part of the two options and it's such an awful feeling. I keep bags and paper towels in my car, just in case. I know, this is a gross topic, but it's exactly what I'm going through right now and it sure is the pits.

Tomorrow is my Christmas party for work, I sure hope I'm able to make it. I used to be on the entertainment committee at work and we would spend nearly the entire year preparing for this event. It's kind of weird no longer being involved, but at least John and I can go and relax now and I don't have to hurry off to "work" the party.

Peace to you all ♥ Love, Genie

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