Thank You

From Julie:
It's about time I sent out a huge thank you to everyone who has been so incredibly helpful in so many ways to me and my family since all this "cancer fun" started. (I'm a little slow these days in more ways than one!) From food, visits, to trips to the doctor, to helping with Jackson's entertainment, cards, emails, magazines, new headwear, ironing, and so much more....I really couldn't be doing this without all of your support and prayers. I truly have the best family, friends, co-workers, ward family, neighbors, and some people I don't even know who hear what I'm going through and offer help. I don't want to name any names right now because I fear leaving someone out and you are all so great. So it's not much, but thank you :)

Round Three

Julie's third chimiothérapie treatment went well today. She was also told that her bloodwork numbers look good - hooray! We're praying that the post-chemo side affects of the coming week are no worse than they were after Round Two, "just" acute tiredness. The exhaustion is debilitating, but much more tolerable than The Symptoms That Cannot Be Named (for fear of jinxing Julie - maybe "Lord Voldemort symptoms" could be the code name for those unwanted symptoms.)

Round Two Plus Eight Days Post Chimiothérapie

Julie is feeling much better this week. Post-round two seems to have gone more smoothly than post-round one did.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

(This post was written by Julie) Okay, I admit it's a goofy title, but you get to make bad puns when you have "chemo brain.” Apparently a lot of things are allowed when you have a serious illness and people feel really bad for you; I plan on taking full advantage of that. Bad jokes, bad hair days, pretend food cravings when you just want your husband to get you a snack...it's all part of the cancer package!Just thought I share the "hair news." Two weeks to the day after my first chemo treatment I noticed the hair coming out. (The exact timing another chemo friend had told me her hair started shedding, so I was warned.) I have a lot of hair so it wasn't really noticeable, and I had already had my short "transition" haircut to make the move from thick-hair to no-hair not so shocking. But after a few days of hair all over the sink, bottom of the shower, and worrying about it getting on things in the kitchen, I decided to take it all off. It seemed better to get it over with than worrying about doing it. So Jackson and I had a little "head shaving" party. Joe did the honors with Jackson going first. We were leaving some on his head, just giving him his last buzz of the warm weather. It doesn't look so great as our clippers are not the best. We'll have to fix it up a bit. I went next and as we were taking it all off it didn't matter what it looked like. Jackson kept running into the room to laugh at Mommy's funny haircut and offered to hold the mirror up so I could see it. I wasn't quite ready for that yet. Joe did a great job and I am now officially a part of the hat/scarf world. It's definitely low maintenance! It will take some getting used to but that will come with time I'm sure.

The Port Is Out

Julie's port removal went smoothly this morning; she handled it with her usual positive attitude and good humor.

Next chemo - Sept. 22.

Second Round of Chemo - September 1

Julie's second round of chemo went well today, no reactions, no problems. Now she just waits to see what the side affects will be. (Few and mild is the plan.) At a pre-chemo appointment this morning, the nurse practitioner told Julie her labs/bloodwork look good.

Tomorrow/Wednesday Julie has to be at Deaconess Hospital (downtown Spokane) at 7am to have her chest port removed - it's the port that caused the blood clot(s). Port removal is a surgical procedure but it doesn't take long and can be done with either general or local anesthetic. (Since we're going with the French "chimiothérapie," maybe we should use the British spelling of "anaesthetic.")