Picture of the week ~ Better days ahead

 

Picture of the week ~ A run for mom

We had the pleasure of supporting our son Josh while he did his 100k last Saturday, you may have seen all of the photos I had posted on my Instagram account (@justme_alive) & wondered why?? I was documenting his journey for him. We gave him aid and encouragement during his run. He ran to honor me & my journey with Cancer. It was powerful to watch him in his struggles to find the ability to dig deep & change the course of his thoughts. To “not listen” to the fatigue & doubt of what his body was telling him. We could see on his face the moment his mind and body came together with the same purpose: I will finish and I will finish strong. The joy that overcame him with emotion at the end was very powerful for me to witness. Thank you Josh for what you did for me (& for yourself)❤️.

My cancer journey

Hmmm.. where to begin. I took a break from my blog for awhile to give me time to process what's been going on in my life. Now that a plan is in place, I feel better about sharing my journey.

In late January I began to have what seemed to be periods, which is concerning for a woman who has been post menopausal for many years. If this is too much information for you already, perhaps this isn't the blog for you to be reading, because I intend to be real during this journey. I quickly called my Dr. and she scheduled a pap smear. The pap smear test was O.K. so next I got scheduled for an ultra sound which led to a gynecological appointment for a biopsy. I was told that the biopsy results showed Grade 1 endometrial adenocarcinoma. The hope was that if it had been found early enough that it would be Grade 1 Stage 1 and possibly a few radiation treatments for recurrence prevention and that would be it. On February 17th I was scheduled for a radical hysterectomy. Pathology to determine the stage is done during and after the hysterectomy. Some tissue is examined during surgery to determine exactly what should be removed in the surgery. The surgery was rather fascinating. It was done by Da Vinci robotics. 

The hardest part of the surgery was going into the hospital alone, most hospitals aren't allowing anyone to come in or to visit with you. My husband is currently my chauffeur. He drove me to Everett for the surgery and then he waited in the car for a call from the hospital. I was dropped off and picked up at curbside. After the surgery while I was in recovery the Dr. came and and told me it was not as they had hoped, they discovered it had spread to my lymph node which made it Stage 3C1, the Grade stayed at 1 (which means slow growing)

 3 means it has spread outside of the uterus, the C1 means it has spread to the pelvic lymph nodes. The Dr. was sorry to give me this information, they had hoped that they had caught it early enough that it wouldn't have had a chance to spread. It was determined that the best course of treatment would be 6 cycles of chemo and 3 - 5 brachytherapy (HDR type) radiation treatments. So that's where I stand now. I have an upcoming Chemo education class where we will also schedule the chemo appt.'s, then a procedure to put a Port in my chest, so they don't have to keep poking needles in my arms. Meetings and info. with the Radiation Dr. hasn't happened yet.

So that's the long and short of it. I've been doing short walks while my surgery is healing.

One step at a time, one day at a time.

Peach is the ribbon awareness color for Endometrial cancer.

I’m chronicling my cancer journey on my Instagram account @justme_alive