Here was my final post from the other blog. I wanted to post it here as well.
WOW. What a day...I
need to learn my lesson when dealing with Christy. What happens in
life when you go through something like your friend being diagnosed with breast
cancer is just different when Christy is involved.
During the last few weeks there has
been a couple of times where I WANTED to do things with Christy that I knew
would be hard. I went into wig shopping last week, and into chemo
today not knowing what to expect...seeing your friend go through this stuff is
so hard...but with Christy, she always finds a way to make hard times
easier, and when you walk away, you are a better and stronger person for being
there just to watch her in action. After all, the strongest people
don't get to the top avoiding these times, they find a way to get through them
and end up better people because of them...and today was no different.
This morning I picked Christy up
for chemo at 8:45. On our way to breakfast, she broke the news that
he hair has started falling out. I said..."Auhhh..." as to try
to offer some support for her as tears starting building up in my eyes.
She instantly looks over at me and says, "No auhhh, I am GLAD!
That just means the chemo is working and I am one stage closer to beating
this." I laughed. That is Christy for you!
We had breakfast, and got to Pluta
Cancer
Center
around 10:15 for
her appointment. When we walked in to the waiting room this morning I
think we where 20 years younger then the youngest patient waiting.
It was interesting to see all of the different aged people at all
different stages in their treatments. Christy and I sat there, and
you could just tell who where the fighters and who where down and out because
of their attitudes. Christy was a
fighter…we sat there laughing, talking, reading magazines….Christy just knew
that when she walked out that door, she was one step closer to beating
this.
They finally called us back and the
nurse practitioner checked Christy out and I joked with Christy about all of
the questions they asked her about her health...
Swelling? No.
Chest Pains? No.
Heart palpitations? No.
Problems sleeping? No.
No...
No...
No...
I told Christy I would have had
more "yes" answers then she did!!
After the questions, Christy
survived them accessing and taking blood from her port...funny enough, with everything
going on, the port is what bothers her the most.
Anyway...the blood work came back
looking GREAT!! So she got the green light for her treatment
and also got the okay to come back in 2 weeks - GREAT NEWS! Her
body is rebounding well to the chemo. Next she took an anti nausea
medicine, waited an hour. Next is was the "Kool
Aid" which really looks like a cherry Kool Aid...it's real name is
Doxorubicin. While the nurse injects 2 large syringes into
Christy's port, the nurse has Christy chews ice cubes so she doesn't get cold
sores in her mouth...crazy huh?
Then she has a second round of meds
which is Cytoson. This one took about 1 hour and 15 minutes and
then bang. She was done! We
walked out laughing, just the way we walked in.
When the nurse was finishing up
with her she came over to answer a few questions that Christy had and we
starting talking. She spoke about how important attitude was in
beating cancer and she told Christy that she knew right from the second she
meet Christy that she was going to beat this and go on to do great things
building breast cancer awareness. Hearing someone else put into words what
I had been feeling all along so perfectly just hit me. I started crying, which then made Christy
cry and in the end the nurse was giving us BOTH hugs. The truth is that
this whole experience has been the single most life changing experience I have
ever been a part of.
Watching a friend that is your age
get diagnosed with breast cancer is life changing to begin with... watching
Christy fight this has been beyond inspiring. As I told
Christy today on the way home, this is the first time in my life when I have
been given an opportunity to do SOMETHING that I really believe in my heart can
make a difference. Without Christy's strength and determination,
Christy's Crew wouldn't be here. Christy's Crew IS going to make a
difference. We are going to work hard to make sure that another one of
our friends, or daughters, or mother’s every have to fight this battle in the
future.
Anyway...I said
this over 1000 times, but Christy is the strongest person I know...her strength
and determination to beat this is SUCH an inspiration to her friends, her
family, her Dr’s, her nurses, her co-workers, and even people who don’t know
her yet have the opportunity to watch her live. It is funny, because I have been approached
by a couple of people that admitted that they are afraid to talk to her about
the cancer…but what I tell them, is that they HAVE to talk to her…just being
around her makes us all better people.
I am so glad I have
Christy, I am so glad that I have been able to learn from going through this
whole experience with her, and I am so lucky that she is my neighbor so I get
to see her strength daily.
Christy said this whole thing is making her stronger...but in reality it is
making everyone around her stronger too.
Keep kicking the cancers ASS
Christy!!!
