Labor Day was my last regularly scheduled day for chemo.  I received a phone call last week telling me my counts were low and I might not be able to receive chemo; the plan was for me to go to the scheduled chemo and do labs again.  Thankfully my counts were up by chemo time and I was able to do chemo.

I had a busy weekend so I slept most of the day for chemo.  Since it was a holiday it was a pretty quiet day at chemo with very few patients.  I got to chemo at 8:00 and was the last patient there when I finished up around 5:00.

I wasn't prepared for the emotions I would have when I was finishing up this chemo treatment.  The nurses I have at chemo have become friends I had been seeing every few weeks (more frequently when you consider I kept getting hospitalized in between treatments).

We joked about me "ringing the bell" because I was literally the only patient there.  My nurse Melissa went and gathered up a big group of the nurses I have come to know though and I ended up with quite a nice group to "ring the bell" in front of.

I cried, just a little, which I didn't expect.  It was like the ending of an era I guess?  Now I am waiting on scans to find out if treatment is completed or if additional treatment is needed.  At this point I am assuming more treatment will be needed, there has been discussion of radiation and/or more chemo but we won't know until my PET/CT scan.  My scan is scheduled for September 22nd with a follow up oncology appointment on the 24th to review the results and discuss future plans.

I had really long hair before chemo started.  I think the hardest thing I heard during my discussions about treatment was that I was going to lose my hair.  I know that might sound silly, I am fighting a disease that is deadly and I was concerned about my hair.  It was estimated that I would start losing my hair around day 10 after my first chemo.

My now husband, then fiancé, and myself had been planning our wedding for June 28th for about a year.  I had the realization at this point I would be bald by the wedding day.  I had a boudoir sessions scheduled to get pictures and make a book for a gift to my fiancé, at that point I decided to cancel it.  I couldn't justify the money, was losing my hair, didn't know how I was going to work, and just had a flood of emotions going on.  Well, my fabulous (now friend) Cindy told me to come on in and get pictures.  I really wanted to get some pictures of me in my wedding dress with hair, I got my fiancé to join me for pictures and we were able to get some pictures together in my wedding dress while I still had my long hair.  Below are three of my favorite shots from the wedding dress shoot, taken by Cindy Johnson Boudoir Photography, please check her out if you are in the Indianapolis area, she dose fabulous work!

While I was in the hospital, I started losing my hair.  The day was May 27th, I had planned to have a "hair party" as I decided once it started to go I was going to shave it off.  The hospital stay was interfering with those plans.  I had to put off my plans for another day and deal with the hair falling out in the shower, on the pillow, and every time I touched it.  On May 29th I got out of the hospital and on May 30th I head to southern Indiana to my hometown, New Albany, and went to my hair appointment.  I was happily surprised to find out we were having a mini-party at the salon for my hair cut.  My son was able to help with cutting my hair by making the first big cut.  We cut off my pony tail so we could donate it.  He also got the opportunity to help with using the clippers on my hair which he loved!

As the next week went on, my hair continued to fall out.  I decided on June 6th it was time to shave it the rest of the way off.  Below is a progression of the hair loss.  I have decided to embrace it, I wear scarfs sometimes but have found them hot so you can normally find me out without a scarf or anything.

I'm working backwards here, trying to document everything that has been going on.  My first chemo was on May 16th, it went well and didn't experience all the  side effects that were possible.  I was really tired a lot and couldn't do what I was used to doing in a day.  I used my nausea medication to keep on top of any nausea.  On day 10 after my first round of chemo I spiked a fever of 100.5, it happened to be Memorial Day so I called the doctor on call.  They wanted me to go to the ER and have blood work run to determine if it was a neutrapenic fever.  They determined it was, and I was hospitalized.  My ANC was .7, the normal range is 1.5-8.0.  The ANC is the absolute neutraphil count and it helps determine the amount of infection white blood cells are present.  I got a neutropena shot to boost my white blood count.  I was told at that point I had to stay until I was fever free for 24 hours.  It took 4 days for me to be fever free for 24 hours so I spent 4 days in the hospital the first time.  On day 11, the second day in the hospital, my hair started falling out from the chemo.  I am going to write a post about my hair so that is all for now!

I am currently having treatments once every three weeks of carbo/avastin/taxol. They take anywhere from it will take 8-11 hours.  As I mentioned before, this treatment is for a cervical cancer reoccurrence.

Here are some of the highlights of my journey so far:

Diagnosed with Cervical Cancer (due to bleeding with intercourse) - October 2012 Stage 1B2
Trachelectomy - November 16, 2012 (cervix removed and lymph node dissection).
Uterine Tear Repair - December 31, 2012 (I tore my uterus by lifting my son after surgery)

Blood in stool and urine beginning December 2013. Colonoscopy 1/18/14 indicated internal hemorrhoids, but no other concern. The blood in the urine continued intermittently, I would have bright red blood, sometimes only blood clots, sometimes strands of blood, and sometimes normal urine.

I was treated for an UTI with ecoli as the bacteria found in March 2014. The blood in my urine continued, I was referred to a urologist. Went to the urologist, they immediately were concerned about the possibility of cancer. We did a CT scan on 4/21/14. I met with the urologist on 4/22/14 and he said there were masses all over my pelvic area. My right kidney was completely blocked due to the tumor. He sent me to the hospital that day, I talked with the urologist and the oncologist resident. Since they were not going to do surgery immediately they released me that evening with an appointment with the oncologist on 4/30/14. At this appointment we discussed that the CT scans did not look good at all, which was surprising considering I had been in to the oncologist for my most recent exam on 10/2013. This was my regularly scheduled 6 month appointment.

Immediately he scheduled me for a biopsy and exam under anesthesia. I asked what else it could be, he told me it was cancer, there was nothing else that would be this large. 

On 5/5 I had a surgery to attempt to insert a stent into the right kidney. They were unsuccessful and I left with a nephrostomy tube and bag draining my right kidney. I was also scheduled for my biopsy and exam under anesthesia for 5/5 but the OR was full and we had to reschedule that procedure.

On 5/6 I had a surgery to put in the Baird PowerPort in preparation for chemo. That procedure went very well.

On 5/8 I worked a 1/2 day, it was hard but I am a teacher and state testing was going on so I really wanted to work at least a little.

On 5/9 we did the exam/biopsy under anesthesia with the oncologist. The interventional radiologist also came in and made a second attempt at putting a stent into the right kidney. They were unsuccessful with the right stent again, they actually had the stent threaded but when they went to flush it they realized it had actually inserted into the tumor and not the bladder.

So, the results of the 5/9 exam/biopsy indicated that the tumor extends from the uterus and is wrapped around the ureter. There are also three enlarged lymph nodes along my aorta.

I have since found out that the tumor has actually invaded the ureter, which is what is causing the blockage.