I'm back! Did you miss me? :)

A few people have asked me about the blog and the complete lack of any posts in August.  Sorry guys....it's not that I haven't had anything to say, but I used to write my blog posts when I was too sick to do anything else.....and I guess I just haven't felt that way lately!  Praise the Lord for that!

I'll give the cancer update in a minute, but first, for any Des-Moines/Central Iowa people, my friend Katie's organization, Katie's Crusaders, is hosting a 5K10K walk/run THIS Saturday, and we still need more runners and walkers!  The walk benefits local families, including ours, who are struggling in various stages of breast cancer.  It's held in Waukee, and starts at 8am.  Click here to sign up for the race, or volunteer!  Not only do you get to support a great cause, but you also get a super cool t-shirt. :)

So...here's a quick cancer update.  I am CANCER FREE!  (I think I've already posted that, but it still makes me smile when I type it).  I'm so thankful for that.  My radiation burns are healing and now just look like super weird tan lines.  My bones aren't aching too much anymore, and I'm starting to get some energy back.  I started taking Tamoxifen, which I'll be on for 5 years.  It's not my favorite, but for once (literally, once - this is the only time I can think of for prescription meds), I'm not getting just about every single possible side effect, and the ones I am getting are pretty manageable.  Praise God for that too!  I really prayed for that.  I've seen my oncologist for a follow-up, and she was very pleased with how healthy I was.  I see my radiologist tomorrow so he can check up on my burns.  And, I'll contact my surgeon soon to get my power port removed.  Woo hoo!  Life is good.  Oh - and let's not forget the truly important details - my eyebrows and eyelashes are fully back, and my hair has grown in enough that I've stopped wearing my scarves all together! 

For all of you who were able to make it to my "Kelli's Kicked Cancer" celebration, thanks for coming!  For those who weren't able to make it, I'll tell you that we had a really great time.  It was so much fun to celebrate, and we had such nice weather - it was just a perfect night. Good food, good friends, and a good time! Here's a picture of Dave and I from the party:

And, keep in mind, my hair's had another month to grow since then!  I put a bunch of photos up on Facebook, so check those out too if you're interested.

So, I'll keep going in for follow-ups, and I still will have one more surgery, probably later this fall, but my journey through cancer is starting to wind down.  However, there are very exciting things coming up for us!   With that in mind, I'll keep the blog going, but change the direction of it quite a bit. 

I'll tell you all about the next phase of our lives very soon!  For now, I'm off to clean up the kitchen, run some errands, then teach piano.  Isn't it just wonderful that I can do all that stuff again?

I AM DONE!!!

Well, it's official.  I am DONE with radiation and am CANCER FREE!  I am so excited, I cried tears of joy all the way home from the hospital today. 

Dr. I came in after my radiation today to check on my skin, and he took one look and said, "Wow....that looks....painful.  Wow..."  It's always comforting when the people who are used to seeing this stuff are a little amazed at the extent of the burns!  So, I'm missing a lot of skin, and to be honest, it's pretty painful, but it's all ok, because I AM DONE!   I'll keep burning for a little while, then my skin will start to heal.  It should be less painful in about a week, and probably start looking at least a little better in two. 

So, what now?  Well, several of you have asked that, and have also asked if there's any scans that I go through, or things like that.  So, let me explain.  First, there aren't any scans, because any cancer that could have been picked up on scans was surgically cut out before any of this ever started.  So, at the end of my treatment (TODAY!!!), I am considered cancer-free!  The past months of radiation and chemo have been to ensure that all the cancer has been removed at the cell-level.  So, I am done with cancer!

Now, for what comes next....well, first, we party!(Check out the link if you haven't seen the e-vite yet!)  Then, I'll keep going to my radiologist every now and then until my skin heals.  My next appointment with Dr. I is in 7 weeks.  I'll also start Tamoxifen, which is drug that helps control....something related to cancer....which I'll take for 5 years (note: the horrible job I do of explaining things should not be blamed on my doctors.  They honestly do a great job of explaining, I just forget a lot of this stuff, and I can't find my notes!).  I'll keep seeing my oncologist every 3 months for awhile to monitor any side effects I experience with that drug.  And, finally, at some point, I'll go back to my surgeon, Dr. K, to get my port removed.  That will probably happen later this fall, when I've recovered a little more from everything else I've had done.  So, I still have more stuff to do, but the cancer is GONE!

I think it will probably hit me more fully later, but for right now, I am just incredibly grateful to God for allowing the treatments to be successful, and incredibly happy to be done and cancer free!

Taste and See that the Lord is good!

I might actually miss radiation.

Let me me explain.

As you all know, music is really important to me.  As you may guess, I got that from my parents.  Both of my parents are musically talented - in fact, my dad's whole family is musical.  Some of my earliest memories of family reunions include my dad, his brothers, and my grandpa singing, "On the Jericho Road," acapella. I have always loved that song because of that! At our wedding, one of my most treasured memories (aside from the whole pledging our lives to each other thing), was my dad and his brothers singing our benediction, "The Lord Bless You and Keep You." 

When I was younger, on car trips, we'd often sing as a family to pass the time.  While some may find that slightly nerdy, those are some of my favorite memories from time spent in the car.  It was on one of those trips that I learned what has become my favorite hymn, "I come to the Garden Alone."  My family would sing it all together, and my dad and I have often sung it as a duet.

Here are the lyrics:

 

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The son of God discloses.

And He walks with me and He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.

He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet that the birds hush their singing
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me and He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.

I love this song - the imagery of God and me, spending time in a quiet garden, as "He tells me that I am his own."  Lately, radiation has become my garden.  Don't get me wrong - I hate how radiation makes me feel.  My skin is burned and very painful, and I'm always tired again.  But, 5 days a week, I have 5-10 minutes where I'm by myself in a room, and I have to lie completely still while the radiation machine rotates quietly around me.  I have been using those minutes to talk to God - to lift my friends and family up to Him, to thank Him for His faithfulness, and to simply feel joy in His presence.

A few months ago, I started praying that God would help me to be content where He has me - to not wish away time, but instead to trust that He has me exactly where he wants me, and thank Him for it.  In that radiation room, God is teaching me to bloom where I'm planted, and to use that time to the best of my ability.  I will celebrate being done, but I am thankful for the time that I've had in that room.

I'd stay in the garden with Him
'Tho the night around me be falling
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling

And He walks with me and He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.

I don't know what God has next for me, but I am excited to find out.  In the meantime, I have 7 more days of radiation, so if there's anything I can pray for you about, please email me and let me know - I'd love to pray for you!

Only 8 treatments left!

I can hardly believe I only have 8 treatments left!  EIGHT!  I am so excited, and really looking forward to being done.  Radiation hasn't been too bad overall, but daily appointments are kind of a pain to schedule around, I'm getting more and more tired, and my skin is burning, which really hurts.  My doctor gave me a burn cream for the painful areas, which I'm hoping will help a lot.  And, even better, I only have 3 more of the treatments that radiate the most painful areas!  After that, I just do 5 "bonus" treatments just at the lumpectomy site, so that shouldn't be too bad.  I do keep burning for up to two weeks after I'm done, so it will get worse before it gets better, but even so, it's nice to have just one part of my body in pain, rather than my entire body.  It's pretty uncomfortable, but nothing even CLOSE to how awful chemo was.

Now for the big news....I have enough eyelashes back to wear mascara again!  I had so much fun with that today.  It's been long enough since I've had enough lashes to wear it that I couldn't even find it for a few minutes, but once I did, I had a blast putting it on!  I think the last time mascara was that fun was when I first started wearing it. 

As you can see at the top of the blog, we're having a "Kelli's Kicked Cancer" party on August 6th to celebrate being DONE with cancer.  For those of you in the Des Moines area who are close enough to come, we'd love to have you!  You can click on the link to view the invite.  If you have any trouble viewing the invite, just email me and I'll get you more info.  We hope you'll join us if you can - we're really looking forward to celebrating, and the more the merrier!