Day by Day

Day by Day

Monday, April 7, 2014

An Overdue Update. Fourth and Final Round!

Hello Team Madonia! I have not updated since before round 3 so let me catch you up on some treatment related stuff first. Prior to round 3 I had a ct scan to look at my lungs to see how everything looked following the surgery in January. Everything looked good but I will be doing another scan at the end of this month just to make sure. There is a lot of scar tissue around the surgical site which makes it hard to see things on the scan so we will watch it closely to make sure nothing changes that would suggest a new tumor, but so far everything looks great. Round 3 of chemo was very tough. I felt goo the first 2 days but the chemo really started to take a toll on me after that. My chemo was actually stopped late Thursday night due to some tremors and twitching in my left leg. One of the big side effects of ifosfamide is neurotoxicity which can present in different ways. The docs felt this was a sign of that so they just stopped the infusion and I went home a day early. I was very tired and very sick. The good thing was that I did not have to work after this round thanks to some very generous coworkers that donated some PTO time so that I could stay home before this last round. This has really made a difference. Until now, I didn't realize how tired I actually was from working in between cycles. For the first time, I actually feel recovered going into this round of chemo. 

Today starts round 4, the last one! I am thrilled to get this one over with and get back to normal after this! The dose of chemo will be slightly lower this time due to the neurotoxicity during the last round. Hopefully I avoid any complications and recover quickly! 

I spoke with Steve the other night and he told me that we sold more t-shirts this time than we did the first round! In total we have sold about 260 shirts! That is incredible! I want to also remind everyone that all the money raised is going directly to the research fund a Roswell Park. I want to make that clear so people know where the money is going. When money is donated to larger groups like the American Cancer Society or some of the larger "charities" a lot of that money doesn't go directly to research or even patient support programs. I believe that keeping the money here at Roswell, where research that is done right on our campus needs funding, is the best place to donate these funds. Here is the link to the donation page if you would like to read about where this money is going https://www.roswellpark.org/giving 
 I am also looking forward to the Absolute Performance meet this Saturday that will also benefit Team Madonia. My friends at Absolute Performance will be putting on this meet and I hope that everyone who comes out to compete puts up some good numbers and has fun! I am hoping to feel well enough to come to the meet but I will be getting out of chemo that morning. I will do my best to show up, even if I have to carry my puke bucket with me! 

The last thing I wanted to say this week was a big thank you to anyone who is reading this that nominated me for the Daisy Award. I received the Daisy Award last week after being nominated by several of my patients and their families. This was the most touching honor I have ever received. I was very shocked and surprised to have won the award. It has been a great pleasure to take care of my patients and their families and I have done nothing but treat them the way I want to be treated when I am lying in that hospital bed. Helping them navigate their way through this terrible disease is my way of fighting cancer. For my nursing friends who want to learn more about the award and how they can get their hospital to enroll in the foundation if they are not already, visit http://daisyfoundation.org/. Thank you to all the nurses and administrators who organized the ceremony as well, especially Pam, for making sure my family was there!

Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine

1 comment:

  1. So happy to hear that today is the last day! I'm so sorry that we didn't know about the award, we would have been there for sure. Congratulations! Xoxo

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