Taking Back Control

After my 2nd treatment my hair finally started to fall out. It started out with just a few strands here and there and then it just kept getting worse. It was either Friday or Saturday night I took one of those combs you get at picture day and started to comb my hair. My hair just kept coming out and it didn't look like it was going to stop. So I had to make myself stop combing cause I was starting to get really depressed about it. I asked Jamie if he thought I should shave it or leave it and he thought I should wait awhile. But the more I talked to other people they said to shave it and Take Back Control. We knew my hair would fall out, but I'm the one making the choice to shave it not the cancer.

So Sunday I got up took my shower and that is when I decided enough was enough. It was the worse shower I have ever taken in my life. I had hair all over my hands, arms and the shower floor. So I called my neighbor, Carmen and her husband George and they came over to shave my head. George took pictures for me. I'm not to sure who was more nervous me or Carmen, but it had to be done. Here are some pictures for you.

I asked if we were going to do an attachment first or just go at it. And Carmen said we are just going at. And here we go.

The boys popped in once in awhile, but didn't really stay to watch the whole thing.

I do feel better now that it is done. But it is very strange to see this person staring back at me in the mirror. Thank goodness this is only for a short time.

First Deer of the Season

Josh got his first deer of the season on Saturday. This is also his first deer with a bow and arrow. Unfortunately he could not find the arrow. But at least he was able to find the more important of the two. Here are some pictures for you.

Jake thought this one looked like she was sitting on the truck.

Right above that piece of grass is were the arrow went in.

And that's were it came out.

Jamie is starting to feel a little pressure now. Josh got like 4 last year and one this year. I don't think Jamie has gotten one yet. He even stayed home from church on Sunday. He didn't see any deer put two Gray Wolfs ran past him. I don't think this would have been to bad, but he was sitting on the ground when it happened. Next weekend is gun opener so hopefully he will get something then.

I personally and doing pretty good. I had about 3 or 4 rough days after chemo. It was pretty much just an upset stomach and a lump in my throat. I'm really hoping that is all I have, but you never know. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. My next treatment is this Thursday and now I'm just waiting to see if my hair falls out or not. It sort of makes showering a scaring thing to do. : )

First Round of Chemo

Thursday was my first round of chemo. We got to Ashland around 8:40 a.m. to start the day off with my Muga Scan. This is a scan of my heart using radioactive material to see if my heart was health enough to start chemo. The poor lady tried to get an IV started on me twice and blew the vein out both times. I asked if we could just use the port and she said they can't with radioactive material. So then we had to get two other people to try and finally the second guy was able to get the IV in and get the stuff started. The first fluid they pumped in had to go through my system for 20 minutes. I guess this was to get the blood cells ready to grab onto the radioactive stuff later. So I went back to the waiting room sat with Bev and Jamie for a bit. Once the 20 minutes were up they pumped in the radioactive material and we were ready to go. I had to lay on a table that slid into a tube, sort of mix between an X-ray machine and a MRI machine. The first picture was the side of my heart and the second was from above. Each picture took about 10 minutes to take.

Then it was over to the cancer center to start the chemo. We got there around 10:00 or so and they gave us a room right off the main desk. Which was their first mistake. : )


Here are Bev and Jamie playing their ipods waiting to get on with the chemo. They were having Farkle contests.

This is Brooke (awesome) she is accessing my port to get an IV started for all the medicines. And yes it did hurt as you can see from my face. It sort of felt like she was plugging something into me. Which I guess she was.

All done with that part.

I got a new blanket from the cancer center. Brooke tried to have Bev and Jamie pick one out for me but in the end I had to pick from four different ones. We picked this one since there were M & M guys on it. : )

Here is the first drug of the day. As you can see this one is red and comes in a big syringe she has to push over 15 minutes. They also have to wear gloves and an apron cause they can't get any of the chemo on their skin. Makes me feel good that it's going into my veins. Doesn't that just seem wrong??? : )

This poor girl had to sit with us and listen to us. They were laughing so hard at us by the time we were done. They even came in to figure out if Bev and I were sisters, cause they thought Jamie looked more like my brother. Oh man we laughed at that one. I think they liked us.

Here I'm into the last drug. This one was a drip for 45 minutes. Bev asked the nurse at one point if I was ok cause I looked stoned. And I would have to agree it was starting to take a toll on me at this point. I could feel myself drifting and not concentrating on anything. I would start to read from my book and it wouldn't make any sense. I don't like that drug to much.

Once we left I was pretty tired and was starting to get an upset stomach. Which seems to come and go as the days go on. Bev has been really good about making me eat small things here and there. I'm just thankful that it's not to the point that I have to throw up it just feels like I road a roller coaster to many times. Here's hoping to them all feeling this way. And that it will only last a couple days.

Halloween 09

I was able to help in Seth's class this year for the Halloween party. Before I went to Seth's class I ran over to see Jake and get his picture. They were able to walk downtown and parade for all the stores and people. He said it was a lot of fun.

Then I got to Seth's class and I helped him and his classmates get there costumes on. They normally go to the nursing home and sing, but with the flu going around they just did a parade through school.

Here is Seth and one of his friends. Not sure why, but he wanted to be black spiderman for school.

Seth's class.

Here we go....time to parade through all the other classrooms. One of the first grade classes was actually doing work. That's just wrong!!!!!

Time for treats.


Saturday Seth got into his normal costume. Both the boys wanted to be Army men.

I went into Jamie's old Military clothes and found his camo stuff. I wore it to Seth's school party and a lot of kids asked if I was for real. It was so much fun.

Here is me and the boys with Jamie's Air Force jacket on. We had a great night.

Update on me: I'm sure most of you have gotten an email on our plan of attack. Tuesday (tomorrow) I will be getting my port put in and Thursday will be my first round of chemo. Then it will be every other week for 8 times. I will be going up to Ashland to have this done. My first round I will have Jamie and Bev, my sister, with me. It should be interesting. I'm pretty nervous about it cause I just don't know how I'm going to react to the medication. Here's hoping for the best. Love ya all. Sam

Volleyball

This past Tuesday the assistant principal Mrs. Lee asked me to go to the volleyball game with her. The girls were going to be supporting Breast Cancer Awareness. They were also taking donations to go towards cancer research.

So I went and took a couple pictures of the girls before the game. Mrs. Lee also introduced me to them and let them know that I was battle breast cancer. So I jumped in and got my picture with them also.

Me with the girls. I have my Fight Like a Girl shirt on that I got from my Aunt Brenda.

After the girls were announced they got ready to run through the sign they made.

Here they go.

It didn't go so well. The guy on the right let go and the girls right around it.

I haven't been to a volleyball game since high school, so I was really excited to go. And the girls didn't disappoint. They won 3 games and the other team won 1. It was awesome.

/

/

I also have to share the bowl my brother and sister-in-law got me. I love it.

Update: Still trying to figure out chemo. I was told that I could be apart of a case study if I want to. The case study would be between two different chemo drugs. They want to see how each drug works and what the side effects are. So now I need to decide if I want to do this or just go back to my normal doctor.

Soccer and Family

This past weekend Jakob had his first soccer tournament. I was very glad my mom, brother and sister were up also to watch him play. Jakob's team ended up playing 4 matches and taking 2nd place. He was pretty excited.

Jakob's team

Jake getting his metal.

Josh got another good sized Walleye this past weekend too. I believe it was around 25 inches.

He also shot some chipmunks. : )

Last Monday I had my breast surgery and my mom stayed the week with me to help out with the house and the boys. I don't know what I would have done with out her. Don't get me wrong Jamie is a huge help, but it takes two people to get those boys movin' in the morning.

My brother AJ and sister Bev also came up for the weekend to make sure I was doing ok. And my sister asked about bow hunting and asked if she could try it out. So Jamie took AJ and Bev out to do a little target practicing.

AJ getting the bow ready.

Now it's Bev's turn.

AJ helped her get the trigger thing on. And yes that is the technical term for it. : )

Jamie helped her pull it back and showed her how to aim.

Aim.......

Fire!!!! She did good.

I have been asked by a couple people if I could do some updating on me here on this blog. So here you go.

Like I said Monday we had the surgery to take the left breast off and check my lymph nodes. The doctor ended up taking 15 nodes and only 1 came back with a tiny bit of cancer in it. And it was close to the breast so that is good news. The rest were clear. The tumor ended up measuring 2.5 cm and with the lymph node my stage went to a 2b. Which means I will need chemo of some kind. We will find out my treatments on the 9th.

On the 7th I will be heading up to the Duluth clinic to do genetic testing. Sounds like they want to find out of I have the breast cancer gene and figure out why this happened if they can.

Other then that we are back to the waiting game. I'm doing my exercises everyday to get my arm back to normal. It's pretty sore and hard to lift things yet. (No mom I'm not over doing it).

Thank you everyone for the cards, thoughts and prayers. They mean a lot to me and my family. When I find out more I will let you all know. Love, Sam

Family Vacation - Colorado

Monday after the wedding about 25 family members headed into town and we went white water rafting. It was so much fun. Of course the water level was really low for that time of the summer and we got hung up on some rocks. But it was awesome. Seth on the other had is very upset with us. He was not old enough or heavy enough to go, so he went back to the cabins with Grandma Cheryl. She said she would figure out something to make him happy. And he told her that he was upset and nothing she did would make him happy. But of course Jamie promised him that we would come back to CO in a couple years when he was able to go. I think this helped a little.

Here is a picture of the raft I was in. I took this off of Aunt Melanie's facebook page. Thanks Melanie. : )
Then we headed into town the next day and did a little looking around. Not sure if this was taken by Seth or Jakob.

Here's Seth in the restaurant. He was just not feeling the exploring that day.

We also did a little exploring around the resort. Here is a hill that looks like an elephant outline. Can you see it?

We stopped at a lake and took some pictures.

Cheryl and Rosemary

Me and Jamie

Cory and Kathy

Cody and Myranda

Lewis and Clark : )

A waterfall that we found next to the road.

Jamie took Seth down the hill to get a closer look.

Here I am kissing the man in the mountain. Can you see the profile on the side of the hill?

This is the view from the cabin we stayed in.

One of the days we headed up to Estes State Park.

This is the Stanley Hotel. It was the inspiration for Stephen King to write the Shining.

Out of all the wonderful scenery we could look at the boys decided to stare at a chipmunk. He is in between them and down a little bit.

Here are some bull Elk.

So if you remember in past pictures with Jamie and the boys. They are always smiling and looking at the camera. This is what I get when I'm in the picture.

Seth has his eyes closed and Jakob is past out from walking all the way up the mountain.

Then again Jakob has his eyes shut and Seth looks ticked off. : )

Boys at the Continental Divide.

I had to take a picture of this bird cause Jake said it looked like it had a mohawk.

A different waterfall we hiked to.

Jamie and boys heading back down.

Here you can see how high up we were.

Next we will be going to South Dakota.

Also thanks to everyone for your love and support through this rough time. I know with all of you and God we will make it through. Thanks again. Love ya. Sam