Moving ahead

Last Friday I got my drains removed. Hallelujah!! And that meant I could sleep in my own bed and wear normal clothes. It also meant I could shower without having to sit on a bench cradling the drain tubes in my lap.

👕 Monday I saw my surgeon for my post surgery followup appointment. Everything is healing nicely and I've been released to move freely. He said I must be Superwoman. He doesn't really hear patients choose to skip the pain meds, yet  I was truly doing well and healing faster than he expected. I asked him if I get a t-shirt 😉 He laughed. I like Dr Faught. I get to go visit him again on July 8th to have my port put in for chemo. Maybe I'll get my t-shirt then. Ha ha!😂

✂ While the last 2 weeks have been spent healing and resting, the next 2 weeks are going to fly by. I will be going in for ct scan today and an echocardiogram next week. Tonight I'm cutting my hair short to ease the transition to chemo baldness. My hair has already been falling out due to stress, so this is actually a relief. Still working on the stress part though. As I said, I get my port put in next Friday. Chemo will start July 12th.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
~ Proverbs 3:5

About chemo...
I had hoped to avoid this altogether, but after discussing this with my doctors and praying with my family, I've decided to go ahead with it. My integrative oncologist is refining my treatment and customizing it to my body and my specific cancer. No "one size fits all" treatment from the factory assembly line. She has spelled out a very detailed plan for me. I will also be seeing a naturopath to help monitor and support my immune system.

🗓 My chemo treatment will have 2 phases totalling 20 weeks. The first one will last 2 months and I will go in every other week for 3-4 hours at a time. The second will be weekly for 12 weeks. If I've done the math correctly, it looks like I'll be finishing chemo just before Christmas.

💉 Charlie and I went to my chemo education class last week. It was decided then that Charlie will not be accompanying me to my chemo appointments. Needles make him sick and I can't afford to be worried about him going down while I'm hooked up to an IV. As we get closer, I'll be looking  to fill that roll, but not the full 4 hours. Just a visit so I can rest too.

Other updates:
🐟 My dad and my stepmom are taking advantage of the time he has before his surgery (to remove the colon cancer from his body) by going on a fishing trip in their RV. Please pray that it is a restful time for both of them.

⛺ We are also taking advantage of the time I have before starting chemo by going on our church's camping trip this weekend. Please pray that it is a restful time for our family too. I'm looking forward to a little campfire fellowship.

We got our car back a couple days ago. No problems so far. Thank you, Lord! We were instructed to drive it for a few weeks and if it's truly fixed, we'll owe $160. (They replaced the same part Charlie replaced while we were in California a month ago.) If it's not fixed, we're to bring it back again. Please pray that it is fixed.

I posted on Facebook the other day that we are looking for a few things. These are the ones were still trying to track down:
• Guest room for 1 (Medford) available for a few weeks, possibly a month, towards the end of July/early August
• 2BD house or downstairs apartment <$850/mo (Medford area)*
• Market umbrella &/or stand for sale

*Don't worry, we are not moving. We have a family member moving to the area but cannot host them in our home. The guest room is temporary while they look for a place.

Last of all, this photo: A friend of my sister's makes these cool handpainted  signs. She posted this one recently and I'm hoping she has more soon. A couple days before I saw this, my stepmom had sent me an encouraging email with "Chin up! Chest out!" in the subject line. As a daughter of the One True King, I feel this sign said it all and the daily reminder would be helpful 💗