On my mind

Work is winding down. Month-end is coming up next week, but for the most part, it's settling down. There is so much going on with my employer. Question is... how long will the doors stay open? If the owner continues to spend more than he is bringing in... it's questionable! Things are very tight, well... drowning in payables, that we do not have the funds to pay. I hope the owner's "plan" works out for him. Honestly, I'm running out of projects, and starting to get bored. In a few week's I'll start working remotely more and more as I continue this cancer treatment. Probably make some weekend visits and start getting the personal stuff from my office to bring home. Now that we are finally "nesting" -Can' wait to see how things will look once were settled.

Radiologist Oncologist said that what I eat now, will have no effect on anything. So, I gave myself permission. Still eating healthy, not splurging out of control, but I totally bought some junk yesterday. Cookies, ice cream and some cinnamon bears to share with J. Have a bit of guilt, but, not really! He shared with me that some people... eat a bag of chips and a 2liter of soda for breakfast. That is crazy to me... I cannot even imagine... I would be SOOOOOO sick! 

Mom is coming. Happy that "someone" is there to help get the weeds out of the landscaping. I've been able to get "some" done, but there is far more that needs to be. Honestly, I'm just taking things day by day and trying to stay out of my head as to the future "me" when I'm undergoing cancer treatment. Bottom line, is that... I have to eat and stay hydrated. Daily walks would be good for me, and probably the dogs too. -Cheers to staying healthy and very functional during treatment. Baby steps!

Excited for the upcoming trip to WA. Connect with my dad and see CJ if he is available. Not to mention, all the yummy places we are going to go and eat. Reminisce and see if it still tastes just as delicious as before. 

Just checking in for today. Stay grateful and fill your day with JOY!

Numb

I am feeling so numb!

I was told that I have cancer and I cried the first day, but ever since then I just have not really "felt" anything outside of my sessions with Brian. 

The statistics are good for this "common" cancer, but I feel that I am NOT feeling. Despite being borderline of not being responsive to treatment (as I am being told), I am convinced that I WILL beat this cancer.

I feel that Brian said it so clearly yesterday with the affirmations during my session. "Sometimes it's easier to "do" than to feel". I feel this is so true for me right now. Am I not feeling things? Am I numb? As I am writing this, tears are rolling down my face. So, I am going to have to say, yes! I think I need to just "be" with this news. Really BE with it. What the FUCK does that mean or even look like?

In our family "feelings" was not a thing we really connected with, so experience is not something I have mastered. Although my work with network care has brought me leaps and bounds further than I have ever been. I am feeling that with this news... I should be a basket case or something? right?

I know there is no right or wrong answer in how I deal with this, but after yesterday's session with Brian... I am just feeling as if I am numb! So here it goes...

To the universe and greater powers that be, please show me the direction in helping me connect and start processing this cancer. 

Still trusting the process.

Educated

When Fred was around, I was learning a lot about my body; spending more time with butt hole than I ever dreamed that I would be doing. Good to be in touch with my body!

I have been spending time in getting to better understand more about this cancer and have come to the realization that my prior thoughts have SOME truth in them. 

The urgency from the doctor to start treatment right away is finally understood. My cancer is on the borderline of not being receptive to treatment. In perspective... the human anal canal is roughly 4cm in length. My cancer is 3.5-4cm in length and 2cm wide. Which for that area, is really big. If I do not eliminate this cancer, then I am at risk of having to have a colostomy and wearing a ostomy bag for the rest of my life. -That is scary to me. 

Chemotherapy and radiation goes so far against my belief ! Scary! Not just the drugs and the side effects, but the vicious cycle I may be at risk for, not to mention the weakened immune system from the treatment. The unknowns here, are hard to swallow. I guess there will be a new normal, temporary normal, but amazing how this roller coaster of life has continued to forge forward. 

I am learning some, but not purposely learning about the other parts. I figure, I MUST trust the experts and just focus on me and my well being. 

Cheers to joy and healing!

  

3:30am, like clock work

I know that I must have blogged about this before, but it seems that 3:30am is the magic number of when I wake up. It was fine when I was going to the gym, but I am not going to the gym and haven't been for 5 months now. 

I do not like that I haven't been tot he gym. Definitely starting to lose muscle, but  working outside in my yard, is enough, right now! I will get back to it, but during cancer treatment... I will be going only to the necessary places as I do not want to risk my health, since my immune system will be "weakened" by treatment. ---Off topic tangent!

Why am I still waking up. What does my body want? I just don't know, but am hoping that in time, it will be revealed. 

Loving life and ensuring that I am focusing on JOY! 

I WILL beat this Cancer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gratitude for life and everything that is happening. -Thank you!

Trust in what?

What scares me the most out of this "CANCER" is the radiation and chemotherapy. Talk about a disruption to my life and my body. 

I don't even like to take prescription anything; western medicine to me, is a vicious cycle. Short term is tolerable.

I am about to get the crash course in cancer. Again, short term, but these drugs scare me. I have so many upcoming doctors appointments. I no longer want to research the drugs or radiation. It is depressing me. Brian says "earth is a trauma based learning center". I can totally resonate with that statement.

Short and sweet today, but this whole cancer thing is CRAZY!

I have to have another surgery in order to have an intravenous "port" put in for chemo therapy. I only need to have 2 of those, but will be on a specialty pill concoction for 6 weeks. Radiation 5 days a week for the 6 weeks. OMG, please help me discover this disconnection with this cancerous spot. My PET Scan is on 5/30/23. Can my Genius Frequency "GF" connection help this to be gone before the scan? Maybe I delay surgery and scan by 60 days?  --What is the right decision? How does my plant teacher play into this?

I am still processing things, BUT I must trust in this process. I also must only focus on JOY right now. 

What brings you joy?

Thanks Brian for holding me accountable. Awareness to a deeper connection.

So this has been on my mind and I feel that I have been overthinking it. Totally. I had to think of it differently to make the connection. 

So for me, it's what makes me smile? I have been catching myself smiling in the activities, tasks, chores, things that are in my life. --Things like:

Family, especially J, we compliment each other so well in our relationship. Love the kids, who are not kids anymore.

Gardening, labor of love! Recognized the smile as I was outside yesterday, digging up weeds and over sprayed hydroseeded grass... got a good workout and the colors are coming together nicely. Ahhh, labor of love. Can't wait to see the landscaping in 3-5 years, it's a long term plan. 

Roux & Mia, dog poo is not my favorite thing to do, but playing with the dogs is fun!

Food, not only eating it, but cooking it too! I loooove good food. 

Rocks, boy, do I LOVE rocks! I have favs from the different states I've lived in. Certain Wood Logs and BAGS of rocks have made moves across the country as we've moved around. Cannot wait to set up all these things as I landscape this huge yard!

Blogging, I started out with journals even further back than this blog goes. Those paper written journals are long lost. I noticed in looking back in my 16 years of blogs... I have a ton of which are not hash-tagged. I can recognize the pattern in years I had some kind of initiation in my life. Looking back allowed me see the progress. Some of it has been AMAZING progress.  

This is heavy on my heart and my mind. If it doesn't bring me joy, then I need to re-think it. Do only the things that bring you joy! --But in my mind, you can't have joy all the time. Right? Stuff happens.

Still processing the other stuff, but for now as I work through this next experience in my life... I need to do MORE of what brings a smile to my face.

All done!

Working at a slow pace, and still managed to get the lilies all weeded. Definitely some casualties along the way, but the weeding is done! Yay!!!

Looks like I need to divide some of them up to replace the dozen-ish we lost. I think, there is over 800 lilies out there along the driveway from last years planting. I cannot remember, but it was A LOT!

They will be so beautiful by next season! They are already blooming and very fragrant. Love them!

It's been nice!

Last year, August... I was productively planting out in my yard. I had the kids and my mom here to help.  I felt as if I was racing so the plants could have time to grow. Also, the last phase of the grass needed to be hydroseeded. In the end, by the time fall arrived... I (we) got it done. Happily a labor of love!

This year has been a bit different. I wanted to get out in the yard to weed, but either I was too exhausted after work. I could have since I'm usually home by 4pm... but didn't. Or it rained on the weekends. Theeeen... I wanted to actually get out there but Fred had become worse and very painful, so that stopped me in my tracks. 

So after my surgery to evict Fred, I had almost a week of not doing anything. That was challenging for me as I am not the person to just sit and be. Couldn't pick up a book for the life of me and was SO sick of TV. OMG!!!

So this last weekend was nice! I have finally been able to get out into my yard to weed the over sprayed hydroseeded grass out of the lilies I planted. Boy are there a TON of weeds and even more grass from where they over sprayed the hydroseed from planting the grass last year. But the silver lining is that the grass is a one and done things. It'll be much easier to maintain, once it's all done. 

So grateful for getting my butt outside to clean up the yard. This is one laborious task that I can do all day long with no complaints. 

Don't have too!

I don't have to go to the gym every day. I have a gym right here in my backyard! I stated that I wanted to go to the gym daily and start on the 19th and I probably will start at some point, but not this week. I need some time to find the new balance for my day, for me. Whatever that may be!

My mindset is so stuck, still. I am not 20, or even 30 anymore. I am almost 50 and I need to start shifting my mindset to be more realistic. I don't need to keep up, or prove anything to anyone but me!

I don't have to be an overachiever. I was raised that way, for sure! BUT it is time to start making some changes!

Cheers to the awareness and taking action to making the change.

Sooner than I thought

I just want to start by saying how much I APPRECIATE my husband Jason. He is such a wonderful man and I am so lucky to have part of his heart. Unconditional love and dedication with little complaints. He's tough! I love him, deeply!

So the office of the Messino Cancer Center called me yesterday. Turns out, that the doctor has enough information from my surgery to start discussing treatments. The PET scan will determine if it is one spot or if it has started spreading; stages...etc. 

Thought I had until June to just process, start to process this. Turns out that those answers are coming sooner. Okay.

Buckle -up, this ride is about to do something? AND I'm about to find out.

Curverballs. How do you deal with them?

You have a plan in life… and then BOOM! - that just happened!

Not going to change anything right now. I want to restore activities back into my lifestyle, now that Fred is gone. It’s best for me to just wait until I have more answers in June, after I get the PET scan results and discuss treatment options. Definitely in my thoughts!

I am going to keep working for now. I am in tune with how I am going to connect to this… cancerous spot on my body and learn to live with it for the next 90 days. I am going to make a few changes like

Cut back M 1x a day. Test until my poops are more solid, now that Fred is gone. I can mix up my diet with more leafy, cruciferous veggies, less dairy, oil, meat. I need to take an inventory of the food in my home to start cooking out my pantry and freezer. One day at a time. I return to work on the 19th, so I am going to slowly do things. I'd like to bring some structure/planning on eating the excess things I have in my diet right now.  - Excited that my mom will be here. She can totally cook dinners.

Keep Melissa to help clean the house. Don't want mom to do anything while she is here. Okay, maybe cook. I could use some KOREAN food, yes, please! So that means... Shop for groceries; day she arrives or weekend? 

Change up work schedule... Get to work at 7am after gym. On Friday  the 19th... the gym/work routine starts. Don’t have to kill it, but 45 min and some HIIT, slow rowing (Sitting right now may not be advisable, maybe in 6 weeks) but... definitely squats. I read that deep pelvic squats are good for women in strengthening their pelvic floor, So why not incorporate into my weekly workout routine.

Send Cheryl records since she is a close family friend who is in the field. I totally trust her opinion. 

Work until 3pm, Some days 2:30pm and the traffic on 26 is NUTS! --Take the other onramp on 26 to 40 directly. Stress level on 26 route is a bit stressful and isn't moving very fast, at all! Time to change it up!

Blogging out loud; unfiltered for my benefit as I use this blog as a tool in structuring the changes required in living heathier and future reference to see my growth over the years. 

Thank you!

And the results are in!

You hear about it, but many times it’s just out there happening to others... sometimes, it’s close to home. No one ever really feels that their going to get Cancer, but when you get the news, it’s… WOW!  - OMG, what did you say? I have Cancer. 

I just found out that the biopsy results show that I have squamous cell carcinoma. Anal Cancer. WTF! Our bodies are made up of squamous cells… They multiply, but when one area multiplies faster that normal, it develops into a cancerous area. (Still discovering WTF this is) Either way... it just happens. There are some leading causes and I can say that I am guilty of some of the things that are on that list, but that was SOOOOO long ago. Like 20+ years ago, but… life does have a way of catching up to you. Fore sure!

I just got the news yesterday and it hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m definitely still processing. Very emotional right now!!! I have zero family history of Cancer in my entire family. My mom had thyroid cancer, but her doctor’s told her it was job related. Who knows how true that is, but she did work with radiation in her career at Pearl Harbor; so maybe that’s true. Who really knows!

I was emotional yesterday. I called and talked to all the important people in my life about this, especially my kids. I don’t know much right now as further testing is needed first but after processing things thus far… I have made some decisions as of right now.

First is… as unhappy as I was because of Fred, he gave me the gift of discovering that he was the surface of something greater. I still had to evict him since he hasn't left in 8 months and he is kind of a pain in my ass; but if it wasn’t for Fred, I wouldn’t have discovered the Cancer. The underlying issue of why I had surgery in the first place is still there, but at least I have answers now. Some, but even more questions. Ugh… and so it’s the gift that keeps giving!

It feels like it has been FOREVER that I have been making ass jokes about my Fred situation, but all jokes aside. Thank you, Fred, for showing up to reveal that you were just a warning sign to something greater. Glad you’re gone, but thank you!

Successfully evicted Fred!

Wow when I had a partial hysterectomy, that post operative recovery was nothing like this. That one was a breeze in comparison.

This surgery, fuuuuuuck it hurts so bad! While I was in the recovery room, drinking a shit ton of water so I can prove that I could pee. Because you have to urinate before you can leave the hospital, why? Not a doctor to know, and I’m sure someone along the way has explained why, but all I heard was… you have to pee before you can leave. I started drinking hot water as I was shivering cold, but I didn’t care… drinking a ton of water so that I could pee and get outta here!!

But, let me tell you… the pain was excruciating!

It has been one week since the surgery and yesterday was the first day I could actually get up and around my house for more than a minute. Tired in the afternoon, but feeling a sense of normalcy being restored.

Good news… Fred is gone. Yes, bye bye!

Good news… Bad news… while I was being operated on, Dr. Z found out that I didn’t have anal fissure after all and the lateral inner sphincterotomy was not needed, BUUUUUT she found a silver dollar size wound in there, that has been biopsied. It could be Crohn’s Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Cancer, among other things that she list off while we talked post operatively. It also could be an infection. Until the biopsy results come in… we are playing the waiting game.

So naturally I started to google the options of what it COULD be and discovered that I do not have those symptoms. Good news! It’s probably just an infection and antibiotics would solve that. 100% give me a yeast infection, but with a little Diflucan… no problem. One and done!

It still hurts as I have a bowel movement, and roughly 25 minutes or so afterwards, but once I start antibiotics, this too shall pass! I am so close!

So that's happening!

I did all I could do with Fred, but after Monday’s appointment with the surgeon, which BTW… this was the first time anyone could get a digital device in there to view what it looked like. Obstructed view, but a bit of progress. 

Honestly, it doesn't help that my surgeon is going into a induced labor on May 9th, but if Fred gets any worse or anything else comes up while she is on maternity leave... I will have to start all over with another surgeon. I really like Dr. Z and felt that I wasn't caving due to timing. I gave Fred everything I had since October, and it's now May. It's time for my unwelcomed guest to leave AND I guess forcefully it is. Ugh, I tried! --Bottom line, after really talking it through with Dr. Z, I decided I needed to stop fighting this and just get surgery. So, on Thursday morning, mama’s gonna get a new asshole and Fred will be gone. 

Scared as hell. Not of the pre-operative or operation, but the post op. After all, you need your asshole to poop and it's not like you can stop your bodily functions, nor would you want to. OMG I'm terrified of how bad that will hurt. But it is, what it is and there will be relief in the end. So, cheers to a successful operation!