October 11, 2007
Home sweet home! I am so glad to be back in Ohio! The trip coming home was rough because I did not feel good. I remember looking out of the window when we were on the plane and thinking of my brother, Jeff. In those last minutes that he was here with us, if he had any idea of what was about to happen, he must have been so excited to finally be going home. As much as I love the comforts of my own house... my own bed, the feeling of my carpet between my toes, my dogs... I can only imagine how the comforts of our heavenly home make this one pale by comparison.
I tried a couple of times to start an update because I know lots of people are wondering if we made it back. The second portion of our trip was very rough on me. On Friday, Mike and I met with my new oncologist for the first time. We were told that the results from the full CT scan I had on Wednesday came back only showing the same affected areas in my neck and chest. Everything else, my brain, my lungs, my liver, my abdomen, etc came back clear. The doctor told us that they would be more aggressive than passive because I am only 27 and they wanted to try and get ahead of this before it got ahead of them. I agreed to start treatment that day. They had to insert a central line, which is an IV, into the right side of my chest just below my collar bone. This was extremely painful and uncomfortable to have had to leave in over the weekend. Their standard course of care is to admit patients to the hospital there while they undergo their first chemotherapy treatment in case of an allergic reaction to it. For the next three days, I was given two forms of chemotherapy through the IV, lasting about 7 hours total each day. I felt nauseated within minutes of starting. I was told that the chemotherapy that I am on now is much harder on the body than what I was on two years ago in terms of nausea. It was nice to have my parents walk in on Saturday morning, although I have to admit that I don't remember much of the weekend at all. Mike was not allowed to stay in my hospital room overnight, so I know it was nice for him to have some company back at the hotel as well. I was discharged from the hospital on Sunday evening, and I was in bed until we left on Tuesday morning. As I said, it was a rough trip home because of how bad I was feeling, but we made it. On the plane, I put on my MP3 player and closed my eyes, praying for God to just get me through. I wanted to post the lyrics to one of the songs I listened to. It is a song that I heard years ago when my family started to go through a specific trial and I was so thankful that God reminded me of it on that plane ride home.
He Will Carry Me by Mark Schultz
Use the control to listen to the song