naunie's Cancer Blog

Naunie,
I just wanted to stop by your blog and say Hi and welcome.
I was reading your bio and wanted to comment on a few things.
Have they tried your mom on Avastin?
When I was first diagnosed it reduced the tumor size from 4cm to 1 cm ea in 6 mths. making it possible to do surgery. Best of all, no side effects with it.
I had it along with 5-FU, Oxaliplatin and Leucovorin which suck. The side effects of those drugs were worse than the cancer.

I saw you are 28 and getting married.
My 23 year old daughter just got married in October and my goal for almost a year was to make it to her wedding. My doctor suggested an extra couple months of chemo so I would make it until the wedding. The wedding came and went and I am doing great and your mom will do the same. The mind is a powerful thing. The thing with moms is we feel guilty we are sick. I felt so bad because I knew long term I wouldn’t be there for her and that just made me feel terrible. We had a long talk about it and I apologised that I wouldn’t be there for her when she got older and begged her not to lose her faith when I go. She is a really religious and spiritual person and I was afraid she would lose that and her great outlook on life. She assured me she would not.
I have already had 2 years (active and productive, still working full time) that 5 cancer doctors said I wouldn’t have and who knows how much longer.
Nobody really knows how much time we have. The important thing is not to leave anything unsaid or undone.
Keep in touch
Donna

Posted on January 22, 2008 at 1:10:47 PM by stage4

Donna,
Thanks for the welcome! It is really amazing reading your words. I really do believe in positive thinking. In the beginning I really had a hard time looking at my mom without crying. All I saw was the future. But now I try to look at each day as a gift. A gift that we have been given to share memories together. Thank you for sharing that story about you going to your daughter’s wedding. It makes me cry anytime anyone says “wedding.” I look forward to that day and know that I will look are her and smile.

I will check on Avastin. I am not sure. The others definitely stink! They get her down for a few days but she has been doing better with the side effects. The most frustrating thing is the fatigue. Just brings you down! But if they work BRING IT ON!

Thanks Again!

Posted on January 22, 2008 at 3:01:31 PM by naunie

Unfortunately the fatigue is always there. I haven’t had chemo in almost a year and I get more fatigued all the time. Some of it is the drugs, some of them have very long term effects adn some ot it from the cancer. I am trying to get my dr to put me on Providgel. They used to use it on narcolepsy patients but it has just been approved for cancer patients for energy. I will guiny pig it for everyone on the board and see if it works. If I could lose the fatigue, I would feel almost 100% normal.My doctor is running lots of test first to rule out anything else. I sleep 12 hours straight on the weekend and still wake up feeling like I need more.
Will keep you posted. Give your mom a hug
Donna

Posted on January 22, 2008 at 7:20:10 PM by stage4

I checked and meant to tell you that she is on Avastin. Hope it does wonders!

Posted on February 6, 2008 at 3:55:36 PM by naunie