[Whiskey]

When cancer is in the picture, you never know what to expect. I was on vacation last week, and screwed up my sleep schedule, of course, so I woke up at 4am today. I laid in bed quietly until around 5:00 and decided to snuggle up with the wife for that last hour before I had to get out of bed and face real life. As soon as I snuggled up, I could tell she was in a mood.

Suddenly she started crying and babbling something about a dream about Johnny Cash and June Carter. I didn't understand what she was trying to say, but I know that June died from cancer and then Johnny died just weeks later, supposedly from a broken heart. Best I can determine, she's afraid that'll happen to us and the kids will be orphaned.

I managed to calm her down enough that I could go to work and deal with the fallout from being gone for a week. I came up at lunch to grab a sandwich and she was crying again. Still the dream? Nope. It turns out that she talked to an old friend of ours and found out the friend was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer back in September, had a mastectomy, and has now found out that the cancer spread to 3 more places since.

I think daddy needs a drink tonight.

 

[Lihpster]

Now me, I would have said something like, "Don't worry. If you go, I'll marry the cute redhead that works at the hardware store. The kids will have 2 wonderful parents for a long time." Of course, no one would have known, Because the next sound would be the scissors going into my neck. Small wonder I'm single.
Sorry to hear that it's a rough time. Let me know when and I'll pour a glass myself, and we can drink "together". Hang in there. Take care of each other. Love each other. Love the kids. Fight to keep doing so. Listen to Lean on Me. Make carmel corn. Whatever makes you smile. Hugs, Brother.

 

[Jerry K]

The battle against cancer is not only a physical one but it is also a very emotional one as well. I can truly empathize with Tanya and what she is going through.
I hope and pray for the best for her friend.
From my own experience I can tell you that the person I am changed post cancer. I am not the man, husband, father or person I was before. I find I am more tolerant with most people and I enjoy the little things in life even more. I am also more emotional and not afraid to let my feelings show. I want people to know how I feel and that I care for them.
If it will help you can tell her that I had an appointment with my oncologist in early January and I am 2 years cancer free.
You and your family are still in my thoughts and prayers.
I hope you enjoy your drink.

 

[Jeffrobombero]

Bottoms up Brother!
More prayers heading up. Hang in there. I cannot imagine what she's going thru or what you are either. Cancer just sucks. Drink another for me also, so I can have one with you. I'll have to schedule a business trip to our Alpharetta office when traveling is back en vogue, and have to hook up for a real beer or two.

 

[Whiskey]

The battle against cancer is not only a physical one but it is also a very emotional one as well. I can truly empathize with Tanya and what she is going through.
I hope and pray for the best for her friend.
From my own experience I can tell you that the person I am changed post cancer. I am not the man, husband, father or person I was before. I find I am more tolerant with most people and I enjoy the little things in life even more. I am also more emotional and not afraid to let my feelings show. I want people to know how I feel and that I care for them.
If it will help you can tell her that I had an appointment with my oncologist in early January and I am 2 years cancer free.
You and your family are still in my thoughts and prayers.
I hope you enjoy your drink.

I told my wife today that we'll never be past this, it has forever changed our lives. Good in some ways and bad in others. It is what it is. Having kids does the same thing and we've survived that... so far.

 

[Whiskey]

Bottoms up Brother!
More prayers heading up. Hang in there. I cannot imagine what she's going thru or what you are either. Cancer just sucks. Drink another for me also, so I can have one with you. I'll have to schedule a business trip to our Alpharetta office when traveling is back en vogue, and have to hook up for a real beer or two.

I'd love to hook up for a drink or two. Let me know when you make it here and I'll buy the first round.

 

[Chahta]

Here's the way it went for us. Chemo - she lost her hair. I'm the one that had to cut it off. Very sick. Couldn't eat. Everything tasted like metal. Tumor wouldn't shrink.
Mastectomy - tumor HAD shrunk. Scar tissue and calcium looked like the tumor hadn't shrunk. Also, 26 lymph nodes were taken out.
Radiation - burned her bad. Spent every evening washing dead skin off her and putting cream on her burns.
As of 2 weeks ago - Pronounced Cancer free! Very healthy. Feeling good.
Hang in there. It's a long hard row to hoe but, if you both fight it hard, you'll make it.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

 

[Whiskey]

Here's the way it went for us. Chemo - she lost her hair. I'm the one that had to cut it off. Very sick. Couldn't eat. Everything tasted like metal. Tumor wouldn't shrink.
Mastectomy - tumor HAD shrunk. Scar tissue and calcium looked like the tumor hadn't shrunk. Also, 26 lymph nodes were taken out.
Radiation - burned her bad. Spent every evening washing dead skin off her and putting cream on her burns.
As of 2 weeks ago - Pronounced Cancer free! Very healthy. Feeling good.
Hang in there. It's a long hard row to hoe but, if you both fight it hard, you'll make it.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

So glad to hear that you guys made it through and she's healing.

We've been very blessed so far. My wife hasn't really had the nausea. Some things she eats doesn't sit well, but she's kept it all down. Oddly, she has the metallic taste, but it seems to be when she isn't eating. Some food don't taste the same, like coffee tastes bad to her now, but she's managed to find things that still taste good. She eats a lot of strawberries. She's mostly just very exhausted all the time and has headaches and some pain in her side. We assume the pain in the side is from the tumor.

I feel confident that her tumor will shrink, I'm just praying that it shrinks in the right area. If her's shrinks toward the veins it'll still be inoperable, it has to shrink away from them to be truly helpful. That's my biggest fear at this point, that she'll suffer through all of this, have the CT scan, and find out that it shrank significantly, but is still wrapped around the veins and they'll need to go to radiation. I don't want to see her suffer anymore.

I'll just keep hoping and praying. It's all I've got right now.

 

[Chahta]

All my wife could eat was very bland stuff. We had to use plastics utensils. Just the smell of certain things made her Ill.
The radiation burns were the worst part. Thankfully they didn't last very long.
This stuff hits everyone differently. You gotta find what works best for her and go with it. Hang in there, you've got brothers and sisters here pulling for you both.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

 

[Whiskey]

Today has been an awesome day.

My wife went to lunch with a girl she met in the hospital when she was diagnosed back in December. They stayed at the restaurant for three hours. She came home in a great mood and took a nap. Tonight, she went to dinner with all of the girls from our motorcycle club. She hasn't come home yet, but when I sent her a text she said she's having a blast.

When momma's happy, daddy's happy.

The weather was great, and my wife was out at lunch, so I took the bike out to get my own lunch. I had to set the clock back an hour, which means I haven't ridden since October. That sucks, but the ride was excellent.

Tonight, while the wife is out on girl's night, I took the boys to Cheeseburger Bobby's for dinner and we had a great time.

We so needed this day.

 

[Jerry K]

So happy to hear all of you had such an excellent day!!!!!
In my neighbourhood the temperature was a few degrees above freezing and I saw a motorcycle go by my house in the late morning, it was an adventure bike. There is still a ton of sand and salt on the roads here so mine is still tucked away. In the early afternoon I had to run to the local lumber yard and on my way home across town someone was out on their snowmobile....gotta love Canada.

 

[Lihpster]

Great to hear! Glad she's feeling better! And you got a ride in! Awesome day! Enjoy!

 

[DCinCT]

great news...must have been like heaven for her and you as well...hope this good wave she's riding continues.

 

[Jeffrobombero]

Excellent news bro!
So glad you had a respite from the previous report.
Continued prayers my friend.

 

[Inky]

Glad things are looking up. Good days. 🙂

 

[Whiskey]

Just left Tanya for what is hopefully her last infusion. I bought her a necklace to commemorate her finishing the six rounds. I was going to give it to her on Thursday, when she gets the pump removed, which is the real finish line, but she was really tired and a bit depressed this morning, so I decided to give it to her early.

She cried when she saw it.

They took us to a room and accessed her port there rather than running her through the lab like they normally do, so I actually got to watch. That was new and interesting. That needle was no joke.

We meet with the PA and discussed what happens next. They are not waiting on this. I was thinking it would be 2-3 weeks from now before we knew anything, but they are planning to do get CT scan on Monday, then present her case to the surgeon on Wednesday. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll know if she is ready for surgery or not. If she is, the PA felt like she'd be in surgery before the end of the month.

I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic, but I'm really praying that this is over and she's healing by the first week of April.

 

[Whiskey]

Tapatalk didn't want to upload the pic of her gift, so here it is.

 

[BigBert]

Good luck, cannot tell you how quietly my family has been praying for your family. Hope all goes well.

 

[DCinCT]

in our thoughts and prayers.

 

[scorpion46]

How thoughtful. It means the world to her. Prayers continuing to come your way.