Monday, November 26, 2007

Thankful!!

I am thankful for a wonderful, long weekend. It was great. We had a fantastic time with Doug's family at his Aunt and Uncle's for the holiday. Thank you Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Mal for all you did for us this weekend, we greatly appreciate it! It was a busy weekend, even after the holiday it was one thing after another. But so much fun. Tomorrow is chemo day so I am kind of dreading that since this past week I have felt so good! I love feeling good!!! I have had more pain these past few days, especially in the night. So I am keeping Doug up because I am tossing and turning in pain and then I am doing this twitching thing again during the night. I am not sure what that is about. I thought it might have been a side effect after I went off the Ambien but that went away for awhile and now it is back. That is what is so frustrating, I never know what things are caused by, it is always a guessing game. Like the agitation last chemo round, we think it was caused by the Decadron they put in my antinausea medication, but no one is for sure about it. That is just the only thing we could come up with.

Oh, very important. I did look at Oprah.com. It looks like the show Andrea and I attended will be aired this Wednesday the 28th. So tune in Wednesday or record it if you want to see if Andrea and I got on television. We are in the front row on the side next to Oprah. I am in a pink shirt and Andrea is wearing Coral. We tried to cheese it up as much as possible to give us more of a chance of being on tv. We will see, hehe. It will be fun to watch!

This week will be chemo, then next week my mom and I are heading back down to Houston to MD Anderson for a checkup there. I will have CT and a MRI done along with a CEA level drawn with other bloodwork. I will then see my oncologist there to see what he thinks of this chemo I have been on and any progress or regression I have had. I hope there has been progress in killing the cancer and continued reduction in the CEA level.

I will write more later. My mom is here helping me this morning with Ella because of my back pain. I better go help out as much as I can! If this chemo round is anything like the past few I will not be much help these next few days. I truly hope it is better than the last round though!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and reflected on what you are thankful for! I am thankful for you all who have entered my life through my blog or otherwise. love, Shawndra

PS. Don't forget to record or watch Oprah on Wednesday!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too am thankful for all that have entered my life through your blog, as well as all I have learned from it. I'm glad to hear your weekend was fun and action packed, as well as you feeling good! Hopefully this round won't be as hard on you and your rebound time a bit shorter. Just think, you and ANdrea might be superstars by Wed., that should give you a good chuckle and ease your discomfort! I look forward to your post with GOOD news. Have a great week.

Anonymous said...

I am so happy to hear you enjoyed a wonderful holiday and I hope you ended up making it to the game last night! I slept through most of it, but did see the end and OT. Wow!
I am excited to see you all tonight. I will call before I leave to see if you need me to pick anything up for you. Also, please let me know if I can help with Ella while you are in Texas next week. It would be a pleasure!! :)

I hope the Turner/Beauchamp Ladies are enjoying a leisurely Monday!

Love all of you, d

PS - Mrs. B, I know you know... ;)

Anonymous said...

I am thankful for you and your positive spirit. I admire you so much. Hang in there....

Anonymous said...

Thinking of you and praying for your body to tolerate this chemo round well. Hugs from CMH friends.
Dee Smith

Anonymous said...

So glad to hear you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we did too! We were even crazy enough to shop the day after...it was fun and festive though.
I'll pray that your chemo goes well this week as well as your upcoming appt's in Houston. Get lots of rest and know that we are all here for you, you're such a trooper!
I'll be watching Wednesday, can't wait! I am so disappointed though, I have heard so many negative things about Oprah lately. I suppose no one is perfect and everyone has held her on such a high pedastool (sp?) for so long it's no wonder people are surprised that she's human. I am still glad you got to go, to cool!
Take care! Deb
searaygirl@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

I'll be thinking of you in the coming weeks and you will continue to be in my prayers, I hope the tests in TX turn up very good news for you = )
Take care
((hugs))
Naomi

Anonymous said...

So happy that you all had a wonderful holiday! I'll be praying for you this week (as always), and hope the chemo goes better this time around. I'll also be praying that you get good news in Houston next week. Hang in there the next few days, we're all pulling for you.

Love and prayers to you, my friend.

Michelle

Anonymous said...

I will be praying that you get good news in Houston. Hang in there this week!
Lindsay

Anonymous said...

Shawndra-

Just wanted to send you a note to let you know we will be thinking of you this week. You and your family continue to be in our prayers.

The Mudge's

Anonymous said...

You are an inspiration for all. Thank you for the lessons you teach me about being thankful in all situations. Good luck this week with the chemo.

Beverly

PS In an earlier posting/comments a devotional was mentioned about praying the scriptures, I think. Any one know the name of that book? I wrote it down to share with my prayer group but misplaced it. Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Shawndra, my sister was just diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, uterine with mets to the lung. We live in central Ill. and they cannot treat it here. She is anxiously awaiting to go to MD Anderson, but the docs here are dragging their feet setting up an appt. Are you happy with them? We all are praying they can treat it. I will keep you in my prayers also.
Kay

Karen said...

Shawndra, I'm a fellow 30-something, young-mom cancer patient, and I have been on Decadron (dexamethasone) as part of my treatment. It can DEFINATELY cause the symptoms you described! I hate that stuff! Hang in there!! :)

Karen (aka Cancer Girl)

Anonymous said...

Shawndra,

I was glad to read that you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving. I will be praying for you as you go to MD Anderson. Have a great week and get lots of rest!

Jennifer Teegarden MD

nancygrayce said...

I'll be watching for sure! My sister was on years ago and we got a glimpse of her!

Terraific said...

I'm glad you had a great Holiday and I hope your chemo didn't get you too down this week! Good thoughts pouring your way! Hang in there and have a safe trip to Houston.

Terra

Anonymous said...

I watched Oprah to see if they showed you and sure enough, I caught a glimpse of you when she showed the basket of goodies for the audience. You looked awesome. I hope this week is better than the last chemo week. Take care of yourself.

Kellie in Ohio

Anonymous said...

Hey ~ I just saw you on Oprah~ I was bummed at first, the show was almost over and I didnt see much of the audience at all...than in the last 10 minutes or so...I saw you sitting in the audience...congrats you made it on the Oprah show = ) you looked great!
Hope chemo is going better for you this round, write me when you get a chance, I got something I want to send you for Christmas too = )
Praying for you girl, take care!
((hugs))

Unknown said...

Shawndra, I hope you're doing well with chemo week so far. You're in my prayers and I'm thinking of you. I taped Oprah today and watched it tonight. I too was a little worried that they weren't going to show you in the audience as the show came close to being over. But sure enough, about 53 or 54 minutes into my recording, there you were. I paused you on the screen and showed my husband who I've talked about you to often for the past several months. I was happy to see that you made it on TV. It was pretty close up and a good shot too. Especially with DVR where you could rewind and pause. You just have to love that DVR. I am having a little scare in my home this week that brings the reality of cancer in young people too close to home and could use a prayer or two myself. My 19 year old daughter Lindsey who is a Freshman at Mizzou got a call today from her OB/GYN's office here that she had an abnormal pap (she got it 9 days ago while home for Thanksgiving) that indicates a low grade lesion on her Cervix. As a mother, I'm beside myself with worry. We have scheduled a Colposcopy for Dec. 6th for further evaluation and are hoping for the best. It sounds like best case is inflammation and worst case is precancerous cells. I know it's treatable. But I hate the big C word even being in the mix if you know what I mean and am praying for best case. This all comes 3 days after I learned that she's been suffering from bulemia for the past 2 years and this morning, I had made 5 appointments for her to see someone to begin dealing with this while she is home for winter break. When it rains, it pours I guess. So maybe this week, we can pray for each other. And I sincerely hope that this week is one of the better ones for you. Take care and God bless you!

Laurie said...

Prayers for you continue. You looked GREAT on Oprah! What an inspiring show to be at.
Hugs
Laurie

Anonymous said...

Good morning, Sweet Girl. It was so much fun being with you Doug and Ella over the holiday. Don't forget that we are going to have a lunch date with our vintage hats. I think it will be fun. Don't you? We may start a trend. Who was that beautiful lady on the Oprah show? You? Look'in very fine, girlie. Love, hugs, and kisses. Mom2

Anonymous said...

Shawndra, you go girl!!!!! You looked awesome on Oprah. They showed you pretty close once and then you could see you in the audience. I hope things are going well at MD and we are all praying for you here in Blue Springs. Hang in there. Love ya. Melodie Chrisman