Journal entry by Christy Johnson —
It's been a little bit since I have given an update so I thought it would be a good time.
I am heading into week 5 of treatment with chemo and radiation every day. The ride from Lee's Summit to KU every day seems to be getting easier. So many beautiful things to look at on the new route we now take. I can't wait for the flowers to start blooming.
This process has not been what I would have ever expected it to be. I don't look like I have cancer nor do I feel like I have cancer (most of the time) sometimes I am very tired, but other than that I have been feeling really good. Chemo brain is a real thing so I started calling my moments of memory loss short terming like short term memory loss. Just makes it funny. The mental aspect of getting a diagnosis of a terminal illness is hard. especially with all the other things being so great it's hard to process I have an incurable cancer.
I get blood work every Monday and we looked at last week's together today and she said it was beautiful My white blood cell count is great everything was great and we got the labs back from today and they look even better than last week. There were multiple things that she pointed out that should be jumping all over the place and really low because of these treatments and my body is fighting to keep them normal and in a great range.
I have very little pain at this point. My legs have cramps and I have symptoms of PMS literally all month so for all of you ladies you know how bad that would suck. I also have some inner bone pain in my legs and after an ultrasound today no blood clots were found. She thinks my bones may be working in overdrive to make more blood cells while I am getting chemo so just another sign my body is fighting this.
She also said she thinks I should be at max for hair loss which means I am not going to lose it all. I think I will do a cute short pixie cut and let my hair grow back from what has fallen out. I cut most of it off before it could fall out, but I experienced handfuls and I had my moment at that time. I knew it was coming, but it still made me sad.
Keep the prayers coming. I have 2 weeks and 3 more days of radiation and chemo until I get a month off and get a break then I will get my next scan. Continue to pray for no recurrence. I won't ever be "cancer free" because of this type of cancer, but every scan that comes back without a recurrence is a win and is more time I get with the people I love and I intent for that to be many more years.
I am heading into week 5 of treatment with chemo and radiation every day. The ride from Lee's Summit to KU every day seems to be getting easier. So many beautiful things to look at on the new route we now take. I can't wait for the flowers to start blooming.
This process has not been what I would have ever expected it to be. I don't look like I have cancer nor do I feel like I have cancer (most of the time) sometimes I am very tired, but other than that I have been feeling really good. Chemo brain is a real thing so I started calling my moments of memory loss short terming like short term memory loss. Just makes it funny. The mental aspect of getting a diagnosis of a terminal illness is hard. especially with all the other things being so great it's hard to process I have an incurable cancer.
I get blood work every Monday and we looked at last week's together today and she said it was beautiful My white blood cell count is great everything was great and we got the labs back from today and they look even better than last week. There were multiple things that she pointed out that should be jumping all over the place and really low because of these treatments and my body is fighting to keep them normal and in a great range.
I have very little pain at this point. My legs have cramps and I have symptoms of PMS literally all month so for all of you ladies you know how bad that would suck. I also have some inner bone pain in my legs and after an ultrasound today no blood clots were found. She thinks my bones may be working in overdrive to make more blood cells while I am getting chemo so just another sign my body is fighting this.
She also said she thinks I should be at max for hair loss which means I am not going to lose it all. I think I will do a cute short pixie cut and let my hair grow back from what has fallen out. I cut most of it off before it could fall out, but I experienced handfuls and I had my moment at that time. I knew it was coming, but it still made me sad.
Keep the prayers coming. I have 2 weeks and 3 more days of radiation and chemo until I get a month off and get a break then I will get my next scan. Continue to pray for no recurrence. I won't ever be "cancer free" because of this type of cancer, but every scan that comes back without a recurrence is a win and is more time I get with the people I love and I intent for that to be many more years.
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