Friends!!!
My treatment is complete and now I'm on the road of recovery, which has also proven to be difficult.  My skin in my crotch is painful, inflamed, burned and blistered, with some skin peeling, some bleeding, and a whole lot of heat.  I'm swapping out ice packs to wear in my underwear almost every hour, as I've got a furnace in my drawers! I'm doing calendula sitz baths, lots of silver gel (let me know if you have a cheaper source than Pharmaca - I'm using the 2oz. bottle and going through it quickly), some special weed oil (it's locally made, and guessing similar to the Rick Simpson oil- super helpful), and a prescribed cream of silvadine, some over the counter anti-fungal, and lanolin all mixed together. And that's just some the topicals. I'm also spritzing with a calendula hydrosol, which is lovely.  I'm continuing with all the supplement (about 15 of them) that my acupuncturist (Debra Sue Kelvin- Integrative Cancer Care specialist) has me on too, and have managed to not get completely bedridden sick!!  Woohoo!!  Also continuing with the homeopathics, and prescription anti-nausea meds.

My mom has been here for 2 weeks and will be here for one more week, leaving on the 29th.  She has taken over making all my teas, which my housemate Val had been doing for the previous month, and she's cooking about half of all my meals.  I'm still experiencing a lack of appetite, but am up to 2 small meals a day now, and am having somewhat normal bowel movements, although they are painful- and are also 2-3 times a day.  I'm not able to wipe right now, so am very grateful for the removable shower head in our bathroom tub.  So much gratitude for things that I didn't know were some important!!

After my mom leaves, I'm really going to be wanting help more with meals.  I'm not putting this on the calendar and maybe I should?  I'm able to respond to text and am preferring text and phone calls and personal visits as my fav modes of communication right now. Wanna have a meal together next week?  I'm open to any day of the week, but often have weekend plans- so please text or call me.  I'm being loaned "The Cancer Fighting Kitchen" cookbook too, if you wanna co-create something that might actually sound and taste good to eat.

Also, this Saturday, July 27th is my birthday!!  Yay!!  So I'm celebrating my birthday (and end of treatment) with a brunch at my house at 10:30am.  If you'd like to come, please let me know!  I'm also hoping to have energy to go to Mango and dance some in the afternoon.  And also hoping to go kayaking at the Jenner Estuary on Sunday July 28th. Come play with me!

I'm also noticing the chemobrain, which is mostly forgetting short term memory things, but seems to be effecting me a bit emotionally as well- which I wasn't expecting.  Or maybe that's just part of being physically uncomfortable and in pain??  I find myself impatient and irritated more easily, and am trying to wrap my brain around why that is, and usually it's just wanting more simplicity and ease in different situations.  Everything has it's learning curve.

I love you all!!  Thanks so much for sticking by me through this, even if that means only reading this to this point!!
xoxo,
Tanya