Thursday, May 28, 2015

My Big Dream

I have been having so much fun making Chemo scarves! So much fun that I find myself thinking about fabric, ALL THE TIME! I love checking for coupons to JoAnns, and I especially love hunting through the bolts of fabric for some fun designs. At night I dream about these scarves, and while I sleep great ideas come to my mind. Idea's that make me super excited and make me want MORE fabric!

Originally this project was going to be only 17 scarves, one for each chemo treatment. That was an easy project to fulfill. I have since  made  around 76 scarves, and that's just the ones I've completed! I have about 30-35 cut out and waiting to be sewn!

So what's my Big Dream?

My big dream is to get my chemo scarves in all of the 50 States! In order to do this I'll need to find friends or contacts in each state and ask them if they'd be willing to let me mail them a package of 10 chemo scarves and they'll just have to deliver them to a chemo center in their town. That shouldn't be too hard, right? Before I start looking for a contact from each state I need to buy a map from Utah Idaho Supply. One that I can write the name and address of the contact person in their state.
Dave and I need to sit down and design a logo to put on the tags for these scarves. And I'm hoping the company I found will print my logo on their labels.  *Fingers crossed!*
10 scarves in 50 states is 500 chemo scarves! Holy! That's a lot! I'm not in a hurry to finish this project, I'll be ok if it takes me more than a year to complete. This project is about the process and getting FREE scarves onto the heads of chemo patients!
But how am I going to make this happen? So far I've been self funding this project, with a few friends who have donated (some super cute) Fabric. I'd love any suggestions on how I can get my hands on LOTS of fabric! I've thought of looking for businesses who would donate, but I'm not sure if I need to be a Non-profit to receive donations from a business. Anyone know how that works?
If you would like to donate fabric, or money for me to go pick out fabric, thread, etc, here's the breakdown of needs:
 Fabric:
28 inches makes 2 chemo scarves and 2-3 JP drain bags.
1 yard and 20 inches will make 4 chemo scarves and about 8 JP drain bags.
2 1/3 yards will make 6 scarves and 16-20 JP drain bags.
Thread- tan preferably. The stitches are less obvious with tan than white thread.
Double sided ribbon (white)- 3/8in X 18 ft will make ties for 3 drain bags.
                                             - 1/4in X 10 yds will make ties for 5 drain bags.
I have found the  3/8in X 18ft ribbon at JoAnns for $1.99, and the 1/4in X 10yds at Michaels for FIFTY CENTS! And if you have a coupon it could be even cheaper!

If any of you have any suggestion on how I can make this project go, I'd love to hear your ideas!

Lastly, quite a few of you have asked if I'll teach you how to make these scarves so you can do them at home. They really aren't hard! But what I'm thinking of doing is, after surgery and I'm feeling pretty good, I'll organize a sewing night at my house where I can teach you 'HOW' I cut them out, iron them, sew them, etc. If you'd be interested in coming to a scarf sewing night at my house let me know, that way I know who to invite.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Cancer takes the blame

I've noticed that I put the blame on Cancer for most things that go wrong in my life. If I get frustrated because my chemo brain is sabotaging my productivity, I blame Cancer. If I don't have the energy level to get my house work done, I blame Cancer. And when I struggle with my new self image I blame Cancer. Yesterday was a day where I blamed Cancer for something it had no relation to, it's pretty silly now that I think back on it, but at the time I was mad at the situation I was in and I just knew that it was Cancer's fault!
Here's the story-
Trying to prepare and get everything done before my upcoming surgery is causing me to feel anxiety and stress. I don't mind doing the chores and things that need to be done, but what I don't like is the pressure I feel to get them done in a certain time frame (before SUNDAY!)
The list I had for yesterday was not too crazy: 1) Pick up ladder from neighbor 2) Drop off van to the dealership to be repaired. 3)Wash the walls in my entry way. 4) Wash the ceiling fan in said entry way. 5) Mow the front and back lawns. 6) Edge both lawns and fertilize.
After coming back home from dropping off my van I mowed the lawns and did the edging before it started to rain. My timing was perfect! It literally started raining the minute I put my edger away. Mowing and edging only took me 2 hours! Coming in the house to start washing walls and the ceiling fan I realized I couldn't remember how to use the neighbors ladder. It's a tall one and VERY heavy. It took me a while to figure it out but eventually I did. Getting the ladder into a good position to climb and do the cleaning I accidentally scraped the paint off the wall. I was beginning to feel frustrated but I was still determined to get the job done. I climbed up and started cleaning the fan blades, it was looking so nice, but my rag was becoming all junked up, so I climbed down to rinse it out. After rinsing out my rag I glanced up to admire the nice clean fan and then my brain did the dumbest thing, it forgot that I was just rinsing my rag and needed to climb back up and finish cleaning the rest of the fan. I was admiring my work and feeling accomplished that I was done; I started cleaning up and awkwardly figured out how to take the ladder back down. Once the ladder was situated on the my landing all ready to be taken back to the neighbor I realized I really wasn't done cleaning the darn ceiling fan! But now I was worn out from maneuvering this heavy ladder that I didn't have the strength to put it back up and finish the job. Oh-Well! I moved on to the ceiling fan in my room and figured I ask Dallas or Drea to help me with the ladder later in the day.
Soon after my cleaning was done I got a phone call from the dealership telling me how much it was going to cost to fix my problems. The problems were going to cost more than I could afford so I told them I'd come pick up my van and come back another time when I could afford the repairs. The problems weren't new and I had already been living with them for a while so what's another couple weeks? The problem that was the most concerning was my ignition switch, the key has a hard time going in! And it's gets a little more difficult each time. By diagnosing the problem they messed up the tumblers within the ingnition, which meant when I tried to leave the dealership my key wouldn't go in and therefore I couldn't start my van and leave. I tried for a good 20 minutes. By this point I was starting to cry because it was obvious I was going to have to leave my van to be fixed. Which means trying to find a ride home, AGAIN! And figuring out how to pay for repairs. Ugh! I hopped out of the van to go find the service writer and explain that whatever they did messed up the ignition even more, to the point it was going to be staying for them to fix. Couldn't find the service writer. Where in the heck did he go?! After 5 minutes or so of looking for him I went back to my van and began trying to get my key to go in and start. 10 or so minutes later it started!! The tears started up again! I was so happy! The plan at this point was to drive it home and park it in the garage, with the key IN the ignition so when we're ready to get it fixed we can drive it to wherever it needs to go. As I was driving home I was quite emotional and I remember saying, out loud, 'Cancer, this is all your fault!' I'm sure it isn't really cancers fault, but it felt so good to give it the blame. Cancer should get the bad wrap for everything that goes wrong. The changes in me both physical and emotional because of cancer probably make handling hard and stressful situations that much harder. Nobody likes stress, nobody likes dealing with hard things. And I've never met anyone who liked cancer either.

If I need to find something positive in this I guess I'd have to say that there must be something to learn from it. If I'll goes well I'll have a pretty good idea of just how much stress I can handle. By the weight of the current stresses I'd say I'm going to be a body builder in no time!

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Port flush?

I was really hoping that last chemo was the last time I'd have to have my port accessed! But, alas it wasn't! Because I changed surgeons and surgery dates it looks like I need to have my port flushed. It's perfectly normal to be nervous and upset that I have parts of this chemo process to deal with. Flushing the port is important! But that doesn't mean I have to like doing it! It's a good thing I'm kicking cancers trash because I'm pretty sure I could never get used to my port being accessed!
So, here's hoping tomorrow's port flush will be the final port access!
Wish me luck!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

A day with my Dad

Today was my original surgery day.  I have been wanting to cut out chemo scarves from all the fabric I bought several weeks ago, so I packed up all my stuff and headed over to my dad's. Packing up all my stuff to go to his house brought back many memories of packing up 'stuff' to go watch my Mom. This trip down memory lane made my heart happy. I was looking forward to hanging out with my dad. He spent his time working on all his garden 'starts' and I took over the kitchen table with all my cutting supplies. Having him to chat with was so enjoyable. We talked about his trip he just came home from, we talked about veggies to plant in the garden, we talked about how to wrap up your ear buds that go to your ipod, and we talked (mostly me, he just listened) about how to make tags for my chemo scarf project. He was intrigued with the tags I was talking about and we then spent the better part of an hour on the internet looking at companies that'll make labels/tags. We found a couple companies that interested me and now I'm looking forward to contacting them to see if they'll print my logo/design on their tags.




My dad and I went to lunch. He has a love for Chinese food, so we usually end of at the same Chinese. restaurant. The food was great! The company was even better! We were never at a loss of things to talk about. I like hanging out with my dad. He's one of my favorite people. And I love that he is so good at listening to me and encouraging me with my ideas.

Check out my awesome fortune! Totally appropriate for me! Don't you think?!













This was the shirt I wore today. It was a gift from our Chemo Bandit. I can only wear it for a few more weeks and then my 'under construction' will become a 'project complete!' I love that I am comfortable taking about my cancer to just about anyone. I really think I've been pretty positive through this but it's been hard! REALLY HARD! But something I remember saying in the beginning keeps coming to my mind, 'If me going through cancer can help ONE person It'll be worth it!'. We all have trials, and hard things happen to us. These things are meant to help US grow, but I also believe there are times when others grow by watching people go through trials. I love it when people come up to me and tell me what they have learned from my cancer. In so many ways it feels like this cancer has changed more people than just myself.


Thank you for encouraging me through this journey! I have the best family and friends! I have never felt alone! Thank you for loving me!
I love you all!

Monday, April 27, 2015

I'm a Roofer!

I woke up Saturday and it felt like I had a spider bite on my neck. I showed it to Dave and he agreed that it looked like a spider bite. The morning was busy and we quickly rushed to be ready for basketball games (Dave and Brad), AP study class (Dallas) and a day of volunteering for me at a Stake activity. During the service activity I kept thinking that my spider bite sure hurt. A LOT! I figured it wouldn't do any good to complain about it, and lets face it, a spider bite is nothing compared to the pain I felt from my double mastectomy. If I was strong enough to handle the pain from the mastectomy I could surely handle the pain from this bite...or so I thought.
Sunday morning Dave woke up to get ready for Bishopric meeting and wasn't feeling well. He's been working so hard and without many days off, so it's no wonder. He ended up staying home from meetings to sleep and get feeling better before the new work week began. I tried not to complain about my neck while I got ready for a missionary homecoming, but I'm sure I told Dave more than a few time how much it was bothering me. During the homecoming talks I kept scratching at my neck and thinking how much this was getting worse. By the time I came home and picked up my kids to go to our ward I was feeling pretty irritated by anything! that touched my neck! Before sacrament I stopped in the library to make copies and ran into a nurse friend. I asked her if she thought my neck looked like a spider bite. She told me she thought it was shingles and that a visit to the instacare TODAY was a pretty good idea for me! So, with her suggestion I texted Dave and told him about this conversation. After church I was pretty grumpy and super aggitated. Everything was bugging my neck- the sweater I was wearing, my clothes rubbing, the air moving across my skin. After getting dinner started Dave took me to instacare. The doctor diagnosed the shingles, ordered some prescriptions and we were on our way. The doctor prescribed an anti-viral pill to help the virus run its course quicker and a cream to put on the rash to help soothe it. Picking up my prescriptions we learned that the cream was going to cost us about $150 for a little tube, so I opted to tough it out and not get it. I'm taking the anti-viral pill 5 TIMES a day! Thank goodness for alarms on my phone! I have to wake up at night to take my pills too, that part it lousy, but if it means this incessant pain goes away sooner, I'm all for it! As for the size of these pills they remind me of a small rodent! They're HUGE! They don't give huge pills to wimps do they? You'd have to be a pretty tough person to choke down this big pill. Tough people have hard jobs, like roofing. I can be a roofer! I can be tough! And when I'm done taking all these pills I may be left with no shingles, but I'll still be a tough roofer!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Let it GROW!

Last night I ordered a lamp for my sewing corner. It'll be here on Friday! I'm having a lot of fun getting my 'Pay it Forward' station all set up and organized!
There are a 2 women in my support group who are in the beginning of their cancer journeys. This past week both of them shaved their heads. Loosing your hair is really a hard thing! I reached out to them both and told them I wanted to mail them or drop off a chemo scarf. One of the ladies lives in Spanish Fork (most of my support group warrior sister live in Utah County), so I emailed her pictures of the scarves I have right now. She picked the one she wanted and this morning I mailed it off to her! I can't wait for her to find this fun package in her mail!



This is the scarf she picked out. It's a fun one! Nice and bright and cheery! I am currently working on coming up with a Brand name for my project. Once I've come up with it I'll have some tags made that I can sew into my scarves. I have some other big ideas, but I'm going to save sharing them until I have my branded name. I'd love any suggestions!
So while I was at the post office I told them about my project and asked them to give me an idea of what it was going to mail chemo scarves around the US. If I mail them in this envelope it will cost me .91 cents! And I can mail them anywhere in the US! This makes me so excited to get me chemo scarves everywhere! And it won't have to be a financial burden either! This project is coming together quite nicely! And I'm healing myself in the process!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Because Sometimes Change is Good!

This post has been a little slow in coming, but for a good reason! My surgery date was set for the 29th of this month, but because I have new insurance I decided to get a second opinion. Remember my post about that? The option the 2nd opinion purposed was going to be more surgery than my body could handle, so I figured I stick with Dr. Agarwal up at the Huntsman. His plan was to do implants and move my latissimus from my shoulder blade on the cancer side to my front. This extra cutting, longer surgery, drains and longer recovery really had me hung up! This was not what I wanted but he was insistent that this was the only way.
For my support group in March they had a plastic surgeon, Dr. J come and talk about reconstruction. His presentation was incredible. His ideas on how to do things was so inline with what I wanted. BUT, I thought, 'There is no way I'd want to drive to Utah County for surgery!'. His surgery idea is to not do extra cutting and flaps if it's not needed. As he put it, 'no free flap surgery is free. They come with a cost'. Meaning loss of muscle strength, scars, complications, infections, etc.
I came home and talked to Dave about what I had heard and learned. I was excited! He suggested that I go see Dr. J, and by doing so maybe we could convince Dr. Agarwal to not do the latissimus, because Dr. J would have been my 2nd opinion of not needing it. I made an appointment. My sister-in-law went with me to this appointment. I quickly felt comfortable there. I saw Dr. J's assistant first and she explained how she thought he'd do my surgery. She did and exam and was confidant that he could make my end result beautiful. Dr. J came in and explained that he would do an exchange only, expander out- implant in, which would be an outpatient surgery!! Total time to do the job? About 2 1/2-3 hours, and some of that time is in recovery! No extra cutting! No drains! But there would be a cute belly band to wear while my liposuction site on my stomach heals. The fat taken from my tummy would be used to fat graft around my breast to make them look more natural and smooth around the edges. From what other breast cancer survivors have told me, the hardest part of this surgery is the discomfort from the liposuction. Most of them only took ibuprofen for pain, no heavy drugs. This is so appealing to me! I struggled big time with the last surgery and all the anesthesia, and all the million meds I took after. This surgery approach would be similar to when I had my port placed, so I'm encouraged that the side effects may not be as bad.
I made an appointment for surgery with the new doctor and told them that I wanted time to ponder and pray if this really was the right direction for me. They told me to make my decision and if I didn't choose to go with them to just call and cancel the surgery. No hard feelings they said. Surgery was set for May 20th at American Fork Hospital.
Having a constant prayer in my heart started as I left that office. Dave and I flew off to California to celebrate our 20th anniversary! Oh what a glorious time we had! While we were there we fasted and attended sacrament meeting with Dave's sister and bro-in-law. The answer wasn't strong and overwhelming, but a quiet, gentle affirmation that it was the right thing for me to go with Dr. J.
Monday morning after coming home I started having a spiritual nagging feeling that I needed to confirm that my insurance would indeed cover this new doc and hospital. I made the call. Thank goodness for spiritual promptings! My insurance doesn't cover the hospital! But the doc has rights at another hospital and a surgical center. Dr. J suggested I go to the surgical center instead of Timpanogo's hospital. My insurance will pay for either option. I chose the surgical center but asked if we could do it on a day where I can have a one night stay if I don't come out of anesthesia well. He does surgery on Monday's and Fridays at the surgery center. If I have surgery on Monday and need a one night stay over that day will work. Friday surgeries cannot have a night stay over. With that, my surgery for May 20th was canceled and moved to his first Monday appointment, June 1st!
With my choice to change hospitals and doctors I made the phone call to Dr. Agarwal and canceled my surgery. I feel so relieved, and a little sad. Relieved that I'm not having a surgery I don't want, and sad that I won't see Dr. Agarwal's nurses or Joanna his Nurse Practitioner. They were great people!
So now I have quite a bit of time to prepare (and be nervous) for this last chapter of my cancer journey. I've heard many people tell me that the final reconstruction is the gift of having breast cancer. I hope I will like my new body. There always seems to be a level of emotional healing that has to take place in all of this. While I may heal quickly physically, it may take a while to heal emotionally. Thankfully I have a huge support system, and many breast cancer friends who can share wisdom with me as I heal.
My mind is blown that I am at this last part of my cancer journey. I remember in the beginning thinking about what it would feel like to be done. I'm excited! I feel strong! I feel loved! I feel like a fighter! A Winner! And a warrior!
And when this chapter closes? My next chapter of chemo scarves making will go bigger! The next chapter will be all about Paying it Forward!