Renewed Interest

Okay, it's been over a year since I posted to my blog. It's not like I haven't had anything to talk about, I went through a whole pregnancy and childbirth this last year. I guess I was a bit busy and overwhelmed with being pregnant, working, raising 3 kids and then 4 kids. Even though I quit my job at the end of May, the duties at home more than filled that space I assure you.

So we've been trotting along rather uneventfully for a few months (except for the fact that we are now 4/4 on the stinkin' cute kids and this one is also THE definition of an angel baby and an awesome sleeper -- yay!) and I've been thinking about re-establishing the blog when last month we suddenly found ourselves heading into a whole new direction -- I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And in the flurry of tests and diagnoses and the subsequent phone calls and e-mails needed to keep people informed, someone suggested I could keep a blog of what all was going on. Well, gee, I just happen to have one laying around here somewhere so let me dust off the cobwebs and see if I can remember the login and password.

So here we are. I have Stage 2 ductal carcinoma. The tumor itself is pretty small - only 1.5 cm - but it's spread to one of my mammary lymph nodes next to my sternum so that automatically makes me a Stage 2. That spread is not surprising because the tumor is right over that node. My surgeon who did the biopsy is a breast specialist and she's recommending 4-5 months of chemo first followed by surgery. I could start chemo as soon as the week before or the week after Christmas, it all depends on when the prep stuff can be scheduled. I have an appt. Thursday with an Oncologist so hopefully then I'll have a better idea of some dates.

For those of you familiar with cancer I'm looking at a TAC regimen every 3 weeks for 6-8 rounds. For those of you like me who think along a more superficial line... before I could even ask, the dr. told me I would lose all my hair... FAST! Oh yeah, she said it would go in the weeks following the first round and after the second round, my head will be smooth as a baby's bottom. The upside to this is I get to shop for a wig where I can choose the length, texture, and haircolor that I desire and I won't need haircuts or touchups to maintain it :)

The real biggie for me though is whether or not I will get sick. I was soooooo sick with the last 3 pregnancies -- throwing up several times a day every day, and I thought all that was behind me. But I am demanding whatever drugs they can give me and if they hesitate, I am not above driving out to their office and puking in front of them to prove my point.

So that's where we stand now with the cancer. But the rest of our crazy little lives go on just the same and I'm going to make sure I document all that as well. I am not all about having cancer, there is way more to me and my family than that and we intend keep living the way we have as much as possible. This is just another inconvenience we're going through for a brief time. So I definitely plan to blog about the everyday, run-of-the-mill vivi-nick-owee-jake cuteness in our household as well. If I don't, call me out, PLEASE!