Rollercoaster

Life is a fucking rollercoaster... mine in particular.

After coming home from WV I have been in a fairly good mood. I got to spend a lot of quality time with mom, and was beginning to feel positive, which was a big change in my feeling of doom & gloom that's been looming in my mind for months.

Mom had two days of appointments in Morgantown this week. Tuesday was with Dr Bakri her oncologist that did her surgery, etc. He scheduled her for scans the following morning to scan her body and lungs, which is typical of any cancer patient, and done even more frequently with LMS patients. She also had a very in-depth appointment with her oncologist that is handling her Chemotherapy Dr Auber, in which went well.

Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon at work, my mom randomly called and sounded upset. Of course, I had an instant rush of panic come over me, and as I listened I went into shock. The doctor called and said that her scans revealed an Aortic Aneurysm that was growing and needed immediate surgery! First off, I didn't know what the hell that was exactly...and then of course, it is always scary knowing that anything that goes wrong it always crosses my mind, "what if it's actually cancer?!"

So I spent all evening in a state of shock, researching both aneurysms, and also, how LMS can grow in the Aortic Artery lining, since it is in fact, a soft tissue muscle. (Which is what Leiomyosarcoma affects)

They scheduled surgery for 7am, and I spent all morning trying to battle all of my worries... "How did she get this" "Will they postpone chemo now" "What if it's actually cancer"...etc, etc. Finally around 11 am I got a phone call from mom herself saying she was out of surgery and feeling well!!!

I guess they were able to go in through her groin, and up her artery, to perform the surgery. She felt well enough that she was eating around lunch time! They then mentioned doing chemo while she was already up there, but in the end did not do that. HOWEVER, they did let her go home tonight, which is absolutely shocking to me, but wonderful. They also scheduled her chemo treatment for Thursday, so as of now, things look to be back on track!

Tonight I needed an emotional break, so Leona and I went to Bahama Breeze and had some food, and some cocktails. It was very relaxing, and I have to say I am in a much better mode and frame of mind this evening, than I was yesterday.

Even before this whole cancer thing with mom entered my life, my life has been one big roller coaster. Each day can go from joyous, to scary, to dreadful, back to joyous. It's so crazy how many ups & downs one person can have. Right now is definitely another trying time in my life, I just need to be able to keep my center while riding one CRAZY roller coaster..

Home, or gone from home?

Well..I made it back. I had a great vacation. It was surprisingly relaxing, and I got to spend time with my mom, grandparents, and others.


When I got there Saturday, it was 100 freakin degrees! WTH lol?! It was extremely hot for WV. After arriving in town I sent a little bit of time with mom and my gradparents. Mom had been sick that day (we think now  a stomach virus) so she didn't get to come pick me up, but was there for a bit to see me for the evening. After she left I went down to Rachel's family's camp on the river. We had a really nice time visiting with some people we graduated with, and some of their significant others. Her parents also stopped by, and it was really nice to see them. People that were there were me, Rachel & Marc, Lindsey Danielson, Monica Dotson & Mac, Alicia Dickson (Sunderman) and Doug. It was a laid back time. We grilled some burgers and hot dogs, and relaxed. The girls got on our usual topics that scared the men away lol so they stood over and played with the fire for a while.

I then swung by to say hello to Laura Tice and her family before heading on to Rachel's to play a little card games with her, marc, and Lindsey.

The game on Sunday was very fun (till the 3rd quarter) I hung out pre-game with Kim, Megan, Matt, and Aaron Statler. I then found Susan and Jeff with Jacob and showed Jacob where I was sitting so he stayed and sat with me. A few minutes left in the 3rd quarter, the game got postponed due to severe weather (aka thunder/lightening) After waiting forever, the game resumed for literally 2 minutes, and then got postponed again. Another hour or two passed, and they finally decided to call it a final score. WVU won the game, I had fun in Morgantown, that's all that matters in the end.

(Left to Right) Matt Statler, Megan Statler, Aaron Statler, Me. Cousins :)

Mom and I had alot of fun together this week. It was nice and relieving to both of us I think to be around each other. I of course feel more at ease because when I'm with her, I know exactly how her health is doing and am able to help her out more easily than from hundreds of miles away, and I think with me around (even though I ask a million questions) she is able to worry less, and just have a little bit of fun.

One afternoon we went to parkersburg and took Ty school shopping; I bought a gift for Harold and Bella at the gift store in the mall; we had some Pizza place pizza-yummy!; Looked around aeropostale and VS. Then we went wig shopping. I could tell mom was stressed at first, but she really lightened up and had some fun. She tried on all sorts of styles and colors. She looked great in all of them, but she decided on two of her favorites. One is a longer hair style, a dark blonde. It looked great with her skintone, and very natural. I loved it. The second is a shorter (but not old lady short) style, which she got in the light blonde with hi-lights. The pic I have is just of the darker blonde bc she had to order it in the right color.

 This is the one she ended up getting that day! It was quite long, but it looked wonderful on her. It looks very natural in color, brings out her good skin tones, and makes her look youthful. We figured even if she is feeling down, putting this on will help make her feel cute and lively!

 This is the second one she ordered. She got it in the beautiful light blonde which is similar to her current real color. She figured something short and cute would be nice for days where she is just playing it down! The color she got it in can be seen below on the last pic of wigs. It will look great!

 We all really loved this wig, but it only came in one color. She preferred blonde, but it only came in this dark auburn type color. The style of it was really cute though and similar to how she has her hair currently.

This was the last one, the long blonde one. I LOVED it, lol. It looks like she would be a Real Housewife of Orange County! She said she felt unnatural in it, so she didn't get it...but I still think she looked wonderful in it.

We also went grocery shopping one day, where we picked up lots of healthy things for her while she is undergoing chemo. Natural smoothies that are full of nutrients and vitamins that she might not get enough of if she has nausea; cottage cheese; Pomegranate Juice, Organic Milk, Green Tea (natural kind, sweetened with real sugar not HFCS) and other things. That was fun, and I was super excited that she was actually interested in the healthy foods, and was open to trying the organic things. Today I actually went and got some organic/allnatural health products for her at our local whole foods store and mailed them up. We also that afternoon, got her oil changed, and ate lunch at Bob Evan's.

Some of the organic and/or all-natural products I got her and mailed up today. EO - hand soap, Tom's of Maine deodorant, Tom's of Maine toothpaste, Jason natural Body Wash, Multi-purpose cleaner, Dish Soap.    Everything I get her, If not organic I am looking for things that are Paraben Free, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate free, Dye free, etc. And with the oral care products also, fluoride free.

Thursday (my last day /sadface) mom and I ate lunch at the pizza station, went shopping at mulberry lane, then watched harry potter!! I was determinted to make sure she got to see it! We had seen the last one together and it was super fun so I know she'd been looking forward to this one. It just so happened around the time it was out she had gotten sick and was in the hospital (when she found out about her metastasis) so she hadn't been able to see it. I wanted to make sure she saw the very last one! She said she really liked it, so that was good!

I was extremely sad to leave :(   and I took that out on my wallet today by shopping, lol.. I made my dining room table look very festive for the season (FALL)  As you can see below it's quite cute what I did. I just simply got some new placemats, a pretty Fall leaf colored bouquet, and a Fall Yankee Candle. It is quite pretty if you ask me!

Nature's Food Patch beauty products! AKA HEAVEN

 

When I was at Nature's Food Patch I wanted nothing more to buy every single organic and all natural beauty product they had! These things make me soo happy. Even more funny, it's RELALLLLY hard for me to make myself use up the rest of my not so freaking natural prodcuts. I told myself I'd use them up before buying the new...but the fact that I stress out because of all the chemicals in them to the point where I despise using them. It's like a mini panic attack, lol. Look at all this stuff they had to offer, and this is just a SMALL area of it.