4 down, 2 to go!

On Thursday, December 27, Mom went in for her 4th round of Chemo. The nurse was a little concerned about giving her the treatment with all the past weeks problems. The nurse checked with the Dr and he said since her blood cell counts have been and are up then she could go ahead. One thing Mom did not want to happen was to postpone the chemo at all. She is still a bit breathy with the pneumonia and is having spinal headaches still. But she is in good spirits! Mom has my Dad off for the next little while during the Holiday break, and Aunt Elaine is staying with them until Jan 6th. She has a lot of love and support right now, and we are grateful!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Happy New Year!

**Julie's Family**

Trip to the ER

Mom went to the Emergency Room last night. She hasn't been feeling well the last week, more than just her new normal tiredness and Chemo symptoms. She was running a fever so her oncologist told her to go to the hospital. They gave her royal treatment and did everything with haste. They did chest ex rays and pulled several tubes of blood to run test. She has had severe headaches and they were concerned it might be Meningitis. So they did a spinal tap. They discovered she has pneumonia and put her on an antibiotic. We waited a long while for the meningitis test to come back. The blood work showed that her red blood cell count was normal, which was great news. Had the count been low they would have admitted her right then. The Spinal Tap came back clear. No Meningitis. They let her go home around 2am this morning. She has been resting today and will need to take it easy the little while. Mom will be contacting the oncologist to see if she will be postponing the next Chemo treatment that is scheduled for Dec. 27th. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

**The Hempel Family**

Half way through. Woo Hoo!!!

I had my third chemo session yesterday. Only three more to go. This is flying by quickly. (For all of you) For me, just taken' it a day at a time. I usually feel just a little weak on the 2nd day after chemo, so I can do a few things. But I still have to pace myself. Thank you for all of your comments and prayers. This thing is not going to get me down. I'm going to flly through this and be better for it in the end. All my love to all of you. Julie

Back to work again...

I'm feeling pretty good and I'm back to work until the next round of chemo. The 7 to 8 days after chemo is pretty rough, but I have learned to know my limitations. My girls (all of them) are really wonderful. They take good care of me. They clean my house, do my laundry, cook dinners. What a blessing to have such a wonderful family.

Two Down - Four to Go

On Thursday, November 15, I had the second of six rounds of Chemo.

"New Hair Same Do!"

" Bada bump ba ba. I'm loving it!"

Will this ever end?

The latest news is I have a blood clot in my leg. My leg was hurting, but just thought it was part of the chemo. When it kept hurting I was suspicious of a blood clot so called the doctor, they scheduled me for an ultrasound and sure enough, it's a blood clot. The good news? The clot is in my calf and has very minimal risk of traveling to my lung. The bad news? I have to have heparin shots until the coumadin kicks in (anywhere from 5 to 7 days). The bad, bad news -- Wayne gets to give me the shots. They allowed him to do the first one so they could show him how. It really stung!!!

I have to count my blessings though. Last time I had a clot I was pregnant and had to stay in the hospital for 10 days with an IV. I don't have to do anything different this time - except limp a little.

Other than the clot, I am doing marvelous. Better than I expected.

Yesterday was a Great Day!

Just thought I'd let you all know out there that yesterday was a great day for me. I never needed a nap and my energy level has increased. Of course, I wasn't out jogging or running a marathon, but I almost feel normal. Just thought you'd want to know. Julie

Just an update.

Here it is a week and a day. This week has NOT been fun. At first I had no ill effects, except tiredness. Then my bones starting aching. They say this is from the Neulasta that is given to increase your white and red blood cells contained in the bone marrow. Since the bone marrow is contained in the bones, the bones ache. I take Ibuprofen for that and it takes it away.

Another effect of the chemo is indigestion. I got it Tuesday night just before bed so severe the pain was a 10 out of 10. I took some medicine for the indigestion and then a tranquilizer perscribed for nausea. Finally, after about 45 min. it calmed down and I was able to sleep. And sleep is all I did. I was going to go to work on Wed. so I got up took a shower, laid back down, for awhile, got up put moose in my hair, laid back down. About 12:00 Teresa (my daughter) called and asked how I was doing. I was drugged!!! That was it for that day.

I made it to work on Thursday, but only for a few hours. Today I am here at work, but my intention was to come in the morning. The effects of the chemo just make it so I have no desire to get up. I slept until 1:00 and then got up and got ready for work. So far so good.

I'm doing ok. I'm sure I will be able to feel my energy coming back soon. Just in time for the next round of chemo.

I love and appreciate your comments.
Julie

One Down - Five to Go

I had my first chemotherapy session yesterday. They put it in my arm through IV. During the time they gave it to me, I had no ill effects. I felt fine afterwards and so we went to lunch. I still felt fine so we went shopping for material to make hats and headbands. About 3:30 I started feeling a little odd -- hard to explain. We got home about 4:15 and I was sleepy and my stomach felt queasy. Wayne made me a baked potato for dinner and that tasted sooo good. The only effects I seem to have right now are being a little tired and I'm thirsty all the time. I also have a red face and chest and I'm a little shaky. If this is all that is to come I'm great, but they say some of the effects of the chemo start at about 1-2 days and last 3-5. So I'll update later.

I'm hanging in there. Keep the good thoughts coming my way.

FINALLY!!! GOOD NEWS!!!

All of those prayers said in my behalf have paid off. The radiologist called me today and there is NO CANCER in the lymph nodes. Finally, good news in a barrage of bad. I think I can beat this disease now. This news doesn't change the treatment, but it is very good news. Hopefully after the chemotherapy they will be able to remove whatever cancer is left and that will be the end of it. I will still have to go through radiation therapy, but I've done that once already when I had breast cancer twelve years ago. After chemo, radiation will be a breeze.

So let's all give thanks to our Heavenly Father for this small but significant miracle as we all know that "faith precedes the miracle" and that is what has happened here. I thank all of you who have offered prayers, put my name in the temple, and thought about me this past week. I am truly loved.

Keep smiling, as that is what I will be doing with this great news.

Julie

Plan of Attack

I saw the oncologist today. I really like him. He wrote everything down on paper so I can refer to it when I explain it to friends and family. My cancer is high risk for spreading so the plan is to have chemotherapy every three weeks for 18 weeks (total of 6 times), then surgery, then radiation. I will start chemotherapy next Thursday, October 25th. He said I will definitely lose my hair within 17 days of the first treatment, so Wayne and I ordered a wig. It's human hair and is better for your bare head than the regular wigs you can buy anywhere. The place where we bought it will style it for me and do any upkeep if I want.

So things are looking ok. Having the chemo every three weeks (as opposed to more often) gives me hope that I can have a more normal life than I first anticipated. I will probably be able to work most of the time. The doctor warned me though that that after I come home from work I will be done for the day. Hopefully I will feel well enough to go to my singing group (Schubert Singers) on Tuesdays as that brings happiness to my life.

I will update again next week after chemotherapy and let everyone know how I'm feeling. Until then, life goes on as usual....

No surgery yet

The doctor called me last night and told me the results of the MRI I had on Tuesday. He said that the lump is bigger than they thought -- about 4.2 cm. -- and it appears that it has gone into my lymph nodes. I will need to go in for another biopsy to make sure it has entered my lymph nodes. He suggested another course of action which I agreed would be the best. Since the lump is so large, it would take quite a bit of breast tissue to get it out so he suggested we do chemotherapy first to try to reduce the lump and possibly make it go away completely. So, I won't be having surgery on Monday, but will be meeting with the oncologist when they can get me an appointment.

Until next update.....I'm doing fine.

Diagnosis

On Tuesday October 9, 2007, I was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma Invasive Grade III (the most common kind of breast cancer). I will be having surgery on Monday, October 15th at Cottonwood Short Stay. I will up date after the surgery because we will know more then.