A long time

Long time Hi Friends!

I have had several requests to update the blog...it has been awhile and some things have changed. I finished chemo the beginning of May and I am truly getting stronger. I feel like I am finally outta of the "chemo cloud" and can think clearly and process info better now. :)

It has been a process to get of the meds however. My awesome oncologist was decreasing my pain meds when we hit a glitch. My body basically went into withdraw for three to four days. Withdraw for all who don't know about it is awful. I can honestly say it is worse than chemo. You have no control over your body, I was crying for 3 hours straight, hot and cold flashes less than 2 minutes apart, your kinda in an illusion state with no control. So...my mom called my doc one day when this was going on and they then increased my meds to get me outta this problem.

From there they contacted a pain med specialist or addiction specialist really, and set up an apt. for me b/c they no longer knew how to get me off this med safely. Little did I know this drug, Oxycontin, is a very popular street drug :) Man I could have make a lot of money if I only knew...HA Anywho...this apt. was very interesting to say the least, I am in a waiting room with some druggies and very interesting yet somewhat amusing people. The guy next to me wanted to know if I was on meth. :0... and all I was thinking was why in the world am I here and thank goodness the kids aren't with me!!!

The doc i saw was interesting too. He left the door open during my apt. and made several phone calls in listening distance away, which I thought I should definitely not be hearing about these other "patients". In my mind I was thinking HIPPA is out the window here. :) A learning exp. to say the least.What the doc told me was my opioids in my brain were not functioning the correct way without the Oxycontin that I had been on for 7 months. It wasn't that I was addicted or opioid dependent it really wasn't even my fault, it could be genetic or just some freak thing that happens occasionally. So we switched drugs ( there goes my extra income :)) and now I am on a drug that they are slowly weaning me off of over 12 weeks.

Right now my mom and sister in law Jillia are rotating and still helping with the kids on a daily basis from 8 to 5. Thanks to them more than they know. Annabelle is now 3 1/2 and doing quite well, she has gone through the ringer with me and has understood most of (too much in my opinion) what has been going on. She has grown up a little too quickly but has done wonderful through this all. She has been past back and forth to numerous caregivers and has had to figure what is expected of her in each situation, no easy feat by any means. She will be attending two days of preschool in the fall, where does the time go. God bless that little girl.

Talin is now one and walking and tearing the house apart. He has been hard to watch him grow up before eyes and miss so much of it, thanks to all who loved him so much for me when I couldn't even hold him on some days. It truly takes a village to raise a little boy!

Hopefully, if this new drug doesn't have too many side affects I am going to cut my help for the kids in half and only have them come from 8:00 to nap time around 1:00 and care for the kids myself until Seth gets home around 5:00. Then maybe every other day or something like that, we will see. I am planning on teaching again at New Branches in the fall. I will be teaching P.E. again for two full days and stay at home the rest and love up my kids.

i am right now going for blood work every other week instead of weekly. I will do this for two months and then I will get tested monthly for a year and then God willing no more pokes for a long long time!!!So right now I am still living day by day but trying to regain the normal life whatever that may be. I can cook dinner again, and mainly care for my kids again, and we can go to the store, and church, take small walks and things I couldn't do for a long time. I am starting to grow some hair :) and I have to shave my legs again go figure, but this time around I look at it as a blessing believe it or not.

I appreciate the life I have been given and the people who God has sent into my life. Seth and I have been through a lot and are still adjusting everyday to the situation we are in. Some days are tougher on our marriage and it is very hard. But then God blesses us again. Someone once told me that years 6 and 7 are the toughest years of marriage. On June 28 God will bless Seth and I with 6 years of marriage. I now know and believe that we can tackle anything, even years 6 and 7. Seth has been outstanding through this and has been a rock for me to lean on. Nothing is easy in life, esp. cancer. But I know God has brought us together and together we will go forth and live a great life.

I want to thank all my readers and all my prayer warriors together you have helped fight the toughest fight I have ever had. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. I won't be updating the blog again unless something major changes. I truly think I am on the road to recovery and God is blessing me every day with more strength. I am certainly not 100% yet, that could take a full year, but well on the way. You have all touched my heart and my family in many many untold stories. We love you all and CAN NEVER thank you enough for all you have done for us and on behalf of us.

Feel free to contact me if you choose: sterkenm@student.gvsu.edu or I am on facebook as well.
I love you all-Meg, a cancer survivor!

All Done

Well I am here at home and offically done with chemo. It seems a little odd to be closing this chapter but there will still be enough blood tests and appointments to keep it open I guess. I start blood tests on monday and then have a cat scan on the 11th (hopefully my last one) then next week an appointment at the oncologist. So we will see what goes on from here. Thanks to all for prayers, rides, support etc...We could have never done it without all of you.

One more to go

Starting Monday I enter hopefully my last round of chemo...ever! I went to the oncologist and got some more information.

This will be my last scheduled round of chemo unless my numbers start to go up again. I will have weekly blood tests for awhile (a few months) then move to every other week etc...

I will have another cat scan and chest x-ray to see if some spots on my lungs/back are changing. I have one spot on my back that they still want to watch closely. Then depending on the results of that a PET scan if necessary which is kinda like a cat scan but more detailed and if that still shows a significant spot, surgery to get the spot out. The PET scan and surgery are last resorts and kinda unlikely. Just throwing that out there to let you know that cancer is never really done, there is always something.

It is kinda hard for me to get really excited about being done, when the docs always give the what ifs and never the 100% you're done. I am very hesitant going forward but yet sort of happy.

It is going to be very hard to go through this next round of chemo knowing that I already hit zero and I have to feel like crap again for a week.

To tell the truth, it is very scary to go into recovery after I have been living the cancer life for 6 months or so. I realize that with time I am going to be responsible for making dinner, taking care of my kids all day by myself, and taking care of the house etc...These are things that I have done nothing with for half a year, and now I have to teach myself again how to do them and balance them with normal life. So prayer requests in this area.

I will let you know of any changes in the next few days.

Well I am home. I was released from Butterworth on Sunday evening. I am still on meds for several days and plus new addititional meds then sent home with me. Things are going ok, still plenty tired and still need constant help with the kids. I have an apt. thursday with the oncologist and we will go from there. That's all for now. :)

More news....finally

A lot has happened since the last post...My count was at three for many weeks and we thought I would have to have my chemo changed. That was not the case however.

Thursday: I went to an appointment at the oncologist and found out that my count was actually down to two. Yea two. After lots of discussion between Dr.'s they decided that my baseline number would be two. Which means that they pretty much were counting two as zero. Also they were planning only one more chemo round for good.

I also went into the oncologist fighting a fever since Monday and having a (yet another) nasty cold. Plus fighting blackouts and being dizzy when standing. So after some blood cultures I found (once we got back home ) that I would need another blood transfusion pretty fast. My hemogloban number was 6.8 and normally they start to consider giving blood at 8.2ish, so needless to say I needed some blood, the problem was I was considered symptomatic and I needed to go to the hospital to have a private room, no rooms were currently available. So we had to wait. Later that afternoon we got a call and we headed to Butterworth.

Thursday evening I got two units of blood and some magnesium again and that made me feel only a little better because my cold was so bad. I continually was fighting a fever and that lovely freezing to burning instantly phenomenon. I originally was only suppose to stay in the hospital over night for the blood, but that was no longer the case.

Friday: Nothing spectacular happened I was still fighting fevers and now I wasn't keeping any food down. We were waiting on the results of chest x-ray to see what was going on. The doc finally ordered some antibiotics, but that takes hours to finally make it to the patient, so I was still in bad shape.

Saturday: I am not sure how much of the following happened in the middle of the night or not, it gets a bit foggy after awhile. :) I found out that the chest x-ray revealed that I have pneumonia, not to fun. So I am here at least until my fevers are gone and I can keep food down, the antibiotic I currently am on can be transferred to pill form to go home.

I also found out my beta count actually went to zero if not negative numbers. THANK THE LORD and thanks to all you for praying all the time GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!
I still have one round of chemo to finish and timing of that will depend on my health and condition ( it currently is suppose to start Monday but might be delayed a week). Then hopefully this will start to be behind us and I can start the long road to recovery and hair growth. :)

I will try to keep you all updated in the next few days with changes. thanks

Change and no change

Hi everyone,
No huge updates to give you but some little ones. It's been 12 weeks with the chemo i have been on so they finally took out the bleomyicin which has been giving the high fevers and many many blistering areas all over my body. The bleo was the realy toxic stuff I was on, so it's nice to be off that.

My beta count has stayed at 3 for three weeks now so....we are glad it's not going up but it's not going down either. Our guess is that when I go back to the oncologist they will most likely switch my chemo again to something else. Which can change my schedule and who knows what else. So prayers in this area would be appreciated. Thanks

Okay sorry again about the lack of updates but I have been busy. Busy by running to appointments and to the ER etc...

Last week Sunday we made the trip to the ER because I wasn't feeling good and ended up getting some potassium and then being sent home.

Monday I was in for my chemo and then was sent back to the ER because I needed blood and my magnesium was critically low so almost five hours later we got to go home.

Then on Tuesday we had to go to a follow up appointment at my Oncologist's office for a check up.

Friday I had a cat scan on my pelvis, ab area and chest. All this well I was fighting a terrible cold and wasn't eating much at all because my throat was really swollen. What a week.

Which brings us to this week Monday I went into my regular scheduled chemo and found out my blood was low along with my magnesium again.

So on my "down" week I went in on Tuesday and wed. to get blood and magnesium. Along with an eye dr. apt., brought both kids to check ups, and had another apt. at the oncologist. I am telling ya busy busy busy.

My beta number stayed at 3 for two weeks now. I am starting to finally feel back to normal now that chemo is almost here again for 5 days. :) My cat scan results were looking good and everything that was there before has decreased. So that is a good thing.

Where we are now is that we are hoping that my number is not leveling off. If that is the case a switch might have to be done in the type of chemo I am getting. We want the number to go down again and then the road to recovery can begin.

God is in control of everything and this is in his hands. I know the road of suffering is long but the glory at the end I can only imagine :) Please keep praying!