Alive and Kicking - 5 Year Check Up Completed!

WOW - 5 Years have gone by from that terrifying day that I was diagnosed with Cancer!  It feels like it was so long ago but yet the nightmare is still so fresh in my mind.  Today was my last appointment with my oncologist and she said I am healthy and back to normal.  After five years of close monitoring, you kind of graduate from the treat of it returning and are considered cured.  I scheduled my last appointment before my birthday so that I could truly celebrate every year and be reminded that life is precious and we should live it to the max.

If someone would have begun to tell me what I was going to go through five years ago, I think it would have been overwhelming and a lot more difficult to handle, being naive sometimes is good, that way you do not anticipate the suffering.  By not knowing what is coming at you, you are forced to take one day at a time, and just put one foot in front of the other, until a day like today comes and then the long scary journey is over.

The journey was harder then I thought it would be, the side effects of the Chemo and Radiation lasted a long time, the psychological effects on me and on the family are ever-lasting!

I also learned learned other facts such as -

Each year roughly 600,000 women develop cervical cancer resulting in nearly 270,000 of them dying from the disease. The best way to prevent it is by having annual screenings and for your children there are vaccines that can prevent the disease.

I was speared due to early detections and access to highly effective state of the art treatments.  I have two colleagues that did not catch the disease in early stages and sadly are no longer with us!

I learned that love builds strength, prayer heal and nothing is possible without faith.

Going through this struggle made me reevaluate my life and be grateful for the things that God has given me such as A Loving and Supportive Family and Good Friends that ALWAYS Have my back!

I have learned to Take one day at a time, not stress over things you can't control, enjoy the little things such as Lunch with a friend, Cuddling with your children, Watching a movie on a rainy day, NAPS!!!

But one thing I truly learned is that we most live our best life everyday, be grateful every morning that we wake up healthy, to be happy in your own skin and to find your inner peace!

I thank you all for being there for me and for holding my hand through this journey. In the meantime my best advise is live life, love hard and tell people you love them.

Love,
NITA

So, I used to have Cancer

While I had Cancer I prayed to God that the days would fly by and that the bead times would be over quickly....now we are here, bad times gone!!!

I am so happy now, tired, but happy!  Everyone tells me I look normal, but looks can be very deceiving.  I feel very fatigued, I am taking all kinds of supplements just to feel normal.  The Chemo medicines left me with symptoms that will take a few months to overcome.  

I ran for three months on adrenaline and on steroids, these made me very hyper and made me feel invincible. I now have no energy and I can get very emotional, specially when I see or hear of anyone with cancer.  There are so many cancer commercials on TV, since I am always tired, I lay around watching TV most of the time and whenever such commercial comes on, I have to change the channel or I will end up tearing up.  Going to church has the same effects on me, singing and praying just makes me cry.  Is a cry of disbelief that I have been blessed enough to get through this in one piece!! 

At the end of this month is my first PET scan to see if there are any remaining cancer cells in my body, this scan is where they inject me with radioactive material to highlight any concentration of cancer in my lymph nodes.  We are hoping and praying that everything is normal and that the treatment got rid of all the cancer.  So, the scary part is not quite over, just happy to know that I am in excellent hands.

Thanks for listening and checking in on me.

Love,
Nita 
 

Although I am done!

Although I am done with the treatments, this has been the hardest week yet! 

I guess, I thought once treatments where done I would be feeling better right away.  Well apparently not, this is the worst week yet, the accumulation of the medicine in my body has been difficult to deal with. I have been so gung ho about starting the new year healthy that I made myself sick.  The stress of it all has now taken a toll.

I have been running on adrenaline for the last 3 months, re-assuring everyone that I will be OK, I now have won the race and have no more adrenaline, I now am left with facing the reality of it all and cannot help but be emotional, to tear up from all the blessings I have endured.  I pray and hope that 2012 will be a good year for us all, a year of health, of peace, of joy of happiness!

I will take these next couple of weeks to re-gain my energy and get back to reality and pray to God everyday to Thank Him for the second chance!!  Like I always say, "LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT, SO LET'S MAKE IT A GOOD ONE!!

God bless you all!  Happy 2012 !!!


Besitos,
Nita



 

Finishing Week 5!!!!

As my oldest son Jan said in his prayer last night thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you God for making my mommy better and healthy again!  I could have not put it better!  I finish this treatment with a tremendous amount of faith.  I felt the prayers that where prayed for me, I felt the love from all of you and it kept my spirits up and my energy strong!

Although it has been difficult, lots of medication, high blood pressure, increased cholesterol, dangers of consequences from all the medications, I have had an incredible team of Doctors and Nurses taking great care of me and monitoring me every step of the way.  I have to give Kudos to INova Fairfax Hospital they sure know how to do it right!

As I approach my last day of treatment on December 23rd, 2011, I am grateful for so much, grateful TO BE DONE, grateful to my loving family who took such good care of me, grateful to my friends who aided so much in my recovery, grateful to celebrate the birth of our lord cancer free and surrounded with friends and family!  Thank you all for being there for me and my boys, I will forever be grateful and in your debt!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!!!


Feliz Navidad, FROHE WEIHNACHTEN, God Jul, JOYEUX NOËL, Maligayang Pasko, MERRY CHRISTMAS........

Almost in to week 5!

Almost in to week 5, today ending week four, which has not been fun!  The stress of the Chemo and Radiation has elevated my blood pressure to the point of I am now on meds to control it.   I knew these two weeks were going to be heavy, but again, this is nothing that I can't handle, just little nuances that will pass soon!

On the other hand, the GOOD NEWS!  Visited the Oncologist yesterday and she is very happy with the way everything is going, she says that once I have completed the treatment in 8 days, that I should consider myself CURED!!!  That is a magical word and 
makes this upcoming week soooooo much easier to handle!  When you hear a word like that you grab on for dear life and run with it.

So, what can I say but thank you!  Thank you for listening to me, for praying for me, for supporting me.  All of it has kept me of positive mind, which has made this process easier.  The love of all the family and friends elevates my spirits and give me true joy!

My last day of treatment is December 23rd!  My Christmas gift from God this year! and just in time to celebrate my beloved 24th Norwegian/Costa Rican/Colombian style Christmas with my awesome family and great friends!  We have lots to be thankful for this year!


Thank you all and talk to ya'll soon!





 

In to Week Four I Go!!!

I have been so lucky to not have mayor side effects the first couple of weeks, however, not everything can be perfect, right?  Going in to week four and now feeling all those side effects they mentioned that I would have with the Chemo and Radiation.

Although is only 2 more weeks of therapy, it is somewhat terrifying that it will be a debilitating 2 weeks.  The energy is just not there!  Although the last weeks I have been very positive and happy, I think that I now can be a little selfish and not put a brave face anymore and allow myself to deal with this my way.

Mondays are really hard!  Is the beginning of everything all over again!  and now the beginning of something that is actually going to make me feel really bad.  Although radiation did not feel so bad the first few days, I now am starting to feel like I am being cooked from the inside out, I can feel the burning on the inside.   And the Chemo, although is just once a week you sit with an IV, I am now loosing feeling on my feet, my body is numb and my knees are buckling when I get up from a chair.  The medicine gives you a taste of metal in your mouth and nothing takes it away.  I spend the day eating candies trying to mask the taste, I am sure I will pay the consequences for that.  I also feel some vertigo and ringing in my ears.  The scary part is some of the side effects will stay with me, I sure hope not!

Tomorrow is my fourth Chemo, and this week will be ongoing on radiation, not fun being fried under that stupid machine.  All I can do at this point is keep praying that these two weeks fly by!

In the meantime, trying to enjoy the boys, Jan has a Spiderella play this Thursday, where my son will be the handsome prince and Jeremy asks me everyday if it is Christmas today!

Tia Carol's Bday is on Thursday!  I am hoping that I will feel good enough so we can take her on a well deserved dinner out.  She has been an awesome companion during this time, I would have been lost without her!!  She is my little blessing.

Like they say in Spanish "Don't even look back, just keep going forward" or "Pa' 'tras ni pa coger impulso!!"

Second Week of Treatment

Here we go! Now, moving in to my second week of treatment.  So far the many side effects have been bearable, nothing too concerning.  I clearly have a bit of the forgetfulness, which they gently call "Chemo Brain", I call it temporary Alzheimer's, basically the loss of short term memory. I think that it is due to chemicals in your body as well as all the overwhelming things on your mind.  I just wish right now that I wouldn't keep forgetting to get those sleeping pills, 'cause is 2 am and I am wide awake!

This week I am reminded of a co-worker, her name was Debbie and she started on the project with us in 2006, her office was right next to mine.  She was a quiet hard working woman contracted from Northrop Grumman.  As office mates do, we would often chat about our personal day to day stuff, we were office friends.  One day a couple of years ago, we heard the news that she had cancer, which was as always shocking news.  Busy with work and delivery deadlines, we went on with our duties, always with Debbie on our minds.  Time passed by and we would get updates from Debbie, we would hear that she was doing OK and being treated at John Hopkins Hospital, I believe it was!  After a couple of months Debbie came by the office, I saw her briefly in the copier room, she had lost a lot of weight and had very little hair, it was heartbreaking.  Little did I know at that time, that it was the last time I was to see Debbie.  I have thought of her often since then and wished there was more I could have done to support her in her time of need.  I also did not know, until I spoke with one of my co-workers this week, that Debbie died of Cervical Cancer.


I am not sure what stage Debbie was in, but it certainly made things real and very scary.

It is difficult to put everything I am going through in to words sometimes, I think I get through it by being a little in denial.  It is to heavy to think about it all.  So, prayers, positive thinking and lots of self pampering is helping a bit.


Tomorrow is my second round of Chemo, and although is not so bad, the side effects are dreaded.  Hopefully it would be similar to this week's effects, numbness, tired, cold like symptoms.... oh yeah and insomnia.  May be the Chemo Brain is so you do not remember it all!!