50 Days Strong...

Tuesday 28 March 2017

When life changes to be harder, change yourself to be stronger. What hurts today, makes you stronger tomorrow.

The Sunshine Six #Session 3

Monday 27 March 2017

The Sunshine Six project ~ my little project to bring a little happiness into my chemo journey. I want to keep myself the same happy person with a love of everything pretty.  My goal with the Sunshine Six is to begin each of my cycles of chemo wearing outfits that have the essence of being happy and full of sunshine, despite being somewhere I'd rather not be.


For my third cycle of Chemo I got the pleasure of wearing lovely the Natalia dress gifted from St. Frock!

 It was a nice sunny day so that made it even better. I got lots of compliments on it too which is always lovely :) 

It really does change your mindset when you wear something you feel happy in - so thank you St. Frock!

The Best Day!

Thursday 23 March 2017

Today was a good day - a very good day! One that was emotional and that I am completely exhausted from, but one I'll always remember.
Today I got to go in my school and take part in the World's Greatest Shave with the staff and students. 

I'll admit it's been pretty hard not teaching this year - Luke will attest to me saying one of the first things when getting diagnosed I was worried about was 'what about school?', 'what am I going to do about my class?' - I was crushed. Last year I absolutely loved my first full year teaching Year 5, I was beyond excited to know I would be teaching Stage 3 again this year but other plans were in the works for now.

At the beginning of my diagnosis I had mentioned to a few people that the World's Greatest Shave would fall during my treatment, I had even joked that I 'may' have started to lose my hair by this time hahah - what a joke that was! Try ALL of it. 

I wanted to raise some money for an organisation that helps people just like me. As scary as it was at the beginning, once I had a diagnosis my treatment plan was all mapped out for me. I didn't have to think, research, all I had to do really was to turn up. I don't think I could have been merely as positive or as (semi) calm as I was without all of this! I was so excited when the teachers at school rallied around and decided to participate in the World's Greatest Shave. 

Even though the day was in the middle of my chemo week I wasn't going to let that stop me - I couldn't wait to go in and see everyone. The day was so fun! I was truly blessed by having a roaring entry with kids shouting my name, saying hello and greeting me with beautiful smiles (they had been told it was a strict no touch policy haha). They had raised money through a mufti day and the kids got to colour their hair. 
I had a team of four egg heads and four unicorns that shaved or coloured their hair for me. I even managed to get through most of my speech without crying - yay!

"On this crazy roller-coaster ride I’ve been on so far: I've learnt that I am strong and so are you - so much stronger than you think you ever could be. Sometimes things don't go exactly go your way and you might get knocked down. But the most important thing is that you get back up and keep on trying. Sometimes you can get back up on your own, all by yourself, other times you might need a little help from a friend and sometimes you have a whole school that rallies behind u filled with beautiful students, teachers and parents lifting you up to new heights you never could have imagined. From the bottom of my heart I thank you all".




Cycle 3 - My half way point!

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Dad is on duty for this one and we break the tradition of being late and are 'just' on time. I go through the usual protocol of weighing myself and getting my observations done. My nurse Theresa doesn't waste any time and sticks the needle straight through my port to get things going! To be fair she did it so quickly it didn't hurt too much.
Dad and I get set up, I begin writing in my diary, whilst he reads National Geographic about some tribes in Africa! He gets me some yummy banana bread, and ice chips of course. 

The pharmacist comes to visit me and I'm starting to feel like a mini pro with my medicine routine. Still complicated I might add but I've got it under control...I think. She tells me some great news with my treatment - that they have found extra phosphate just for me... Yay? This means I can go back to my 48hr CADD pump rather than coming in every 24hrs to change it, so actually YAY!

Luke gets to take me to my third chemo session during the week. He is super curious asking me many questions for the most part I have no idea how or what to answer with. He noticed things like why they have double glass on the windows and doors - I still don't know why? He also asked the nurses lots of questions too! He soon tired out though and took up one of the recliners for himself, having a quick ten minute cat nap - you might have mistaken him as the patient! haha
The rest of my round goes really well - physically my nausea isn't too bad, still have the gross chemo taste in my mouth during week two but o well peanut butter and hard lollies seem to get me through. The best thing was that my injections barely caused me too much bone pain or aches! Didn't have to take any nurofen or use my heat pack to get through which was fantastic.

This marks half way through my treatment which is amazing - still a long way to go but it is nice to know I'm not right at the beginning anymore. 

The Sunshine Six #Session Two

Monday 13 March 2017


The Sunshine Six project ~ my little project to bring a little happiness into my chemo journey. I want to keep myself the same happy person with a love of everything pretty.  My goal with the Sunshine Six is to begin each of my cycles of chemo wearing outfits that have the essence of being happy and full of sunshine, despite being somewhere I'd rather not be.


Sunshine Session 2



 For my second session I was gifted the beautiful Stevie dress from Auguste the Label - an absolutely amazing company, with the sweetest staff who made it even more special to wear. 

Thank goodness for my lovely headband from Top Knot Girl which turned a bad hair day into a pink hair day! Thank you both :)


Adele!

Saturday 11 March 2017

Hello..it's me! I was super excited when I was given the all clear by my oncologist and doctor that I could go to see Adele! Granted it was my lowest point in my cycle which meant I was at a greater risk of picking up an infection and having those god awful back spasms like I got in Round 1! BUT I wasn't going to let something like this get in my way! 


 Lauren and I came prepared armed with masks, panadol, nurofen, and my anti nausea meds - we were determined to win. I had prepared during the day by snuggling up to my best friend - Chester my heat pack in order to try and get the back spasms to a minimum. 

On the way to the arena, Lauren hears requests on the radio about excited Adele fans - naturally she felt compelled to call up and mention how incredibility excited we were to be out of the house and able to go to this concert. Lauren gets through and starts chatting to him about how much we love Adele, and that its her friend's first big outting since being diagnosed with the big cccancer! She meant to say the big C or chemo but due to an earlier event where my mum misunderstood what the C in Big C meant she opted out! 7 minutes later we heard the recording - it was the funniest and sweetest thing!

We find our seats - I'm pretty happy that its an outdoor arena with lots of fresh air! Lauren and I have fun trying to take photos with our masks without offending or freaking out those around us!
Bamm - Adele gets wheeled in her box inconspicuously onto stage and the show begins! Her voice was just incredible so clear and strong for being out in the open. I was up dancing at any stage I could to move my back - and with Adele songs these were few and far between!

In short she was - Fantastic and definitely happy I was able to see her!

My chemo clauses

Friday 10 March 2017

My Chemo Clauses

Someone much wiser than me said 'staying positive means winning half the battle', and that's exactly what I've been trying to do! That being said though it doesn't mean that you have to be positive all the time - there are some days that are just unbelievably crappy!


So here are my chemo clauses - the types of lines I say to myself before starting my next cycle, things that I know will make me feel better but yet I will just dismiss them feeling too blue/down/lazy to do them. So maybe if they are written right in front of me I might actually follow my own advice...we'll see!


~ Walking makes you feel better so drag your bum outside and do some quick rounds!

~ Drink as much water as you can - well on second thought drink as much water as you can handle - otherwise watered down cordial, juices, smoothies and green tea are pretty good!

~ Get out of bed! Even if this is only do go lay on the couch.

~ Take all medication on time, don't delay or not follow your schedule.
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