A Thanksgiving to be thankful 12-5-11

It's been almost a month since my last post. & boy have I been busy. I went for chemo on the 14th, levels were low, lower then ever. But I could still get the taxatier, but had to take the nupogion shots again! This sucks but In order to feel well again I need these shots. My white counts are only a 4, & that's to low for 2 weeks. So Joe again gets to be the barer of the bad shot. We discover if I put an ice pack on the spot first & numb it that makes the sting not so bad.
I then have to go back the following week to check the counts again. I go back for this on November 23rd. But before that we go into Philly on the 20th to see my bestie Lisa run in the Philly marathon. & she did it 13.1 miles so proud of my friend. Like I said to you before the race " I'll never give up" & neither did you! Then Monday we celebrate Joe's birthday. He turned 47 on the 21st! So me, his mom & sister Michele take him to the crab trap for dinner. It was a lot of fun I love seeing him w/ his family we have a lot of laughs & had a fun waitress that we all kept busting on. I had a coconut muffin (some of you might not know but I love all things coconut) so she gave me a whole bag of them. & I never even had to Pull the C card?
Now on that wed at my Dr's apt. my counts are through the roof, in a good way. But I have a whole new set of side effects. The numb tongue, still neoropathy in the fingers & feet. Now headaches again. Spots in front of my eyes kinda like seeing trails.
So the Dr is concerned I have a high toxicity level to the taxatier, we talk about being done with chemo. The Dr said that it was OK for me to stop , that the amount of chemo that I had received especially in the beginning was the most important dose. So I cry hug Donna the receptionist & Cathy the nurse. I'm done! I was on a cloud that day. Really did not know how to feel.
I immediately called my mom she was visiting Kati at school w/ Stephanie. So I made the announcement a thankful thanksgiving no more Chemo was done!
O!I called everyone & cried tears of joy. I then went to get coffee after all the excitement & run into Father Frank ( Gabe's brother the one Gina asked to pray for me in Rome the St.Jude Father) he gave me a blessing, then probably ran away, I was like a crazed fan. So excited to meet him!
Thanksgiving was that week we went to Chuck & Andrea's & it was great to see the family, it's been since the summer, Andreas sister, brother in law & nephew were there so this was really nice it's the first time I've met some of her family. Charlotte was excited to see what wig I was going to be wearing. I wore the long one knowing Char likes long hair. But promised her I'd bring the wigs for Christmas so she could try them on. At dinner we all said something we were thankful for, Marco decided he was thankful for uncle Joe & wanted us to all say that too. I said I was thankful for my health & my fiance (Marco's Uncle Joe) & his support he was my rock more the i ever expected & the families mine & his for being so supportive. Then Char belted out So when are you & uncle Joe getting married! Really.... out of the mouth of an 8 year old.
That weekend my Hammonton Girls & I went to see the cake boss at the Trop. Gina's idea she had press seats & Colleen has connections. We went to dinner at the Palm first (Comped, again Colleen) & then went to see the show. I loved it. I laughed, cried, & understood his sarcasm, it was like being with the family. At the end Colleen noticed he was signing autographs & thought they where giving out cake, so we went over to line & it was a VIP line, But yup you guessed it Colleens name was on the list! We where in. We get up to him he signs all the aprons Amy has bought for us ( its supposed to be a free night?) & then Colleen pulls the 'c" card shes been waiting to do that for months. I'm glad she did I got a kiss, hug & hes gonna pray for me! But no cake.
All that good news & It took me this long to tell everyone......Sorry.
Radiation starts December 27th. But I will fill you all in hopefully before then, we have the Italians invade the lake Christmas coming up, this should be some good writing.
Merry Chrristmas!
xoxo