Monday, October 24, 2011

A Shout Out to some supporters

Just wanted to inform you all of some amazing support I have gotten during this time. These are just two recent ones from town.
Jeanine from Studio 21 Beauty Bar in Hammonton has been doing Pink blinged out Martini glasses in honor of me & The koman foundation. & Is doing a brows for breasts event. Here's her ad...............................
Win free brows for one year! In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Studio 21 will be holding a BROW-A-THON October 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. With a $10 donation for breast cancer research, you'll receive gorgeous brows and the chance to win free eyebrow shaping for an entire year! Brows for breasts
Also David Charles Jewelry in Hammonton is donating a protion of the proceeds from the breast cancer items to The Shirley Mae fund. In honor of me). Shirley Mae helps local women with cancer.
Thank you both so much for all your support. I am truly touched.
xoxo

Breast Cancer Walk, & the Next step of Chemo........Taxol Oct. 24

Wow Lots to catch up on........First my today is my much older brother Paul's Birthday, so Happy Birthday PP! LOVE YOU SO MUCH, For being you & for always being there for me.
Last week was the Breast Cancer walk in OC NJ. I had wrote about it a few month ago. Laura designed the T-shirt & it turned out so cool. We had a beautiful day with some of my favorite people. Me & Joe, Mom, Lisa & Linda (long), My cousins came from North jersey Joanna, & Marie from Penncy, & brought me my fave. cookies she makes!, My Hammonton peeps came & brought lots of Pink Bling, LisaJo, Joanne, Cassy & My Karlee who made a Team Toni Banner for us to carry. & Of course my sidekick & her family Colleen, Ant, Lil Ant ( who if you ask what I have, he says I have sarcasm, he's 5 & already knows how sarcastic I can be) & Carmello & Megan. 2 of them kind of ate their way up & down the boardwalk. But the support was there. It was a sea of pink, support & very moving. So glad I was up for doing it.
I started the Taxol treatment the following Monday, The side effects are numbness in the hands & feet, body aches & all the other typical side effects. But the Dr. said most of those don't hit until a few treatments in.......AHHH Yea not so much!
They started of with giving me the IV of steroids, zofran & emmend. Then a large IV bag of benadryl, thats just in case i have an allergic reaction to the Taxol? So about an hour into getting the bennidril, i was still talking Lisa was there trying to do work while hanging with me, I made grocery lists for Mom who ran to Walmart . Kathy the nurse did not understand how I was still awake. Her reply most people would be asleep by now for at least a few hours. Lisa said she thought I was talking more...oh well I guess the benadryl had an adverse effect on me. It made me hyper? I did take a quick nap for maybe about an hour. But the whole process was 5 & a 1/2 hours.....Yea no one warned me of that. Good think I have the new Angry Birds game on my phone!
I felt pretty good the rest of the day, tired but I think mostly because it was just a long day.
They next day felt fine, same a before kind of rejuvenated. Most likely because of all the steroids I've been pumped up with.
Day 3, about 3:00 I hit the wall.......baaadddd. Body aches & the tingling in the fingers had started so bad I couldn't button a button. The bottoms of my feet were burning, & the aches where so bad I swear you could hear my knees Creek. Luckily I still had hydrocodone from before so that was it I needed to pop them & sleep. I was able to eat normally, no nausea. Thank Goodness. But up until Sunday I felt like I was 110.
So now I know what to expect, I go in today for blood work to check my counts that will be done through my port since last week the nurse slipped & I have a quarter sizee bruise on my arm!
Then 3 more treatments left. November 28th will be my last one!!!!!!!!!! & I should be good to go for the December Christmas season, I can not wait to eat Crabs & Spaghetti.
Below are pictures from the walk.
xoxo




Friday, October 7, 2011

Hammonton Gazette Article On Me & Breast Cancer


Round 4.....the last of the A/C chemo 10-1-11

Sorry never posted from the last chemo, & for the delay in posting, I've realized that typing on the computer & just looking at the computer makes my eyes & head hurt. I did not get the nuelasta shot, the Dr prescribed the nuepogin shot because it was the nuelasta that was giving me the migraine. Joe got the lucky job of giving me the shot at home for 6 days, so I needed to be nice to him. After this treatment in 2 weeks I will start the taxoil treatments, now that Ive got the A/C chemo down on what works & makes me feel better treatment will change.
Here are a few tips I've learned......
Eating an ice pop while getting chemo helps w/ the mouth sores
If I feel like a mouth sore is starting I eat an ice cube and numb the area & it seems to go away.
I had a bad esophagus burn and reflux from the chemo (that's lovely) so the Dr prescribed prilocet & that helps so much! Plus tums, lots of tums.
Cousin Stephanie D. Recommended preggi pops for the nausea they're found at maternity stores & they really work. Oh & they're all natural.
Of course the steroids cause hot head & with it having been hot out I would get the chills so keeping a scarf on my bald head helped keep the heat in & my body temp comfortable.
Taking a clairatin the night before I would get the nuepogin shot helps keep the bone ache down, don't know why but that was a tip from the Melinda the nurse at the center for cancer.

But for a quick update I'm doing pretty good, usually a few days down after chemo then about 6 days or so where I kinda feel like myself. Taste buds are off but that's OK. Cranberry juice, OJ & black cherry soda all taste good.
Also 2 new wigs, one was for a Housewives tour, My sidekick Colleen & I went to see the ladies dish....It was a fun night out & I gotta say they look better in person.
Then Moms wavy hair wig, It has a lace front so I need to cover it with a scarf, or it looks odd. But strangely enough I liked it, & any of my high school & Disney friends may remember when I actually had this hair & paid a lot of $$$ for it.
I was interviewed by the local paper for a series they are doing on cancer in town it's really good I'd I do say so myself. I'll post it on another page for your reading enjoyment. It's very exciting, another Peditto is in the news. Not about an animal rescue or a screen play, but cancer awareness!

It's breast cancer awareness month so if you haven't gotten your mammogram nows is as good a time as any!
Xoxo
Just a reminder....no judging on the spelling bad enough i have no idea how to spell some of these meds, I now have whats called Chemo brain (yes it's real) so you have no memory & am a bit scrambled when it comes to re-reading & writing.

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Strawberry stork mark? Sept. 19th

First I want to start off Wishing my god child Bopper Kati Peditto A very Happy 18th Birthday today! I love you.
So a quick cancer update. No Chemo today...White count is just a bit to low. But I did take the Nupogin shot & so far so good. I go back on Wednesday 9-21-11, if I'm all good, then I get chemo.
The reason for the title of this post is a genetic question. After losing all my hair Lisa asked if she had hurt me because she thought I had a rash on the back of my neck? My mom said no that's her Strawberry birthmark, all the Peditto's have one. I thought she was crazy, but as you will see in the picture of me & Darren we both have the same mark. Mom said Paul has it too. She also said Grandmom Peditto said that all her boys had them? So I am throwing this out there to all my cousins who are reading this & if you can ask around to those that are not. Who else has this birthmark? Now Zackary does not have one, but I think the gene must come from the father, & I know Kati has one cause I distinctly remember it. Not sure about Nick? (Paul or Steph does he?) Also I think Anna has one but can't be positive, but I will find out.
And is it a Peditto thing only or is it a Monaco thing too? I am so curious. Please let me know.
I have also added some pictures of my wigs......so far Its a Blonde, Purple tips, & then the basic black. But no worries more will follow soon.
xoxo

 


Wednesday, September 14, 2011

OC NJ Breast Cancer walk Oct 16th

Wanted to give everyone the heads up on Oct 16th we will be doing ( I hope to be doing, depending on how i feel) the OC NJ Breast Cancer walk on the boardwalk. If you would like to join us, the more the merrier.
http://makingstrides.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCFY12Eastern?fr_id=35961&pg=entry
This is the registration for that walk.
My cousin also designed a t-shirt if your interested & would like one let me know what size. I waiting on the cost to have the t-shirts printed but don't think it should be much.
Thank You for all the prayers & support.
xoxo,
Tonilyn

Round 2 Chemo & Get out the Buzzers Sept. 14th

Again I apologize for the delay in my posting. It seems that this will be the normal amount of time in between posts after a chemo treatment. They are kicking my Ass! We or should I say I decided on treatment day
 (9-7-11) that I was not going to take the Nuelasta shot or the Nupogin. If that's the cause of the migraines i wanted to narrow it down so it didn't happen again. Now lets hope when I go back on Monday Sept. 19th. My white count is OK & lucky me can have another treatment rather then having to skip a week to wait for them to go up.
So the pattern seems to be Treatment day....pretty good. a bit tired due to all the waiting and the fact that i', being given poison.
The 2nd day......Really good almost a boost, I'm sure from all the steroids & everything that is still moving through the system.
The 3rd day......Still pretty good, eating well a bit more tired but can still get around.
Day 4, 5, 6 out......That's about it, just out sort of an out of body experience, some nausea, very tired & then theres hot head from steroids, sweating, chills, dry mouth, your thirsty but nothing tastes good, so you don't want to drink( but you have to, to keep hydrated). Then the pills that help most of that just knock you oh & then theres the indigestion, so i eat a box of tums which adds to the dry mouth. Yup the fun has begun.
But if I can have 4 or 5 good days before my next treatment I'll take it.
Only 6 more to go..............
On another side effect as was said before I should loss my hair. Yup I did. I was told 14 days from the first chemo it was to the day. That's pretty good estimating.
So on Tuesday night I had my girlfriend Lisa come over to shave my head. It was better then waking up with it all over my pillow. ( Thank You Kristin, for that bit of advice. You were correct! That was a much better idea).
I decided to make it a bit of a party. Because it was last minute I didn't really get to invite a lot of people. But those that showed up where real troopers! Thank You, Lisa for the head shave it means more then you will ever know. Mom for not crying until Stephanie text you back, Amy for the professional photos,
 Colleen (sidekick) for the idea to carve initials in the back of my head & not being the first one to cry, Jessica via Face time for the Mohawk idea & trying to control the situation from Maine. & Of course Joe for sitting in the back ground then kissing my head & telling me you love me & that you think I'm still beautiful hair or no hair. You guys really are a great support system. I love you all.
So now I sport a wig but a scarf more then that. wigs are itchy.
Then the next day I got even more support, my brother Darren shaved his head, & my cousin-in-law Tim who is married to my cousin Victor, shaved his head in support of me. Talk about touched, really i do not expect people to do that. but wow! I really feel lucky to have this amazing support system. Thanks Guys.
Until the next treatment........
xoxo



Darren & Me
Tim before & after