Treatment Week 6

Treatment Week 6

DONE!!!

I finished my six weeks. The last week, just about every day was a nauseous day. I didn't have too much energy, and I noticed how tired this has made me.

I've been just relaxing and getting back into somewhat of a routine. One of the hobbies I've had lately is finding things for cheap and selling them for more. For example, I got a nice film camera with a good lens, five various lenses, and a smaller film camera all for $70. Everything works, and so far I've sold the big camera for $120, the smaller camera for $25, and two lenses so far for $25 total. So far I've made $100 profit. Boo yah.

HEALTH UPDATE:
As I am finished with treatment, I get to rest up now. I'm still able to do just about anything but find myself with less energy. My neck is pretty red (like a sunburn) from the radiation, but oh man, SO MUCH better than last time.

We will meet again with the doctors on January 19th, about 5 weeks. At that time, we will see where we are at, and discuss the possibly of more chemo (but not radiation- fist pump!). More chemo is not a definite yes, but its not a no.

MISSION UPDATE:
After talking with President Crankshaw last week, he said that whenever I felt good enough, I could start going back again. Wait until I think I could last a whole day down there. He suggested to start off maybe just one or two days a week and work back into it. He said to just work with the temple on talk those details.

I don't know what the future holds, I feel like I have some big decisions to make, but I'm learning more every day to rely on the Lord. It feels like every day has been a challenge lately, especially trying to improve myself at home and being a better family member! I think that's something we could all work on, right?

Spiritual note... I just hit the book of Moroni. It maybe have taken me almost a year, but I'm just about finished with the Book of Mormon. My deadline is Dec 31st.

If you have an extra minute, look up the "40 Days and 40 Nights Challenge"... They have some charts that can help you read the entire Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and New Testament in 40 days each- or the Old Testament in 80 days.

That's all, folks. Keep running.

Treatment Week 5

Treatment Week 5 (Plus a Little Pre-Post Ramble)

Sometimes I have big plans and big ideas for what I want to write or do with this blog. I have all good intentions for it, but the laziness kicks in. So is human nature, right? I can honestly say though, that I'm glad the way things have turned out with what I've written. I wonder how my blog has effected people. That's not my motive, but aren't we all curious as to how our efforts are working?

Point of this rant, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. Kapeesh?

Well, week 5 has sucked. Despite the suckiness though, there are some people who are worse off then I am. My sick days were mostly Wednesday and Thursday. I have felt nauseous though all week. Like I've said before, the nausea isn't too bad. I've had the kind of headache you get when you are up too long, so I've been a couch potato a lot.

I have one more week of chemo and radiation. Because of Thanksgiving, I'll have just one radiation treatment after next week. So I've got one full week and a day. BRING IT ON. We meet with Dr Haslem tomorrow, and we'll see what the plan is from here.

Tender mercy of this week. I really wanted to go to FHE on Monday. I've been trying to go to all the things in my ward and stay involved. For a while it almost seemed weird to go to these YSA things when I am a missionary and can't even go on a date for now. But anyway, about FHE, I was hoping that I'd feel okay that night. Anyway, about 6 pm I felt a little sick, took a nausea pill, and was fine. FHE was fun. We went caroling haha. I said a prayer, asking that I could make it through FHE just fine. Prayer was answered! Well, about an hour after I got home, 9 pm roughly, it hit me. I felt pretty sick, took a different nausea pill, and just watched some TV to get my mind off of it. My nausea wasn't taken away completely Monday, but it was delayed. And I'm thankful it was!

That same thing that happened on Monday has happened a couple times again. I'm not home and I feel alright. Shortly after getting home, some nausea or headache or cramps or something hits me. I'm seriously being watched out for.

I was able to go to the temple last night (Saturday). I did baptisms with most of the family... my parents, my brother Justin, sister Ashley, brother Chris, and sister-in-law Allie. It was great!

Keep running!

Treatment Week 4

Treatment Week 4

4 down.
2 to go.


I'm over the hill! 2/3 done. Only two more weeks. Excuse the informal syntax of the following sentence: Aaah aah aah aah aah aah ahh I'm so excited!

Here are 13 thoughts on this last week:

1. I won a caption contest on Facebook Monday. My prize was a day or two of bragging rights. Go ahead and laugh. I like to think I'm pretty witty. (Note: Contest was on Facebook on December 1st. Makes my joke a little more humorous)

2. My skin is starting to look red. It's not my whole neck, it's about 1" x 3" rectangular area underneath my jaw.
[insert picture tomorrow here] :)

3. My throat is still peachy. It feels fine. I am SO happy that I can eat whatever I want. I don't want to be at a point where I'm stuck on liquids. That was a two-time thing (once during radiation in 2010, once when I had a feeding tube from the jaw surgery in 2012).

4. Every time I think of food and the cancer center, I feel sick. I don't know why. I feel fine all week, everything tastes great at home. However, when I get my free food on Mondays, I just don't feel good. And even thinking about it right now makes me a little queasy. I took a picture of my lunch a few weeks ago on Instagram and ended up deleting it last week because I couldn't even look at it. I won't have Sweet & Sour Chicken for a very, very long time. That place is messing with my mind, man.
*Just for the record, hospital food is stereotyped as bland... Cedar's hospital food is good. It's not you, hospital food. It's me.*

5. My queasy days for week four were Monday night, Wednesday, and Thursday.

6. When I say queasy, I mean about 25% of the nausea you're thinking. 75% of it is the tired, headache nausea... you know what I mean?

7. I'm getting over being a little sick. Sore throat, stuffy nose. Nothing too bad. I'm not sure where I got it, but I don't blame anyone. I think I got it from my mom. The plus side here is that I'm okay to get sick... my blood levels are normal so I can fight this off easily. Just no one kiss me for the next few days, okay? Sorry ladies. ;) Oh wait, I couldn't anyway. #missionary

8. If I had a dollar for every engagement or pregnancy announcement I've seen on Facebook lately... (congrats by the way to you people)

9. Saturday and Sunday (the 6th and 7th) were definitely my good days. I went to the temple on Saturday afternoon. And on Saturday night, ice skating!

10. I made some kick butt oreo fudge. Seriously. It tastes amazing.

11. Overall, this is not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm feeling less queasy than I had imagined- very grateful for that!

12. I'm grateful that things work out the way Heavenly Father want them to. I'm grateful to be able to spend a little more time at home. I'm grateful for family, friends, and temple family that have reached out to me.

13. I'M SO BLESSED. Yes, I see a lot of crap in front of me right now. BUT I have so many reasons to be happy. That's what I'm focusing on.



Let's finish these last two weeks. BOOYAH.
Keep running.

Not much

December 4, 2014

Hello everyone!

Not much new to report here... besides that I'm a couple days late with this email. I'm feeling alright. I think the nausea is getting overall worse as time goes on, but still very manageable. This whole thing is not nearly as bad as I thought. This week is 4 of 6 so I'm almost done!!

I got to go to the temple again last week with some friends. It was SO nice. When I started this treatment, I made a goal that I would go to the temple once a week. So far, I've accomplished it! I'm so excited for the day when we have a temple in Cedar. Until then, it's nice to go down to St George.

Thanksgiving was really great last week. All the fam was over and we had a great thanksgiving dinner. LOTS of food.

Last time I had radiation I wasn't able to eat solid foods part way into it because it just hurt my throat so bad. I was really scared I'd have to deal with the same thing this time. But so far I haven't had much trouble with irritation in my throat, and I am hoping I can get through this whole time without losing my ability to eat solid foods. Boo yah, grandma.

Okay. All for this week. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Have a good one! Love you all!

Elder Gray