Hello!
I am a cancer survivor.
I have started this blog to help others who are navigating this same, not same, similar, dissimilar, crazy, unknown, unpredictable path that I have traversed.
I hope it helps.
F*cancer
Books – Great reads
I don’t know, where are we? A billion days into quarantine. The world is starting to open up again, but forever more we will be distancing ourselves from our friends and loved ones. What better time than now to crack open a great book, right? I’d like to share some reads that I can absolutely recommend.
First are books my friends wrote. But guess what? They are all…AWESOME!! I have very talented friends. I need to step up my game. Then some others, that I just have really enjoyed.
We’re all on quarantine, right? Everyone has time to read. You should absolutely check out all of these!
Locksmith at the End of the World
Part two, coming soon. 🙂
I can’t say more about this book, than I just love it. LOVE. Do you like (or did you like before it went all weird) The Walking Dead? Or do you just like awesome dogs? This is your book. And Chester. This is the dog I want in my life!
I love this book. I love the connections with the animal spirit. I love the writing. And the Janis Joplin connection.
Story after great story of living with dogs, labs to be exact. The alternate title to this could be Chicken Soup for the Old Dog Lovers. There is not a person whom I’d love more to listen to stories from than Barbara!
Hangfire: An Eddie Holland Novel
I still need to read the rest of the books in this series too. Thoroughly enjoyed this book!
Great book, I really like the characters in this story.
On to others I don’t know…
This one, I just really, really liked. It was a bookclub reading and I loved it! I loved the main character, thought I had the book figured out, thought I DIDn’t have it figured out, was surprised at the end.
I love strong women! This book wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed. It was a free Prime read, trying to decide if I want to buy the next in the series…
I liked this book, but when looking at other books by the same author, it seemed like it could be the same story line. Liked this one though.
Might not be a great book to read in a pandemic..or at night when you are trying to fall asleep! Any other time though…
Sci-Fi ish. I enjoyed it.
Don’t just sanitize, remember to moisturize!
Seriously, folks. Sanitization and hand washing are the #1 most important things you can be doing right now. Wash off those dreaded germs. But don’t forget, that dry, chapped hands produce cracks that allow germs into your body.
Yes, be sure to wash with warm (not HOT) water using soap to kill germs. That is the most important thing you can do during this pandemic.
But remember, constant hand washing will dry out your skin. A wee bit of lotion helps to control that dry skin. Here are my current favorites.
I LOVE these lotions, and they smell great too.
This page contains links (affiliate links). If you want to know more about it, please click here. These links are for US based folks.
Some of my favorite feel good recipes
OK friends. The world is on lock-down. I was making one of our favorite recipes tonight, and thought that you guys may be in need of some new recipes while you are in quarantine. Here are some super easy, super yummy, mostly healthy, kid approved meals that I think you’ll enjoy. Truly some of our favs.
For all of my recipes, I substitute bone broth (chicken or beef depending on the protein) for stock. The added health benefits are well worth it.
I made this tonight, LOVE it. The noodles that are recommended are hard to get, I’ve only found them at Harris Teeter, but I’ve substituted Spaetzle Noodles (affiliate link) for the ones called out in the recipe because my regular grocery store sells them. Nick couldn’t tell the difference. I also add a bit of turmeric to the recipe for its health benefits. : ) To be honest, I add about double the spinach too. Tonight I substituted leeks for the onions, and I think I like that better. Winner all around!
https://www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com/sausage-and-red-pepper-soup-with-egg-noodles-recipe/
The only adaptation I make on this one is I only use one tablespoon of chili powder, and added 1 cup of beef stock to make it a bit more saucy.
This, is just good.
My niece ate her weight in this the first time she had it.
I do this in the crock pot, and add about a cup of stock to tone it down a bit for the boys. I shred it and let it simmer a bit before I serve.
This one takes a bit more time, but will freeze and reheat well. Perfect for lunches.
And for desert, Mike won a contest for this. Super easy, make the kids do it.
I passed my tests!!
Seriously, Holy Shit people!! I just got my test results.
So often, those random aches and pains, and not so great test results can cause so much trepidation and grief, the worrying, the fears, the what-ifs…BUT
I can’t be more over the moon with my recent test results. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know for a FACT that test results don’t mean everything. They are indicators, indicators that your doctors use to help with your healing. That being said, I love data, I like to know numbers, I like to compare and have knowledge.
Just last year, my CA-125 levels were higher than ‘normal’ but not off the charts. CA-125 is a cancer antigen test. CA-125 is not specifically a breast cancer indicator, but a cancer indicator none the less. My doctors run this test on me every year. Due to my results last year, I had several doctor visits, some scans, and was given the ‘nothing to worry about’ after my results came in. Sometimes, just the fact that cancer is in your rear-view mirror can cause some of these test numbers to be elevated, and that is perfectly normal. The new normal that us cancer survivors experience.
Also last year, my ANA levels continued to be higher than “normal” but at a level that I was not concerned about. If you’re curious as to what that means, it’s all here.
Well folks, I just got my latest test results posted from my annual blood work.
ANA Reference Range is NEGATIVE. This is huge. I’ve wondered often if that autoimmune thing would come back. And here I am, four short years later, my original results were 1:1280 which was off the charts, last year I was 1:160, and now I have a completly negative result. That is so awesome. I still follow many of the AIP dietary things I learned during that phase of my life, and I truly believe it continues to help me. Again, if you’re curious about that, click here.
OK, on to the even bigger news. CA-125. Last year, I was at 58, Normal range = 0.0-38.1. There were several tests I had a year ago that returned these levels slightly elevated. I suspected these were hormonal, my doctors also were in full agreement that was the case, but even fully believing that, it’s always worrisome when anything cancer related is elevated.
Well, guess what folks, the results are in, and they say – CA-125 = 10.5. In case you were wondering, the official text in my results say
CA-125 is normal.
NORMAL!! Normal. Well, BOOM. In your face cancer antigens. You are dead to me.
I am mini-celebrating this.
Cheers my friends. And, never give up.
Radiation Skin Care
Radiation wrecks your skin, it really does. But it’s sneaky, and does it slowly. Another bastard result of cancer treatments. grrr.
I was given specific instructions on how to take care of my skin, and I followed those instructions exactly. Having dealt with sensitive skin my whole life, I wasn’t going to risk letting my skin get out of control, if I could help it.
My instructions were pretty basic, I was to use a powder in the morning, and through the day as needed. The powder would help prevent friction – friction from my bra and shirts. But not just any powder, my doctors recommended one specific powder, and the recommendation did surprise me a wee bit.
Zeabsorb (Walmart affiliate link) Zeabsorb (Amazon affiliate link)
Seriously, folks, it is athlete’s foot powder!! That is what they told me to use. I found it at Walmart, which is where I bought it
Then, in the evenings, I was to use hydrocortisone creme. (1% medicated) I highly recommend buying the 2 oz size, ’cause the 1 oz just isn’t enough. I also picked the one that had aloe added, because in my mind, nothing but good can come from adding aloe to a skin care regiment that involves treating burned skin. Aloe grows in the desert for a reason, right?
Hydrocortisone 1% (Walmart affiliate link) Hydrocortisone 1% (Amazon affiliate link)
I fared very well, considering. In the evenings I used the creme first, then dusted a bit of powder over it, just to be safe.
Then…I went rogue. I have loved California Baby products since my son was little. I am especially fond of their Calendula Cream for remedies of SO many issues. I happened to notice the container under the sink one day, and decided why not add that to my regiment. I put this right over top of the hydrocortisone in the evenings. Then dusted.
California Baby Calendula – 4oz California Baby Calendula – 2 oz
Seriously, I would recommend California Baby Calendula to anyone for any reason, ever. Love the smell too, a lovely lavender, relaxing scent. Is it possible that this add helped me fare better than others? Possibly.
Most important, I think, is to take care of your skin from the beginning, don’t wait until it gets raw and red. Prevention first, right?
I didn’t want to add this picture, I don’t like it. But, I wanted to add a picture to show what radiation does to a person. I had no idea prior to my treatment what to expect.
I tried to crop it many different ways, so that I might have a better angle to show you. I looked for other pictures I may have taken during radiation, but honestly this is all I could find. My armpit looks weird, I can see that ugly discolored spot on my arm, the new hair growth on my neck is unattractive, and who knows what is going on with my chin and neck…but…this is cancer. The scar? I don’t care about that at all. I’m proud of my scars. I earned them. The rest? This is cancer, folks. This is radiation. Do you see my tattoo? My radiation tattoo? Maybe I’ll talk about that later.
I started this blog to help people, so, I have to share my reality. This is what it looks like. Those stickers…I may talk about them in a different post, they stuck around for a while (haha).
Towards the end of my radiation treatment, I also used this. It was soothing, natural, and offered some comfort.
Burn Recovery Spray (Amazon affiliate link) Burn Recovery Spray (Walmart affiliate link)
This page contains links (affiliate links). If you want to know more about it, please click here. These links are for US based folks.
Fire stick – Tech-y stuff…
This page contains links (affiliate links). If you want to know more about it, please click here. These links are for US based folks.
I love this little device, and I decided to write about it because when I first heard about it the whole thought of it confused me, and I really didn’t understand how it worked. AND, if I knew then what I know now, I totally would have used one of these during my chemo days…check it out.
The one I bought is the one on the left, the 2nd Gen Fire stick. It of course has a fancier sibling, the 4K (that guy on the right, below.) Not sure most people would really notice much of a difference, but the 2nd Gen works fine for me, and does everything I need it to do. I actually bought three, the first one, for my upstairs TV, one for a gift for the boy child, and one for my main level TV, because sometimes my SmartTV gets glitchy with the Prime Video App.
We have Amazon prime, so through Prime Video, I can browse movies and shows, and add them to my Watchlist. It is super easy, there is a menu bar right under the search bar on Amazon with a link that says Prime Video. You click on it, and can search for whatever interests you.
I can’t believe how many years I paid for Prime and never used the video feature. Then one night, I was having a terrible time sleeping (continuation of my hot flashes/night sweats/insomnia), so I grabbed my laptop and looked for something to entertain me. I ended up browsing Amazon, and stumbled across The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel series, then watched two episodes back to back. The next day I asked my techie friend how the fire stick worked – we’d talked about it before, but I never had any reason to think I’d get much use out of it until I found a show I really wanted to watch more of, and not on the small screen of my laptop.
This little thing just plugs right into an HDMI port on your TV. (Every TV we have in our house has at least 2) Then you just use the remote to control it. Since you order it off of Amazon, it shows up already linked to your account, or…maybe you have to add your Amazon email, whatever it was, it was super easy. You can also set up parental controls so that you have to enter a pass-code for the more mature themes. I generally just watch the free movies and shows, and there are some great oldies on there too. Also, entire seasons of Spongebob are available in case you need to entertain the youngsters! I find it easier to use my computer to search and add to my watchlist, then when I use the fire stick, all the things on my watchlist are there, all I have to do is just click on them.
So where does that comment about chemo fit in to all this? During my treatments, we didn’t really care too much for the daytime TV offerings. We inspected the TV in our little room one day in the infusion center, and realized there are available connections that would enable us to hook up a DVD player to it, then watch some movies that we had bought, but not yet had a chance to watch. So, that is how we passed the time, most days in chemo – watching movies. That is where Nick saw Jaws for the first time, on that DVD player hooked up to the chemo room TV. Had we had a fire stick at the time, we’d likely have watched way different offerings, and with greater ease.
I’d call this an F*cancer top pick!!
Boundaries exist for a reason (aka – what not to say to a co-worker)
I was able to work throughout my cancer treatment – chemo, surgery, radiation. The first month was terribly rough, for sure, learning about the fatigue, the dreaded day three, the aches and pains, did I mention the soul-crushing fatigue? But I was fortunate in not getting too many of the really horrible side effects. Once I was able to come to terms with my ‘new normal,’ I was able to pretty much work through it. (many kudos to my boss, and co-workers for all their support through that time, I am forever grateful.)
However…
(and yes I expect that you in your mind saw that and said to yourselves dot-dot-dot)
I have endured more insensitive, rude, invasive comments than I care to share, from people who should just keep their mouths shut. I mean, what does a person gain, from learning about why that other person is wearing a wig, wearing a cap, suddenly lost all of their eyelashes and eyebrows? Why do you – that other person, feel you have a right to know what is going on with the suddenly hairless person you see?
My friends – you know who you are – this post is not about you. You were there for me, and I love you for it. You were, and are, welcome in my life, and you know you have a place there. The people who reached out to me because they have a cancer connection, and would like to talk to someone else in the ring, step on up, I am here for you. The rest…you who I have no relationship with at all and are just thrill seekers? F-off. Seriously, F-the-F off. I owe you nothing. NOTHING! Please and thank you.
So, TODAY! Slightly over three years past my last chemo. Slightly over three years since my hair started growing back. A co-worker – one who has made comments to me in the past about ‘how pretty’ my hair is, and has asked ‘what do you put on your hair’ …
… super fast shuffle stepped over to me today, hand outstretched, “Can I touch your hair.”
WHO DOES THAT?!! OMG, seriously!?!? Seriously.
I have very expressive reactions to many things, and occasionally (ahem, Mike – occasionally – xoxo) I don’t hide my feelings well. I shied back, said “NO!!!!” more loudly than maybe even I expected, I am positive my face contorted into very unattractive-forehead furrowing disgust – then followed up with “that is just weird!!,” and as she looked confused at me, added, “I don’t want anyone to touch me!”
Thankfully, at that point, the elevator doors shut, and I was removed from her presence. I was angry, furious for a while after this encounter. My personal space was nearly invaded, and I was very angry by the lack of social decency, WHO DOES THAT, is all I could wonder. I did briefly consider filing an HR complaint, seriously I did, only because this person had made SO many unwelcome comments in the past, and this was just so far over the line…
People. Don’t touch your co-workers. Just don’t. And if they lost their hair, and it came back..NO you cannot touch it. Keep your meat-hooks to yourself.
Please and thank you.
