Merry Christmas!!!

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their prayers for my family and me in the year 2010.  We have most definitely had an interesting year, but we are also most definitely stronger and better for it.  I cannot thank God enough for all of my family and friends who have been so wonderful through this year, and I love you all to pieces!
Second of all, I would like to share a prayer with you all.  Every year, I write a poem for the Reeder Family Christmas card.  This year, I decided that a prayer poem was nothing less than perfect, so I hope you all enjoy it.  Merry Christmas, from my family to yours!

Dear most precious Heavenly Father,

In this time of remembering Your Son,

May You heed this humble prayer of mine,

And as always, let Your will be done.

I pray for peace around the world,

For joy and love and grace.

Please bless Your sons and daughters,

And shine through every face.

I ask for safety in travels

For all who wander from home.

May hearts be open and giving,

And may Your presence be known.

I pray for those in sickness,

And also for those in health,

In hopes that everyone knows and finds

The essence of true wealth.

I rejoice for families together,

But ache for those apart.

I ask forgiveness for past mistakes,

And thank You for new starts.

I pray for warmth in times of cold,

For young eyes wide in splendor.

May hugs embrace and never end,

And every look be tender.

I ask for fun and merriment

To spread like never before,

While keeping in mind that first day of Yule

When the King of all Kings was born.

I pray for my family, my treasured loved-ones,

And for all of my very dear friends.

May they all have the very merriest Christmas!

In Christ Jesus’ name, Amen.

-Sky Reeder, 2010-

Whoah! We're Halfway There!!

Well, everyone, guess what???!!!  I have officially finished half of my Chemotherapy treatments!  Waaaahoooooo!!!  I had the 6th treatment (of 12) on Tuesday, December 21, 2010, and everything went just fine.  My family and I are becoming pros at this!
There was one new element to this round of Chemo: Cha' got to come experience it with me!  She is finally out of school (with a 4.0, I might add), and I am very happy to have her at home for a while!  It was typical Cha', though...she was all about the medical stuff!  "What's that?"  "What does that do?"  "What's in that?"  I love it that she is so passionate about becoming a good doctor, and she was a big help to me during Chemo.  We are besties!
Also, I am happy to say that my newly re-flipped port worked perfectly!  Yaaaay!  Hopefully I won't have to go through any more unexpected surgeries.
Right now, I am just trying to recover so that I feel decent for Christmas.  I have had a rather down day today, due to a bit of nausea and not wanting to eat/drink anything, but it could always be worse.  I get to be with my family for Christmas, and that in and of itself is the best present ever!  Who could ask for more?

Minor Set-Back

Hey everyone!  I am so sorry that it's been a while since I have updated this blog...up until recently, there wasn't much to give an update on, at least not medical information.  Please understand that this lack of posting is in no way reflective of how appreciative I am to all of your for your prayers and support.  I seriously can't thank any of you enough, and I thank God all of the time for blessing me with such a wonderful support system.  You are all truly amazing...thank you. 

My 4th round of chemo went about as smoothly as the 3rd, although I was able to really enjoy Thanksgiving with my family.  Somehow, by the grace of God, I was able to smell and eat and savor Thanksgiving dinner, which was only 2 days after my treatment......go figure?!  I was also able to get out in nature and do some hunting, of which it paid off nicely! 

This hunting season has been one of my best so far.  When I feel decent (which is still over 50% of the time), Dad and I have been able to take off and get in touch with our primitive selves!  Okay, okay...so a Browning X-Bolt 25-06 isn't exactly primitive, but it definitely gets the job done!  About a week after I got this bad boy (10-point), I killed a nice doe at around 315 yards...even at that distance, she only ran 20 yards, tops, and then fell.

But enough about killing............actually, NO!  We still have death to discuss...death of the Cancer!!  Mwahaha!  (please forgive me if I sound a little crazy...I am slightly medicated at the present moment, but I'll get to that in a minute).  Anyways, I had another PET Scan on Friday, December 3, which was the same scan as one I had done before any chemo started.  The first scan showed my chest area to be lit up like a Christmas tree--there were infected nodes EVERYWHERE!  This scan (drum roll please) showed absolutely NO nodes lit up, thank you very much! :) :) :) While this is excellent news and God should be praised for His mighty work, it doesn't necessarily mean any changes.  As of now, I still have to complete all of my treatments (12 total), and my doc is still holding out his decision for radiation.  That being said, however, this is great news in that the chemotherapy is working!!  Wahoo!!!

Speaking of the chemo working, I'm sure many of you are wondering about my hair situation.  Well, I still have it...hair, I mean.  Don't get me wrong--it has been falling out for some time now.  However, I just had such thick hair to begin with, that it is only just now looking thin.  Nothing a cute hat can't cover up!  Honestly, though, the shave party may happen soon, if for nothing but sheer frustration at all of this shedding!  You know how annoying a single hair can be when it gets in-between your shirt and your skin and tickles you to no end?!?  Well, try having a constant tickling force all over you!!  It's just hair...it will grow back (and mine will grow back fast!).  Plus, if I don't shave my head, then who is going to get to enjoy all of these fabulous wigs???!  I promise to keep you posted on the hair situation.  For those that like a little more information, I do still have to shave my legs, I still have as much hair on my arms as I ever had, and my eyebrows and eyelashes are still bushy and beautiful! lol  (I would be so ecstatic if I somehow managed to keep my eyebrows and eyelashes through this whole ordeal...).

Now then, where was I?  Oh yes...Chemo #5.  Well, I rolled in to Cancer Care two days ago (Tuesday, December 7) with new tricks up my sleeve.  I took nausea meds as soon as I saw the building, and I then proceeded to lather my nose up with a nice coating of Vic's (technically, it was the off-brand).  My new tricks worked!!!  I was ready to go, with as little of anticipatory-nausea (they have technical terms in the medical field) as to be expected.  I went back to the treatment room to get all set up for the day; they have to take lab work to make sure I can have chemo, and they go ahead and access my port then so I only have to get stuck once (yay for that!).  The port needle is fairly thick, but I don't need any numbing medicine for one quick poke...or so I thought.  One of my favorite nurses was all set up to do my "stick".  I took a deep breath, and she poked me, but I could immediately tell that something was wrong, both from the feeling of the port and the look on her face.  She had another one of my favorite nurses come over (let's face it, I love all of my nurses!), for some assistance.  Needless to say, before it was all over, I had about 6 nurses around me, poking and prodding at my port.  They ended up trying to stick me 3 times (I had finally asked for some numbing medicine), only to decide that I had somehow managed to flip my port. 

They sent me from the treatment room to see my doctor.  Dr. Keller took a look at the port, but he couldn't tell much from outside the skin, so he sent me back to radiology.  After I had 2 chest x-rays done, I went back to see the doc, who confirmed that he though I had flipped my port.  So, my dad has to play gopher and run the x-rays over to Dr. Meese's office (he is the doctor that did my port surgery), pick up some medicine for me, and get me lunch, of which only one thing sounded remotely appetizing--Mexi Dips & Chips from Taco Bueno. 

Sooooo....back I went to the treatment center to get my chemo through an IV.  They had to give the meds to me really slowly this way, because some of the meds in my treatment are damaging to the skin if any happened to leak out of the vein.  Luckily, this didn't happen...I told you all that I loved all of my nurses! :)

While I was getting treated, my dad was calling and scheduling appointments for me to have my port inspected by Dr. Meese.  This appointment, as luck would have it, was scheduled for the very next day, Wednesday, December 8.  So, I went home once Chemo #5 was finished, licking my wounds and waiting for the next day.

Mom, Dad, and I arrived at the 3 golden towers in Tulsa (I'm sure they have a technical name, but golden towers is what I'm going with tonight) a little before 10 yesterday morning.  We immediately began paperwork for pre-op (????? At this moment, I wasn't aware I was having surgery), and then we went upstairs to the operation waiting room (????? I wanted to talk to Dr. Meese before anyone came near me with any sharp objects!).  Dr. Meese did, in fact, come out to see my family and me, and then he took me back to examine my port.  He numbed the site, and then used a small needle to poke around and make sure that the port was, indeed, flipped.  What did he find?  The port was, indeed, flipped.

Back to the waiting room I went, where I waited for a long time (they were trying to find a place to squeeze me in, as this surgery wasn't exactly planned).  Needless to say, on December 7, 2010, Dr. Meese split me back open, turned over my port, and stitched it down with a few more stitches than he had the last time (apparently, I had ripped out the two he had originally put in there).  After my surgery, they gave me as much pain medicine as they could, but I still had to go back to Cancer Care to get my Neulasta shot.  Back on with a generous coating of the off-brand Vic's and a big stick later, and I was back in the car headed back to Stillwater.

I'm sure many of you are wondering how on earth I managed to flip my port over in the first place.  The best I can tell, it happened over the Thanksgiving holiday.  One evening, I wasn't feeling very well, and so I climbed up to sit on my Dad's lap, as he was comfortably reclining in big and fluffy rocking chair.  I was curled up with most of my weight on his upper left leg.  When I was ready to get up, I realized that I was going to have to slide right off onto his bad left knee, which had been really hurting him.  So, I reached over to the right arm-rest with my left hand, and pushed my weight up so that I could get up without hurting my dad.  Needless to say, I doubled over in pain, but I though I had just pulled the muscle.  I guess when I lifted most of my weight up with my left arm, the muscle that my port sits on strained just enough to allow that sucker to pop right over.

So, I am back on the couch with Chemo #5 freshly through me, pretty sore and sickly feeling from the Neulasta shot, and mostly immobile and almost 100% reliable on outside help from being sliced open again.  I guess the good news is that there are no new scars, as Dr. Meese could just go back through the old one!  I am also now on strict orders to not use my left arm so extensively.  Dr. Meese said that I shouldn't have been able to flip the port, even if I had tried.  I guess it's just one of those fluke things that happens sometimes...either that, or he isn't used to a fairly muscly woman who can lift most of her body weight with one arm...no girly push-ups for me!!! 

The Third Time Is A........Charm?

Hello all!  I have officially completed 3 of 12 chemotherapy treatments!  Yay!  The third one, however, did not go as smoothly as the first two.  I think my body is beginning to catch on to the plans.  As soon as I walked into the treatment center and smelled that now-familiar smell of the treatment room, my stomach rolled.  Actually, my stomach is beginning to act up, just thinking about it.  There's the beauty of psychology, folks...
There was good news during my treatment.  For one thing, my doctor was very surprised that I still had my hair (not all of it, admittedly, but enough).  Secondly, I had another chest x-ray while I was there, and the chemo is definitely doing it's job!  The nodes that were so visible in my chest at the beginning of this whole ordeal had decreased significantly in size!  Praise God for that!
Anyways, I had to take more nausea medicine than usual, but that wasn't too big of a deal.  I actually felt pretty good when I left Cancer Care, and my mom and I went out to eat.  After our late lunch, we arrived at the hotel around 3-ish.  All was going pretty well until I rode up to the forth floor in the elevator...mistake.  That sent my tummy in a tizzy, and it really never got better.  I spent that first night curled up in a ball and reliant on nausea meds that make me really drowsy (I slept like a baby, though!).  Normally, I am bouncing off of the walls the day I have chemo...something about a steroid high...not the case this time.
The next day, I went back to the treatment center for my Nulasta shot.  I was still not feeling very great, but I was doing better than the previous night.  After I got my shot, my mom and I headed south to Hugo, OK for some R&R at Nana and Papa's house!  Needless to say, that's really all I did.  I actually didn't feel as tired and achy as I had for treatments 1 and 2, but the nausea made up for that.  I despise that upset-tummy feeling...honestly, the worst part about being sick at my stomach was the ramifications of food!  There I was, at Nana's house, and all I could stand to eat (or smell, for that matter) was ham and cheese (an occasional PB&J) sandwiches. 
So, it is now 5 days after my chemo treatment, and my tummy is still unhappy.  What I hate the most is that my poor family has to cater to my stupid stomach.  Smells bother me the most, so cooking inside the house is a touchy subject.  Then, there's the task of finding something I can actually eat, which I know must be frustrating for them.  Needless to say, treatment 3 has been the most difficult, but I know it could still be so much worse.
Okay, enough negativity.  I wouldn't even write all of this icky stuff, but it's the truth.  Painting over things with "rose-colored writing" doesn't help anyone.  Treatment 3 was no bueno...'nuff said.  Apart from feeling icky for a few days, I've been really blessed!  Dad says I'm making cancer look fun...I do get to go hunting (one of my absolute favorite hobbies) quite often, and I spend most of my time in the comfort of my own home with two of my favorite people in the whole wide world--Mom and Dad.  I am extremely blessed to have such supportive and wonderful parents.  I do miss spending time with my sister, but she had to go and get Mono and Shingles...way to go, sis...JUST KIDDING!  I actually feel horrible for her...she has had worse symptoms and pains than I have.  Poor kid...she sure is a trooper, though.  Every time I see her, she looks like she is about to enter a beauty pageant............AND WIN!  What a remarkable person I am privileged enough to call my sister.

Numero Dos!

Yay for more cancer dying!!!  I had my second chemotherapy treatment today, and everything went so well.  Seriously, getting chemo is no big deal, at least my kind of chemo isn't.  The nurses just hook me up like a wall outlet, and I'm good to go!  As a matter of fact, the night after I have chemo, I feel GREAT!!!  I mean, hyper, bouncing off of the walls, can't go to sleep (hence the fact that I'm writing this now) type of feel great!  I asked the nurses about it today, and they just laughed and said it was because of the steroid they give me while administering chemo.  So, they are trying to make my hair grow while the chemo is trying to make it fall out (lots of shedding now, btw)?????  I'm totally okay with that!
Update on my blood levels: all is well!  I am no longer neutropenic, so I can actually return to society.  Happy day!  I still have to wash my hands all of the time, plus I'm cautious around people, just as precaution.  However, I LOVE being able to see my friends and be back in the real world!  In order to keep my social calendar satisfied, I will be given a shot tomorrow of a drug called Neulasta.  This medication helps my bone marrow make white blood cells so I don't become Neutropenic.  My doctor had to wait and see how I would respond to chemo for the first treatment, but now that he knows that my body soaks it up and my levels fall, I will get this shot the day after every treatment.
While I was at the clinic today having lab work and treatment done, I also had an appointment with my doctor.  He said I looked really good (I'm not really sure what he expected me to look like, but there it is...).  He also felt in my lower neck area where there were some prominent nodes, and said he couldn't feel them (even he seemed a bit surprised)!  In your face, cancer!!!!  How do you like that??!  I guess that is the one good thing about being hyper-sensitive to medication (for example: any "may cause slight drowsiness in 2% of patients" knocks me on my back for a good 24 hours!!!)--my body soaks up the chemo, meaning the cancer has to eat it too! HAHA
So, I know everyone reading this wants updates about me, which is why I posted the three paragraphs above--yes, there are actually three--(btw, I really appreciate everyone's support and time spent caring about my silly life...seriously, it means more than you all will ever know).   However, my sister could use some prayers as well, so if you're interested in both Reeder girls, keep reading...please and thank you!
Cha' has been sent to the ER twice in the past week.  She contracted that evil and nasty stomach virus that has been making its way around Stilly, and let's just say she saw much of her meals twice that week.  She went to a regular physician, got some meds, and was actually doing much better this weekend (other than stressing about all of the work she had missed in school).  Then, on Tuesday morning, my family and I find out that she has thrown up over 30 times in the past couple of hours.  We quickly call her wonderful and sweet boyfriend, Wyatt, to take straight to the ER (he was also instructed to dismiss any arguing made by the patient, including those rebellions in the form of kicking or screaming).  She went to the ER, where they worked on subsiding her symptoms.  Once they got her symptoms at least decently subdued, the nurses and doctors began looking for the cause of this "relapse".  They took blood and administered numerous tests.  The results?  Mononucleosis.  That's the bad news...of course, Cha' is concerned about her school, but she will get that figured out.  I just hate it that she is going to feel bad for a while, because let me tell you without any frosting or sugar-coating that mono isn't very fun (I had a horrible case of it my senior year).  Let me rephrase that slightly:  mono wasn't very fun for me.  But, as I said earlier, my body amplifies meds, so why not illnesses???  Anyways, there is good news (as there has been in every "bad" situation the Reeders have encountered lately).  We now know what is ailing Cha', which is, in many ways, a relief.  (She had a few swollen lymph nodes in her neck due to the trauma and stress of being sick, and it is fair to say that my family is just a little gun shy at the present moment).  Also, as I mentioned, I have already had mono, so she is not really contagious to me (trust me, I won't go drinking after her...I'm not idiotic).  Well, technically, there are various strains of mono, so she could have another strain that I could get, but it's not likely.  My doctor looked at my Epstein Barr immunity in my blood today (the virus that is mono), and I have full immunity!  Yay!!  This is such good news for my family, as we have been a split family for the past few weeks.  Dad and I have had to stay away from Mom and Cha', just so each sick "kid" can have someone to take care of them.  Explanation: when I was Neutropenic, I couldn't afford to get sick AT ALL, and I was extremely succeptible to any illness!  Had I contracted that stomach virus or even a common cold while my counts were so low, who knows how long I would have been in the hospital.  Anyways, it's been really hard to be apart, but we think that's behind us now. 
Well, that's what is going on at the Reeder household right now.  As I said waaaaaaaay earlier, the night after chemo, I am SO HYPER!  As a result, everyone reading this is tired and worn out from my new novel.  I'm the only one still awake right now; therefore, my chatty and hyper self only has the computer to talk to.  Thus, here is the long-winded and rather loopy account of a day in the life of Sky Reeder.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

A Wonderful Weekend

I just got home from the most wonderful weekend (as the title suggests)!  My dad and I left on Friday afternoon for Sayer, OK to go deer hunting.  We hunted morning and evening on Saturday and Sunday, and in the morning on Monday.  I saw a bunch of deer, but never the right one (I got picky!).  I had a great time, though.  It was wonderful to get out of the house...Plus hunting is one of my favorite hobbies, so I was extremely happy.  Dad and I stayed with my Grandpa and his fiance, Pat.  I love them both dearly, and they spoiled me rotten!  I guess if a person is going to be spoiled, rotten is the only right way to do it!
Now I'm back in Stilly, only for one reason, really.  I have my second chemotherapy appointment tomorrow.  It is really difficult to psych myself up to have another treatment, even though I know I need it.  I have been feeling so well for the past week, so it is hard to imagine feeling really icky again.  Oh well, that's just part of the game, I guess. 
Oh, update on the hair situation: I AM STARTING TO SHED!!  Shave party is probably just around the corner! :)

No Chemo...For Now...

Well, the lab results came in, and I am not getting my second chemotherapy treatment today.  I am now on an antibiotic for 5 days to try to aid my immune system in boosting my white blood cell count and my neutrophils (I am currently what they call neutropenic).  My next chemotherapy appointment is scheduled for Wednesday, September 27.  Although I want to get finished with treatment as soon as possible and get this cancer out of my body, I am rather happy I didn't have chemo this week.  As I said in an earlier post, this weekend is the opening of Muzzleloading season, and I am so ready to shoot a monster buck!  I will probably end up shooting a doe or two as well (the limit is two does and one buck), as we need some deer meat.
The bad part about postponing my treatment is that I am now right on schedule for treatment the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas...I guess a person can't have everything...oh well!  I'm actually not sure if the labs are open to give treatment on these weeks...you would think even oncologists get to enjoy the holidays...