Have Joy in Your Posterity

Our 12 year old son has these moments where he seemingly comes up with random thoughts. I love this about him. He walked into the living room last night and said, "April 1st has to be the best day to ask a girl out. If she says, 'No' you can yell "April Fools!!" and walk away. If she says 'Yes' it's just another holiday"
Yes, He's 12.

Our daughter has the best one-liners. They were joking around one afternoon speaking in tacky English accents when their Dad said, "That's enough of the phoney English accents! Knock it off!" There was a pause and our daughter said, "Quite Right!"

The photo attached is of a happy face our four year old drew on our oldest son's car hood last night in the snow storm. Doesn't it just make you smile? It's hard not to.

Don't think my husband gets away scott free in the humor department. He's one of the funniest people I know. I was lamenting the upcoming treatments and am really bothered by the possibility of losing my hair. It's a great color (if I do say so myself) and I've grown quite attached to it. Damon lifted one eyebrow and said, "Do you think they'd give me a dose or two to get rid of the hair on my back?" and his other line "But you won't have to shave your legs for a while"

In the last year a lot of friends and family have said how much our second son looks like our oldest. I don't see it. I insist they don't look anything alike. The younger one has much darker hair, and his skin tans beautifully in the summer, at 12 he's 5'11" and has grayish green eyes. Our oldest is the same height at 20 yrs old (I KNOW!!) and has lighter hair and bright blue eyes and he doesn't tan at all. In my mind there's no way you can mix the two up, yet people do it a lot. I have to remind them that Taylor is on a mission...in Mexico! Last week I emailed a few photos of the younger son to the older one. The Missionary son wrote back, "The dude looks just like me" wha?????

When I think about what's coming in the next few months I'm more than a little trepidatious. Who wouldn't be right? As I focus on the big picture I try to remember that at the end of this, the end result of the reconstruction is all my choice......And I will choose wisely. :-)

Still Keeping the Faith.
Lisa

'Tis the Season

One of the things that has bothered me the most is being diagnosed this close to the Christmas season. I worry that my children will only remember me being sick this year or that their whole Christmas will be overshadowed by this. I also worry that there will be no money left for gifts as we don't have insurance. All of this plus dozens of other concerns weigh heavy on my husband's and my mind.

Last night I went to get a movie and on the way back I was listening to 95.5 which is all Christmas music. I sang along with a few of the jolly songs and then "Do You Hear What I Hear" came one. It's not an overly remarkable song, but it caught my attention.

I realized that of all the seasons of the year to face this, now is the most encouraging. This is a season of hope, love and joy. People are a little friendlier. All around us are reminders of the Savior in music, art and stories. Luke Chapter 2 is one of my favorite books of scripture. So feel free to watch the video of Josh Groban singing "O Holy Night" and be thankful for the Savior who was born to save us all.
copy and paste to your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQWXfHzOKUU

Lisa

Cancer Doesn't Hurt.

I've heard many people say, "if it hurts, it's not cancer". Even doctors have told me that (None that I am seeing right now)

After we had our third child, and second son, I had small lumps that kinda hurt. I was told if it hurts, it's not cancer. They did turn out to be blocked milk ducts from nursing.

However, I haven't nursed a baby in 5 years. And the lump hurt. And if it hurts, it's not cancer right? Wrong. This hurts a lot. It's kept me up at night.

I believe we are responsible for our own medical care so I am not blaming the few doctors who did tell me cancer doesn't hurt. I should have listened to my body sooner. But if you recall in my first blog, I had staph boils in the same area and attributed the lumps to staph abscesses. Staph hurts like crazy...so obviously the lump would too.

I'm incredibly grateful to my dermatologist who has become my General Practitioner by default as our Family Doc retired in October. Things happen for a reason and I recently learned that his good friend is a leading breast cancer specialist in Salt Lake.

Someone recently said I'd be blazing trails for other women who are diagnosed after me. I have not blazed any trails. But millions of women have certainly blazed them before me. There is a lot of attention and money given to cancer causes in our country and because of this I know, eventually, I'll be ok.

Keeping the Faith
Lisa

Giving Thanks for Many Things

I'm so overwhelmed with the support of all of you who have read my new blog. It's therapeutic to write and it's convenient to have a central location to update everyone.

The one thing I didn't mention in my first posting is that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon). Our oldest son is serving a full-time two year mission in the Torreon Mexico Mission. Our family has received numerous blessings because of his dedicated service. He wears the identifiable uniform of dark pants, white dress shirt, conservative tie and the noticable black name tag. He has been there since January of 2010 and will not return home (even for Christmas) until January of 2012. And we wouldn't have it any other way. The life and spiritual lessons he is learning right now can never be duplicated had he stayed home and gone to school. We will get to talk to him on Christmas Day and in the mean time I look forward to his weekly emails on his day off which is Monday. This past week he was assigned to be a Junior Zone Leader. His assigned Missionary companion is from Mexico City and is the Senior Zone Leader. They help oversee 6-8 pairs of other missionaries and report back to the Mission President. You can imagine the leadership training involved in this. It's tremendous.

Because of my belief and faith in a loving Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ I am able to have a bigger picture of what we are going through. I believe we are here to be tried and tested and that the bodies we get aren't perfect and things go wrong. But in that course we are still expected to have Faith and face adversity with dignity and prayer and sometimes a little humor.

So on this Thanksgiving Day I wish to thank the following and if I have forgotten someone I so apologize:

Mary Challis for being with me during the biopsy and loaning me her cars!

Sharon Cocanour for being with me during the biopsy and for carting me around during all the radiology tests...and for entertaining me at Savers and Good Will!!

Lynette Guarino for a gorgeous bouquet of flowers that was delivered during our horrendous snow storm. As the delivery guy brought them to the door it was a bright spot in a dreary day.

Kellie VanDuzer for talking with me about her own experience that she's going through with breast cancer.

The many friends who have posted on my FB of their love and support and offers of help I might need in the future...believe me I'll be calling!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!
Lisa

So a new chapter has begun in my life....and my family's
I was diagnosed with breast cancer on Monday, November 22, 2010. There are still many more questions than answers. Today, Wednesday, November 24, I had a bone and CT scan to determine if the cancer has spread to any other parts of my body. I have to admit, I fell asleep during the full body bone scan. To the shock of a few people.

Here is what I do know.
About a year ago while in the shower I felt a small-ish bump under my arm. I didn't think much of it since I often got those while nursing my children. I had been sick so I thought a lymph node was still puffy. Two weeks later I noticed a small red bump come up on my upper arm. Over the next week it became a VERY painful boil. Over the next few weeks several more came up. I go to church with a terrific dermatologist so I asked him about it. We determined it was a staph infection and he gave me antibiotics to clear it up.

From January until May we did round after round of antibiotics with no results. Since my husband was out of work and we had no insurance we were trying to go the inexpensive route. Due to the heavy use of oral antibiotics over those many weeks you can imagine the overgrowth of yeast in my system. It had become a vicious round of meds and infections.

A friend of mine who is a Certified Wellness Coach had recommended a cleanse for me, at least two years ago. It was called the Lifeforce Plan and is a highly recommended Candida Cleanse. On May 15, 2010 I attended the last Broadway Comes to Reno play which was the Wizard of Oz. This is an event my mother and I enjoy very much but I was absolutely miserable that night. My weight was out of control, my feet were swelling from sitting more than half an hour and I was having chest pain. I woke up the next morning and decided right then I was starting the Lifeforce Plan, which has been renamed the McCombs Plan www.mccombsplan.com.

The goal was to kill the candida and to feel better and to look better. The first 8 weeks are VERY strict and I adhered to every rule of this plan. Within the first week of following this plan I wasn't needing to nap all afternoon, I had lost 7 pounds and didn't have the "foggy headed" feeling I've had for years.

The longer I stayed on the plan the better I felt. However the small boils still popped up every two weeks or so. They were VERY tiny. They actually looked more like small pimples than the massive boils I'd had at first.

September rolled around and I had lost 40 pounds and towards the end of the month was really feeling amazingly well. I woke up one morning in October and a huge boil was starting to form. I couldn't believe it. Over the next two weeks both of my armpits were full of large boils that were very painful. I called my dermatologist and since our financial position had changed considerably (my husband secured a job in March) we decided to go ahead with a culture so we could hit it with the right antibiotics.

He put me on two double strength oral antibiotics. I kind of panicked at this because I had worked so hard to get rid of the candida overgrowth. But Dr McCombs was kind enough to answer my email pertaining to having to take these drugs. Turns out I didn't need to worry as I had sufficiently cleaned out my gut of candida.

Everything I had read about staph mentioned abscesses that can be left behind. The lump had either gotten bigger, or I had shrunk down around it since at this point I had lost 53 pounds. One night the pain from the lump was so bad I called the doctor the next morning and he had me in his office within hours. We decided to give it a shot to open it up to get the antibiotics in there as abscesses have a tendency to encapsulate themselves and it's hard to break through that shell. After three days with no change he sent me to a surgeon to get a better look at this thing.

The surgeon requested a mammogram and ultrasound before my first appointment with him.
The doctor at the mammo appointment explained that the lump we could see and feel was the main one, and it had additional growths coming off of it.

I had been scheduled to see the surgeon on the 29th. I called his office the next day to see if I should come in sooner. They decided the 22nd was good. Then called me the next day to say I needed to be in the following morning by 9 for a biopsy.

The biopsy came back as positive for cancer in the ducts. After I hung up with the doctor I threw my fit and cried and screamed and sat on the floor in shock.

As I have slowly began telling my family and friends about this. I am truly overwhelmed at their generosity and support. It is because of their attitudes that I am able to be positive in my outlook. So many prayers are being said on my behalf that at times I can feel the vibration in the air. If any of you are reading this then I thank you, yet again for your love and support.

As a friend pointed out, every time one question gets answered, it brings up even more questions. But we will take it one decision, one choice, one moment and one day at a time.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

Lisa