Seriously, from the bald girl with one boob?!

Yup, I force health advice on people. All the time. Unsolicited. I'm sure people look at me like, 'seriously, you Jenn, the picture of health over there? You are bald with no eyebrows and one boob. What could you possibly have to offer me?' Haha.  I don't care. If there is anything I can do to help people that I love (and even my worse enemies) never have to go through some of the things my family has gone through, I will shout it topless and hairl-less from a freaking roof top. That's a scary image to think about. Lord, I think the steroids are really kicking in right now :)

I don't share too much about how badly chemo sucks with you all. My friends and family from far away read our blog with bated breath checking in on me making sure I'm ok...me saying 'a little nauseated, kind of fatigued, not sleeping all that great...' that's about as down as I want to be. I'm only going to tell you in this post, one time...chemo sucks really really bad. And going back to one of the most toxic drugs out there, A/C, was a big reminder to me of that. For those of you mommies out there, it was like childbirth for me, all you remember is holding a precious baby, not too much about the birth. Instinctually, our brains do that stuff so we will have another, or at least not hold a little grudge against those cute little boogers for the year of bloated pregnancies and hours of hard labor. heehee. I told myself I can do this A/C thing, I did it before, it wasn't that bad. I was wrong. It is awful. And the second the chemo nurse started pushing the A into my port this morning, I remembered how bad it was. I wanted to get up unplug myself and run away. It all came back to me. My body was telling me to get the heck out of Dodge. I just kept telling myself I can do it. Praying 'Do not be terrified...' Just gotta make it through one more round. I will be okay.

Sooo...that's enough about sucky chemo. It's really more productive to focus on the blessings and the things I'm grateful for, but in continuing with discussion of my habit of giving health advice, I needed to give you a little taste (or loss of taste or medicine taste like I get) of a piece of my journey over this last 6 months that's not all bubblegum and rainbows and cute pics of our kid.

So, not only do I not ever want all of you who I love so much to ever ever ever have to go through anything like this. There's also a little bit of selfishness in it too. The treatment decisions that my family has made for me have always been with consideration of the big picture...best long term prognosis (be here to bombard you with pics of our kid for a long long time)...but with all of the curve balls we have been tossed, the truth is, we have had to focus on more immediate concerns (get my hiney cancer free RIGHT NOW!). We are WINNING THE DAY over here. And that is where we started :)

We made a decision to continue on with a medication that may shave a few years off my life because of the side effects it can have, maybe won't affect me at all. It was a risk we are willing to take to win the day. With that said, I am probably going to be thinking about this decision for the rest of my life on top of the possibility that cancer can pop back up along my path, this is our reality. Even when I wrap up with my current treatment plan, this will always and forever be a part of our lives. I will be sharing my 2 cents with you on health and wellness topics because I need every dang one of you to be the best and most healthy you that you can possibly be. It will take every single one of you amazing people to create the phenomenal mom that I am in the event that I need a fill in for my incredible little guy Austin. haha. kidding, kind of kidding, okay maybe not kidding at all!!  (a wife for J will be easier shoes to fill! haha. and now that he has dishes and laundry down...I'm really working myself out of a job here and he's becoming more and more desirable!!!)

Do I think I'm going to be croaking anytime soon? absolutely not. I visualize myself taking Austin to kindergarten (and staying outside his classroom doors until he graduates high school!) all the darn time. haha. I even joked with Jonathon that I might not have time to go back to work outside of the home when Austin goes to college because he might need an on call designated driver and definitely someone to make grain free cookies for him and his friends!! Poor kid has no chance of getting rid of me. But, having a constant reminder that our time here on earth is limited (for all of you folks too!), when I get through these 2 rounds of A/C and then radiation, I'm really not going to have the time that you all have put in with me to take care of you half as well as you have done...sorry to be rude, but there are a lot of really fun things out there that I would rather be doing. I'm tired of this sucky cancer business and research shows that there are A LOT of simple things that we can do to decrease the risks of this happening to you.

I'm going to focus on a few easy things for now:
-Drink less alcohol
-Lose weight
-Get more active
-Eat real food

I think this is a pretty good start. I'm not posting details on studies that have been published. It's all googleable :) I won't go into the ones on toxicity of deoderant and effects of bras for now! Then I'll really lose ya!

Just pick one, make a goal and do the dang thing. These things are way easier than fighting cancer. I promise. And you'll feel amazing.

I love you all sooo much. Praying that you are along side me for a long long time getting into a lot of fun and maybe a little bit of trouble WINNING THE DANG DAY!

Jenn