I have always had a strong brain. I am not the smartest person you will meet but I will claim that I always have known how to make things work. How to deal with hard times in life. How to do good things and work hard. How to make my life the way I want it. I also know that I have definitely been guilty of showing some crazy sometimes! I giggled as I wrote that because I love my CRAZY!

Well now, my brain is messed up. The craniotomy that I received a couple of weeks ago went well. An amazing neurosurgeon- who I just can’t compliment enough- did an amazing job. They removed the largest tumor on the left side of my brain. Oddly enough there was not a lot of pain after the surgery. The main issue after surgery was a lot of pressure on the side of my head where they had cut. I was in the PACU (patient after care unit) until about midnight after my surgery being watched by an amazing nurse. After I was moved to my room on the 10th floor, I met my roommate-a woman who was waiting to have an extremely large tumor removed from her brain. A funny thing happened to us in our room on Wednesday…….our bathroom started overflowing from all water spots- sink, shower and toilet. Our room filled with water and we had to be moved quickly b/c there were inches of water in the room. Looking back it was kind of funny that this happened. We were then upgraded to a room on the 15th floor with a beautiful view. I was then released on Thursday and made my way home. For one week, I spent most of my time in bed b/c I was exhausted. I have a PT come a couple times a week to work on my strength since my legs and feet are feeling pretty weak right now. I am trying to spend more time out of bed but in all honesty, I am still very tired all of the time.

Even though I had the largest tumor removed I have now been told that I have 6 other tumors in my brain. The largest one is about 2.6 cm big and is on the right side of my brain. It is not operable right now so I will be starting brain radiation in the next week or so and they will be radiating all six tumors in hopes of clearing my brain from this cancer. I am actually starting a radiology clinical trial and will be receiving (hopefully receiving b/c some are picked to receive the med and some receive a placebo) a medicine that will be mixed with the MRI contrast and it will attach to my tumors and start shrinking them and then the radiation will zap them all as well. After radiation is done, I will start on my new chemo therapy- Enhurtu. Hopefully that medicine works for me and keeps the cancer in my liver, lungs and bones stable.

This whole journey is crazy. I am scared, shook up and exhausted from this cancer journey. I thank everyone who has been there for us and so many that helped us out and were so generous with us in so many ways. As sad as it is, seeing all of this love and support brings me so much peace. Peace for myself but more importantly, I feel peace and strength in the support that Trevor, Quinn and Colin will receive when this cancer takes me away from them.

Last year I did not do the Jimmy Fund walk b/c I was given less than a year to live a couple of weeks before the walk and I just wasn’t in the mood to do it. This year I am thankful for my friend Sarah who made the team and is organizing the walk in Somerset. I am also thankful for my friend Jen who is helping Sarah with all of the details! The walk will happen at SBRHS on October 1st. I am hoping that I am well enough to attend and can see everyone. We have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Jimmy Fund over the past 7 years and the money raised is so important. The trials and experiments at DFCI are amazing and I have been involved in so many. If you would like to join the walk or donate, please visit http://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/site/TR?px=1003251&pg=personal&fr_id=2000.

I hope this post makes sense……..got a little dizzy while typing. I am working with a messed up brain!!! 🙂