daughterslove's Cancer Blog

Deep breaths…slow deep breaths.
My oldest son was 17 when I found out I had bladder cancer, his sister was 14 and the baby was 11. They were scared, so was I. So we hugged and we cried, then we got up and got busy living.

Your mom is a very lucky woman! So are you! You have each other to lean on. You WILL prevail, together. There will be good days and days that could be better and days that require tears and a blanket and fuzzy slippers, but when you look back, you will realize that each of those days was and is precious.

Come here when you need a “hug”, bring mom, get a cup of coffee and read about all of these wonderful survivors. Look at the pictures of them laughing and loving and crying. Read about the vibrant lives they are leading in the face of this evil disease and know that you will write your story and your hopes and your dreams. You will come here and blog your fears and joys, the good and the bad, and that someone else will come here at the darkest moment of their life and find hope and peace and encouragement.

I will be praying for you and mom. You are not alone and you and mom will not only survive, you will overcome.

Mac

Posted on May 3, 2008 at 2:44:25 AM by rigidridr

Wow!
You have a lot of courage to be as open as you are being with your posts. This is the best place in the world for us kids of cancer survivors…whatever their stage or level of pain….just keep yourself as healthy as you can and read MAC’s posts/comments when you are feeling down…the man is amazingly supportive and talented with his words. He has become a great friend to my family and we have never met in person. That’s what is so cool about this site. The people here ROCK! Which of course, includes you, your family and especially your mom’s.

With love and support,
Timothy

Posted on May 21, 2008 at 11:56:47 AM by daddylane

Hi Rachel,
Tell your mom to just hang tough. You got to live in the moment. I was lucky that i didn’t get a feeding tube. My doc was against it cause he didn’t want me to lose the swallowing reflex. But i think they decide on a case by case basis. It’s now been almost a month since my last treatment and i am starting to feel almost alive again. Though i am still very tired and the dry mouth is a hassle. I just started eating soft solid foods for about a week now after weeks of living off of Ensure Plus. But my throat still hurts if foods aren’t super soft. Plus my taste buds are a bit out of whack where i have trouble tasting sweet.

The 3 weeks after radiation are the toughest i think. You don’t have the daily radiation to blame or to keep you busy. Just your own daily misery.
You are very young to have to deal with this. it’s not easy but some crazy way God is making you strong. Write or ask anything i can help you with. xo

Posted on July 2, 2008 at 6:17:14 PM by jacquesusa

Hi Rachel,
I didn’t get chemo. But i did have a couple of weeks where i was throwing up all the time. One time i did have to go to the ER cause i was dehydrated. I couldn’t take the nausea pills cause i was throwing them up. So this is what helped.

I got a prescription for Compazine suppositories to fight the nausea. That controlled it enough so i could stop throwing up. Then i would just take baby sips of water every 10-15 min or so.
Also i would take Ativan (lorazipam) to keep calm and basically stayed in bed and fought the urge to throw up when ever it
came up. Usually when i got up i would get nauseous and then throw up. So by staying bed as much as possible and sleeping as much as possible to pass the hours i got out of that throw up reflex. I went for about 3 days almost without eating. Just taking sips of water. But if she really is dehydrated you need to tell the doc and bring her in.
All in all i lost 30lbs. She will do it.
Hang in there.

Posted on July 5, 2008 at 1:02:52 PM by jacquesusa