The road to recovery has been a long haul and one that has changed life as I knew it significantly. Whatever the future brings to me is unknown but I am thankful that I have had a hand in the fight, I am still here and for the very fact I am improving every day.
A lot of time has passed since I last wrote so this is as good a time as any to jump back in.
I’ll give you a brief synopsis of what transpired since beginning my journey. But, however brief I say it was, it was anything but and a lifetime of change.
The last post I made was just as things were coming together in my care plan. Surgery had not yet taken place.
In July of 2023 after many diagnostic tests I had a Lumpectomy for Her2 Triple Negative Breast Cancer. This was an aggressive form of cancer formed in the ducts of the breast and not affected by hormones.
The surgery went well as did the recovery time with one minor blood clot.
I was lucky enough in the timing that I was able to carry forward with my Sylvan Circle Tour 2023 Show with the help of Pat – my husband, because I delayed the start of my chemo by one week. I did however, have to cancel my Canadian Heritage Bushplane Holiday Gift & Craft Show 2023 for safety reasons while I was receiving treatment.
The plan was to have four rounds of chemo on a three week cycle followed by sixteen rounds of radiation shortly afterwards.
No matter how well they educate and train you, you are never really prepared. There was a table full of pre chemo drugs as well as having to learn to give myself injections.
At chemo cycle one I was vigilant and attended hospital via ambulance as I was expected to do after spiking a fever with severe back pain. Initial thoughts were that I contracted pneumonia after a shadow showed on my lung in a scan. The coarse of action in these cases is to hit you up with 5 days of every kind of antibiotic possible, both by intravenous and by mouth. Needless to say the entire 5 days was spent in hospital and I went home with more antibiotics to take by mouth.
That cycle came to completion and I moved on to cycle two. The hair loss began and was total by the time I received cycle three.
For each cycle there were just a few days of feeling off once I had treatment. However the combination of the large doses of antibiotics and the chemo set the wheels in motion for the sequence of events soon to follow.
Five days after receiving chemo cycle three I spiked another fever with no symptoms. This time they could not find anything and asked me if I was ok to watch for symptoms from home or did I want to go through another round of antibiotics. I chose to wait it out at home.
The fever dissipated and two days later I began to have diarrhea. Protocols stated a specific coarse of action, which I followed but unfortunately got much worse. By the time I got to hospital, again by ambulance, I had full blown c-Difficile.
While they worked to stabilize me things progressively got worse and I was taken to the operating room through the night. As a result the majority of my large intestine was removed and replaced by an ileostomy and catastrophic kidney failure occurred.
I was kept in the Intensive Care Unit on life support for two and a half weeks where I was dialyzed multiple times. The support of multiple doctors on a daily basis was necessary and much appreciated.
From ICU I was moved to a unit where I spent another month being dialyzed, learning how to care for myself and also learning how to eat, walk and do the basics all over.
Pat was with me every step of the way, encouraging me and helping me rehab. After dodging multiple infections, Covid and infection control issues I set the goal to be home before Christmas. One of my physicians refused to discharge me – expecting me to wait for a rehab bed, but the other heard my case when I successfully made it.
On December 21, 2023 I returned home barely able to make the 5 steps in. With assistive devices in place I rehabbed further under the care of Pat and a visiting nurse only to learn 2 weeks later I had contracted another of the super bugs.
Times were tough then and will never be forgotten because they shaped me to who I am today.
I continued to progress slowly working towards moving up and down stairs with the help of Pat spotting behind me, and a railing on each side. Most people would not be so lucky. I had a set goal and date in mind due to the fact I needed to be able to freely navigate stairs multiple days to be ready for my 16 radiation treatments.
Radiation treatments pretty much happened daily and consecutively save the weekends. I was on a very rigid schedule in addition to the norm for radiation patients. Those treatments needed to be in before the radiation bunker was closed down for many months for rebuild. My doctors worked to delay them to the absolute last to allow me time to heal. The alternative would have been to travel to Sudbury.
The treatments were tiring which meant more napping throughout the day. Signs of healing continually appeared as I worked at getting stronger.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma was diagnosed shortly after a growth rapidly grew on my neck. After much deliberation it was removed and I am monitored on a regular basis with full skin checks. It also means a new regimented norm for enjoying the great outdoors – SPF 70 sunscreen, a wide brimmed hat, sunglasses and full body cover are the new requirement and in addition I choose carefully when I am out.
With uncertainty along the way because of severely reduced kidney function, finally in August 2024, some ten months after emergency surgery (what seemed a lifetime) I received reversal surgery for the ostomy in addition to the repair of the hernia it produced. Again a game changer, with progress and strength rapidly picking up daily.
As strength, hand eye coordination and conditioning improved I worked at accomplishing several projects and goals of which I will highlight some in future posts.
All in all 2024 ended on a much better note than 2023 but it wasn’t without a lot of work and dedication.
The memories are painful to look back on, the PTSD apparent, but beginning to fade. I’m thankful for my husband Pat, my family and friends who checked in on me regularly and gave me encouragement or picked me up and brought me on outings when I was unable to drive. I’m looking forward to more healing and progress ahead.
It’s time for me to move on to more progress and positive healing while putting these last two years behind me.
