Pictures of My First Round of Chemo

I am ready for chemo! The numbing cream is on my port area and I am anxious to get going!

These two ladies are the wonderful nurses that helped me through my first round. They were a God send; so nice, so patient, so amazing. In this picture they are spraying a freeze spray (a.k.a. nurse Ethyl) on my port site before they stick it for the first time. Don't I look deceivingly happy about the impending stick. :)

I've been stuck with the special needle for the first time.

This is a close up. Isn't the nice red blood a good color next to the yellow needle "top" and blue shirt?!

Thanks Claire Strayer for the wonderful, soft blanket. It was so comforting, and I loved having it with me for my first round.

This is one of the types of chemo I have. I think it's interesting that the bags of chemo say to handle with gloves, yet it's ok to put it inside of me. Interesting, no?

This is a front view of one of my lovely nurses, and a picture of the fantastic machine that regulate the flow of chemo.

This is a front view of Beth, another of the wonderful nurses that helped me.

This type of chemo was given to me by hand. Beth injected the liquid into the tubes slowly, and it was so cool to watch the clear liquid go dark red, then light red, the dark red again whenever she gave a little push. You can kind-of see the transformation in this picture.

Port Surgery Photos

 This is the room at IU North that I stayed in.

This is a look at the fancy room I stayed in. There was a TV, a toilet, and a desk plus it was very roomy. It was very nice!

A lovely nurse looking for a vein to put my IV in. She tried in this spot first, but, thanks to my lovely veins, it didn't work. She had to take it out and move on to another spot.

This is me all hooked up! I have my heart monitor on my finger and the IV in my forearm. She used an ultra sound to find this spot. 

 This is the doctor who performed the port placement. He was very nice, and he likes the bears!

 This is what the port looks like. The white "tail" is what goes into the vein, and the larger triangle part is what most people can see and feel.

 This is the needle that works with the port. The skinny, short, white tube is covering the needle.

This is me post surgery. I got to ride a wheel chair out to the car. It was my third wheel chair ride ever.

This is what my chest looked like a couple hours after the surgery. They used a glue over the incision cut and you can tell it started to bruise right away.

Pictures of the Tests I Needed Right After My Diagnosis

 This is me laying in a hospital bed in the ER at IU North after almost passing out from a blood draw. This is after they used an artery for the draw and had to wrap my arm up really tight. If you look hard you can see the blood on the bed, and you can see that my forearm is much darker than the top of my arm. 

 This is my fish friend! He likes to look at me and smiles nicely for the camera. He lives in a tank in the corner of the waiting room in the IU Central Indiana Cancer Center (where I get my chemo). I like to sit next to him while I wait. This is a picture from the first time I met him. It was when I for my PET/CT scan. I now try to sit by my friend every time I'm there. :)

This is my excited-for-a-PET/CT-scan face. We got to right up a lift to get into the trailer that held the PET/CT scan machine.

They told me I was temporarily radioactive and that I shouldn't stand around little kids or babies. This is  what happens when you tell your tech savvy father that information...he creates a picture like this. 

This is me getting an ultra sound of my heart!

This is me getting my lungs tested. I had to do a series of breathing tests into this tube.

Excision Biopsy Pictures

My neck before surgery.

 I'm all ready for surgery. I have my IV in my hand, two gowns on, hair net in, and a smile on my face!

 Post surgery! This was taken right before I left, so I am dressed and the IV has been taken out. I got a nice ice bag to help the swelling.

 These were the two lovely bracelets that I got to wear. The red allergy one is because of my allergy to  -cillins (such as amoxicillin).

 This is how my neck looked, with the dressing over the excision site, for two weeks after the surgery.

This is after the bandage came off. The scar isn't too bad!

Building Pictures

Building where I got my needle Biopsy done.

This is the IU North building where Dr. Morgan works most of the time. This is the Hospital where I went to the ER on Labor Day.

This is where I go for Chemotherapy on Thursday's, where Dr. Morgan works on Thursday's, and where I got my PET/CT scan.

Chemo...or so I thought

Thursday Sept. 12--Chemo Day ?

Today was to be my 2nd round of chemo, but after drawing blood, my levels were not good.  When I went for my blood draw last Friday, my counts were in the normal range.  When I say "counts", this means the number of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and hemoglobin.  Today, my white blood cell count was 0.2 and it needed to be at least 1.0. (Last Friday it was 1.9)  Because it was too low, I was unable to have my chemo today. They gave me a nupogen shot to boost my body's production of white blood cells. I have to go for another shot tomorrow, and then hopefully I will have chemo on Monday. This means I will miss school Monday and Tuesday because I will most likely sleep all day Tuesday; although, Dr. Morgan said if I come to the clinic on that day, they will give me IV fluids which will help me to fell better and have more energy. The "up-side" is that I will feel good this weekend and will NOT miss my high school's photo of the senior class tomorrow morning.

Bailey came to chemo today bringing me a "jar of encouragement" (cool gift.) Since I didn't have it, I'm able to spend time with her and not be sleeping all afternoon and evening.  She is able to come sit with me at my chemo treatment on Monday. I'm very happy she is able to do this!  Thanks Miss Sue for dinner tonight...even without the chemo, we didn't get home until almost 3 p.m.  Also, thank you, Miss Sue, for the purple feathers to clip into my hair.  Thanks grandma for my purple heart necklace and Mrs. Townsend for 4 beautiful purple hats that you knitted for me. Thanks Brandon for making t-shirts for us. Finally, thanks to the Anderson University for the wrist bands and "spa day" gift for me and my mom.

Sept 2 to Sept 11

Monday, Labor Day
The day started off fine and I planned on going to dinner with my friends, but my cough that I started having over the weekend started getting worse. I felt like I really had to cough--all the time. So by late afternoon, mom and I went to the ER per the doctor's request on the phone.  We went to IU North Hospital's ER. On the way there, I decided to drop a couple of classes at school to make it easier on me.  So now I go 1 1/2 days giving me the morning off every other day. I also started thinking about quitting my job at Dairy Queen.
When we got to the ER, they gave me a yellow mask to wear, per my mother's request. I looked silly. They took me back pretty quickly, though. They listened to my heart and lungs, drew blood, did an EKG and a CT scan to see if I had a blood clot in my lungs and to make sure I was not breathing too shallow.  Everything was fine, so they just gave me a prescription for a cough suppressant. We didn't get home until after 10 p.m.

Tuesday through Friday
I had some stomach pains up until Thursday afternoon but went to school all week.  I felt good enough to go see marching band on Thursday night and a football game Friday night.  I was pretty tired through the week, but started getting more energy back on Friday.

Saturday
I decided to quit my job at DQ and went to work for the last time. I was worn out after working and started thinking about my schedule.  With chemo, I could only work every other weekend. I felt like quitting the job would also give me some free time when I was feeling better in order to spend more time with my friends and not be working on these weekends when I am feeling good.

Sunday
I was happy to go out to eat with my friends today.  It was nice to focus on friends and not think about how I'm feeling physically. I won a Tim Timmons CD at church Sunday night by participating in karaoke.

Monday through Wednesday
Went to school and felt like I had a lot of energy--back to my old self.