I know y’all have been dying for an update, so here we go!

First, let me address the elephant in the room … yes, my mom is bald. I shaved her head on Saturday. I SHAVED HER HEAD. I still can’t believe that happened. More on that later…

Round One of Kryptonite

Round one is down, and mom is on the mend! Just in time for round 2 this Friday. 🙂 She’s ready for this! We’re hoping she’ll feel okay for Sadie’s wedding next week. She leaves for Mexico next Wednesday, so she’ll probably rest a lot in the hotel until the wedding on Saturday. Luckily, my aunt Kate is on the same flight with her and will be sharing a room in Mexico, so she can keep an eye on her. 🙂

The main symptoms she had from the last round have been extreme fatigue, extreme bone aches, nausea, upset stomach, and terrible taste buds/lack of appetite. Dr. Juvvadi has given her some meds to help with a lot of that. She’s also going to decrease mom’s dose of Neulasta for round 2. If you remember the wearable injector mom got after chemo last time, Neulasta is the drug inside of it that tells her bone marrow to make white blood cells. Mom’s lab work showed that her bones made A TON of white blood cells after the injection, telling Dr. Juvvadi they should scale back the dose. A normal person’s white blood cell count is about 11,000. Mom’s was 48,000! She was in so much pain for several days. It was miserable for her. Her bones were working hard to pump out an insane amount of white blood cells. She’s looking forward to having less pain for the second round. Dr. Juvvadi also gave her stronger pain meds just in case she needs it in Mexico.

IT’S WORKING!

Within a few days after chemo, mom started noticing both her breast tumor and lymph node lumps seemed to be noticeably smaller. When we went in for the follow up appointment with the oncologist one week after the first treatment, Dr. Juvvadi felt mom’s breast tumor and lymph node and right away started talking about how it felt smaller. When I asked if that was a good sign, Dr. Juvvadi said, “That is a great sign!” She was clearly very pleased with mom’s progress. Now, just weeks after the first treatment, we can barely even find the lymph node, and y’all, it was huge before treatment. When she raised her arm, you could actually see it. It was 4 cm and was very pronounced. Now I can’t even see it! This is a great indicator of progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you can’t tell, I’m so excited about this!!!!!!!!!!!! We’re hoping the tumors will all be smaller in 6.5 weeks when they do scans again.

What We’ve Been Up To

Mom’s coworkers did the Susan G Koman Race for the Cure and made a donation in her honor. They invited me to do it with them, and my mom’s parents came too! My grandmother is a survivor of stage 3 breast cancer. She was diagnosed 6 years ago and fought like a champ. It was so fun being able to be there to honor her victory and my mom’s fight. I love these brave ladies!

Mom’s sweet coworkers

Me, Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa – Grandma and Grandpa are both cancer survivors!

So back to mom being bald. Okay, she’s not really bald. She has a buzz cut and is going bald. I’m not sure if that’s better. Either way, she looks beautiful. I’d share a picture of her without a wig, but she would kill me. But trust me, she looks beautiful bald.

We had plans to meet some of her friends for brunch on Saturday. After mom got out of the shower, she went to brush through her hair, and so much of it was coming out that it matted into a ball and the end of her hair. It was impossible to salvage, so we just decided it was time to shave it. We went out on the patio, and it was time to cut. I knew this moment was coming, but I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to do it when it came. I really didn’t want to do it, but I also wanted to be the one to do it all at the same time. I was so surprised by her attitude as I cut her hair short and then began to shave her head. My mom didn’t hesitate. She didn’t cry. Actually, she laughed the whole time as her hair collected in a pile on the ground. She said she was glad her hair was falling out because it means these drugs are “bad ass” and the cancer cells must be “riding the struggle bus” right now.

What scared me the most about shaving mom’s head was that she’d look sick. I thought that now she’d look like a cancer patient, and I didn’t want to see her that way. I was afraid to see her that way. After I shaved her whole head and went to look at her, she looked up at me and smiled, and what I saw was unexpected. She didn’t look sick as I had anticipated. She looked strong and fearless and brave. It was just another affirmation to me that she can handle this. And then she threw on her wig, and we went to brunch. She is amazing.

At brunch with friends right after shaving her head!

Mom has a hat with hair attached to it. Every time I look over at her, she’s wearing it in a new position, and it is hilarious. My personal favorite is when she wears the hat to the side!

We Can Do Hard Things

My friend got mom a bracelet that has this phrase engraved on it, “I can do hard things.”

Fighting cancer is hard. It’s hard physically and emotionally. It is exhausting on so many levels for the patient, and it also takes a toll on the caregivers and loved ones. It is all so hard, but we can do hard things. Better yet, we are made to do hard things. We are created in the image of a wonderful God who has given us all of the resources we need to do hard things. Mom can do this.

Mom and her “I can do hard things.” bracelet

Mom wanted me to tell y’all that she’s doing great. She said she has better hair and has lost weight, so things are going pretty well! I’ll post another update after round 2 on Friday. And I still have a funny post in the works!

Love y’all,

Sydnie