8th Treatment - July 31, 2008

My day today began with meeting at the church at 7:00 to Kick off our Stake Youth Conference - Go Forward with Faith. We set up chairs, passed out t-shirts, water bottles, snacks and got 150 youth excited for the next three days. After the kick off, I went home and worked on a power point presentation with my dad who was also participating on Friday's part of Youth Conference. I then met my friend Barb Guy at the Jasmine restaurant before my 8th treatment. We had a great lunch and caught up. Many of you know Barb too. She is my friend who has just celebrated her first year of being a breast cancer survivor. It was July 2007 when she went in for her routine mammogram and came out knowing that she was going to have to fight to live. I love Barb. She understands that crappy parts of chemo. We both HATED being bald and having the "cute, short, curly hair." She is also the friend who has organized the wonderful cards that I receive each week. Her husband organized a similar card decorating program to celebrate each week that she made it through another week. If any of you have been to my home recently, you'll find all my homemade cards taped up around my mantel. They mark each week I've made it through another treatment, they make me laugh, they give me strength and courage to do chemo the next week and the next and the next.

Treatment was "light" this week. Every four weeks they give my body a break from the really icky drugs. On my "light" weeks I only have one chemo drug called Herceptin. It has less icky side effects, but can damage my heart. I am given Echo's every 10 weeks to watch the flow of the blood from the left ventricle of my heart. So far so good. I am especially grateful for the "light" week this week. I knew it was the only way I would be able to attend and participate in Youth Conference, especially the one day Trek at This is the Place State Park.