The Pink Ladies

I didn't get a chance to post these pictures before my surgery. Above are some of the ladies at Maple Hill Church of Christ who wore pink for my support.



These are the ladies who bought pink hair extensions to wear in their hair.

A special Thanks to Danielle Pruitt who put a list together of prayers for me throughout the day of the surgery. She had people sign up for every 15 minutes from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening. Each person stopped what they were doing and prayed for me. How amazing are these friends of mine.

I will never be able to do half of what they have done for me. Everyone has been so kind and I thank my God for every thing that they have done for me.

³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy (Philippians 1:3-4)

Home

It is the Saturday after my surgery and I am finally home after a two night stay at the hospital. I doing well. I am still sore. I feel like I have bricks on my chest. It is very difficult to get comfortable because lying on my side is hard because of my drains. Thank goodness for pain medicines.

Thursday morning, we arrived at the hospital at 5:00 in the morning. We waited for about 30 minutes and then we were sent to the Surgery Waiting room. We waited another 30 minutes and then I was taken back to start getting ready for surgery. They gave me a Valium and that was very nice to have. I had to go down to radiology so they could inject a the radioactive dye for the Sentinal Node testing. I had to wait there for over an hour because they did not have my films from my mammogram. I was there by myself with a room full of magazines from 2007. It was freezing in that waiting room and the nurse told me that she would leave me there because it was warmer there then the room that I was going have the procedure done. She was right because when I got there, I was shivering. The dye was horrible. The injection was not the problem, it was the dye itself. It stung and made me pass out.

After that, they took me back upstairs for surgery. I got to spend a few minutes with Kevin, my parents and my brother. Daddy prayed and then they left. They knocked me out and the next thing I knew I was waking up. I seriously did not think, we had gone but they told me that I was done and everything had gone smoothly. That is such a strange feeling. One second I went to sleep and three hours later, I was awake and did not feel a thing.

They wheeled me to a room where my family was. Kevin was all smiles because there were NO LYMPH NODES involved and they felt like they got all the cancer out. That was the news that I wanted to hear. I pretty much slept the rest of the day. I know Marty, my older brother came by and I was asleep. Anita Keith and Tammy Robertson came along with my mother-in-law and I was asleep. I was given morphine through my IV line that night and sometime before morning, I started taking pain pills and was able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom.

Kevin was absolutely was the best husband in the world. He slept on the uncomfortable cot in the room beside me and everytime I need help moving. He was right there. I really can't express in words what he has done for me and how patient he has been through this whole process.

I decided, I wanted to stay one more night in the hospital till I got pain more under controlled and I was able to understand everything I needed to do to take care of myself at home. My dad came by that morning and brought Faith with him. John Derrick had gotten sick that morning so he stayed at home. I was so happy to see Faith and she seemed so relieved to see me. She was all smiles and she looked beautiful. she stayed for a little while and Kevin took her home while my dad stayed with me while I pretty much slept.

I had several visitors on Friday. Thank you to Stuart Simpson, Jamie Nicholson, Danielle Pruitt, Kolleen Mangrum, Tammy Robertson and her boys and Wayne Miller for coming by. I was still half awake but it was nice that they took time out of their day to visit.

That night Anita Keith came and stayed with me so Kevin could sleep at home in his bed. She was wonderful. She kept me up for a while (and if you know Anita, you know that she has gift for conversation) She brought me fruit and a milkshake which was good because I had no appetite all day. She slept on the hard cot next to me and helped me if I needed any help. She stayed Saturday till Kevin was able to get back. She even washed my hair for me. The nurse gave us a hair washing cap. The cap was warmed and put on my head and Anita massaged it and it washed and conditioned and rinse my hair. Although not perfect, it made my head feel a lot better.

I was able to leave about 1:00 this afternoon. It was a long sleepy ride home. The kids have been at my parents celebrating Josie's 1st birthday. They are still there. I miss them but this has given me some quiet time at home to get somewhat comfortable.

So right now, I am just uncomfortable. I was finally able to eat something so I am not hungry. The drains under my arm itch really bad and I can not take a real shower until they come out sometime next week.

I will say one last thing. Prayer is such a powerful thing. I know God answers prayers and He has answered all the prayers that were lifted on my behalf. I still cannot express in words how amazing God is. Without God, I could not have done this and I hope that I can others understand how powerful God is so can have the peace that comes from him. I still have a few more things that I will have to go through and I will have to be conscience about my body because the cancer can come back but God has answered our prayers.

¹³I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him (1 John 5:13-15)

P.S. I hope everyone will excuse my grammatical mistakes. I am just typing what I am thinking and I hope this all makes sense to you.
Thank you

Our Night Together

The wonderful ladies at Maple Hill's Mother Day Out Program along with the parents of my precious two year olds put together a special night for me and Kevin to enjoy before my surgery this Thursday. We were able to go to Evins Mill Bed and Breakfast in Smithville, TN.

We enjoyed 2 one hours massages when we got there. After the massages, we enjoyed a hors d'oeuvres, followed by a gourmet four-course meal. We had access to the full 40 acres along with the game room in the grist mill. The place was absolutely beautiful. Since it was the middle of the week, we were the only bed and breakfast couple there at the time we got the most wonderful individual attention. (there was some company there on a retreat but they had to spend their time looking at power points presentations) We didn't go hiking to the waterfall because we didn't bring tennis shoes. We did get to enjoy just a quiet time by ourselves. We enjoyed the game room and looking at the beautiful scenary around the mill. The most special part was that Kevin and I got to be together by ourselves and talk and love each other.

Tomorrow is my surgery. I have gone through every emotion possible from being at complete peace to near panic. I am so thankful that I have so many friends who are praying for me. I don't understand how anyone can go through any surgery or illness without God in her life. I know that without God, my life would be a complete mess and would not be able to handle any of these hurdles.

A special thanks to Sandy Hubbard. She is a nurse at Baptist Hospital and although she does not work in the same area that I will be in, she has checked to make sure that I have the best doctors and made sure that those who are taking care of me give me the best possible care.

Also, thank you to Jenny Leech and Tammy Robertson for taking my kids tomorrow so they can have a fun filled day with their friends and will not be sitting at home worrying about me.

WEAR PINK!!

¹³Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective James 5:13-15

A Party, New Hair, and the Beach!

It is getting closer to May 28th. I will freely admit that I am getting anxious, and I just don't want to go through the surgery. I wish this had not happened. I have so many people praying for me right now that I know I can do this, and I know God has something in store for me.

On Monday night, my friends from the Maple Hill Church of Christ had a "farewell" party. We said bye-bye to the cancer and welcome to my new body that I will be getting. Tammy Robertson and Heather Wamble organized the party. Tammy grilled hamburgers and chicken and Heather made a lovely cake. Everyone else brought all the extras and we had a great time. I want to thank all my friends who showed up and those who were not able to make it because of babysitter issues. Thank you to Rachel Gray, Danielle Gray, Amanda McNabb, Amanda Denning, Melissa Simpson, Kolleen Mangrum, Sarah Scoles, Anita Keith, Autumn Roeder, Danielle Pruitt, and Nicole Brashear for coming and having a good laugh. Forgive me if I left out a name.


I also decided to go ahead and get my hair cut before surgery. I decided that I wanted something that didn't take a lot of effort and would look good if I just washed it and went on my way. Since I will be having chemo and had a good chance of losing my hair, I thought it would make it easier on me and my family if I didn't have big long hunks of hair falling out. In planning my haircut, my friends talked me into coloring my hair. So I had it dyed back to blonde and added pink. Tammy Robertson and Danielle Gray came with me and they also dyed their hair pink. Tammy did a strip on the side and Danielle had the whole underside of her hair dyed pink and my hair was CHOPPED off and I had the pink added to the front.
Several others wanted to dye their hair pink but in order to have pink in your hair, you have to BLEACH a spot first so the pink will show up. The pink will wash out but the bleached spot is there until it grows out or you color it. So for those not brave enough to bleach their hair, they got pink hair extensions. I got one for Faith to wear also.
A big THANK YOU To Stephanie at Identity Hair Salon in Hermitage for doing our hair. She was awesome and a lot of fun. She did not charge us for all the work that she did. She said it was her donation to Breast Cancer Awareness. She will have a new client once my hair comes back in.

Finally, we are leaving to go to Fort Walton Beach this Friday. We have a condo on the beach waiting for us. We will be there Friday through Monday just to relax and have our vacation now. We are very excited and ready to go (well, except I still need to pack)

Please keep praying for me. Like I said, I am starting to get anxious and worried. I am ready for this to be over with so I can keep living my life and watch my children grow.

Surgery Info

My surgery is scheduled on Thursday, May 28 at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, TN. The surgery starts at 9:00 in the morning. At 7:00, I will have a dye injected to see if the lymph nodes are involved. I get to be at the hospital at the early hour at 5:00 a.m. (yuck). I don't know how long I will be at the hospital.

Romans 15:13

When I was setting up this blog, I wanted to put a verse from the Bible as the description. When I first found the lump, I was extremely scared. All the waiting that I had to do did not help much. I was a nervous wreck just waiting. I told myself to get over it, and I turned to God's Word for help. I wanted to find peace and remind myself that God would give me peace. So I found Philippians 4:6-7,

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I clung to that verse, praying that God would just take care of me and give me PEACE! I didn't know what I was going to have go through, but I wanted peace. I found that peace and I calmed down. I was still scared, but I knew that God was giving me peace.

Back to setting up this blog. I was filling in all the different areas, and I came to the blog description. I got my Bible so I could type Philippians 4: 6-7 in correctly and my Bible opened up to Romans 15:13. The verse is one of several verses highlighted on that page. I really like the book of Romans because there are so many verses that Christians need to remember. But that verse is the one that caught my attention and I knew that was the verse I needed for strength during this time.

God does give hope and I trust him to take care of me and my family. He is giving me peace to handle this time in my life. He is giving me joy by giving me such wonderful friends and strangers who are praying for me. I want to overflow with hope so other women who are facing this same disease can have some of mine.

It is May 1st. I turn another year older on May 13th. In 28 days, I will have my surgery and the start of my journey to heal my body.