Fasten your seatbelts!

Radiation day one is complete!

Liz said it all went well and they have been checking her pacemaker carefully as they decided not to move it.   The pacemaker doctor has said that they will need to check it after each session to make sure that it is working ok.  He believes that it may crack towards the end of the treatment.  Obviously this doesn't fill Liz with overwhelming confidence.

Here is a picture of Liz with her radiation mask:





It looks like an instrument of torture but here's hoping it becomes an instrument of health.

Liz also ran into the glamorous chemo doctor Sally who said that her voice will get worse before it gets better.  Considering that Liz is speaking in a whisper at the moment it seems difficult to understand that it can get worse.  Although I must admit Liz's party trick of being able to get volume if she spoke in a lower register was pretty spectacular!

It seems as though Liz may not lose her hair immediately so that is good news as well BUT she will look beautiful no matter what. 

Liz now has to look forward to about 15 more chest radiations and 14 head radiations over the next 3 or so weeks.  This will of course take a toll on her energy levels and her general wellbeing.  She also needs to keep an eye out on her heart and if the pacemaker stops working for any reason (mainly because it may be damaged by the radiation) she will need to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

So the good news is that the treatment has started and so far so good.  I admire the courage that Liz shows through all of this, I am constantly in awe of her strength and humour and just how damned positive she is!  There is so much to learn off this beautiful person which I'm sure you will all agree with!

Will keep you updated as things continue along this journey.

Peace and happiness
Yvette

It's time....

Some of you may pray,

Some of you may cross your fingers and toes,

Some of you may keep her in your thoughts,

Some of you may send healing vibes,

Some of you may dance around a campfire naked!

Whatever you do, please do it for Liz as she starts her treatment tomorrow.  She starts with radiation on her chest followed by her head.  She does this for the rest of the week and then I believe there will be a review early next week. 

Let's send our prayers, thoughts, healing vibes, best wishes, positivity and of course our love towards Liz as we all wish her the very best on this crappy journey she is on.  Here's a photo of the whole family taken at my house on the weekend:



Peace and Happiness
Yvette

It's not just a husky voice from talking too much

So that everyone is aware, Liz has given me permission to write this up and share it with you all.

By now, you have probably caught up with the news about Liz having a reoccurrence of the Cervical Cancer that she finished treatment for about 18 months ago.

It started just over a month ago now when Liz had a couple of episodes of waking up at night feeling nauseous and then fainting.  She took herself off to the hospital to get it checked out.

They scanned her brain and her heart and found that she had a condition in her heart which required a pacemaker.  They also found a lesion in her brain.

So they put in the pacemaker to help her heart at night and scanned the rest of her body to see if there was cancer anywhere due to her history.  They found cancer in her lungs and identified the lesion in her brain as cancer as well.

If that wasn't scary enough, Liz had some additional symptoms about a week later where she was feeling short of breath and was regurgitating her food.  She mentioned this to her doctor during a routine meeting to discuss the treatment plan. 

What was discovered was a SVCO (goggle it!) and this was affecting her heart.  After some scary talk from the doctor and lots of serious faces they started radiation on her chest straight away.  A week in hospital followed this latest development.  The good news is that the cancer that was affecting her heart responded to the radiation.

The bad news is that the cancer in her lungs seems to have increased in the last couple of weeks.  The treatment plan is for 15 sessions of radiation on her chest and 15 on her head (the chest and head will be radiated on the same day).  After this it will be 15 weeks of chemo.

There is additional worry over the pacemaker being in the way of the radiation on her lungs. So the choice is to either move the pacemaker out of the way or remove it completely for the time being.

So that is a quick summary thus far!  Over the weekend, Liz attended her school reunion and ended up with a hoarse voice on Sunday.  She attributed this to speaking pretty much non-stop for 3 hours in a noisy bar.  However, her voice hasn't recovered.

Today she went to the hospital to have it checked out.  Super hero sister Helen drove her there at 6.30am.  They have found another cancer tumour which is pressing on her voice box which is affecting her vocal chords.  Her left vocal chord is working away as normal but her right vocal chord is not doing anything!  The ENT doctor said he only sees this a couple of times a year.  If you didn't already know that Liz was special then this would prove it to you!

The plan now is for the treatment to start next Tuesday (30th of July).  It starts with radiation over the next 2-3 weeks.  After that the chemo starts.

When the radiation starts on her head, Liz will start to lose her hair.  She is already prepared with a wig and beanie.  I suggested that she maybe could use this as an opportunity to live life as a blonde for a while but she is sticking with the brunette theme!  Guess people will take her more seriously!

Even without the use of one of her vocal chords, it is hard for Liz to update everyone with all the changes.  You can imagine how it can be emotional and also difficult to tell the same thing over and over.  Hopefully this way I can help spread the news and keep everyone updated.  I know that you all are worried about Liz and want to support her.  This is one way in which I hope I can be helpful.  If at any time Liz doesn't want to share something, I will stop.

I hope my next entry will be to celebrate the start of the treatment and then to hear the news that the cancers are getting smaller and smaller.  I apologise to Liz if I have made any mistakes on this!

Peace and happiness.
Yvette