Some Like it Hot....Me Not!

It's been a long time, I know. I've been, and still am away on vacation, and in the weeks preceding, I was busy mainly trying to get myself vacation ready. This not only included the obvious working out at the gym as much as possible with the addition of hot yoga to become bikini ready, but putting myself back together again.

Since the start of chemo, I was unable and unwilling to visit any spas, and thus let myself go a bit for awhile. The reason for this was to reduce the chance of getting an infection of any kind since my immune system was compromised, a risk that I could easily avoid. So here I was the week preceding vacation, in between my Dr. Visits (which were many) and my hercepton treatment, I was treating myself to a long overdue facial, pedicure, and manicure. I was also able to become more involved in some of my kid's activities finally, having not only the energy to do so, I also no longer needed to be concerned about exposing myself to pathogens. It was a busy couple of weeks leading up to vacation, by the time the kids were in bed every night, so was I!

I've been fortunate to get lost the last couple of weeks in the life of being patient free,
imagine that! I haven't thought about much but the day I have in front of me, which has been nothing less than heaven! Having said that, the one constant reminder that this journey I'm on is far from over is brought forth due to one of the more long-lasting side effects of the chemo I've been dealing with. Peri-menopause symptoms. Namely hot flashes and night sweats, ugh!

For over a month now, I wake no less than six times throughout the night wishing there was a fire hose available to extinguish the fire. While most people would be thrilled at the prospect of escaping the long, cold, albeit forgiving Winnipeg winter we have had, I found myself in the Turks and Caicos dreaming of a nice big white snow bank to throw myself into as the steam escapes the fireball I've burst into. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled myself to
escape the winter blues, at least there was the pool or the ocean water during the daytime to cool myself off. The ceiling fan at night was also a life saver! I'm going to need to install one in my room at home immediately! Part of the problem was that I was unwilling to remove my wig until the last day of our vacation when I finally said f@ck it, and removed CeCe (purely because I could no longer tolerate the heat). I was finally able to submerge my head in the water, oh what a relief that was! I just had to make sure that I applied enough sunscreen to
my head that has never seen the sun, especially while para-sailing with Kyan 800 feet up in the air! Needless to say, while I enjoyed escaping to a caribbean paradise, I was very much looking forward to the next half of our vacation, skiing at Big White. More to my temperature liking. Hot flashes while skiing are much more tolerable! Without a ceiling fan here to help control the fire, I'm sure my family is less than appreciative of the temperature within the chalet as they could just as easily grab a sleeping bag and tent and sleep outside. There is
no curling up by the fire here...I am the fire! Just curl up with me, I'm all the heat you need. Warning though, I may not be able to tolerate the added body heat myself, and may spontaneously combust!

The vacation is winding down now, only two more days of skiing remain. It has been great to not feel like a patient for even just a short time. Come Monday, I will be returning to the life of a full-time patient. I will begin my first of 25 radiation treatments in the morning,
every day for 5 1/2 weeks, followed by my next hercepton treatment in the afternoon, with 15 more of those to go every 3 weeks. I'm extremely grateful for my Angel Lisa, who has taken on the challenge of organizing a personal escort service for all my upcoming radiation treatments, dr. appointments and hercepton treatments. This will certainly make the next phase of my journey more tolerable as I look forward to what will come with this service... Lunches, coffees, drinks ;), time spent with my lovely friends and Angels! Thank you to all of you who have selflessly offered your time to do this for me, I know how busy all of your lives are, you are nothing less than wonderful to do this for me. If there are any more volunteers out there, there are still some times available, just let me know if you're interested!

Well, enough of thinking about what lies ahead, it will be here before I know it. I've taken enough time away from my family in updating this blog during our vacation, so I will head back out to the slopes now before I get hit by another flash!

Thanks for checking back in. I will be updating again more often when my life as a patient resumes.

PS. I'm still hot, only now it comes in flashes!

Jill xo