I realized I hadn't updated this thread in quite some time. A lot has happened.
Back in mid december, Ron and I sat Sheri down and talked to her at some length about her decisions and the reason for them. She was defensive, combative, all the things we expected but we persisted. Finally she broke down and basically confessed to being scared out of her wits and having no clue what to do. She was getting so much input from different sources and she just was in an agony of indecision. We told her listen to the medical professionals and ignore everyone else, including us!! That there were specialists who've been doing this for years and they are the folks who she should be putting her trust in.
She started down that road the next day and hasn't looked back. She's had numerous tests, biopsies, scans, and began chemo a month ago. The plan is that she will have a course of 6 chemo treatments, then she'll have a radical mastectomy, then more chemo and radiation after that. She went for her second treatment Monday.
She's working as much as she can, though the first 3 days after treatment she's useless. But she drags herself to work most days and works as much as she can. She will randomly have to take a quick break to throw up. She'll get scattered and lose momentum then her Dad just tells her to pack it up and go home, and pays her for a full day anyway. I'm making her all kinds of different food depending on her preferences and physical condition.
She gets big sores in her mouth, her stomach cramps, she gets nauseous, her taste buds make different things taste weird, etc., and I'm just trying to pump her full of nutritious high protein high energy foods that she can keep down. We've paid for a month of tuition at the Montessori school her kids go to, helped her friend start a GoFundMe page, added a Meal Train, Ron's dealing with her horse (feeding and cleaning out the stall) when she just physically isn't able to get there.
Her boyfriend, sister, Dad, Mom, me, friend...one of us goes with her to every appointment so she's not alone. Her Mom is still sounding off about various alternative treatments but Sheri isn't listening any more, thankfully. I've talked to her about attending a support group for cancer patients, getting therapy, and she's looking into that.
Her Dad and I are SO relieved that she's finally tackling all this head on, and is a fighter!! She just keeps pushing through no matter what. Ron is of course worried sick still, but greatly relieved that she's finally on track. Pushes her to come to work and how much she's needed though it kills him to do so, but he realizes that it won't help her to just wallow around in misery at home if she's physically capable of doing something. He's right, and she's very responsive, but still that's his kid so it's hard for him. I get it.
The latest hurdle that happened over the past couple of weeks is that her hair started to fall out. It hit her harder than she thought it would, and she had a couple rough days. Then she just accepted it, and decided that she wasn't going to wait as her hair fell out in handfuls, and grabbed the clippers and shaved it all off, and felt so much more powerful and in control as a result!! Good for her!
The area you can see on her chest just below her collarbone is the port they inserted under her skin in order to make the administration of the chemo drugs easier.
It's a long road she still has to travel. The good news is that the cancer has shrunk a little from the first chemo treatment, so we're hopeful that the trend will continue! Send her lots of good mojo will you?
