Day 16

I left off on thursday, where I had my heart scan, and breathing tests. On Friday i had my bone marrow procedure. If I could find a word to describe the amount of pain I was in during that frustrating procedure, I assure you I would. The pain level I had should under no circumstances be legalized, haha. They took 2 tubes of blood, and I warned her that they had taken it the day before, but sadly that didn't matter to her.. She still sucked the life out of my little vains. The sweet woman who did the procedure lent me her iphone, and showed me this chimes app. she had. It was a cute pond with fish & plants, and then when you touched the pond with your finger, you could hear beautiful chimes, and the fish followed the ripples in the pond. The chimes were in all sorts of pitches, and were just so soothing. Growing up my dad had a HUGE obsession with chimes(wood, metal, you name it), and since then the sound of them just makes me feel so comforted and happy. That was pretty much my only form of happy during this whole ordeal. They told me multiple times that since I'm "so skinny", that they could get in, take the bone marrow & chip of bone out, and be done with It. Apparently I have strong bones, and It was a frustrating day in Dr. Reynolds Office. After they numbed me by sticking a few shots of lidocaine in my hip bone with a rather sharp needle(I'm pretty sure that's the only way they come), I was somewhat relieved that I would be numbed in the general area. The drawing of the bone marrow felt as if they were yanking out my hip bone, but I'm pretty sure they weren't. ;) They also got a chip of my bone itself, and not going to lie, that was such an intense pain. My sweet husband held my finger on the pond, and moved it around so I could still hear the chimes. At that point I couldn't really do it myself due to stress, so he sat there with his typical sweet smile, and calmed me down. He happened to look up when a rod was sticking out of my back, poor sweetheart, but he's a toughie. He walked if off. Now, on with the good! After leaving the office, I went to see my wonderful sister Jessica. She had made me a bed on her couch, so we just watched a movie, talked, and hung out for the rest of the day. :) My precious grand parents brought over food for Jake and I, and that was SUCH a blessing, so I hope someday they read this and know just how much I love and appreciate everything they've done for us! If you know them, you know how incredible they are. Alright, so there's a little tiny gap here for you to just imagine yourself, because I can't remember for the life of me what happened on saturday. I think I just hung around the house all day, waiting for my hubby to get home. Clearly that day doesn't hold too much importance. ;) After resting up the first half of Sunday, My sweet sister-in-law picked me up and took me back to her moms house, where her entire family had a BBQ, and just hung out. I definitely enjoyed spending time with all of them-- I truly love them so much! Between Kim's macaroni, and that delicious carrot cake, my tummy was as happy as could be. On monday morning Jake and I went to the beach with the Medina family, Erin & Cari Ware, and my sister-in-law & her 2 beautiful boys(Who all thankfully JUST got in town, and will be here for an entire week!!). I turned my phone on silent, ignored all phone calls, and just enjoyed my time with some of the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful people I know! After a day of perfect weather, and just an amazing time, we left around 6, and stopped for some frozen gold. I then looked at my phone, and saw I had about 6 missed phone calls, 4 voicemail's, and about 7 texts. A few of the calls were from doctors, which I'd been dreading. I called them back and found out I start chemotherapy on wednesday, only a day after getting my port put in; Yuck. Today Jake, Kristin, and I got up crazy early for my surgery to have my port for chemo put in. We arrived at 5:40, and I was taken in around 6:30. Thank you so much you two for being so patient and hanging out through all of the not so fun stuff. I love you both SO much! I had to change into a beautiful purple hospital gown for the 2nd time, I put on the awesome purple socks I was dying to get another pair of(They're SO cute!), and I laid down waiting for the nurse to come in with her band-aids and needles. She poked and fished around twice in my right hand, because I'm so bruised up in my arms, that hands are the best entry option at this point. On accident she poked straight through my vain twice, and that wasn't exactly the most pleasant surprise. 1 throbbing right hand later, she moved to the left hand. The nurse fished around and thankfully after about 10 minutes, she successfully had the IV in my left hand and we were good to go. The surgery all together went just fine, minus them having problems with my IV. They really drugged me up this time.. The previous surgery(for my neck), called for anesthesia, but I threw up for hours afterwards, so this time the anesthesiologist decided to make the dose a lot heavier. It was REALLY difficult waking up, and gave me a little head ache, but around 4:00 I was functioning much better and didn't throw up once! I am so blessed!! Tomorrow I go in for Chemotherapy at 9:00. Sadly, my sweet hubby will be at work until about an hour after I get home. Kristin will be picking me up, and sitting with me for a long 4-5 hours. Though chemo Is painfully long, I'm so excited to just spend time with people I love. By the way, I'm kidnapping you Kristin-- Sorry Greg. :) I'll let everyone know how it goes, but probably not for a few days. This note was probably the longest, but a few bigger things have happened that I needed to write down, so that's a good excuse, right? Please be praying, because though I can't imagine things getting even harder from here, this is truly where the journey and battle begins. Here we go! Love you guys.. Thank you for all of the love and support; I'll never stop being thankful for everyone who has been there for me even in these first 2 weeks. I'm so in love with God and his continual blessings each day! It's amazing how at peace I've been the past 16 days. No one but Him could do such beautiful miracles in my life. I freak out here and there, and have a few cries when the days get hard, but God has without a doubt been holding both my husband and I each and every day. We are beyond blessed.

With Love,

   Brittany Mae <3