08/06/2026
Very vulnerable post/ breast cancer update incoming 🎀🩷
I am officially halfway through chemo! I just completed 4/4 rounds of my first treatment which was AC chemo, street name: the red devil. I am SO insanely proud of my body and how it has carried me through this first set of my treatment. I was finally shown all my lab work yesterday at my appointment and my oncology team was truly amazed by my blood work. I had no dips in any of my numbers across the board during each of my chemo sessions. They told me the most common dips are white blood cell counts and iron levels and mine were at or very close to my healthy baseline before I even started chemo! To say I feel very proud and strong is an understatement! My main symptoms have been mostly fatigue, headaches and then some joint and muscle pain from my growth factor shot that I get after each chemo session. I have only experienced some slight nausea and of course the most difficult side effect I’ve had to process is my hair loss. The AC’s job was to basically kill all the new cells and work to start shrinking my tumor and 3 lymph nodes that showed active cancer. I am so happy to report that I physically can feel my tumor has shrunk as well as my lymph nodes so I am very happy about that! I will get an updated ultrasound sometime over the next two weeks to get updated measurements to see where exactly the tumor size is at!
In two and a half weeks I will begin my second chemo treatment of Taxotere. Taxotere’s job is to basically come in and clean up any remaining cancer cells to hopefully eliminate them! I will do 4 rounds of this and get 1 round every 3 weeks! My hopeful last day of chemo treatment is October 28 so I just continue to ask for prayer that my body handles this next medication just as well and that we get to stay on track to that beautiful, final chemo date! After chemo, I will meet with my surgeon and be referred to a radiation oncologist to see if any radiation is needed. While it is my prayer that chemo and surgery alone will remove the cancer completely, obviously I will keep fighting through whatever is needed to make sure I have the best chance of this never returning.
Here’s the vulnerable side of things. Cancer has changed me.. a lot. It has deepened my faith and my pure desire to be close to God in a way I never imagined was possible. I CRAVE the word of God and a nearness to Him that I’ve never felt before. It’s made me the most insecure, yet somehow the most empowered version of myself. The same body that I feel let me down when I found out I had cancer is the same body that has carried me through this journey so far. My beautiful, long hair. If you know me, odds are you’ve probably complimented my hair at some point 😂 so that stung and still does at times. There have been moments it’s been really hard to look at my own reflection in the mirror. It’s been hard going out in public and never wanting to be looked at as the “sick girl”. I look at myself in the first picture and sometimes I don’t even recognize her. She was making strides in her health journey without a care in the world before she heard the words Breast Cancer. Now here we are with the girl in the next picture, she’s so strong and I’m so proud of her, but I don’t totally recognize her yet either.
Cancer has reaffirmed that setting and keeping boundaries IS OK if it’s for my peace and the safety of my family. I have had to change so much of what I thought my identity was and redefine who I am and that’s something that I still work on everyday. But at the end of it all, if I still get to show up as daughter of Christ, wife, mom, daughter, friend, grand daughter, niece etc. then I will continue to fight like hell to get to the other side of this.
We just continue to thank each and every one of you who has supported us through this, whether it be in prayer, meals, financially, sweet treats, random gestures to brighten my day and any of the other ways we have continued to experience community come together to love on us.. THANK YOU! More than anything we will just continue to ask for prayer! We know we serve a God who is still in the business of healing and miracles and is the ultimate physician! I continue to just eagerly await the day where my testimony is used for the good of the Lord!
We wanted to give such a special shout out to Kailynn Mitchell with Mitchell’s Petting Zoo & Exotics and Randy Arp with Sweetwater Sno Biz for putting together the Pink out the Petting Zoo fundraiser for us as well as IRON PIG BBQ for being part of the night for us! Truly we have no words to express our gratitude! It is a night that will live in my heart for the rest of my night! Thank you to all of the local businesses and our friends that donated raffle prizes for the night and to everyone who came out to support us!
And of course a HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to our last Dough Boy & Java Girl fundraising event! We were blown away by our lines and the generosity yall showed us! There is just not enough words to express how grateful we are for the love yall have shown us and the financial support we have received!
