Happy Birthday Michelle !!!!

Well I know it's a little early but I wanted to make sure Michelle saw this when she got up in the morning.

I cannot believe she is going to be "41" tomorrow! It's been a whole year already and I just got my song down pat today for her :)

Michelle just called me that Jeff cut her hair and she wanted me to share it with everyone, does she not look CUTE OR WHAT! I am very impressed with Jeff's work and think she looks adorable!




Today was #2 of 8 chemotherapies which she will be having, so for those of you who are counting down with is "6 TO GO"!!.

Today was a little bit hard for Michelle as they couldn't get the line into the port. After 2 jabs at her, the nurse realized she needed a longer needle. Needless to say Michelle started to sweat and they had to track down the 1.5 incher! As usual she stayed composed in between her moments .. BUT there was an elderly man that took her mind off everything. He was to cute!

This man was there the 1st time we went, and he always looked sad and alone .. well today the nurse came by his seat and asked I am thinking if he wanted his chair reclined, so when she pushed on it to get it to go, he looked like he was on a ride going up and down and he was just SMILING AND BEAMING -- it was so cute! I was ready to go and take a picture of him .. he looked so happy!

So back to Michelle ;)

We were just under an hour later starting and by the time we were done she was still doing good .. I think the key was this time I took her to eat before we went. This really made a difference in addition, it says with the meds to eat first (ALTHOUGH NO ONE TOLD US).

Oh yeah .. did I mention they lost her paperwork from the 1st session? So it started off rough but she did great.

On the way home we went to get Shayne, stopped at the Mc D's for the kids then dropped Mich off and said hello then to dinner with folks for a quick bite.


Thats a wrap!


Michelle:
Shayne and I want to wish you the best of the best birthdays .. and I am so proud and honored to have you as my BIGGEST sister! Keep up the GREAT work and know after this you can do ANYTHING!

We love you and hope 41 is the year of all good things!


Nite Nite.

Luv-
Barby and Shayne


PS The gurls wanted to wish you a happy birthday to so here they are!

The early birthday :)

It is now sunday night and i must say i have been quite busy the past few days. On thursday we celebrated thanksgiving at our place with my parents, sisters and shayne and i must say jeff really outdid himself in the cooking department...it was totally YUMMMMMY and i even had the tastebuds to go along with it.

Friday was a somewhat boring day as the kids and i hung out while jeff went into the office but they had a good day (who wouldnt have a good day...being out of school). Saturday night we had the babysitter and we went with my family to the blue moon fish company for a pre birthday dinner and it was quite delicious and they even ordered me a dessert which i must say i was surprised but thats another story on its own. I think we all had a nice time and am glad we did it.

Today i went back to the wig lady and got my wig, barby and shayne met me there. I must say that i wore it home and jordana didnt notice the difference, justin said "nice hair" and jeff said it looked pretty good. The funniest part is that after i took it off i put a headband on and nobody even noticed that i had taken the wig off...so it must really look ok :) Then this afternoon i took the kids to see the santa clause 3 which they loved and it had some really funny parts so overall it was a good day. Tonite we met barby and shayne (thanks you thank you)for dinner and then came home to just chill.

Tomorrow i am going into the office (yay) and am hoping i will be there all week until i have my chemo session again (thursday) and then i will work from home, but like i have said before it will be 2 down 6 to go so keep on coounting.

Anyway going to go catch up on some tv so i will chat soon.

luv,
Mich

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well here we are at November 23, 2006 already! Can you beleive it.

Happy THANKSGIVING everyone .. and we all know we have alot to be thankful for this year.

With that said, tonight the Slovens, Rapaports and Pilpels will all be having dinner together at Michelle's. Jeff is the SUPERB cook and takes care of everything as far as the cooking.

Now we cannot forget our SOUS CHEF Michelle, MINI SOUS CHEF Justin and last but definitely not least the MINI MINI SOUS CHEF Jordana!

Today is one of those lazy days where everyone gets to chill and we look forward to tonight to being with everyone.

Michelle is starting to feel less tired and doing great .. she even says her taste is coming back as some items were tasting yucky (YEAH MICH!!).

So from all of us to you hope you have a great one!



Luv-

The Wig Event

Well it was sunday morning around 10ish when barby and shayne came to take me over to the festival flea market for my big WIG outing so off we went. Upon arrival we had to find where we were going and once there barby and i scoped out the joint. We found 3 tht were kinda my style and waited for our rep to help us. I musttell you that it is not the most fun experience as they put a tocking on your head to hold down your hair and i must say it felt like my brain was beginning to crumble. After getting over that she let me try on a few wigs which were pretty close to the hair color i have now (reddish/brown) and the style was also semi close. For those of you that know the type of hair jeff normally has one of the wigs was like that (very bushy) so they were going to thin it out. I also picked out some do-rags which i think i will end up wearing most of the time. So we go back again next sunday for another fitting and then i believe that should be it. Aferwards we went and had a little something to eat and then they dropped me off at home - so in the grand scheme of things i would say the day was fairly successful.

Later in the afternoon jeff and the kids and i went to bjs to do a little shopping, the exercise factor worked very well for me so i was very happy. After this we came home and just kinda hung out.

Anyway nothing else to report.

Later,
Mich

The day after the day after

Well i must admit that the first day after chemo was not as bad as i though but the 2nd day after chemo was a little rougher. Luckily they gave me great meds so nausea and vomiting (thank g-d) weren't an issue but the fatigue now that is something else. I woke up yesterday feeling kinda blue for no inane reason but as the day wore on i just kept getting more tired until i had to go lay down and of course i fell asleep for 3 hours.

Barby and my parents came over to visit but i think i ducked out on them but thanks for stopping by :)

Jordana had her scrapbooking party yesterday afternoon and she didnt return till 6:30pm and then jef and i took her out for dinner to roadhouse, as she won an achievement certificate so she wanted to go there. Dinner went well and afterwards we went to get justin from his buddy joshs.

Well now its sunday morning and i must say i feel pretty ok but i will check in later to see if it remains that way.

More later.....

The Morning after

Well it is now 8am and i have been up for an hour and i have to say i feel pretty good. I got the kids ready for school and my girlfirend annamaria picked them up for me (thanks) and then i popped 2 pills and honestly i feel pretty ok. I will keep changing todays post as the day goes on but as of right now i feel ok and am going to go back to bed and get a little sleep.

More later......

So here it is almost 8pm and i have to tell you i feel pretty good. I actually ended up sleeping most of the morning (till noon to be exact) then i got up made some eggs and toast then waited for my parents to come take me to the drs for my neulastin shot. Now i will tell yoou the shot wasnt as bad as i first thought but it is still a shot but alright i will get over it. Then they brought me home and i have been chilling since. The kids had judaica class then karate and then justin is over at his buddy josh's for the nite and jordana is ata brownie event. Jeff took me out for soemthing to eat and now i am going to take my meds and probably hit the hay as i am a little tired.

Anyway again thanks to all of you for everything and to my colleague diana the bear is a big hit!!!!

Love to all,
Mich

So after all the bullshit....i had my first chemo treatment

Well hello everyone,

Today was quite an interesting day, first the chemo was off as we were still waiting for the insurance to life some pre-exclusion clause which they finally did at 12:00pm and after that everything happened very quickly. We had to call my parents to go to my place to pick up my anti-nausea pills and they had to meet us at the dr's office by 1pm so it was a little rush rush. Once we saw them and i got my pills i took one and then hung out with barby waiting till we were called in. Then i got called in (barby had to wait in the lobby) and they took a finger prick so they can get my cbc (which btw was all normal) then my blood pressure and then he waved to barby to come join us. We then went into the transfusion room which for those who have never been to a center like thi, its a room filled with chairs and more chairs. We picked out seats in the corner and then we waited....and waited and then Nurse Karen came over and the fun began. For starters she felt the port and said it was very nice....then she swabbed me with 2 types if cleansers and then she jabbed me (it did hurt!) and then she proceeded to try and draw blood but as the port has never been used it was a little tough so she was going to try it at the end of the treatment. She proceeded to put up various bags that contained various meds (saline, adavan, and the chemo meds themselves) i must say in the grand scheme of things it wasnt so so bad (besides the jab thing) and then at the end she was explaining all sorts of things to me andd gave me some more reading material and then we booked our next session and made our way home.

Did i mention they had food there?? Well they did but we didnt eat any as we came with our own stash! (we are the sloven sisters - we never go anywhere empty handed)

I must say thank you to barby for coming with me she was great company, to my parents for being around for all this chaos and even if i dont say thanks all the time i just want you to know it is greatly appreciated :). To shayne thanks for picking up my meds and stuff. To Jeff......what can i say....you are my world. To my kids who dont even see this blog they need to know that part of what keeps me going is that i will be there for them and they are always in my heart. To susie you epihanys make me smile. And to all my friends and colleagues thanks to all of you for being there and helping me to smile.

So now that treatment 1 is over i only have 7 more to go!!!!!!!

I am going to write again over the weekend to keep everyone abreast of whats going on with me.

Later,
xoxo
mich

Chemo on hold ..

First off thank you to everyone continuing to check on Michelle and sending your warm wishes. As always very appreciative.

Unfortunately doesn't look like chemo will be starting tomorrow as we are still having insurance issues .. thank g-d its not urgent but is a necessity and I will continue yelling and fighting til this happens.

Did I tell you I HATE PEOPLE and most of all INSURANCE COMPANIES :(

Well I will keep everyone posted as to the start date and as always thank you!

Oh yeah and the patient is holding up well considering this not needed stress.


Barby

I'm Back !

Hi Guys,

Well it's been a while since I have posted (or so I have been told within the last few days!!) so I thought I would take a few minutes to send a quick update.

Well besides being DUPPED with my haircut (yes Michelle .. that would be towards you!) we cannot complain.

Michelle's spirits are great and as always I am truly in awe of her, and I am not just saying that.

Michelle as everyone knows is to start chemo on Thursday, and unfortunately the usual hay-shmay with insurance is on the brain for all of us right now but we hope to have everything rectified before then so keep your fingers crossed!

Even with all that going on, Michelle is back in the office and looks great! It feels weird to see her after these few weeks out and all she wants to do is work! Go figure :)

Mom and I got back from Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon and we all had dinner, it was nice to catch up with her and hear how her doctors appointments went (I felt terrible I couldn't be there for them last Tuesday) and they went VERY WELL as you all saw.

Well I am leaving work now but Michelle know how very very proud I am of you and continue to marvel at your strength throughout all of this. You truly are my HERO!

I love you!
Barby

Busy couple of days

Well i know its been a while so let me tell you whats been going on:

Monday - i went back to work for a few hours and i must say the welcomes back from all my colleagues was wonderful - i felt truly missed!!! I stayed for almost 5 hours and got some stuff accomplished but have quite a bit waiting for me upon my grand return (i can hardly wait - i mean it!!) so it will be great. I also want to say thanks to Bonnie for the yummy cookie - the kids and jeff loved it :)

Tuesday: i went to dr. tranakas this morning for another follow-up appointment and it went real well. He removed (ouch) the remmaining steri-strips and gave me the official "it looks great and i dont want too see yoou for 6 months! He also gave me my pathology results which he said if i had to get a certain type this was the type to get (although NO type would be the best answer but i will take it). After this jeff and i went for breakfast and then came home for a while before we set out to the oncologist.

Our appointment was for 1:30pm but in true jeff fashion we got lost first so we made it on time. Once in there we didnt have to wait to long and then they called me in and took my vitals and my weight (ugh) and then told me to go sit outside and wait. So after waiting a little bit they called me in and we both went in and waited for the dr. She came in with her assistant and proceeded to check my war wounds and listen to my lungs and declared i was looking great and we could begin chemo sooner than later (depending on yoour personality type you can take this either way). I asked a bunch of questions which she answered and then she told me to get my anti-nausea meds and make sure i take them 30 minutes before i start and reminded me to get fitted for a wig (hmmmmm - o the variety to have to go pick and choose) and remember to eat (not a problem). for those of you who want to know they tested 4 nodes all of which came back negative, clean margins and the type is ER+/PR+/HR-.
So upon leaving her office i felt pretty good and told her i would see her next week (16th). The one thing she did tell me is that on day 2 or day 3 to be prepared for that i will feel like crap, not so much from nausea but from fatigue, this is part of the reason i chose to do my sessions on a thursday so i can havethe weekend to recoop. The only down fall is that the way the sessions fall (once evry 2 weeks) is that this year wont be a very happy birthday but i intend to celebrate 2wice as hard next year :)

After leaving the ofice we went and got the kids and then proceeded to (surprise) cheerleading (the absolute final final event is friday nite)for practice. Once we finished we did a quick walmart run and came home.

Well thats it for now hopefully it answers everything but if i have forgotten anything just let me know and i will answer it or update this blog.

Nite,
Mich

I can't believe its November

Today is sunday the 5th of november and i have been home from the hospital for 2 weeks. I must say that i feel 110% better today than i did when i first came home and life here at the rapaport home is definately back to normal. Yesterday Jordana had her Allstar game so we were at the field from 8:30 - 12:30 but lucky for us the weather was windy and cool so it wasnt bad at all. Once we finished there we met friends for lunch and then headed home. Jordana had a brownie outing last night so she was gone from 3:15pm - 8:30 when we picked her up, she stunk like fire and was so wound up it was really quite cute. Jeff and i dropped her girfriend off then took her home and the we went out so you all know i had a good nights sleep. Justin in the midst of all this had a sleepover at his buddys house and was less than thrilled to come home because that meant CLEAN UP and he hates that - o well! Today we all slept in and just took it easy, i answred various emails did some work on the computer and am preparing everybodys stuff for tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow i am going back to work - yepp its true. My mom is going to pick me up and drive me there for around 11:30 or so and i am going to sit at my desk and see everyone for the first time in 3 weeks, i am very excited and can hardly wait! But the rest of the week i am going to work from home as i still get tired in the later part of the afternoon (i wonder if this is a sign of whats to come in my aging years ;) I am hoping to return on a regular basis the following monday so i think its all good.

Tuesday i have 2 dr appointments which i will update once they happen and other than that not to much to report (without being real boring). Anyway kids are fighting (big surprise) so i need to go seperate them.

Till Tuesday.
xoxo
mich