2nd inning.

9:45 am:  wake up call.... oops I was supposed to wake up at 8:30 am
10 am:  met Jess and walked to the greatest breakfast spot in town:  Sabrina's!
10:30 - 11:30 am:  delicious omelet, french toast, and coffee
12:15 pm:  labs (CBC and chemistry)... unfortunately my white blood cell count, specifically my neutrophils are low "neutropenic" and more susceptible to infection
1 pm:  meeting with Dr. Nasta, my great great oncologist, talked about lab results, side effects, and future appointments
1:30 - 4 pm:  chemo time in my comfy recliner.  Erik took a picture of me... I was tired... IV benadryl is heavy stuff.  Throughout the infusion I rested some and started book 2 of the Hunger Games series... while Erik started on "thank you" cards... he's the best!  Chemo meds A, B, V, and D went in without a hitch.  Now just waiting for them to do their job and do it well.

6:30 pm - ?:  great friends bringing me yummy dinner... then it will be time to curl up with the Hunger Games :)


Tomorrow's plan... back to the cancer center for a neutrophil-stimulating injection to get those numbers up so that I can fight infection as well as I can.  Then just resting through the weekend, seeing friends, and living life.  No other appointments scheduled until April 12th for the 3rd inning.


Oh yea... taking Philly newlywed pictures (since we bypassed the engagement pictures)... possibly on Monday.


Take care friends.


Love,
katy jo 

erik and katy johanson.

We're married!  Everything went so smoothly I can't believe it.  Our adventure began Friday morning as we boarded a train to Randolph, VT from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.  We picked out some beautiful flowers, coffee, and newspapers and settled in for a nearly 10 hour treck through New England.  Our B&B was perfect with the most accommodating owners and a local church that lent us their pastor and an aspiring photographer for Saturday's ceremony.  Below are some of our very favorites from our wedding weekend.

Wonderful, wonderful weekend, full of sweet surprises from friends... cards, flowers, champagne, and a decorated apartment in which to come home, we felt very loved.  Today began a quick work week for me... packing in 30 hours before Thursday's treatment aka:  the 2nd inning.


Take care!


Love,
katy

1st inning.

So unfortunately these treatments will go 3 beyond the traditional 9 innings in baseball... but it's a countdown nonetheless.  Today went pretty well, certainly better than I expected.  I was most nervous about having my port accessed and the threat of nausea, but thankfully these people know what they're doing and preemptively gave me some zofran and benadryl through my IV so I never felt nauseous.  The whole process was quite a bit longer than I imagined.  I knew I was coming in for labs, appointment with my Oncologist, and a 90 minute infusion, but I think we were there almost 5 hours today.  My Oncologist is fantastic, she has such a calm yet strong demeanor and really listens and teaches me too.  I thought that the 90 minute infusion would just be one wham bam combo chemo, but it was actually very different.  First, labs were drawn via my port, then I was given zofran, a test dose of the B in ABVD... followed by benadryl then the A, the rest of B, and V pushed slowly by my nurse, followed by D which ran over 30 minutes.  Really no side effects so far.


I can say that my appetite is quite strong, I think I ate throughout the entire process... candy, fruit roll-ups, pizza, chips, chocolate... man no problems there so far.  Erik was with me today through everything and that made the 5 hours go much more quickly.

About half way through... not too bad :)

These chemo rooms really are nice, some of them have window views, mine didn't today, by maybe next time.  They are all private rooms with a recliner and a TV.  I think TV and movies made me picture a giant room full of sick people all looking pitiful... so this is much better.

My spot

This is my favorite image for today... created by my 12-year-old brother Jack.  He and his mom (my step mom) are on Sanibel Island this week and he was very thoughtful to do this for me:

All shells

Thank you for all the encouraging messages today.  Plans for now include resting and relaxing tomorrow through the weekend, follow-up appointment to check my port on Monday, then possibly work Tuesday-Thursday, and wedding weekend beings Friday.  The 2nd inning begins March 29... same time same place.

Love,

katy

yesterday's news.

So Friday turned out to be quite the day.  Yesterday morning my port was placed, which went relatively well.  Even though nothing was painful, I wish I had been a little more asleep.  Today I'm pretty sore but it's been so much better as the day has progressed.


I thought about taking a picture of the port incision, but it's too frankenstein-like at this point.... so I decided to take a picture like this:

That's right!  "Port day" became "engagement day" and that's so much better.  Erik proposed yesterday evening and we are planning for a quaint private wedding in Randolph, Vermont on March 24, 2012... 2 weeks from today!  Our hope is to be married while I still look and feel like myself and tackle this journey together.  We'll be planning a reception and celebration hopefully next summer when these treatments are behind us and I'm back to myself.  


I don't anticipate any news until after chemo starts March 15... just working and making room for Erik in my shoebox apartment.  Thank you for all the emails and messages, you all are the best.  Talk to you soon.


Love,
katy


P.S.  Our wedding venue:

We're train people :)

beautiful things.

I heard this on Sunday for the first time and can't get over how beautiful these words are:
"You make me new, you are making me new...".  That's what this experience will do, it will make me new and that's a beautiful thing.


My only update is that I have an appointment for my port to be placed, which will be this Friday morning.  This will hopefully prevent so many needle sticks.  Otherwise, all is well.


Thanks friends.


Love,
katy

still having fun.

Hi friends, just wanted to post a few pictures and stories about real life aside from treatments and appointments.

Erik and I in Middleburg, VA, nice weekend away with good friends

Our crew in front of Briar Patch B&B

Sweet Jess trying out the head scarf with me

Amazing friends (Jess, Kristen, and Kristin):  Pazookie, The Help, and head scarves

The day of my biopsy: beautiful Clark Park day with James and Megan

Thanks for all your support!

Love,

katy

welcome.

Hi friends,


I'm hoping that this is a helpful way to keep all of you updated.  As many of you know, I was recently diagnosed with stage IV hodgkin lymphoma and am hoping that 6 months of chemo will be all that it takes to put this behind us.  I have already seen glimpses of how this experience will be used for good and I hope that you see it too.


A little background for those of you that I haven't been able to give great updates to:  Near the end of December I noticed an unusual lump in the lower left area of my abdomen and for about 3 weeks I tried to convince myself that it was something simple that would go away.  In mid January, I met a great family care physician who recommended a CT scan of my abdomen and some basic labs to make sure we weren't missing anything.  The labs came back fine, but the CT scan showed that this lump was a group of enlarged lymph nodes and that it was actually spread throughout my abdomen.  At that time we were differentiating between an infection and a possible lymphoma... so that led to more labs and a biopsy.  The biopsy revealed "classical hodgkin lymphoma with a nodular sclerosis subtype", which was certainly something Dr. Google had to help me understand.  From what I've heard so far "if you have to get cancer... get this one", "it's the most curable", etc, certainly good to hear in the midst of lousy news.  Since these results I've had a PET scan, ECHO, pulmonary function testing, bone MRI, and bone marrow biopsy... and that's where we found the staging.  At this time the lymphoma is believed to be in my abdomen, chest, neck, and likely my lungs and hip bone, but my oncologist assures me that the treatment is the same regardless of this stage... now we just have more to follow to make sure it's all cleared.


I can't say enough about the support I've received so far.  It amazes me everyday.  My mom was able to be in town for my diagnosis and most of my testing so far and as she says she will come back in a moment's notice, and I know the rest of my family would be here tomorrow if I asked them.  I am so grateful to be in Philadelphia, surrounded by the most intentional church community, friends, co-workers, and the love of my life Erik.  Not to mention care from such a progressive university health system that is mere blocks from my apartment.


The plan for now is to start chemo (ABVD for those of you who know chemo) on March 15 for 6 cycles, which equals out to 12 treatments, every other Thursday (24 weeks from start to finish).  No radiation or surgery planned for now.  As many of you know, I have grown up to be quite the baseball fan, and have a love for the Philadelphia Phillies... this is where I found my blog title "one baseball season".  We hope that after one season this will all be behind us.


Thank you all for reading.  I'm planning to take a break from facebook for a while and just stick to updating life here.  For now, I really do feel well aside from an annoying cough (which after a few cycles will hopefully get better)... the hardest thing about all of this will be to willingly undergo a treatment that will take me from feeling well to feeling lousy... but it's not forever.


Love,
katy