Life's Journey

I have some exciting news to share about our next great adventure! But first, let's talk about poop! (c'mon you laughed at that one)

Really - poop! This is a natural bodily function that you totally take for granted until you can't do it! Holy hell! It's been an awful 10 days! It started when I noticed that I wasn't going. Yup, I now keep track of all that stuff. By day 4 I was getting concerned. Let me explain that I'm taking a lot of various pain meds - these all cause constipation. I'm also on a new chemo, Doxil, which, you, you guessed it, causes constipation. The odds were against me here. So I started taking more miralax and doculace (laxatives) to try to help. I mentioned that we have a big adventure coming up which I'll tll you about later but this meant I had a timeline I had to get things moving before this trip! On day 6 my tummy was distended, swollen, and painful and still no movement. Seriously, this is not fun at all! I started loading up on more laxatives: milk of magnesium, magnesium citrate, miralax, suppositories, and dulcolax. Finally on day 10 I decided to deal with the pain and stop the pain meds to see if that would get the appropriate muscles doing what they do again. While I was in a great deal of pain - and I do mean GREAT - I finally got things moving. Ok, let me set the scene for you. I slept til 10:30 which all of you who know me well know that this is WAY out of character for me. I sat on the toilet, in my pjs, with my hair in sleep mode, til my legs feel asleep - literally. I cried in pain and broke out into multiple sweats. (btw - this is super funny now but not so funny at the time) Then I realized when I stood up that my legs were both dead asleep and walking was nearly impossible… so, I went straight back to bed. Slept for a couple hours and repeated the process. I also threw down some more laxatives at this point because while things were starting to move it was not pleasant. Back to bed again. Phew this was a repeat process all day. And, here comes the super gross (yet funny) part - I lost 1.9 lbs that day! EW! SO GROSS! As you can imagine the talk of the house was all about poop! I've never discussed poop as much as I have this past week - with my family, my doctors, my nurses, my husband, my dog it's just inappropriate how much conversation happened around my poop! My nurse is now calling me "poopy pants" (although I am proud to say I did not, I repeat, did not, poop my pants!). LMAO. Needless to say it's been a rough few days. Please do not take your poop for granted.

One more thing before I get to our adventure - let's talk about disability. I'm officially on my leave of absence from work at this point and on disability. There are so many people that I wasn't able to reach out to before leaving and I feel bad about that. I've been at CBRE for 13 years and have many dear friends there, it was impossible to reach out to everyone - that's what started this blog years ago. It's been hard for me to not work. I worked hard to get to my position at CBRE and I was a professional for so many years it was so hard to walk away. I miss it every day. This is one of those things that you think would be awesome - no more working, time to just focus on me and the things I love - but the reality is that I enjoyed my job and I miss it. I have no real responsibility now except my health. I must admit that my health is a full time job at this point. Between the meds, the doctor appointments, lab work, managing side effects, treatments, and just feeling crummy I don't have time for much else. So, to all my co-workers, friends, and peers I thank you. Each of you have had an impact in my life and I appreciate you. I have received some very kind emails from some of you telling stories of how I have impacted your life and I treasure these emails they mean so much. It is nice to know that I've helped so many of you out there. I guess I just want you all to know that you have done the same for me!

Ok, on to the adventure. When we received the scan results that things were not looking good and I was entering into super scary chemo, Roy and I decided to take a closer look at what's left on the bucket list. We picked the Mediterranean cruise as our next adventure! I wiped out the bucket list fund for this one - totally worth it. So I again must give a huge THANK YOU to everyone that contributed to the fund: http://www.gofundme.com/1ikg9g?utm_campaign=Emails&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email I've been picking away at it on each of my bucket list adventures and this one for sure cleaned out the funds.

We are leaving next Monday! It was kind of a last minute deal and booking. I talked to Dr. B about it when we were discussing treatment plans and he emphatically said "we need to make this happen for you!". I'm so lucky to have such an amazing medical team that have taken the time to get to know me and to care. So we made it happen and booked it! We are SO EXCITED! Here's where we are going:

Day 1 - Venice

Day 2 - Leave Venice, at sea

Day 3 - At sea

Day 4 - Athens, Greece

Day 5 - Ephesus, Turkey

Day 6 - Istanbul, Turkey

Day 7 - Mykonos, Greece

Day 8 - At sea

Day 9 - Naples, Italy

Day 10 - Rome, Italy

Day 11 - Florence/Pisa, Italy

Day 12 - Provence, France

Day 13 - Barcelona, Spain

I mean, it doesn't get better than this! This is for sure a bucket list trip! We are spending an extra night in Barcelona so we can enjoy the sights. I also decided that based on how crappy I've been feeling to take advantage of the bucket list funds and go first class. I worked a deal with the cruise line and upgraded to the Owner's Suite. What?!?!? Yup! I went for it. I decided to treat myself and honestly there are some big benefits that will really help me out on this trip. Things like full menu room service - so after a long day exploring Rome I'm going to be totally exhausted and know that I will not want to get dressed for dinner, with this room we have a full menu and can eat in our room (or on our balcony) and it's all included. The room also comes with unlimited bottled water, sparkling water, and sodas - this will be huge for me. There are many other benefits but I feel like I'll save that for my posts after the trip :).

Since we will be traveling internationally I will be out of contact for the next few weeks. So, I’m signing off for now, but be sure to check back to hear all about our amazing adventure!

Again, thank you thank you thank you all! Without you, your help, your contributions, and your support none of this could have happened. I can't begin to tell you how appreciative I am!

Sending hugs and smiles

Sarah