Skip to main content

Ring the bell! Amanda is finished chemo!

Amanda Simpson rings the bell at the 11VIC Long Chemo nursing desk, signaling the end of her chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer. Yay, Amanda!
Done!

The third treatment in the seventh round of chemotherapy is OVER and that means Amanda is done her chemo treatment. Yay! She shook off the benadryl sleepiness and got up to ring the bell at the nurses' station, bringing on a round of applause from the nurses and patients in the Long Room.

Now she's in for a final round of side-effects: we're not expecting to see much of her on Friday and Saturday as she'll probably be stuck in bed with no energy and general misery.

Her hair's already starting to come back. She's lost a lot of weight from not eating. (Yes to Boost juice-boxes, no to the chalky creamy Boost and Ensure in bottles.) Her mood seems to be improving.

A few weeks from now she'll return to hospital for one more surgery, this time to remove the implanted port that was supposed to be used for intraperitoneal chemotherapy before something was botched, sending poison into her surrounding tissues.

Then it's on to recovery and learning to live as a cancer survivor instead of a cancer patient.

Not sure how we're going to do that, but this was supposed to be the hard part.

For now, it's a big milestone toward having this thing beaten. We hope it's gone forever.
Labels:

Comments

  1. ToniOctober 16, 2013 at 2:15 PM

    Congrats!!! This is amazing news!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JustaplainsamOctober 16, 2013 at 6:08 PM

    Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  3. CatherineOctober 17, 2013 at 12:24 PM

    I hope it's gone forever and totally wiped out. I hope Amanda rests well and recovers from the treatment soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 21, 2013 at 2:39 PM

    Hi there! I was actually just checking out a few of your posts and wanted to say congrats on getting through the third treatment! I'm glad to see that she has a great support system and wish her the best with her new role as a cancer survivor. I had a quick question about your blog. I was hoping you could email me back when you get the chance -emilywalsh688 (at) gmail.com- Thanks!

    Emmy

    ReplyDelete
  5. TheMuppetsRuleOctober 22, 2013 at 8:52 AM

    Thrilled that you have both reached this milestone. So many reasons to fight. You remain in my thoughts and in my prayers for complete eradication of the cancer and a long, happy life as a survivor!

    ReplyDelete
  6. mum or carolOctober 22, 2013 at 9:48 AM

    congrats on getting to this point. my partner went thru similar for stage 3 stomach and esophageal.chemo-surgery-more chemo. whole thing went from sept'12 to early july'13. CT was clear in late sept. was a tough road as you know. we wish you the best.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HeidiOctober 25, 2013 at 5:40 PM

    So happy to hear that Amanda is finished with chemo! That's is amazing that her hair is already beginning to grow back! I was treated with Taxol and Carboplatin for my ovarian cancer and my hair didn't start to come back for a good two months after my last chemo. Best wishes for a complete recovery. Please keep us posted on how she is doing. Heidi

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownNovember 1, 2013 at 4:54 PM

    This is truly a milestone worthy to be celebrated! Congratulation Scott & Amanda. May your road to recovery be just as much a milestone as the process it was to get there. I continue to pray that God will be with you all and may He pour out His blessings as you are all worthy to be blessed!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Today was my last day at work, and I'm okay with that

Today marks a weird spot on the calendar for me. It’s one of those landmarks that really doesn’t mean anything, other than to illustrate the weirdness of time and how we feel it. As of today, my son Gordon has been without his mother longer than he was with her. The length of time Amanda has been gone is now longer than the length of time we were a family of three. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but that dangblasted calendar tells me it’s almost three years. I have not said a word about it to G, but tonight, for the first time in a long time, he pulled out the Missing Mummy book for bedtime. Today was my last day in broadcasting for a while, as far as I can tell. I spent the past five years as Program Director at Newstalk 1290 CJBK in London, Ontario. And in recent years, I was also the noon-hour show host, afternoon news anchor, a commercial voice guy, TV news promo voice guy, and more. Also in the past five years, I’ve bought a house, endured renovation
1 comment
Read more after this break ....

A request, as we reach two years

Wow, long time no write. I didn't enjoy this past winter. I was certainly in a long slump. Things were very challenging at work. Gordon was awesome, as always, but I was just in a sustained funk from last summer on. And I'm not sure I'm all the way out of it yet. I'm still largely in quiet hermit mode, but have been making progress at resuming social contact. Little dude and I have a very busy summer that will go by in a flash. This Thursday will mark two years since Amanda died. I still replay the events of that night in my head almost every day. I'd like to not. Sometimes it feels like forever ago, but sometimes I'm right there all over again. Hey, can I ask for your help with something? Two years ago, so many wonderful people told me that if there was anything they could do to help .... Well, I don't ask often. And I should've asked more. And I should ask more even now. I'm still not comfortable asking. But I'm asking for this. I put
3 comments
Read more after this break ....

Hard to believe it's been a year - but it has

One year ago today, we lost Amanda. Time plays tricks on all of us. We can think "that was so long ago" at the same time as "it feels like yesterday." I run into this all the time with Amanda's death. Yes, it feels like just yesterday, or last night, or later today, that Amanda collapsed in the kitchen and died after that long, brutal battle with ovarian cancer. But every day has ticked by at a pace like any other, and it's been a whole year of those days, with incremental and sometimes revolutionary change. As I move about our home, it's hard to fathom that she's been gone a whole year. Amanda's garden awakens, early Spring 2017. Many of the decorative items she carefully arranged throughout the house are in the exact same place as the last time she touched them. She had the vision, not me, so I've been reluctant to disturb her decisions on what looks good and works. In other places, I'm reminded that it's been at least
4 comments
Read more after this break ....