Happy New Year!

The last five months have flown by since my first diagnosis. I can’t believe it is 2009. I hope you all had a great holiday and it was wonderful. Personally, my favorite gift was I am done with chemotherapy as of December 23rd. I was able to enjoy a beautiful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family without major side affects. The picture here shows me with my mother-in-law, and dear friend, Eileen on Christmas morning.

I did not get the migraines this time, thank goodness, but I was physically ill the night/day after Christmas for hours and was in bed for three days. I will spare you any other details and just state I am overjoyed this portion of my treatment is over. I am now in the week where my white blood cell count is extremely low for a week and then it starts climbing back after next week and so will my hair (yippee!).

My next step is radiation, which does not affect my white blood cell count like chemo. Radiation starts two weeks from today, January 12, when my body is strong enough to start. I had my radiation “orientation” today. I will be having 34 radiation treatments, five days a week for seven weeks. It is only a 15-minute treatment but getting there and back is an hour out of the day and somewhat of a pain fitting it into our company’s busiest quarter of the year. All the doctor had to give me were the percentages today of how women with my exact type of cancer go from a 45% chance of cancer returning to a 4% chance of return if they do radiation…so I will try not to complain much on that hour out of my day for two months of my life. As far as getting healthy and strong I still can’t take a lot of my health regiment I was on before starting chemo until after I complete radiation. The doctor today discouraged me from taking antioxidants during radiation because it affects how the radiation kills the cancer. There are several side effects from radiation but I am hopeful and somewhat confident that they are nothing like chemo. One of radiation’s side effects is fatigue but I am not afraid of radiation like I was chemo and I believe I will get stronger and better from here on out. For more information on radiation and what I will be doing see the following website: http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/radiation/

Thank you again to all of my family and friends for your special and beautiful Christmas/Holiday cards and gifts. Thank you also for supporting Keith and me through this crazy journey. God Bless you all and may 2009 be rich in love and health for you and your family. I will try to be better about updating my blog in 2009!

Happy Holidays!

The exciting news is our daughter Amber is pregnant and we are going to be Grandparents in July of 2009! They saw the baby and heart beat yesterday! What a blessing. Reporting on my health, my last chemo I had was December 2nd. It had been three and a half weeks since my last chemo and I was starting to feel stronger. My dear friend Danny Findley came over the night before my third chemo treatment and helped decorate our Christmas tree and get me in the holiday spirit. Besides a wonderful personality, Danny brought some of his classic wigs on loan to me (see pictures). I sported the “Britney” wig look for chemo the following day bringing a few laughs to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center. I felt fairly good the day of and the day after my chemo treatment, all thungs considered. The night of December 4th and morning of December 5th I suffered a migraine headache though that had me physically sick for hours (a new ailment I had never experienced in my life). My doctor sent me to the hospital for a brain scan because these symptoms are not “normal” chemo reactions she stated. The scan showed my brain is fine…well at least cancer free. I still have what I call “chemo brain”. I am on the mend now contributing as much as possible daily towards our company and clients and getting stronger for my last chemo on December 23rd. Several family and friends asked why I don’t wait until after Christmas for my last treatment. I thought long and hard about this and decided I would rather be sick on Christmas day celebrating that I am done with the chemo portion of my treatment instead of anticipating having it the following day. My hope is to build my immune system as fast as possible to get me strong for my last leg of treatment…radiation starting in late January. I anticipate 2009 being a much brighter year in my family’s and my life but I am still witnessing many blessings in my life through all of this. Not only the continued love, support and special gifts from countless family and friends but also it was confirmed this past Friday that my mother is cancer free as of one year. She has been battling bladder cancer for more than two years. On a sad note, our dear friend Megan's father lost his battle with brain cancer. Our heart and prayers go out to Megan and her family. I will continue to encourage all my friends to support the fight against this disease.

I hope all of you have a great holiday season and again, thank you for your continued support and encouragement throughout my journey. I wish you health and happiness in the coming New Year and hope it is prosperous for all of us and that we see an end to these hard economic times for our country. God bless you all.

Happy Thanksgiving Month!

Again, almost two weeks since my last post. I made it through my second chemo treatment on November 7th and the symptoms that follow the first week. Not as bad as the first chemo reaction but I was incredibly tired for a week with flu like symptoms. The chemo is working, my white blood cell count is down form a normal 1500 to 380 as of last Friday and energy is low but I am pushing through it. My biggest worry is not getting sick because it would be hard to fight off infection. A fever of 100 or more would send me to the emergency room they told me so I am some what of a germ freak at this time. On the upside, I am 50% done with the chemo treatments now and continue to see blessings through all of this and I am thankful for many many things in life; especially the love and support I have from my husband, family, friends and my incredible clients that continue to support me through my journey and have patience with me and my team as they work many extra hours helping me with my work load too. Thank you Keith, Erin and Kari for all you do for our company!

My next chemo treatment is December 2nd and my last one is December 23rd. I then take a month off of treatment getting stronger to start radiation for 5 to 7 weeks daily. I will be done with all treatments by March and then I will work on getting my immune system back and stronger than ever!

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving and a safe one. My thoughts and prayers go out to many of my dear friends who are struggling with their own medical challenges or someone in their family that is. To my chemo buddy Percy, hang in their my friend, we will get through this. I treasure our talks during treatment and our daily emails of encouragement. Megan, my heart is with you and your family through this difficult time with your dad's cancer and Donna, you have supported me so much in the last couple months and know that JJ will make it through her journey with flying colors. We are here for you and your family and most importantly so is God. BTC, so glad to hear how great your prognosis is after your scare this past month.

I will end today's post with a couple pictures that make me smile daily when I look at them or think about all that I have to be thankful for. May all of your Thanksgivings be amazing ones filled with love, family and laughter. Thank you for your love, support and kindness in the last few months.

Our dauther Amber and her husband Brandon at their Oct. 10th wedding. One of the best days of Keith's and my life! I am thankful for the joy your marriage has brought to our family!













Our wonderful dauther's Amber, left, and Erin right of me, at Amber's wedding shower. They make our life complete and we love them dearly!














Sister Toddie, Amber's friend Chris who took her casino wedding them very seriously, and mom Betty Buckland. Toddie and mom, thank you for your daily love and wisdom and for listening to me whine when I need to! I love you two so much!

Trick or Treat Update from Freddie

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry it has been a couple weeks since my last update. It was a bit of a tough time with the first chemo treatment. As of the Monday after my first Oct. 17th chemo treatment, I was sick for about 5 days with flu symptoms and stomach pains. I also had a reaction to the chemo and had hives over my entire torso for a week. They are trying to figure out how to control this from happening again before my next November 7th chemo treatment. Nothing that I can't get through....just itchy, ugly and annoying. My hair started falling out on Wednesday, October 29th so we "attacked" and hubby Keith shaved my head on October 30th. Keith offered to shave his head too several times but I won't let him. Above arei a couple pictures of the bootcamp look. The stubbele are falling out fast but not quite in time to be a Saturday Night Live Conehead for Halloween tonight. My white blood count is way down now so with the flu season in full swing I have to avoid crowds and being around germs as much as possible for the next couple months so if you don't see me at events personally know that I am there in spirit.

Thank you again for the outpouring of love that keeps coming in and for all those that walked and supported Breast Cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness month. A couple pictures of some of my supporters below. Thanks cousins Sue and Melissa for walking for me in Miami (cousin Melissa in the picture below with sign)!

Me with a sporty look from yesterday in cap and glasses.

I will write again soon. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Love Freddie

Chemo Has Started But All Is Well

It is Sunday, October 19th and I am finally updating my blog due to a hectic couple weeks. October 17th was my first “chemo cocktail” of taxotere and Cytoxan. At this time I am tired from the experience over the last few days along with the nausea medication but no other major side affects or reactions yet. It has been almost two months since my surgery and the anxiety of waiting for the chemo to start…fearing the unknown…was worse than the last couple days. Chemo was worth waiting for though to see our beautiful daughter Amber, marry her love Brandon Vincent on Friday, October 10th. It was a wonderful day in our life.

I am now 25% through with my chemo treatments. I will have three more treatments every three weeks. The last treatment will be on December 19 if my white blood cell count stays high enough to continue the treatments every three weeks. After chemo, I will begin the 5 to 7 weeks of daily radiation. Keith and my spirits are strong though and we feel God’s presence along with all our friends who are praying for us.

I have cut my hair to attack the hair loss that I am told will happen within 10 to 14 days.
Here I am right before chemo...you will just have to wait and see if you will see further pictures with no hair (smile).

Many of my friends have written me what a strong woman I am. Although I am flattered by this comment, what strength I have I get from my faith in God. Putting on God’s Armor each day gives me the strength I need to fight this battle. Also, the love and support I have from all my family and friends gives me so much courage and hope for my great life ahead as a survivor. I will be a much stronger person because of all this.

Many friends have asked how they can help. Again, I feel more blessed than I ever have ever been in many ways in the past few months due to all your love and support through my Benefit and the words and gifts of kindness you have all shared.

For those that are calling and emailing me to still bless us more with food during my chemo treatments we welcome the support during my treatment weeks but due to my treatments mixed with my candida I am limited on foods I can eat. Basically, I try and eat only organic foods and I need to stay away from alcohol, all sugars, even natural fruit sugar, artificial sweetners, preservatives, most dairy, I eat some cheese...one of my favorite food. Due to the chemo, they want me to eat high protein so we eat organic chicken, turkey, steak, and fish and vegetables mostly. The only pastas and bread I eat right now are made of brown rice. I need to also stay away from fermented sauces such as soy sauce and vinegars. Here are a couple links of recipes we cook from.
http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/4966/recipes/recipes.html; http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Candida-Diet; http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Candida-Diet-Part-III

Now I would like to again thank the family and friends (who include all the sponsors below) who donated to Cabo San Freddie on October 1st. Your generosity, love and donations have been overwhelming and have filled me with joy through this crazy journey and also helped me cover my enormously high insurance deductible for this year! THANK YOU! Cabo San Freddie was The BEST event I have ever been to! Ok, I was the guest of honor and it felt like my birthday but friends call and email me daily still raving about that night. Our industry is awesome how we prove time and again that we come together for each other. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming together for me…all of you. A special thanks again to Danny Findley, Kristin Hutton, Steve and Allison Kinsley and Terri Utecht for spearing this great event.
Here are pictures taken from Cabo San Freddie: www.grantoakes.com/blog/freddie
Below are the sponsors who supported Cabo San Freddie

A Music Plus
Butler Rents
Capital Grille
Catering by Design
Crown Trophy
Dave and Busters
ESPN Zone, Kristin
Fun Productions
Gourmet Fine Catering
Grand Hyatt Denver
Hacienda Colorado
Hard Rock Café:
Image Audio Visual
Images by Grant Oakes
Jay’s Valet
Kevin Taylor Restaurant
Kinsley & Associates
Maggianos
McCormicks Catering
Michaels of Denver
Mile High Station
Millennium Harvest House
Northern Lights
Perfect Petal
Ritz Carlton
Rock Bottom Brewery
Sarah Edgell
Splash Promotions
TDA Design
The Oceanaire
The Palm
The Stanley Hotel
The Wildlife Experience
Tripping Griswolds

I would also like to thank Deanna Brown and the Grand Hyatt, Grant Oakes, Images by Grant Oakes, Jennifer Young with Bella Studios, Cal Cheney of All Digital Photo & Video, Fun Productions and A Music Plus. With their additional generosity, we were able to pull off a beautiful wedding for my daughter that will live on forever in our memories. Thank you!

I will keep you all posted via my blog on my continued journey.

Wow! I Am So Blessed By All Your Love and Support!

Last night was The Cabo San Freddie Benefit and I could not be more blessed by all my family, friends and colleagues support. Words can't truly even express how loved and the support I feel. It was an amazing event and we thank all of you for coming and those that could not attend but shared their love and support anyway. Thank you to all that helped sponsor the event! I will be contacting you each personally. Below is what I said at the Benefit to all of you wonderful friends... I truly do thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will see many of you at the Race for the Cure on Sunday (my team and others are meeting at the "F" at the registration area from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.)
...
Good Evening my Dear Family and Friends,

Forgive me if I have to read what I wrote. This is very emotional for me but know this is from my heart.

Keith and I are absolutely humbled, honored, deeply moved and somewhat embarrassed by the amazing love and support from our family and friends who have come together to help us with our fight against my Breast Cancer. From the bottom of our hearts we thank all of you for taking the time to come tonight, love on us and for your financial support in these hard economic times. God has given me the faith but you all have given me the additional courage and strength to face the journey of chemo and radiation I have in the next five months by your outpouring of love and friendship. How can I NOT beat this Cancer with all your love and support? I can and I will fight and the road will be much easier because of all your kindness.

Last summer at an annual MPI Board Retreat, our dear friend Cherie Hogue asked us all to share one of our favorite songs. I choose the Eagles “Love Will Keep Us Alive”. I had no idea that a year later that song would be even more meaningful and true in my life. I dedicated this song to my husband last summer who is my rock, my best friend and the love of my life and has been by my side every inch of the way in the last two months giving me so much of his heart and his courage when I could not find mine. I share this song with all of you tonight and thank you for your love and for being there with Keith and me on this journey.

Two months ago Keith and my world were rocked when we received the diagnosis that I did indeed have Breast Cancer. I had a lumpectomy in August and 9 lymph nodes removed when they found the cancer had spread to at least my main sentinel node. For four days we were not sure if it was throughout my entire body (it is not). Those were the scariest four days of our life… From the first day we received the cancer diagnosis though our family and friends rallied together to help us get through this with prayers, flowers, fruit baskets, beautiful cards and gifts of encouragement, great meals and financial support towards an amazingly high major medical deductible and we are truly overwhelmed and blessed by all your love.

For the past two months, Keith and my hearts have been tugged more than ever for the women and men that don’t have this love and support while battling cancer and Keith and I encourage all of you to continue to reach out to those in need of your support to help, not only financially in finding a cure for cancer, but because your love and kindness truly does make a difference.

Two years ago my mother was diagnosed with Bladder Cancer. She has been in remission for the past year. Mom, you are my hero and my inspiration…so are you my cousin Dee, Dad and all my other family and friends who are cancer survivors here tonight. Thank you for your fight and helping me believe I will get through this and be that much stronger for it. I would also like to thank my sister Toddie who has spent countless hours everyday searching every link out their on my health conditions and working with me on how to fight my battle in the most healthy way possible. Thank you sister for everything you do for me on a daily basis.

Keith and I would also like to take a moment and thank the Cabo San Freddie organizers, Terri Utecht, Kristin Hutton, Danny Findley, who is looking for a new job and is an amazing catch for anyone looking for someone with his talent, Steve and Allison Kinsley, Devon Binder and the entire Kinsley and Associates office for helping to put this Benefit together and for the countless hours and love it took. Keith and I love you very much and appreciate all you have done for us. Thank you to Mile High Station for donating your venue and to all the caterers and sponsors who are great friends of ours who have donated to us and again, each and everyone of you here tonight…Thank you, thank you, thank you for your love and support and for being here tonight.

Keith and I will keep you all posted through my health blog on this journey. God bless you all and enjoy this wonderful celebration of my journey in kicking cancer’s butt.

Thank you my dear friends The Tripping Griswolds for playing for My Event! Anyone looking for a great band to play at one of your events here is their website:
http://www.trippinggriswolds.com/index2.html

.................................
I truly feel I am a survivor already with all your love! Thank you!

Welcome to My Blog and Health Update!

To all my dear friends, thank you so much for the humbling love and support you have all shown me in the last month and a half. I am truly blessed to have you all in my life on this journey!

On August 4th I was diagnosed with breast cancer. On Aug 21st I had surgery to remove the 2.5 centimeter cancerous tumor. I chose only to have a lumpectomy because the MRI I had the week before did not show any cancer in any other part of either breasts and my lymph nodes were not enlarged. They did end up finding cancer in my sentinel lymph node during surgery though and so they took out 8 other lymph nodes to biopsy. The following Monday, Aug 25th, I found out those lymph nodes were clear of cancer giving a high percentage of hope that it was not in any other part of my body. Because it was in the sentinel node though it is at least stage II cancer and I need to have chemo and radiation to make sure all cancer cells are killed.

I have another health issue that I have battled for 20 years that has worn down my immune system so my huge battle is to get my immune system strong so that I can start chemo after my daughters wedding on October 10th. My sister Toddie, my husband Keith and I have researched a lot and we are building my immune system and fighting my other health issue with products from an alternative clinic in Scottsdale and I can already see great results in how I feel.

Come mid-October, I will be going through 4 treatments of chemo, once every three weeks, through mid January and then I start radiation for 5-7 weeks once a day. I have always considered myself a holistic person and this was my hardest decision as I was really trying to avoid this but all the doctors we have met with and my family believe I need to do this so the cancer does not come back or spread anywhere if for some reason all the cancer cells were not removed. We were not sure if I had cancer in other places but I had a full pet scan of my body on September 12th to make sure that we are on the right path of treatment before chemo started and to make Keith and myself more at ease. We received the results on September 16th that no cancer tumors were seen on the pet scan in other areas of my body!

The prognosis is very good just a fight which I plan to win! I would like to thank all my friends/clients so much for all their love and support in the last month and a half! Thank you to all of you who have sent flowers, cards, cooked meals etc. Keith and I truly feel blessed! How can I NOT win this battle with all this love and support? Keith’s and my heart goes out to the women that don’t have this kind of support and we will continue to keep them in our prayers and try and see how we can help others in the future.

Many have been asking how I found the cancer. After a very stressful time in the past six months, I lay in bed many mornings having a hard time getting up because I was so tired. I have three wonderful cats but my cat Stella became overly demanding of my attention and would come and sit on my chest and pet my face with her paw. As endearing as it was, some days I would be annoyed and push her off only for her to come right back up on my chest. She is four-years old and had never been so demanding and this had been going on for about a month. Finally, on July 29th she jumped on my right breast and it hurt so I did a self-breast exam and felt something that did not seem normal. I made an appointment that Friday, August 1st, to go in and get a mammogram and ultrasound. They told me I had something “suspicious” that they needed to biopsy and I asked them to do it then. They basically told me they were pretty sure I had cancer right there and confirmed it the following Monday. As you can only imagine, Stella is even more dear to my heart for helping detect my cancer. Since the surgery, she still hangs out on my chest but she seems at peace that the cancer has been removed and she is not quite so demanding..just loving.

Again, thank you all for your humbling support! Please understand it is hard to get back to everyone reaching out to me but that all your cards, emails and gifts have blessed me tremendously!

Thank you to friends who have offered to bring us meals through the chemo. We welcome and love the support. I am on a very strict health regime though and Keith has been a gem in following it with me and preparing my meals. Basically, I have to stay away from sugar, dairy and carbohydrates besides things made with brown rice, oats and buckweat. Most organic meats and vegetables I can eat. I also have to stay away from alcohol for a long time so that means I can’t have my favorite “Freditini” margaritas with friends for awhile! Here is a link to the kind of foods I am eating these days due to my Candida with the Cancer. http://hubpages.com/hub/Candida-Diet-Cookbook

I will keep you updated on my progress and thank you all for helping stand up to the fight against cancer!