Uckkkk!

I won't have a whole lot to say right now because to be honest I am feeling pretty crappy! Also it looks like Josh came down with what Railey had so I am waiting on him too! He was like what is going on with this...you go to chemo and you're making me dinner and getting me a drink and medicine??? I just checked him and he is absolutely on fire!! I hope that I don't get that! Especially before the party, which by the way is coming along just fine thanks to the support of family and friends!
I have some more funny stories about today's chemo visit that I will share later when I am feeling better! That spunky lady that curses was back today and she had me and Susan cracking up! Susan went with me today because Josh wasn't able to go. It gave us a chance to go over some stuff for the party and make some lists of things we need, and things to do.
More tomorrow.......

~regan

Visit my baby page...

To see how my cute babies are growing! :o)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/r/raileyhudson/

It's been a while....

I finally have a moment to update and let everyone know what's going on! First off I want to thank everyone again for being so supportive and for their comments and such!
We have been hard at work planning the Shave to Save so that has kept me busy, along with some other events.
Railey has been home from school sick yesterday and today for safe measures. Which really stinks because she is student of the week and now she has missed half of the week. But I know that she is really sick for two reasons; one because the thermometer tells me so, and two because she missed dance class! :o) She had perfect attendance at dance class last year so for her to miss IS a big deal. She is feeling better today but because of the fever I would like to keep her home for one more day to be safe.
As for myself, I am sure that everyone is curious as to how the first treatment has affected me. Now that it is almost time for another one I can say that I am feeling quite alright. Go figure, ey! The worst effects were the mouth soreness, head soreness, and fatigue. Well actually the very worst side effect wasn't from the chemo at all! It was from this shot that you have to have the day after chemo. It is a shot that helps produce your white blood cells and bring you back up to speed. Well it causes bone soreness, and this hit me pretty hard! I am not one to take pain meds and I was hitting the bottle pretty hard for a couple of days there. My hips, back, neck, pretty much everything throbbed with pain. Oh, and I forgot to mention that after chemo I had to go back to see the good ol' doc because I have some kind of allergic reaction to something....what you ask??? They don't know! So I have kindof a striped stomach and back, it's not really itchy unless I scratch it. It is not a raised rash it's just kinda looks like I was scratching alot and left marks but I wasn't. It's mostly on my ribs and in that area down my sides.
Well enough of that! I am so excited to see everyone at the dinner! I think it will make it easier to shave my head! I am actually kinda looking forward to it now. A lot of my hair is falling out and it sucks to be constantly pulling hair off of my shirt, pillow, and son.
Well until next time................

~regan

My dear husband.....

An email that Josh sent out

Friends:

I know it has been sometime since a few of us last spoke or even exchanged Emails, but as we are all aware sometimes life takes us down paths that prohibit us from keeping in touch. I apologize to those of you that feel neglected but my family path has been full of bumps and turns lately.

As many of you know my wife and I have recently delivered our son "Hudson Michael Albus" into this world and we were so excited to begin growing as a family. Unfortunatley during Regan's 3rd trimester we found a mass (lump) on her left clavicle near her neck. After the birth of our son we began testing of this mass through biopsy's, cat scans, pet scans, and other testing methods. Since early June we have learned that we have Hodgkins Lymphoma stage 2 type B. For those of you who are not aware this is a blood cancer which fortunatley is very treatable.

On Monday September 11, 2006 Regan received her first Chemo treatment and will continue to be treated for the next 4-6 months. I am not writing today to ask for sympathy cards or tell you how terrible the effects of cancer influence a families life. I want to draw attention to this fight we so often here about through our media channels and we want to support the cause.

Since my last visit to the Royal Oak Beaumont Cancer Treatment Center I have constantly been thinking of all the faces I saw dealing with pain and frustration with no option but to continue the fight. Our family happens to be fortunate in the financial and health care arena so our struggles are a bit easier than others. Regan has joined the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's nationwide walk to raise awareness and funds to cure leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. We will also be hosting a Benefit Dinner to raise funds for sponsorship in the Light the Night Walk. I have attached a flier with information but if you are unable to attend the event you may like to make a contribution at http://www.active.com/donate/ltnMadiso/1826_railey10 The benefit will only hold 250 people so if you are interested in attending even if its just to see an old friend please let me know asap. The event we are hosting will be a blast. We will have dinner sponsored by Cranks Catering, entertainment donated through Mark Ridleys Comedy castle, and many raffles and door prizes.

It is important to have the support of friends and family at this event because many of us (myself included) will be shaving our heads to raise money and make my wife feel a bit more comfortable with her baldness. Please do not attempt to create a visual just show up and witness it live.

I appreciate you all taking the time to read this long message but I wanted to spread the word.

Thanks for your support, Josh Albus

My Donation Page

I would much rather have you all join me at the Shave to Save but if you are unable to attend and would like to make a donation you can visit my donation page at:

http://www.active.com/donate/ltnMadiso/1826_railey10

~regan

Shave to Save!!

We are going to have a benefit dinner to raise funds to sponsor me in the Light the Night Walk coming up in October.
It is going to be a dinner party with comedian, raffles, 50/50's and more! I will be shaving my head at the event and others are willing to "Shave to Save" too for the
right price!!
So you may want to come willing to shave your head also :o) !!!
Please keep the date of Friday, September 29th open!!! We will be selling tickets and if you are interested in buying tickets you can contact me and I would be VERY happy to assist you!
This is being planned on short notice but since I will be losing my hair shortly we have to get on the ball!
The Shave to Save event will take place at the Local 909 Union Hall located in Warren on Stephens off of Mound Rd.

More info to come......please save the date and join us to make the most out of this and have a fun time!

I made it!

It has been hard to find the time to get on here to tell y'all about the dooms day! It went OK and I am feeling OK. Just not myself, I feel a little queezy sometimes and jsut a bit overwhelmed. Railey starts dance class today and I am working on planning the party for the Night the Light so it's one thing after another.
The first thing they give you is a anti-nausea med that lasts for 5 days and a steroid to enhance that and keep you perky for 3 days. I guess when the steroid wears off you feel pretty shitty so I've got 1 1/2 days left :o) !! Then they give you a test dose of one of the drugs to make sure that you don't have a reaction to it. Then the long haul.....they give you the real dose and then another drug on a drip, which lasts about 2 hours. Then they give you the other 2 drugs through a push IV rather than the drip. Then you are free to go...until you come back the next day for a shot to help bring up your blood count! So that is the fun that was indured.
I must say that my first visit was kindof entertaining, I was, as I have noted to myself many times, far younger then anyone there. And it was a full house yesterday. All ten or so chairs were full when I got there and one opened up conveniently for me. The guy next to me at one point tried to push the recliner on his chair in and pulled out his IV and was struggling to get it back together without assistance from the nurses who were both very busy. The funny part came when he was like "Fuck", and I just wanted to die laughing! Then we had another little old lady come in and she kept cursing and saying "oh the damn port doesn't work", and stuff. When she left they said "see you in a week" and she said " hell if I know, I just come when my kids tell me." Another patient was supposed to be waiting for her daughter to pick her up and she grabbed a random guy (another patient on his way out) by the arm and said "sir can you just push me by the elevator" and the nurses were like no m'am you have to wait for your daughter....who needed a magazing there was drama happening all around me!
It was all-around a strange experience and I really can't wait to get it over with! I hate the queezy feeling and I am eager to be cancer free ASAP!
Thanks for listening and supporting.....
~regan

Just 2 more days til dooms day...

I am starting to get real nervous now and I am definetely not looking forward to starting the treatments. To be honest I am not sure what I am feeling right now...worried, nervous, emotional. So many things. It is always much worse when you don't know what is to come, so I am sure I am stressing for nothing. Nowadays they have anti-nausea meds and stuff so I don't have to worry about that and that would be a huge downer. So I am not exactly sure what I am so worried about. I guess the whole hair thing, but when it comes down to it, "it's only hair", right? How superficial can you be, if that was the worst to come out of this then I should consider myself a lucky person! I say this but it won't make being bald any easier. :o) That is one thing that will make this emotional unless I have some other crappy side effect to take my mind off of it. Which would once again lead back to having no hair not being so bad! I would rather be bald and able to take care of and spend time with my kids. So I hope for baldness to be the worst of my problems.

Shave to Save

I am sooooo excited about this charity event and I am so thankful for the people that are helping me to plan it. It is really helping to take my mind off of the bad stuff and keep me busy.... more later

~regan

Let the chemo begin.....

I went on Friday to see Dr. Oncologist and he informed me that the PET scan and the bone marrow test both show NOTHING!!! Which obviously is great news. So that means I am still at stage II B. So he thinks I will need 4-6 cycles of chemo. Each cycle is 2 treatments. Every other week so each cycle is a month. He was like ok you can start today!?!?!?!! That is when I went into shock and almost started to bawl like my little Hudson when he is hungry! I told him that I was not expecting to start at that visit and that I would like to be in normal condition for Railey's first day of school. So he said I could wait. So I will be starting next Monday. He had me go to the "chemo room" and meet the nurses and get some info on my treatment. I got to see what it is like. There were about four people in there getting chemo when I went in. They are just hanging out reading books and stuff, nothing out of the ordinary...no one is throwing up or uncomfortable. Just chillin', except for the IV attatched to a bag dripping the toxic yet lifesaving chemo drugs. My ride home from the doc that day was pretty emotional because now that I saw the room and what I will be doing reality has set in. I just want to get it over with now..............and move on.
~regan

I have a cancer blog now.......

Feel free to visit anytime for my thoughts and experiences! I am new at this so I am not sure if it will tell you everytime that I post or what???? Well anyway this is my story, and I will be adding a lot more about how this all started as soon as I have time!


~regan

New port....

So I got the port now! It's not what I expected but I guess I really didn't know what to expect. It is kinda weird and gross but whatever it is better than having my arms poked at anymore! I am going to see my oncologist (which I will from here on our refer to as Dr. Oncologist, I bit that off of another blog but oh well :) )today at 3:05. Can't wait because I have a lot of questions and I'll find out when I will start the dreaded chemo.
I just learned some info about the Light the Night Walk, which is a fundraiser for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I plan to do the walk in Royal Oak and I hope to raise a bunch of money! I am thinking about having a "Shave my Head" fundraiser/party and putting that money towards it and then also having a webpage for people that can't be there to donate. Hopefully I could pull this party together quickly and have it soon before my hair starts falling out. I'll have to see how much help I could get planning a party in a quick minute!! Volunteers????? Email me!