The Chemo Made Me Do It

8/30/2017

2 Comments

This was the beginning. Starting Saturday, my hair just started falling out everywhere. When I say everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE! It was like I was leaving a trail everywhere I went...and not a cookie crumb trail which I would've much rather. My bed was filled with hair, taking a shower was a joke, and finding hair in your food had a whole new meaning...considering I couldn't blame it on anyone else. These pictures were just from Saturday...

Above was just two days later, Monday. Handfuls at a time were falling out at this point. As you can see from the below pictures I had lost about half my hair at this point and you could see my scalp. I was tired of shedding everywhere, waking up in a bed of hair, feeling it all over me, and was tired of finding it everywhere...so I made my shave appointment. I wanted it to be actually shaved i.e. bald skin like it is going to be, but the person cutting it ended up just shaving it on a zero, which works better probably anyway. The little hairs left I'm sure fall out shortly.

Just a heads up (hahaha pun intended)...people notice when you stare. Not gonna lie, I used to be one of those starers. It's like rubber-necking, you just have to look! However, I forget Im bald until I look in a mirror, feel cold, or see people staring...which happened when I went to the store later today and was definitely something to adjust to and get used to. I go for a wig fitting tomorrow morning so we'll see how that goes! Maybe I'll finally go blonde....or curly....or lime green?!

As for medical tidbits for the week:
~My levels came back good so I "get" to have my port put in at the hospital Friday afternoon...and hopefully this time it won't be aborted again after I get put under because it's too risky with my levels
~I will be admitted into the hospital Monday and staying thru Saturday for my next chemo round (darn holidays)
~My chest pain and cough has gotten much better, now my biggest symptoms are headaches, hot flashes, lightheadedness, and of course the lovely relentless night sweating

2 Comments

When Cancer Comes a Knockin'

Timeline

On August 2, 2017, Brianna was diagnosed with Mediastinal Large B-Cell Lymphoma. Beginning Monday, August 14, 2017, Brianna will begin chemotherapy treatments. She will be commuting to Austin for 18 weeks to receive treatments. This site is set up as a donation page to help Brianna and her family cover medical costs and living expenses, as well as a one stop shop to get updates on how chemo is going and even buy a shirt or two in support!

UPDATE:
After getting her final PET scan to confirm the aggressive chemo did it's job, we got the news that it hadn't and that the tumor was still active when it shouldn't of been. Brianna is now undergoing radiation for 5 weeks, everyday in Austin.

UPDATE March 2018:
Brianna begin having the same cancer symptoms as she did this past summer during spring break, except more painful this time. She was sent to get a CT scan which showed her cancer had returned. She then met with her oncologist who planned the next steps which include to do more chemo (a differnt regimen this time) followed by a stem cell transplant.
She thought she was done....she was done.....and now she is having to start the cancer journey all over again...including losing her hair that had just start growing back.

UPDATE
END OF MARCH - JUNE 25th
(at the moment....things have yet to even begin apparently.)
If I didn't feel like I was really dying or truly out of options to live....I do now. Remember I was basically on our plan F and everything was just getting worse instead of better. I really thought I was done these last couple weeks and being in the hospital for another little week vacay. I finally updated by blog since so many people were asking, so you can read the detailed updates.

October 2018 Update:
Insurance has finally approved all of the CAR-T procedure and I will be getting my T-Cells retrieved from my body next week. (Oct 10th if all goes as planned)

MARCH 2019
The first post CAR-T pet scan showed the main mass has shrunk in size, even though still active. Hopefully, the CAR-T will continue to work its magic over the next few months before the next scan.

To donate to Brianna's GoFundMe page, please make sure the donation is made on the GoFundMe Page found here:
https://www.gofundme.com/teambonnet

Brenda Weiss

8/31/2017 02:37:40 pm

So glad to hear the cough and chest pain is better!!

Michele Felfe

8/31/2017 02:54:02 pm

You are beautiful with or without hair Bri Bri!! I've been saying for awhile now that the only way I would see what my real hair color is at this point (gray) was if I was to loose all of mine!!! 😂😂😂 I'm so proud of you keeping a positive attitude! Xoxo

CANCER CHRONICLES