My Journey with Cancer

This year I will be walking in the Relay for Life along side my friends and family.  I decided to create a team of my own.  My team is called BELIEVE.   Please clink on the link below to donate directly to my team .... Even if you can only donate 5 or 10 dollars ... Anything is appreciated.  Also if you are interested in walking you can sign up to join my team.  Let me know if you have any questions.  You can reach me through email at clemens_laura@hotmail.com or Facebook.  If you would like to make a donation, please go to the Kitchener Relay for Life 2014 website, click on Make a Donation and then enter team name BELIEVE and your donation will go through.   Thank you in advance.  Xoxo

Why Me?  This is still a question I ask myself quite often, almost too often.  I've asked my oncologist from day one why me? Her response to me, there is no reason Laura why you got cancer, you didn't eat anything, you didn't do anything to get it.  This is the mystery of cancer, no one knows why people get it.  It's a horrible disease and I think I'm just starting to see how horrible it really is.  I have friends and family who are cancer survivors, I've spent a lot of time confiding in them and talking about my struggles.  My 2 friends who both are cancer survivors are the most positive people I know and a huge inspiration to me and when I'm having a rough time with things I turn to them.  One of them is my best friend who is a cancer survivor going on 9 years and another is a former coworker who also survived cancer and has been cancer free for 3 years.  It's not that I can't talk to other friends  or family about my struggles but sometime...

I'm a little late in posting this but better late then never lol .... I've been meaning to blog since I got home but just got busy.  I apologize especially to the friends I made in the hospital who have probably been checking my blog to see how I've been doing at home.  I've been home 6 weeks now .... Crazy eh? I can't believe it's been 6 weeks and even harder to believe it's been 5 months since my surgery.  Time sure flies when your having fun - wait fun isn't the right word because none of what I have gone through has been fun.  The only good thing that has come out of all this is that I have met some amazing people along the way ... Hospital staff and other patients.  I also have become a better person through all this, learning to have more patience in everyday life and looking at life in a totally different view.  I'll get into that in a different post.  For now I'll update everyone on what's been going on the last 6 weeks at home ..... ...

Happy Friday Blog Followers!!!! I couldn't wait any longer to share this news and I have time now to write so here it goes ..... Today at 11am I had my family meeting with doctors, therapists and CCAC.  The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a discharge date and any equipment I'd need at home etc etc.  So, I'm beyond happy to say ..... I will be discharged and coming home to my family on Thursday February 13th.  I will be going home on Sunday for a few hours to see how well I can manoeuvre around the house, if I can get in and out of bed etc etc etc.  But ultimately I'll be home on Thursday - bye bye hospital food, horribly uncomfortable bed (and apparently I had a comfortable mattress, the high end ones in hospital - phew doubt that lol) and bye bye to my annoyingly snoring neighbour lol.  My Valentines Day present to my hubby will be me at home!!!!! The plan is to go home to my parents house for as long as needed, because I'll need my moms help with not o...

Well .... I waited several weeks to come to this floor and the first week has totally wiped me out. I am exhausted.  I knew it was going to be tough, but didn't think I'd be this tired.  Come 7pm I'm ready for bed lol.  There's no time to rest really except at night ...... I have physio in the morning around 1130am then in the afternoon around 2pm, in between I am expected to go to dining room for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  They definitely keep you busy, then I have my dressing change and whatever other appointments in between.   So my most exciting news is that my tentative date to go home is February 20th.  Could be sooner, could be later ... All depends on my progress.  I will likely get a day pass at some point soon to go home and see how easy it is to move around the house.  They said you normally get the pass for a day or couple hours, sometimes overnight.  I'm hoping I get a pass soon .... I really wanna get home to my Munchie....

'Finally I'm here ... I've been moved to UT2; which is the aggressive rehab floor.  I have been waiting to be transferred here since I came to Freeport originally.  On this floor I will get rehab 2 times a day, 7 days a week....this is my last stop then home.  This program is geared to get you home.  I have never been happier to hear I was being transferred.......I needed this so bad.  I am going to give this everything I got so I can get home to my baby girl.  She needs her mama at home with her.  I was transferred down here at 11am this morning.  Dean came to help me move my stuff, then he stayed for abit.  I had to fill out admission forms for the 3rd time and he got my tv hooked up for me.  Physio came in after lunch and I went for a walk with the therapist, tomorrow I will get physio twice a day and it will be a fresh start for me and a fresh start towards my journey home.  Another mile stone was wearing actual clothes rather t...

I just realized I haven't posted anything since January 16th ..... I've been on quite the roller coaster the last week or so.  Where should I start ... As everyone knows I was at Freeport continuing with my rehab waiting to be transferred to the actual rehab floor.  My crazy roller coaster ride started last Friday.  I had a fever 3 days in a row and on Friday I was sent to emerge at Grand River because they weren't sure if my fever was related to the cold and sore throat I had or was related to another infection on one of my wounds.  Luckily we didn't have to wait to long at emerge, my wonderful mother came with me.  Her old boss was one of the emerge docs and he took care of me.  They did a bunch of bloodwork and everything came back normal but they were still worried about my wounds. I have an incisional wound on my bum and a pressure ulcer.  The doctor wanted to send me to Hamilton that night to have my surgeon look at it, because my surgery is not ...