Let’s see how many times I can drop it in this post!

I know what you were thinking almost a year ago, “That Barb Sciandra.  She’s f’d!”  I have to admit, a part of me was thinking it, too.  I’m not sure if I’m delusional, but I really feel as though I’m going to be ok.  By ok, I mean I think that I’ve shaken this monster for good.  I pray every day that I remain cancer free and live the rest of my life without a recurrence.

Why is it that you only ever hear horror stories about Fing cancer?  I think that I’ve only read 3 triumph stories – Lance Armstrong (Stage 4), Kris Carr (Stage 4), and Greg Anderson (Stage 4).  I want a triumph story – Barb Sciandra (Stage 3).  I want people to read about me and my story and feel inspired.  I want my kids to truly believe that they can do anything.

I spent a good part of last week organizing all of my scans and reports into a pink 3 ring binder.  I’m wrapping up this fing stint with breast cancer.  Once my one year anniversary with this bitch comes up, I’m finished with it.  I want all of my thank you cards to be finished.  I want to put my strong box away for a rainy day.   I know the saying, “Those who want never get.”  Well, F you!  I don’t want any lingering cancer crap laying around my house.  It’s toxic – all of it.  This means that I need to lay Sugar to rest, too!  Dealing with cancer for one year has been long enough.  Sciandra, out!

So, speaking of the F bomb….

Have you ever heard about the book, Go the F**k to Sleep?  Check out this clip narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6b0CretuE

This book was all the rage a year or two ago.  Any parent that I know really got a kick out of it – any parent of a newborn, I should say.  I remember buying a copy for our friends, Cheryl and Kellie, last year as a gag gift for Kel’s baby shower.  Sal and I have a copy in our nursery with all of our other informational baby books but I don’t remember where the copy came from.  The nursery stores our, “What to Expect” books, breastfeeding books, parenting books, etc.  All of the books that we read to Jameson and Chase are kept on a bookshelf in our playroom.  Anyway, Jameson and Chase always let themselves into Cameron’s room to greet her when they know that she, too, is awake.  Last week, Sal and Chase were away with some friends on a guys weekend which was a blast for all of us, by the way!  Jameson, Cameron and I were home by ourselves from Saturday into Sunday – we spent Friday into Saturdsay at my Mom’s.  On Sunday morning, I heard Jameson in Cameron’s room.  I yelled in to Jameson that I would be right in to grab Cam and get breakfast ready.  Jameson, in the sweetest voice, yelled back, “Don’t worry, Mom, I’m just reading ‘Go the F**k to Sleep’ to Cam.”  I’ve never ran so fast in my life!  Needless to say, the book is hidden away along with the talking honeybadger that Sal bought for me!  Thank God I didn’t make a big deal about this.  I’m hoping that the word is erased out of her mind until she’s 30 years old!

I forgot to mention that Sal and I were fortunate to meet up with my college friends, Brooke and Lee, and their awesome kids, Blair and Jake, when we were at the beach.  We met them in Rehoboth, had dinner, and hung out on the boardwalk with the kids.  It was great catching up with them.  One of my highlights of beach week was the following video.  I loved watching the kids playing the ridiculous games on the boardwalk.  Check this out and get ready to laugh!  I can watch these over and over again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQaJVO_82ro&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6zXdMlRI7w&feature=youtu.be

I loved seeing the excitement on Chase’s face.  The kids played 4 games and Chase won all 4 times!  Sal’s favorite part was watching Chase negotiate a bigger prize!  I’m not sure if I should be happy or worried that Chase is good with a gun and at playing whack-a-mole, but this was very good for his self esteem, nonetheless!  Chase is used to Jameson beating him at everything.  We keep telling James to give it another year or two and Chase is going to be bigger than her.  And, so it begins!!!  When we showed these videos to our family, everyone felt so sorry for Jameson.  Does this make Sal and I bad parents?!!!  F no!  Blair and Jake were so cute to watch, too.  They’re great kids.  It was nice seeing all of them getting along so well.  We’re looking forward to next year already!

This past Friday, we got to spend some time with our friends, Bryan and Murph, and their adorable boys, Ben and Nic.  Bry and Murph live in Boston but were vacationing in the Poconos.  It was great spending time with them.  We’re looking forward to seeing them again really soon at our friends’, Kevin and Cori, wedding in September.  No, you ahhhhhhhh!!!!!  On Saturday, our cousins, Anne, Dan and Martha came over to swim and hang out.  It was great spending time with them, as well.  All in all, we had a fantastic weekend.

So, my state of the union is awesome.  Swimming seems to be the best exercise for me as far as stretching my arms, especially my left side.  The more swimming, the better!  I’m feeling great, I really am.  I’m taking the time to relax a bit and wrap my mind around everything that’s happened this past year.  I try to focus on the good, not the bad.  If I focus too much on the bad, then I feel as though cancer is winning.  F that!  It’s not going to happen.  My last Herceptin won’t be until November – everything got thrown off by a week due to our beach vacation.  I’m hoping to have my minor tweeking procedure and my port-o-cath removed at the same time before the holidays.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Check out the photos below.  Jameson, Chase and Cameron joined Sal and I at my Herceptin treatment this morning.  Our nurse, Lisa, was awesome, as always, and the office staff is just so wonderful.  The kids brightened everyone’s day.  They were treated better than the new royal baby!

 

Maybe you’re thinking, “Oh, my God!  How could they take their kids to an oncologist’s office?  AND in the infusion room?”  Well, it’s very important to both Sal and I that we are always honest with our kids.  Cancer became a part of all of our lives last August.  We’ve answered all of Jameson and Chase’s questions the best that we can in the most kid-friendly way that we can.  Jameson wanted to watch me have 2 drains removed.  Guess what?  She came with me and watched.  As a parent, I think that one of the keys to gaining your child’s trust is to always be honest with them.  Talk to them about the tough stuff.  Do you think that it was easy for us to tell the kids that I had breast cancer?  That I was going to lose my hair?  That I was going to be gone away for 5 days to have surgery and have my breasts removed?  It wasn’t.  But, our kids are doing ok.  They’re doing great, actually.  Things are only scary if you make them scary.  Kids are smart.  Treat them that way.  I hate baby talk.  We’ve never spoken baby talk in our house because we treat our kids like the mini-adults that they are.  Maybe I’m wrong……but I don’t think so!

I’ve registered a team for Scranton’s Susan G. Komen walk which will take place on Saturday, September 21.  I’ve decided to participate in this race because it’s fun.  If you are able to participate, I’d love to walk with you.  As a side note, I think that the Komen Foundation is great for a lot of reasons.  I believe that Susan G. Komen is the reason that breast cancer is one of the most recognized and researched types of diseases.  However, in this day and age, only 25% of the money raised from the Komen walk goes to research.  My goal is to set up my own non-profit where the majority of money raised will go directly to breast cancer research.  If you want to walk with Barb’s Army, I’d love to have you on my team.  I’m not telling you what to do, but please don’t donate to Komen on my account.  For me, research is the most important aspect in all of this.  It’s how advances are made.

http://www.komennepa.org/komen-race-for-the-cure/teams/

Sal and I will host everyone on Barb’s Army at our house for a very laid-back brunch after the race.  Team t-shirts will also be made.  I’m going to call our friends, Adrian and Maudeen at Mad Tees, this week to see if they can print this year’s shirts for us.  I’d like to once again thank my entire family, and especially Aunt Tina, Emily, Karen, Diane and Katie, and all of my friends, especially Nicole, Dave, Cheryl and Kellie, for all that they did for last year’s race – organizing the team, buying bracelets, hosting brunch.  You guys really pulled it off!  I felt everyone’s support as soon as I was diagnosed.  Participating in last year’s race was something very special that I will never forget.  Thank you all so much.

By the way, that’s 8 times in this post.  Ok, one more for good measure!

 

That makes it 9!  Have a wonderful week!

LIVESTRONG and God Bless!