Thanks everybody for sharing and voting for my story to win honorary Toronto Blue Jays bat girl. This is yet another reminder of the love and support I have through this journey. I have definitely have had many low points through this process however sharing my story and being able to help others makes it all worth it. I've been fortunate enough with amazing support from all of you and hope that I can turn this into a positive endeavour and help others through this. I just found out I got runner up and get to go to Toronto to the blue jays game on Mother's Day! They will be celebrating Breast cancer survivors and educating people in the awareness. Thanks to my mom and sister for the nomination but also to all of you for helping to make this happen! Jenn xo
Hi Everyone, I have been nominated by my Mom and Sister for MLB bat against Breast Cancer honorary bat girl for the Toronto Blue Jays on May 10th 2015. This nomination is to help share my story and shed some light on those who are batting against Breast Cancer. Baseball has been a huge part of my life since I was 4 years old and this opportunity would let me share my story along with one of my passion of baseball. Please take some time to read some inspiring stories at the below link and take some time to vote for yours truly to be part of this initiative. Thanks for your continued support and allowing me to share my story against my bat against Cancer! Jenn xo
Under Toronto Blue Jays Icon vote for JennLea http://mlb.mlb.com/honorarybatgirl/2015/gallery.jsp?transactionId=373003452&tcid=tw_honorarybatgirl_2015&fb_ref=Default I am onto my second chemo medication tomorrow and wanted to update everyone on my progress to date. I have gone through 12 weeks of my first chemo medication and as I had mentioned before I was feeling pretty good. However the last 4 weeks have been pretty difficult as I have had most of my side affects over the last few weeks. I have been feeling extremely exhausted and not feeling myself. The only way I can explain the exhaustion is having a major hangover all the time. This is from the fatigue that most chemo patients experience. This fatigue sometimes last up to a couple years after having chemo. I start my second medication tomorrow which is supposed to be a harder medication. I am expecting to have more fatigue and feel more sick then I have been with the last medication. I will be going to the hospital to get this medication on Fridays every second week for 4 times. My countdown is on for this to be over! Some other side affects that I have experienced is my eyelashes have started to fall out but because of the cold caps I have still managed to maintain most of my hair. This next medicine will be a test with my hair as there is more hair loss with this medication as well. My end date for chemo is the Friday of the May long weekend. I am really looking forward to it being over and then it will be onto the next step - radiation. Thank you to everyone who are always thinking of me throughout this. Thank you to those who message me and call me on Fridays knowing I am in the hospital that day and thank you to all of you who have come to the hospital with me for the last 12 weeks. This all means so much to me and your thoughts and kind gestures are pushing me through this terrible time.
Jenn xo I have been pretty bad at updating everyone but have been keeping extremely busy and doing pretty well over the past little while. I know there are many people asking for an update so wanted to update everyone with my halfway mark through chemo. As mentioned before I have 16 total rounds of chemo and I completed 8 last week! The last 8 weeks has been interesting and going to chemo appointments every Friday have not been my favourite however I feel pretty lucky that I can report that I have had minor side effects. I am much more tired then my normal high energy self but I am still able to maintain my normal active lifestyle. The tiredness is something I have to be careful with as sometimes I don't realize that I need to take it easy and really pay for it after. My body has reacted to the chemicals as I am sometimes achy and sore and have other minor side effects that don't feel normal. I have been able to get out snowboarding and exercise as much as I can! I am hoping to maintain this over the next 4 weeks as I finish the first medicine of my 2 through this treatment. I have also been continuing with the cold caps every treatment. This has also not been the easiest task however I have maintained almost all of my hair! I have had a bit of thinning and cannot do much with it include washing and brushing it very rarely but I am happy to say it is still very much on my head. I have had several family members and friends come to my appointments every Friday with me and I am so thankful for everyone helping out. I would not be able to do this without all the help! My second medicine that will start in April and sounds like it may be stronger and have more effects. Starting April 3 I will be going to the hospital every 2 weeks and might feel a bit more sick then I have been but I have learned to take it day by day. I have been able to visit friends and continue doing things I enjoy. I have also been able to connect with others through different events and groups that are going through the same thing. This has been great for the support but also I am passionate about teaching people about the cold cap as I hope the word can spread about others keeping their hair! I will try to be more active on the blog and update everyone with all my progress. Thank you for everyones continued support and positive thoughts as I continue through this process!
Jenn xo I have not been very good at updating my blog lately and promise I will update it more often. I have started chemo and my first round of 16 was last Friday January 9th. Expecting the worse I came out of it with no side effects this round. Although I was told that each time it may get worse I am thankful that this week I felt great! Thank you for all the messages and follow ups asking about how I am doing. I am doing great and even went out snowboarding for the day yesterday. I am trying to find activities I love to do and exercise as much as I can through this as it is proven to help with side effects. If anyone would like to head to the mountains please let me know! I started my first round of chemotherapy using the cold caps to prevent hair loss. I am using a company who is based out of the UK but has a representative from Winnipeg. Cold Comfort Canada is a cold cap that is attached to a machine that cools the hair folicles at a constant temperature at -4 degrees throughout my treatment. This allows the medicine to not reach the frozen folicles and has potential to save the hair. There are many factors to this working including the medicine that I am on but will be using this as long as it works! I have to have the cap on my head for about 3 hrs each treatment. I also am icing my fingers and toes which has helped to improve nail change and prevent neuropathy (nerve damage). I will be updating my process throughout my treatment however to learn more I have added the Cold Comfort Canada website as well as a video on how the cold caps work. The video displays a different company however it is the same idea. I will be adding more information about the specific machine I am using throughout my treatment. I would like to thank Cold Comfort Canada for coming to my first treatment and teaching us how to use their machine. They have been extremely kind and will be happy to update everyone throughout the progress! http://www.coldcomfortcanada.ca/ Although this road has been difficult one and won't be getting much easier anytime soon I am very grateful for the many people I have met along the way. I have been able to share my story and so many amazing people of reached out to me to share theirs. Wether they have gone through something, are going through something similar or just want to be a source of support I have been able to chat to people that I would not have met any other way. I appreciate people wanting to hear my story and thankful I am able to share it and hear what others have to say. If I can help someone through this process this journey was worth it. I was asked to share my story through a blog called on the record women. This was a great way to communicate to others what I have faced and hopefully people will be able to learn more through my story. Click the link below for full story.
http://ontherecordwomen.com/2014/12/17/jennifer-hamilton-my-cancer-journey/ I have not written in awhile but everyone is patiently waiting to hear about my chemo consultation from yesterday. This is the part of my journey that I have not been looking forward too, besides being injected and being sick I am really am not looking forward to loosing my hair! I have been doing some research on hair loss and this is something I will talk about later on. My oncologist yesterday was very kind and informative. He educated us about everything that was going to happen for the next 5 months. We were at the appointment for about 3 hours and learnt a lot about what I will be going through. The appointment started off with a basic bio lesson which is not my biggest strength. Although I had an amazing grade 10 bio teacher, my sisters best friends dad Mr Thorne. I am still reminded that I was not very successful in this class on a regular basis. So for you non bio people like me essentially there are millions of cells throughout our bodies. Because my cancer was fast moving we are not sure if the cancer has migrated into one of these cells and is floating around in my body. This is something we would never know and cannot be tested for. This is why I have to go through chemotherapy. Chemo is an insurance that it will kill off any rougue cells that are floating around. I will be on a couple different chemo “cocktail” combinations. The first round of drugs will be for 12 times and I will be going in every Friday for 12 weeks starting January 9th. After that my second combination with be once every 2 weeks for 4 times. Each chemo treatment with be a couple hours a day and always on a Friday. Every Thursday I will be meeting with my oncologist and every Wednesday I will be doing blood work to make sure I am ok to proceed with the treatments on Fridays. The first round sounds like the side affects will be minimal. The second round sounds like the side effects will have more of an effect on me. Some side effects include fatigue, nausea, decrease white blood cell count, anemia, nail change and of course hair loss. Speaking of hair loss I have been doing quite a bit of research with the help of my mom on cold cap therapy. This therapy has been around in the UK for years but has been used in the states and Canada recently by a few patients. One Canadian patient is a professional snowboard from Whistler who I have really resonated with. Megan Pischke was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and has developed a documentary on her journey. This comes out in the New Year however I have added the link of her 10 minute preview. If you have 10 minutes take a look as I think this is a great overview of what the caps are and what she had to endure during chemo. It really puts some perspective on my journey and shows how hard this is going to be. Megan has been someone I have been following since the start of my diagnosis and someone I look to as inspiration for going through this. She is also part of a great non profit organization boarding for breast cancer as well as her own non profit chasing sunshine. Megan is an advocate for the cold cap therapy which I will be sharing more detail in my next post which will be very soon. Jenn xo I wanted to update everyone to let you all know that I have completed another step of my process. I have now completed fertility treatments and although it was a struggle I have learned many things going through this process. I am happy to say that I was successful with the process and will be able to start a family if I choose too one day. I also wanted to talk about something that has come up throughout my process. I have chosen to be pretty public about my struggles I have been going through but have received so much positive feedback throughout this. I have also unfortunately have seen some negative reactions to me being an open book about my process. As I mentioned previously I had a boyfriend that decided not to stay with me throughout this journey. This has been really hard for me to deal with thinking that I was not loved enough. Even though I am extremely hurt by his decision and what I have realized since then is that I do matter and I have so much love and support. I have received support from friends, family and acquaintances. People in my life have stepped up in ways that they are able too! The reason I have shared my story with everyone and have asked for friends and family to share with others is that I am hoping I can help someone. I have been pretty transparent to let people know what having cancer at 31 years old entails. People have the stigma that only older people get this disease. That is just not true and want to let people know that anybody can get this at any age. I think it is important that I share what I have to go through because I never even understood what this process truly entailed! I want people to learn to be more empathetic towards other peoples situation. Aside from that I also want to be able to share my story to help someone that may be going through this or a similar situation. I know many people think this is a personal struggle but the truth is that I would not be as positive, happy or wanting to get through this without every single person that has made a loving positive impact on my life. I am even happy for the people who do not want to be in my life as it has made me appreciate the amazing people I do have and has taught me what not to look in a boyfriend next time :). My message here is that there are amazing people in this world and I have been able to see this first hand because of sharing my story. I also want to share that being supportive to someone may go a long way as you never know what they are going through or the good intentions they may have. I have been interviewed for a blog site to be able to share my story so stay tuned for that soon! Jenn xo
In honor of American thanksgiving I wanted to share some of my thanks. In my last post I wrote about my struggles. This is something that I am still facing daily however I am also thankful for some of the lessons I have learned and obstacles I have had to face. I am currently going through fertility treatments, not the most pleasant experience I have been through but have concurred some fears through this process. I am not a needle person and would squirm at the thought of one touching me. I have currently conquered my fear of this and have now been injecting myself with a needle three times a day. I will not be changing my career to join the medical field however I am very happy that I overcame this fear. Looking back at some of the challenges I have had to go through I realize that once I am through the process it really was not as bad as it could be! I am sad that I still have many challenges that I have to face but will be taking this one day at a time and will be thankful to see the end! Many people have been asking when I start chemo. I don't know exactly when I will be starting however I have my consultation on December 16th. I will know then more details of how many rounds I will have as well as when this will start and the schedule. We are anticipating that chemo with start around Christmas and my Birthday. This is not the most wonderful news however would like to start sooner so it is over sooner! Thanks for all the continued support and love through this difficult time! I appreciate everybody who is still messaging and sending positive thoughts. It still means so much and would love to see this continue! Jenn xo
I've been asked by everyone how I am doing and the truth is this process has been very difficult. I have been staying as positive as I can, however there is a lot of stress associated with having cancer. Besides actually having cancer I have to go through many procedures, make difficult decisions and attend many appointments that were not expected. Even though I have experienced so much kindness and love because I don't appear to be sick I feel I get judged sometimes by people that don't know what I am going through. The other day I went to one of my appointments on my own and was lost in the cancer section in the building. I politely asked if I was in the correct area and the lady at the desk rudely replied this area is for cancer patients only. I responded by saying actually I do have cancer. This is the common don't judge a book by its cover and I feel because I am young and don't look "sick" that people assume I am not going through something. I also have had the difficult decision of going through fertility treatments. This has probably been the worst experience thus far. I walked into the fertility clinic surrounded by 30 other couple holding hands and preparing to start families. I went in knowing that I have to go through this because unfortunately I may not have the choice to have babies after this process. After much thought and research I have decided to undergo fertility. I may still able to have children after all this but I am taking a risk after what I will putting my body through. I do want to explain that this was a very difficult decision based on the high cost and difficult procedure but in the end I want to have the choice with my future partner to have a family. The fact is that if I wait to see after this process I will be older and may have more problems getting pregnant if I choose too. I will also be on a medication called tamoxifen for 10 years after my treatments due to the type of cancer I have. This medicine will be essential for the process of not having the cancer returning however If I ever want to have children I will have to take a break of the medicine. Essentially the shorter I am on the medicine the better. This has all made an impact on my decision and even though its been a difficult one I know it is the right one for me. Below is a link for anyone who has any questions about fertility process while having cancer. I appreciate the reminders of kindness and courage and thanks to my friend Tanis who sent me the below photo. This really has been a challenging experience but knowing that one day it will be over and the kindness that is out there is really getting me through. Jenn xo
http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/fert_preg_adopt/treatments/chemotherapy |
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