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Elana's Cancer Treatment Fundraiser

  • Chemo journey #2

      7 September 2022
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    'For a week after chemo, you are cytotoxic’. My oncology nurse shared after round 1 in July and explains I need to take extra care to protect other family members and people from the toxins of chemo. Double flush the toilet, wash hands, wash towels I’ve used and so forth. I never knew this was a thing.😷🥹

    Overall, the toxicity affects me terribly. My brain takes on a life of its own - plays repetitive songs and torments me with intrusive thoughts and I can’t get it to shut down to rest or sleep. My body craves all the foods I’m needing to reduce to starve the cancer: sugar, red meat and too much fat. I am thirsty ALL the time which keeps me up at night🫣. Busy, busy, busy🥵 Tiresome!

    Emotional energy is at an all-time low. I’m spending my time being STILL. I reduce social media time, communication and tv time to the bare minimum. I can’t deal with external stimulation. I seek only STILLNESS.

    Every 3rd week I receive treatment. 3 drips - 3 drugs, taking about 3 hours, 9h-12h. Followed by a week of downtime mostly spent sleeping, resting, staying home and staying still. We control NAUSEA and vomiting with a subcutaneous pump that is inserted through a small cannula into my tummy fat. The pump delivers anti-nausea meds 24/7 for 5 days. That seems to stabilise the nausea and gets me through week 1 post-chemo.

    AND🔥🔥🔥

    My healing is happening! The scans after 2 rounds show overall no activity. Cancer is not active or progressed 👏😌🙏🏻 and we have a right lung pleura on a watching brief for the next while.

    AND 🌻🌻🌻

    I can walk up all 15 stairs to my bedroom breathing normally 🫁

    I can walk along the beach and breathe

    I can sleep on both my sides and my back and breathe normally

    I don’t need 4 pillows at night to prop me up, down to 1 pillow

    I can finish a sentence and not be out of breath

    I can go to a restaurant and eat (no nausea)

    I can go to a shopping mall and walk the mall🛒

    I can cook a meal for my family again

    I can clean the kitchen again (when I’m in the mood🤣😂)

    Life is returning to me.

    Hope is even stronger

    My heart is filling with new faith and trust

    I am grateful🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

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  • Chemo Journey #1

      4 August 2022
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    Chemo journey #1: To every person who opened their heart and made a donation to my fund: THANK YOU. 1st treatment started on 7 July. I’ll write more about this later but suffice to say I’ve been through deep waters of constant nausea and vomiting, ending up in the hospital from Tuesday to Friday the week after that - to stabilise me and treat nausea. I was and remain very positive about the possibilities the chemo and immunotherapy treatment offer me - but it’s hard going. My energy is at about 40-50% and I’m so slow. Rethinking how I spend my time - the message is clearly that I need to focus more time and energy on healing, resting, meditation, prayer and relaxation. #mycancerteacher 🔥 Please continue to share my Givealittle link. Every little bit helps. 🙏🏻

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  • Thank you for your kind donations!

      7 June 2022
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    We've made a fantastic start to Elana's fundraiser and we thank you so very much for the incredibly generous donations you have made! I know that Elana feels the love that you've sent to her, and she's so grateful.

    As we continue to edge closer to our goal, we'd love for you to please share Elana's Fundraiser page on YOUR social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram stories) so that more people can become aware of this fundraiser.

    Thanks again, everyone! Bianca

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