Tristyn completed his last round of radiation yesterday and now his cancer treatment is complete. To say that we are excited is an understatement! Cancer didn't have a chance against his strength, determination and positive attitude. So proud of him. Some final radiation photographs. In the first photograph, you can see how happy TJ is that it's his last session. You can't finish Cancer treatment and not celebrate! We had a little party at home to mark the occasion. What's next for TJ?Tj's cancer treatment may now have come to a completition but unfortunatley the doctors visits have not. TJ has to get a review next month and a PET/CT scan in August. He will need to have 3 monthly visits with his oncologist for the next twelve months. This is then reduced to every 6 months for a year and then to once a year for a few more years. If the cancer hasnt returned after 5 years (Fingers crossed) then he will then be classifed as CURED. Yay!! Five things we have learnt from this experienceThere are so many things that we have learnt during this experience. The list seems endless but here are five of them: 1. There are compassionate, empathetic, caring people out there Sometimes the world can seem like a dark and desolate place and there are many people out there that are not so nice to each other but dont give up on humanity because good people with kinds hearts do exist. I know, because we experienced first hand how loving, kind and generous people can be, especially when times were tough. 2. Gratitude We've always been grateful but even more so now. Here are some of the things we are grateful for:
3. Don't sweat the small stuff I know it's such a cliche term but it's so true. There are so many more important things to worry about other than 'The guy who served me coffee forgot to put sugar in it. FML'. Instead of being angry and bitter about the lack of sugar (even if it tastes crappy) be grateful that you could afford to buy a coffee-you're not going to die from lack ot taste. Stressing out about small things like that isn't even worth the anger or frustration. When facing Cancer, or when someone you love is facing Cancer, most other problems seem small. Stressing about little things is nearly impossible to eliminate but it can be managed. 4. Find time to do what you love- One of the things that my son loves to do is play PC games. In his spare time when he wasn't having cancer treatments he would play online with his friends. Not only was he having fun socialising and interacting (even though he wasn't necessarily face to face with them) but he was also distracting his mind from thinking about the fact that he had cancer. It was like a moment of escapism from the daily cancer grind. I should probably take this opportunity to put a plug in for my son ;) Not only does he play PC games but he also streams himself playing games so that other people can watch. If you're a gamer or your child is or you like watching people play games (I know it sounds kind of stalkerish but its actually fun. lol) then please feel free to check out TJ's twitch stream: www.twitch.tv/nitris He will be able to do a lot more streaming now that he hasn't got appointments to attend :) 5. Don't be afraid to ask for and accept help- We are a military family. Both my husband and I left home and joined the military when we were both young. We haven't had any family live close to us in nearly 23 years. This is due to constantly moving due to military postings. We have had to rely only on ourselves. We never had babysitters to look after the kids so we could go and catch a movie or anyone to drop and pick up our kids from school for us because we were running late. I'm not looking for sympathy because we both chose this lifestyle. We have just learnt to adapt and work things out for ourselves. This is why it was really hard to accept help when people first started offering it to us when TJ was diagnosed and probably why we are also so extremely grateful to have received it. In the end my husband and I knew we needed it. We couldn't do this alone. Sometimes it's okay to break down the walls, let people in and actually ask for help and accept it. And that's it folks for now. x
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Thought it was about time that I gave you all an update on TJ. TJ is now half way through his radiation. Everything seems to be going fine so far and he has had no side effects as yet. The whole process is reasonably quick. We spend more time in the car travelling to the hospital then the treatment itself. The staff at the hospital have been fantastic and have been able to work around TJ’s school hours so he doesn’t miss out on too much. We had a review today with his oncologist and she is happy with how he is progressing through radiation. We have tentatively booked an appointment in for him to get another PET/CT scan about 4 weeks post radiation. Any earlier than that and it will be hard for them to tell what is normal, abnormal or just scar tissue as a result of radiation. We are counting down the days and cannot wait for this to be all over and done with! On another note... TJ’s hair is growing back! This is what one and half months of growth looks like. I think he’s happy that I don’t have to pencil in his eyebrows anymore :p If his hair grows back at a rate that it did before he had chemotherapy he will have a full head of hair in no time! As soon as TJ’s hair started falling out he put a beanie on his head. It has weirdly become part of his signature look. It’s going to be a little strange not seeing him wear one soon. All of his school mates will be shocked the day he walks into school and presents himself with a full head of hair. He said he isn’t taking it off until it has all grown back ( I think it’s also partly because it’s winter and it’s freezing and he’s the only one allowed to wear a beanie at school at the moment ;) That is a good example of getting something positive out of a negative situation. :p We are giving away a pair of Final Touch Eyebrow Wigs (Medium brown) with Adhesive and Adhesive remover. Valued at $93 (Aussies only- sorry!) We bought these for TJ when we found out that he had cancer so that he would have the option of being able to wear them if he wanted to. Fortunately, I mastered the art of 'pencil-ing' in his eyebrows using my eyebrow pencil so he didn't end up needing them. :p These eyebrows are for men but I assume that they could easily be trimmed if needed to suit a female? They are reusable and are made of 100% Human Hair. They are classified as being one of the most superior and natural eyebrows on the market. They are used to give confidence back to people who have lost their eyebrows due to medical treatments, illness, alopecia, stress and hormonal changes Please don’t enter if it is your intention to sell them on ebay etc. That defeats the whole purpose of us wanting to give them away to someone who *genuinely* needs them that can't necessarily afford to buy them. Thank you x If you would like to find out more information on the eyebrow wigs please click on button below: Famous make-up artist Jeffree Star Trialling and reviewing Final Touch Eyebrow wigs. Watch below to see how natural they look!Enter below:I’ve been wanting to do this with TJ for awhile now but haven't gotten around to it until now. Today we did an impromptu Questions and Answers video session. TJ’s blog has mainly been from my perspective as a parent. I wanted to give you all a snippet of how TJ has felt during his cancer experience-from his point of view. I hope that it isn’t too cringe-worthy to watch (Excuse my Umm's). We wanted to keep it real and not edit anything out. Including Tj's purple fluffy socks that he was wearing at the time ;) and me talking over the top of him occasionally- sorry! 🤭 **In the video, TJ made a small mistake in explaining his chemo cycle. His chemo cycle began on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He then had a shot of Peg Filgrastim (immunity booster) on the Monday. Four days after that he finished his last treatment for that cycle (Friday). It is all very confusing and would explain why he couldn’t remember it correctly. TJ also forgot to mention that he experienced tiredness and moodiness during his chemotherapy treatments (side effects)- but obviously this affected us more than it did him because he didn't even remember. lol. Please remember that cancer affects everyone differently. This could include different treatments, medications, side effects, results, attitude, outcome. etc. I haven't mentioned this in TJ's blog until now but his Grandma (My mum) passed away from Lung Cancer this year after a year long battle with the disease. Her experience was very different from TJ's. We cannot compare TJ's Cancer to hers but we have been able to learn from her experience. Prior to my mum's diagnosis, I knew very little about Cancer and what some-one with Cancer has to go through. I now know more than I wish I had to :( I hope that in some way this blog and TJ's cancer experience is able to help one of you out there. If you need someone to talk to or have a question that you would like answered, please feel free to contact us via the contact button. x |
AuthorHi, I'm Tj's Mum; Zoie All Blog Entries
August 2018
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