This is Sally. She is our Cancer Care Center resident CNA. She comes around, takes your blood pressure and temperature and makes sure you are comfortable. She makes all the snacks in the snack basket look and taste as if they all come from a 5 star Costco or convenience store. She is also the person that all of us cancer patients look for when we are about to get our treatment. And let me tell you, every single person smiles and looks relieved when they spot her. Oh my gosh, do we all love her!
This is Cheryl. Cheryl is one of the many fabulous and lovely RNs that pretty much do everything at the Cancer Care Center. She was not my original nurse but was my nurse when my nurse was off every other Friday. She's great! I always get excited to see her and she always has the time to talk and catch up on life. Love, LOVE her!
This is Sheryl. She's MY nurse. Always and forever. I love her to the moon and back. We both went through interferon treatments together (her giving me the treatment and me taking it). This treatment is still relatively new for us melanoma patients and nurses. Everyday, she would ask me a lot of bodily function questions and then she would tweak either my tylenol/ibuprofen intake and get me lots of warm blankets to keep me warm before the treatment kicked in and I started to get the chills. These nurses at the Cancer Care Center want to make your treatment as comfortable as possible. Sheryl would call me at home with an idea to help me tolerate the treatment. We talked kids, grandkids, paddle boarding, nursing school, etc. And she gives the best HUGS! She also was there when I talked to my oncologist about the chances of the melanoma cells freaking out and invading every part of my body. I cried during that conversation. I was scared. She and I talked about it after and I don't remember what was said but I do remembered what I felt... Peace. Hope. Love - lots of love.
This, family and friends, is my oncologist - Steve. AKA Dr. McCormack. The older I get, the younger these doctors get! :) Steve is a couple years younger than me and he is the most down to earth, logical, realistic, doesn't beat around the bush, tells me how it is, best oncologist for me. Thank goodness! He's also very fashionably with it. That day he was wearing these very funky orange shoes that looked almost looked like bowling shoes - he totally pulled it off! This man responds to my emails immediately - even on Saturday and Sunday nights when he is not working to answer any of my concerns and questions about my health. We all love Steve at the Cancer Care Center. We really do. I know doctors are on a tight schedule but I have never once felt the need to rush my visits with him. And I know other patients feel the same way and somehow he is always on time for everyone's appointments. He's really, REALLY great. Whew! It really is a great relief to me to have someone as amazing as him taking care of me.
And the Most Valuable Player on my team goes to my handsome husband. Of course. He is always entertaining the team with his quirky jokes and sarcasm. He and Steve talk t.v. and he makes everyone pretty much laugh. Especially me. I totally love this man.
And, although this person was not at the party, I have to mention her. First off, I can't believe this is the only picture I have of us! But, this picture says a lot...
Everyone, meet Michelle. She's my besties mom. August of last year, when I had to go to the Cancer Care Center at Regions Hospital, Monday thru Friday from 1:00-3:00, for four straight weeks, Michelle was the one who picked me up everyday and brought me home. When she first picked me up, she showed me the warm blanket she brought along just in case I became cold from my fever that came every single time I had the treatment. She sat beside me for those two hours and we talked some but mostly we hung out and read and it was AWESOME. She would sometimes get me chips and tea and on those really hot days in August, she would not put the air conditioning on in her car because I was so cold from my fever. The picture I have above was the end of my very first treatment. Sheryl, my nurse, had wrapped me up in blankets and told me to take them home to stay warm. My muscles ached, I had a fever and chills and I was MISERABLE. But, if you look closely to this picture, we are laughing. Michelle has a great sense of humor and it's also easy to get her laughing. We were two peas in a pod during that month in August. I will always be eternally grateful for her friendship, love and willingness to take at three hours of her day and dedicate them to me. Thank you, thank you Michelle!
So, that's some of my Peeps. There are so many others...all of you and other doctors and nurses that have and will continue to help me on my cancer journey. I am one incredibly lucky girl!
