Come join me on facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/carrie.hetu

I was blown away the other day when I went to check on my facebook page and noticed an overwhelming number of my friends changing their profile pics. One of my friends had the idea and asked one of her friends to create profile pics to show solidarity of support in lieu of my latest update. Feel free to friend request me where I give much more timely news updates on facebook than I do anywhere else!

These are all the images people are using for me that words can not begin to say how touched I am and full of gratitude I am.

Now I am sure you may be wanting an explanation, especially since I have been awful at posting on a regular basis!

Some of you may remember my post back in September I am So Over Hilda That pesky tumor that showed up while all the others had stabilized. They had put me on a new treatment of Zoladex shots and Letrazole pills and December 1, not knowing if the treatment was working yet or not, my family sold everything we had and moved 3000 miles across country to beautiful Southern Oregon.

As soon as we got to Oregon, while I was working getting all the medical stuff switched over, Hilda raised her ugly head and I started having problems. She had grown to where she is pressing on the rib cage again,  well at least inflamed in my liver causing a lot of pain.

It took a month getting my new state insurance and an appointment with my new oncologist for a consultation. A few days before the appointment we discovered a lump in my breast and one in my lymph nodes where the neck meets the shoulder.

The oncologist confirmed this, as well as a couple more which means Hilda has given birth to offspring and the cancer is spreading again.

To what extent remains to be seen as we wait for a PET scan now, which the insurance does not usually cover leaving my oncologist to try to get creative in how to word it to get the insurance to cover it. We need this to show how much of the cancer is active, how bad it has spread and to come up with a new fight plan of attack.

On a side note, Oregon is just what the doctor ordered for a spiritually uplifting most gorgeous scenery ever to be seen and a much warmer climate. This has me hiking all over the place building strong muscles again as we gear up for another battle I want to be strong for!

We live in an area where in January it has been mid 40's and 50's, kind of like a rain forest feel where everything is lush and green, not to mention the hikes have us going up and down the mountainous hills! IT IS AMAZING! No more freezing and hibernating under a blanket for 4 to 5 months in the winter!

So if you like, join in the support by choosing one of the pics above and friend requesting me on facebook ( the link at the very top of this post!) I love a news feed full of awesome people like yourself!

Die Hilda, Die! I am not done living yet!

There is Always Hope

This beautiful and inspiring woman with a powerful message contacted me through email this morning asking if I would share her story. Her husband shared his side of the story from a caretakers perspective back in March. You can read his side HERE.

You can read about Heathers treatment HERE

I hope you enjoy her story as much as I have and I feel really honored she contacted me to share her story with you.

Have an Amazing week full of Miracles and moments that take your breath away!

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Inspirational Guest Post

This very powerful, touching, inspirational guest post is from Cameron Von St. James, thankyou for sharing such a beautiful story! May your wife continue in good health and your family have a long loving lasting time together!

Providing Care During Cancer Recovery

My wife Heather was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2005. Every day since then, I have learned things about myself that I never thought were possible. I've watched her grow as a person, grown as a person myself, and learned so many valuable lessons that I couldn't possibly write them all here. I continue to learn each day and grow. It didn't start out that way, though. It started out in November of 2005 in a doctor's office with my wife and I scared senseless about the diagnosis we had just heard: malignant pleural mesothelioma. We'd just had our first child three months earlier, a beautiful baby girl we named Lily. How could this happen to us at what should have been the most joyous time of our lives?

We didn't have the answer, and over the following months, chaos set in. Heather quit her job to work full-time battling cancer. I worked as much as I could and served as caretaker of both my wife and my newborn daughter. I checked the mail and saw our growing medical bills and felt a huge weight amassing on my shoulders. Terror set in. How would we pay all these bills? How could we afford another trip to Boston, where Heather's treatment would take place? This was perhaps the hardest lesson I had to learn through this process:  that there is no room for pride or stubbornness in a battle with cancer. I had never before accepted financial help from family and friends but in this case I had to. My wife's life was on the line and I would do anything to keep her with me.

She needed me to give her love, and I gave her that, an unwavering support that on the outside seemed strong when she couldn't be. She won't ever know the number of nights I stayed awake crying, not knowing how we were going to make it, fearful of what would happen if she left Lily and I alone so early in life. Thankfully, that didn't happen though. Heather underwent months and months of grueling treatment for mesothelioma, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments in the attempt to rid her body of this cancer.  Today, over seven years since her diagnosis, Heather is cancer free, Lily has a beautiful mother, and I have a beautiful wife that has taught me so much about strength and bravery, and the power of hope and optimism.

Two years into her treatment, I went back to school full-time to study Information Technology and pursue my dream of earning a college degree.  The lessons I learned throughout my wife’s battle with cancer gave me the strength and determination I needed to achieve this goal.  I graduated with high honors, and was given the great honor of giving the commencement speech at my graduation ceremony. I told my fellow graduates that just a few years earlier, being told that my wife could die and leave me a widowed single father, I never imagined that I would be up on that stage giving that speech.  I told them that within each of us is the strength to accomplish incredible, even impossible things, if we only just believe in ourselves.   Lily and her mother were in the audience to cheer me on, and that was the greatest reward of all.