Pictures!! Before, during and after...

Now that I know how to upload pics I thought I would post a few for everyone to see how the last year has "looked"....This second to bottom one was my last day of school last year which was also my first day of chemo and I used a sword and shield (courtesy of the Pendleton family) as props to tell my students about my upcoming battle. The one with the microphone was before I was even diagnosed with cancer so I was still blonde! The hospital picture is of my mother and I at USC/NOrris cancer center in LA after my first surgery on October 18, 2006. The one with the dredlock rasta hat (bottom picture) is from the bowling benefit and Lindsey Miller is on my right while her mom, Lori Acosta is on my left. Two wonderful women! The upper right corner picture was taken after James and Sherry DiBari were kind enough to take a razor to my head and clean up what didn't fall out....The one of me taking my own picture was when I had no eyebrows or eyelashes, and I was well into the chemo cycle. Wearing that scarf was a normal part of my headgear when I would go out (hats looked ridiculous on me) and the one of Julie Jervis, myself and maria Cathcart was taken at Dan's farewell recently, so that's the most recent picture i have of my hair, though it's a little longer now :-)

Thought you'd get a kick out of these!

Julie

Getting there but feeling like I'm stuck on a plateau

Hi there,

I've just discovered how to post pictures so I'll put a few up so you can see how my look changed from blondie to baldie to... brunette -ee? This pic is from Dan's farewell and I'm with Julie Jervis and Maria Cathcart from our bible study (which is awesome by the way)

Now for the update...
I'm going to have my herceptin treatment and I'm excited as I count on my calendar to have four more treatments left after this and then a morning surgery to get my port out. Last week I had the opportunity to work with a personal trainer at the Cooper Center in Dallas when i was out of town and it was such a great experience. I worked pretty hard with a trainer there and she pushed me (yes I was really sore) BUT that has given me movement and strenthening tools to work with that seem to be foundational and build on the physical therapy that I'm currently pursuing. Even better is when I visited my local physical therapist/trainer Marilyn, I actually walked away from that appointment walking with the correct posture and no pain!! That was AMAZING. It's so neat working with her becuase it's not like I"m pushing myself when I'm with her, she just knows what to do and I leave feeling so much better. It's almost counterintuitive because you think that you have to work really hard to acheive results when overkill is not what is needed here. So, I'm working on building some foundational strength in all areas and learning what moderation is....for those of you that know me, that is definitley a process.
I do feel, however, like I'm at a plateau and my energy is kind of stuck at a particular point. I mean, I'm taking a math class to get my brain back in gear, and it's a six hour class on saturdays and I came home today and I was wiped out. If it weren't for a diversion fixing sprinklers I would have been in bed napping. I just wonder if this is normal. I'll ask when I'm at the doctor on Monday. Having another UTI and an upper respiratory infection at the same time within the last two weeks was a little deflating becuase I was wondering why I wasn't bouncing back so quickly. I think the key is that my body is in a "rebuilding" phase and I just have to look at things like that. I'm so so so so glad that I have the time to do it. I guess I though, though, that i would be further along on the energy curve than I am now. I still can't really run beyond about 5-7 minutes. Oh well. God has done amazing things and as I glance at the bald-headed picture that I have on my wall from the bowling event I'm so grateful that Christ has carried me through this and continues to. My hair is getting a little longer and is actually getting kind of fuzzy around my neck and needs a cut. As for the color, I'm kind of experimenting with reds/browns and that will likely continue for awhile as I'm growing it out. It's kind of fun that way, actually.
Prayers for restoration of my immune system and muscular-skeletal system are appreciated.
Blessings and much love to you all,
Julie