I am finished!!!!

I have been really, really bad at updating this.  I thought this would make it easier somehow to keep everyone updated but the problem is that I have to actually find the time (and energy)to sit down and type something.

The good news is that I finished my last round (6th round) of chemo this past week.  Sam and I had a big day of celebrating on Friday.....his 6th birthday and my last day of chemo!  We went to celebrate on Friday night at Dave and Busters (Sam's choice).  On Saturday we also had a fun adult day.  Gregg and I, along with my parents, Wade and Laura, Suzy and Clayton went down for lunch on the Hill and than to see the Book of Mormon at the Fox.  We had a great day and the show was hilarious.  I think laughter is usually the best medicine.  I really felt pretty good that hold day, which I was very thankful for.
The past few days, I havent felt quite as good but still not terrible.  I am mainly just tired and a little nauseous.  Luckily, I have the best parents in the world who stayed until today to help us out.  I really don't know how we would get through all of this without them.  They drop everything to help us out....with the kids, meals, everything!  I just wish I knew how to ever thank them enough for everything.

I saw my oncologist, as I always do before each round of chemo.  She was a little concerned before this round as my white counts/neutrophils have dropped to a low range.  She actually almost held my chemo until next week.  Instead, she decided to go ahead with getting the chemo and than I had to go in today to get a shot of Neulasta which is supposed to help bring my counts up.  She said there is often the side effect of bone pain due to your bone marrow being stimulated.  I am hoping to avoid this but only time will tell as she said it takes a few days for the side effects to occur.
It really surprised me that my counts were so low.  I have been feeling very good and I have avoided several colds the boys have passed around.  The only thing I can say is that all of the prayers I have been getting plus everything I have been doing with my alternative Dr are paying off!
Tomorrow is a follow up with Dr Yu (my alternative Dr) tomorrow so I will be interested in what he has to say.  I know he will probably want to keep up all the IV's I do with him for a little while to get my system built back up.  At some point, I think I will need a break from all of the IV's though, my veins are shot!
The plan from here with my oncologist is to go back in 4 weeks to follow up with her.  At this appointment, I will get a PET scan and labs to make sure that the chemo continued to work.  I will than have to do "maintenance" which will be one round of Rituxin every 8 weeks.  This is not a true chemo drug and has much fewer side effects.  So that being said, I think the hardest part of all of this is behind me.......wooooo hooooo!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe in all this crazy winter weather.  Hopefully, the next update will come sooner than this one!

A day in the life....

A few people have been asking me about what all I take on a day to day basis.  It is a lot and it gets rather overwhelming at times, especially in the morning when we are trying to get everyone out the door on time.  I do believe in it and want to support my body as much as possible as I go through chemo.  The effects of chemo are taking a toll more with each subsequent treatment but I do believe everything I am doing to support my body is making the side effects much less than they would be.
Here is a walk through of my day and what all I take/do throughout the day.

I start every morning out with something called "oil pulling".  As many of you know, I had a lot of dental work done last year.  My dental area was found to the big problem found by my alternative Dr.  This is the thing that made the most sense to me from the beginning.  I had a root canal done at a young age (7th grade) after an accident where I knocked my front tooth out.  Holisitic or biological dentist believe that root canals can release toxins into your system because you are essentially supporting a "dead tooth".  I could go on for a long time if you want to read more on it go to my Dr, Dr Simon Yu's website, he has a lot of articles on this subject (preventionandhealing.com).
So back to the oil pulling....all it is, is swishing sesame oil in your mouth for 15-20 minutes.  Sound pretty gross, huh?  Really its not back though.  Its supposed to help you remove toxins from your body.
Read more on it at oilpulling.com



Next it is my superfood drink called, Nanogreens.  I have this lovely green beverage two times/day.  It was recommended to me by my chiropractor.  It has the antioxidant power of 10 servings of fruit and vegetables! I think it really does help to give me more energy and help me to feel better.  On the days after my chemo when I am feeling sick, I can't take a lot of my pills, ect., because they make me feel more sick but I make sure I get at least one serving of nanogreens in!  And no, I am not being paid to endorse this product:)

Next up is my "drops".  These are homeopathic drops recommended to my by Dr Yu.  They are pretty icky but I take them 3X/day.  I just put 15 drop of each into a little shot of water and down the hatch they go.  I often wonder if my neighbors see me doing "shots" throughout the day and wonder what is going on:)  These 2 are supposed to help cleanse my lymph nodes and liver.

I take two of these digestive enzymes prior to every meal.  They help me to have the enzymes I need to digest my food better, which means I get more out of everything I eat.

Here is ALL the pills.  Sometimes this is so overwhelming!  I labeled all of them as to how many times per day I take each and most of them are 3X/day.  I cannot say that I remember to take all of these 3X/day everyday but I try my best.  I do get one pill free day each week, which is helpful.  Most pills were recommended by Dr Yu after he did a hair analysis on me and determined by mineral make up in my body.  Some were recommended by my chiropractor as extra supplements to help me during chemo.  I will try to go through each and why I take them

1.  Probiotic (think everyone knows what these are for), 2.  Barley grass (5 pills every morning to help clean my system, remove toxins), 3.  Vitamin D3 5000 (most cancer patients are low on Vit D so I take a lot, more in the winter months than the summer), 4.  Quercetin (its a plant pigment; it was recommend by my chiropractor and she best explains it by helping to protect my good cells), 5.  Vitamin E (200 IU), it is an important antioxidant, 6.  Endo-Dren (enhances glandular function), 7.  Endo C 1000 (Vit C- time release, acts as an antioxidant and also helps as a chelating agent), 8.   Iodoral (this is essentially iodine, most people are low in iodine levels), 9.  Paramin ( provides the necessary balance of calcium and magnesium),  10.  Endo-Pan (Zinc, pantothenic acid and cysteine, designed to support adrenal gland function and enhance coenzyme A activity)11.  Megapan ( multi vitamin-mineral designed to enhance metabolism), 12.  Pyridox (Vitamin B6 which is important for a lot of physiological functions)

These 3 I take only 2 times per week.  I take these to help chelate my body (or remove heavy metals from my body).  One of my tests showed I had really high levels of mercury, I also had lead thallium and a few other metals that were higher than normal.  On top of these meds I get an IV treatment called DMPS one time per month to help with the same.

The other major thing I do is I go in weekly for an IV treatment. Up until now, I had been getting an IV of Vitamin C (and other minerals) every week.  Now I am going to alternate between the Vitamin C and a treatment called ozone/UV which is to help "clean" my blood.

So, there it all is.  It is quite a lot but I have kept adding a few little things here and there and now all of a sudden, it is quite a list!  Never be afraid to ask any questions if you have any about any of this.
I hope everyone is doing well.

Over the hump....I hope!

I think things are starting to settle back down over here.  This round of chemo was a little more rough on me than the others.  I don't know if it was the fact that I got a cold at the same time or that this is just my 4th round and it does get harder each time.  I wasn't out of bed much for a few days but Gregg and the boys sure helped me through it.  They really have been great, Gregg goes out of his way to let me rest and get me whatever I need; Sam is just always so sweet and thoughtful for example on Sunday he decided he was going to make me breakfast, lunch and dinner; and Isaac has just suddenly started talking up a storm, I just can't get enough of his sweet little voice.  It's amazing how these boys can come home and brighten my day even when I feel like crap!
Today, I was even able to go back to work.  This in itself was pretty amazing since I barely got out of bed yesterday.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr Yu, my alternative Dr.  I am scheduled to see him and get an IV Vitamin C treatment, which I think will be the trick to getting me back on track.
I have been getting the IV Vitamin C treatment once per week since I started chemo.  It really seems to help with my energy and fighting off colds, etc.  There is a lot of research into the good that these Vitamin C infusion can do in conjunction with chemo, but of course my oncologist is not a big fan (I guess its not part of her research).  This is just one of the little things my oncologist and I don't talk about anymore.  She herself said I couldn't have asked for much better results from my chemo so I really doubt it is hurting anything.  On top of that, it make me feel better and be able to keep up with my boys more, which is my main goal right now:)
I just feel like this is the piece oncology is missing right now.  We know how to kill off all of the bad cells but we have to kill off a lot of the good ones too in the process.  I just want to do anything I can to protect what good cells I can while I'm going through this.   Well I think I will step down from my soap box here but wanted everyone to know I think I am on the upswing again.

Happy New Years to you all.  Here's to many good things in 2013!

Christmas and round 4 is done!

I am happy to save that I successfully finished round 4 of my chemo, meaning I am 2/3 of the way done!  I think that is a little something to celebrate.  I seem to be feeling good so far but it usually takes a few days to feel the ill effects.  I am just happy for good reports this time around and hoping for no major set back this time.

Now here are some happy memories from our Christmas.  We were so lucky this year to get my entire family to be at my parents for the entire Christmas weekend.  It was so fun to all be together and have all the grandkids together....I know my parents were on top of the world!

 The twins and their new "cube"

 My Mom bought all the grandkids these adorable pajamas, they were a big hit.  I don't think Sam took his off all weekend

 Isaac loves his new vacuum, I should have bought one that actually works:)

A happy boy!

Giving this a try for updates.

Hello everyone!

I'm not sure how this will work but I thought I would give it a try.  My email box is kind of out of control and I'm really bad at getting on and sending out emails or responding to emails that I get.
I know a lot of people also ask about what I am doing more day to day with all of my oncologist, alternative Dr, etc.  This way hopefully I can post more frequently without feeling as though I'm bugging people.

As most of you know, I was diagnosed with Follicular lymphoma in the fall of 2011 and reached a point where I had to start chemo this past October.  Today I had my first of day of my 4th round of chemo (which is a combo of Bendamustine and Rituximab).  I also had a CT scan and labs prior to my chemo treatment.  I am happy to say that we got good news from these tests.  On the CT scan it was found that all of my lymph nodes have shrunk to normal size except for a few lymph nodes in my abdomen (which were the largest to begin with).  They did say that the largest lymph node in my abdomen has shrunk by 90%!
Of course at this point, I asked, "so does that mean that I can stop the chemo early?".  My oncologist quickly responded with a big "No".  I thought it was worth a try!
My lab work all looked good also which is a good sign my body is tolerating all the treatment well.

I have been tolerating all the other treatments well with only a few set backs.  The day after my 2nd round the whole family got hit with the stomach bug.  That made things a little miserable, but not just for me.
About 2 weeks after my 3rd round, I broke out in shingles.  It was weird how it came on suddenly because I thought I had been feeling pretty good after that round.  I guess it can strike at any time if your immune system is a little down, guess the chemo had done that for me.  Luckily, I caught it early, started on my meds and was pretty much healed up by Christmas.  We were still able to go to my parents to celebrate Christmas which was a great blessing.  The only down side it that I wasn't able to hold my sweet little niece and nephew the entire time.  I guess I will have to make up for that another time!

Well I think this is a long enough post for now but I will try to update this more frequently and keep you more up to date on things......you all can check up on things as you want.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Love, Rikki

Half Marathon

After 12 weeks of training, Suzy (my sister), Maureen (my neighbor), and I finished our first half marathon. When Suzy brought the idea up to me late last year, I just kind of laughed. She slowly worked on me until I agreed. I never thought at that time I would be able to finish it or that I would enjoy it. Today was such a neat day.....the weather was great and I really enjoyed the entire race (minus a few hills). I am very proud of us. Thanks Suzy for encouraging me to do it and thanks Maureen for being my partner in training. I'm already looking forward to our next one!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a very exciting weekend in the Jost household. Rikki and I were confirmed in the Catholic Church Saturday Night and Sammy, in addition to being welcomed into the church, had 2 full days of Easter! Mama, Papa and Uncle Wade came to town. Between them, Aunt Suzy and Uncle Clay, the neighbors and all of the Josts (Todd's family and the 2 of us), Sammy was spoiled more than normal

Sammy Chilling with his glasses and his Easter Suit courtesy of Papa Jost

Enjoying a "Big Milk"

The Gauldin Girls looking good! (if i were to call them the Golden Girls, which way would that be taken?)

All the Gauldins

Family Pic before Easter Vigil

Sammy with the Jost and Winker Kids