Day 1 IPT - check!

Day 1 of IPT was a success! The first course of action for IPT was to put the lovely hat, gloves, and booties on my feet. I call it my Iowa gear because it's all ABSOLUTELY FREEZING. The purpose is to trick the fast dividing cells with the cold so that the medicine doesn't travel to those areas to cause things like hair loss, neuropathy (nerve damage), etc. I also fasted prior to treatment to make my blood sugar drop to a low (but safe) level. My nurse Tammy was with me the whole time monitoring me. Once I got to the point where I was feeling sluggish and my blood sugar was at the right level, she injected the Insulin for those starving cancer cells annnnd little did those cancer cells know, the chemo was right after the insulin. Tammy and I were envisioning what the IPT was doing: cracking jokes about what it might look like in my body. We envisioned an army tracking down those remaining cells like a SWAT team and getting them out of my body ASAP.

It was my new friend Diana's first day too, we both had our fair share of laughs throughout the process.

I brought a giant sized container of watermelon for my post IPT snack to share and we loved every single second of it. It was a taste of Summer in my fancy Iowa gear.

Treatment took about an hour and a half all together. Once my levels were good to go, I had a break in my day between other therapies so my dad and I got to go enjoy some time together.

As far as effects go I battled some nausea and a little bit of laziness. I honestly have all of the previous therapies and changes I've made to thank for my lack of side effects. By Friday afternoon I was feeling completely like myself, which was an amazing feeling!

Deek thought it would be funny to take pictures of me at the end of the day Friday to show you guys that I made it through my first day post IPT (Ignore my obnoxiously large "water bottle")

We got back to our place yesterday afternoon to some unbelievable mail from the students at Holy Cross. I spent time reading through each one and wow are these kids amazing!! Everything from valentines cards to good luck posters to bible verses to pretty pictures, I got it all! They are all so precious and I'm thinking I might just plaster them all over my bedroom wall for inspiration ;) One student introduced me to my new favorite quote:

Cancer is NOT a death sentence, but rather, it's a life sentence - it pushes one to LIVE.

The girls at the front desk sent me some lovely flowers and a beautiful card to brighten the room.

A relative of mine, Kelli Schorg, designed t-shirts for whoever is interested. She even got the U of I's permission to use their logo on one of my shirts. The link is posted below!

http://sharonsemb.com

Another amazing thing that happened this week was scrolling through Facebook to see this pop up on my feed. Farrell's is a gym I've belonged to since last March, doing kickboxing and resistance training. The energy there is incredible and their compassion is outstanding. Thank you ICFXB for treating me like family and for doing this in my name. I will be kicking right along with you! Level 10 baby ;)

Thank you all for your continuous love and support. My gratitude is endless.

Love,

Jessica Lynn