Family Support

As you now know, my hair was falling out and I was in a serious need of a shave. Let me start off by telling a little story. A few years back my sister Jamie was wanting to shave her head, but she wanted me to do it with her. Crazy right? Well if you know my sister that is just her personality. I never wanted to shave my head with her. I would complain about my hair to her and she would just say "then shave it!" I was wanting to grow my hair out longer and shaving my hair... well that wasn't going to happen. When I discovered that I was going to have chemo and lose my hair she wanted to shave her head as well in support, but she is married now and her husband said she can only do that if she shaved her baby boy's beautiful hair. So that wasn't going to happen. Later on she decided she was going to cut her hair and donate it to locks of love. My brothers Dallin and Jacob were also willing to shave their heads with me as well.

As I was going through more and more treatments it was getting harder on my throat, that even I had a hard time talking. I soon gave up swallowing other then small sips of  ice water. Everytime I would swallow my own saliva I would puke. I had to take medicine right before I went to my radiation appointments. Each day was harder for me to breathe, especially when they would snap me in the mask. I wasn't someone that would get very

claustrophobic , but now I am. Each and every day I was getting more sick, more tired, more pained. All my side effects were coming so fast and intense. My mouth was dry, my nose was dry, I was strating to swell. Things were not getting any easier, just getting worse. Jamie was taking me to my radiation appointments almost everyday. Those days I couldn't talk she knew and wanted to keep a conversation none the less and just talked to keep me upbeat, which I was very thankful for. Every morning someone from my ward would "babysit" me to make sure I was okay incase of an emergency. Then in the afternoon Jamie would come over with her son Tyler. The only things I really laughed at during these trying weeks were that little boy and watching The Ellen Degeneres show.

I was in so much pain in my throat that I was using hydrocodone every four hours! Even through the night I would text my mom to wake up and give me my medicine to stop the pain. Since I couldn't swallow I was given my liquid medicine through my feeding tube. Every hour I was in pain It felt like days of torment. I had my next chemo cycle on June 5th. When your going through chemo you tend to get really cold, so they always have warm blankets there, and when liquid keeps going through your body you always have to pee! Sometimes I had to wait for the bathroom.

I will never forget those people I met during chemo. There was one elderly lady who was the sweetest to me, always talked to me and was very sincere. When she finished with her chemo she gave me a bag load of hats to wear if I wanted. She also kept my spirits up. Though I mostly slept when I getting chemo. A week after my chemo I was getting worse with my blood counts, my doctor insisted I have an iron infusion as well as a blood transfusion. My mom was against me getting a blood transfusion for as long as possible, but my doctors were almost begging me to get it so we gave in. On June 13th I had my iron infusion, it looked like having automobile oil going into my body.

On the 14th I had my first blood transfusion at St. Marks hospital. The nurse that was working with me didn't look like she knew what she was doing, she didn't even know how to use a feeding tube so I could recieve my medicine. In fact, my mom gave me the medicine instead of her. All my life I thought my blood type was A negative but it was actually O negative. That day I didn't have anytime to get to my radiation treatment so I missed one day which prolonged the more days I would have to deal with it.