written by Sharon's husband, Bill: mature adult content ahead  [love,
sex, drugs, cancer, embarassment]
there is no offense intended ahead in this. here, i am speaking
factually and in frank english language. gals, please refer this
information to your guy, he will need to know all this stuff.  talk
about all this now, and choose sides:  the side for the two of you is
the good side, the cancer is the bad side. i always liked the sinead
o'connor bald look from SNL, and natalie portman in "v for vendetta"
movie looks great too.  know the worst part of losing your hair:  but
ooh what must i look like = bald chicks are hot! go figure.  and later
sharon was having her head shaved for the smooth look by our daughter
molly on the same saturday brittany spears did her baldy haircut.  for
your upcoming hair loss, get some motorized clippers. once the hair
started falling it becomes a mess. if you clip it short before it
falls out you will take control of your own look instead of it taking
control.  you can always hide under a wig if you feel you must, at
first. have a look at different comfortable head scarfs and hats. with
chemo and/or radiation, you'll probably be keeping out of the sun this
year, so you get to go shopping now to pick up some sunblock and some
new sunglasses. and UV resistant hats plus more summer coverup
clothing.
i know that chemo nausea happened here only once, we were surprised;
sharon had been doing so well she just hadn't taken the anti-nausea
pills prescribed. for her it was the opposite: one of the early chemos
made sharon hornier. yay! and equally hard to believe, after the first
breast cancer battle she could sing on key! [she always sang off key
since we met in 1971]  nobody can explain this to me, but i swear it's
true and now she can undoubtedly go sing duets with karen carpenter
herself.
sharon and i joined together in the battle against cancer. don't let
this break you two apart.
see your general practitioner together. discuss mutual anxiety and
depression. after springtime diagnosis, we struggled with the weight
of the worrying. thank god for the internet and google. we asked for
antidepressants and got some usual stuff that helped, our battle was
easier without the constant worry. but as soon as we learned
wellbutrin increases the libido, we changed over to wellbutrin as an
anti-depressant. we both found that other antidepressants will depress
the libido, and who needs that at a time you want and need to be
close.  we had our meeting just the two of us in bed at her request
one night; we decided to keep things the same, we wanted her to laugh
at my jokes and we wanted the good sex life to continue; for us that's
why we married and the marriage had lasted over 35 years.
sharon wrestled to a win on her first breast cancer, a nickel-sized
lumpectomy-chemo-radiation.
but when it spread before her 4th anniversary year clearance she then
lost the next 2-year battle with metastasis: spreading with identical
breast cancer cells as a lung tumor and brain tumors. we fought the
lung tumor with more chemo. chemo up thru 2006 does not work within
the brain.
we fought the brain tumors with a total of four non-invasive gamma
knife surgeries [in and out same day service]. they were effective.
also two whole brain radiation courses of 15 to 20 visits each. her
orgasms were more exciting with a brain tumor.  other humor included
misdirected words after a seizure, as in what's my middle name? -
beans? [no bruce!] and as in those things that come to the bird feeder
and take all the food, monkeys? [no, squirrels!] we repeated these and
laughed together.
go to:
www.cancer.org
"learn about cancer"
"choose a treatment topic"
"breast cancer"
"treatment decision tool for breast cancer"
it will take you to nexprofiler treatment option tool powered by
nexcura, all free, which sharon and i used for information and
guidance. it provides questions and answers and varieties of
treatments and descriptions. you will be well briefed before each
doctor visit, and his explaning gets way easier.
there's always a new drug treatment coming out, but they are very
specific to your cancer type.  with so many types of cancer cells
there is a menu of the amazing variety of your courses of effective
treatment.
i didn't think we needed outside help yet,  i was already at her side
24 hours a day. cousin pam, bless her, started to nag me, then our
daughter molly too, so i phoned hospice: they came the very next day
with all kinds of support, doctor visits, nurse visits, social worker
visits, medications delivered, lab technician visits  and even
instructions for caregiver care [that was for me. helpful things to do
lists for her and for me both.  they completely supported us at home
for what became just 2 weeks.
but then it got rougher for her when the pain couldn't be managed,
trouble getting up from bed, side effects of narcotic constipation,
and crying spells,  and the weekly seizures related to the growing
brain tumors.
but not for long, hospice buffalo to the rescue, ambulanced her away
to their heavenly facility for what became her final 2 week stay to
stabilize her meds. she was very comfortable, but was losing more
control of walking and right side control had weakened beyond just her
right arm.  bedrest, tv, and wheelchair rides to visit the 3 different
fish tanks brightened her stay, along with deer, and those "monkeys"
emptying the bird feeder! but she had her final seizure the morning
after we had visited her just the night before.
you can see her smiling and even a smiling baldheaded photo at the
www.legacy.com buffalo news death notices guestbook. her name is
SHARON L. JOHNSTON.  her smile will convince you to go win some more
years for yourselves in this fight against breast cancer.
dedicated with love to sharon, from "beans"