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We are Still Dealing with Cancer

These updates are so hard for me to write, but a lot has changed since my last one. If you are a bit behind, here are the previous two updates:

My Husband Has Cancer

Updates from the ICU

Our Everyday Life

Our everyday life has mostly returned, it’s just not quite the same as it was. Will’s chemo schedule is a 21 day long cycle. On days 1 to 5, he is hospitalized inpatient to receive 108 hours straight of an aggressive chemotherapy called EPOCH. These days, I’m usually a mess of running around splitting my time between keeping him company in the hospital an hour a way to taking care of our 5, 6, 7, and 12 year old. Now that school has started, it seems that every week that he is inpatient there is some important school event that can’t be missed. Then, I round up the crew, give them some Lunchables for dinner and drag them to the school meeting – which in many cases could have been an email home!

When Will is home, we are living a simpler life. Unfortunately, we were forced to sell our successful rental company because he couldn’t manage it and I just don’t have the time to do it all. Luckily, the Cutting for Business blog allows me the flexibility to be home to take care of everything he needs. The first week after treatment, he is pretty tired. He is given an injection to stimulate his blood counts and the side effects in the way of bone pain and muscle spasms are crippling for him. Otherwise, we strive for normal and slower paced. We play with the kids and watch their made up dance shows. We watch movies. We watch ridiculous reality shows. We do puzzles. We grocery shop. We do laundry. We plan vacations that we can take as a family when this nightmare is over. We talk… but rarely about Cancer. And, we have dessert nearly every night – we now know that life is too short not to eat dessert.

Life on the Blog

I’m sure you’ve noticed, I am back to blogging on Cutting for Business, but not full time. I’m currently striving to post three new articles per week. Here’s a rundown of what is and what is not going on with the blog:

  • I’m not selling it. I’ve had several emails asking – and no – I’m not going anywhere. I’ve had offers, I’ve declined them.
  • Emails. I’m answering emails as I can find a few free minutes. My turnaround time for emails is about a week.
  • Blog comments. I’m approving and answering a handful of these a week.
  • Social media comments. I’ve read most of them and have acknowledged and liked them as I go.
  • Sponsored posts. I’m currently not teaming up with any companies or offering product reviews.
  • Physical products. I’m not shipping Tee Square Its, Logo Grid Its, or teflon pillows. You can however, still buy them on Amazon here and here.
  • Hard copy books. I am still shipping these, I have a handful left here. When they are gone, they are gone. I will not be restocking hard copy books. But, you can always pick up a discounted digital bundle on Etsy at this link.
  • Conferences. Now that the All Things Silhouette Conference schedule is out, you’ll see I’m not presenting this November. I’ll be back, when I can.

How You Can Help

I’ve had so, so many readers reach out asking what they can do to help me and my family. I’ve gotten handmade cards, meals in the mail, gift cards for take out places, quick recipe suggestions, emails with stories of hope and prayer, and so much more. Know that I appreciate them. I appreciate them all. In fact, they usually make me cry tears of joy. For that, thank you.

If you’d like a concrete way to help us, share posts from the Cutting for Business blog. Whether you pin one of my pins to your Pinterest account, recommend my blog to a friend on Instagram, or tag my page with a helpful post in a Facebook Group – know that all these things help us.

The most important way that you can help me though is simple: Give a hug to someone that is a caretaker. Until this journey started, I didn’t really comprehend everything that a caregiver does. They don’t simply keep someone alive and well. Caretakers have just as many emotions, frustrations, joys, and losses as the person whom they are taking care of. This week has been hard. I’ve felt everything from begging for this to be over to frustrated that it has happened. There have been days when I wanted to crawl under a rock and not speak to anyone ever again to times when I want to get out there and spread the word about Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma symptoms so another family can catch the disease before they are standing in an ICU room over their loved one wondering if they will live.

What’s Next

October will hold the sixth and seventh (and final!) chemo sessions. After that, there will be a few mandatory surgeries and recoveries. We are hopeful by the end of 2018, we can make this a distant memory and prepare to make 2019 our best year ever.

Yours,
Christine Schinagl
Cutting for Business