D-O-N-E, DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Babe all of those exclamation points are for you! ;) ]
I did it! I am officially done with chemo!!!! This is a pretty exciting place to be! After 12 rounds I have finally made it to the end. I couldn't have done it tho without all of the amazing people who have supported me and given me encouragement through out this entire process.First and foremost my gratitude goes to my Heavenly Father for looking after me and my health. Next, My Oncologist, Dr, Bhalla, was awesome (even if at times he was forgetful). My chemo nurse, Diane, was amazing, as was my other nurse (don't know the technical name for her), Shelly, and the entire staff at Ironwood Cancer Center. I also have an incredible list of family, friends, coworkers, classmates, teachers, mentors, and strangers,whom I now consider great friends, that I owe a huge thank you to as well. THANK YOU!!!! BUT the biggest I love you and thank you goes to my brothers and sisters and my parents. You guys are without a doubt the best family a girl could ask for. I have no idea where I would be without you. You made what could have been a completely miserable couple of months so much easier on me not only by giving me the love, support, and encouragement I needed, but by keeping me laughing and smiling and just being there for me every step of the way. I consider myself tremendously blessed to have all of you. Mom and Dad I I love you tons and I hope you know how much I appreciate everything you have done and you do do for me. I couldn't have asked for better parents.
So, enough of that ( although I really do mean it from the bottom of my heart). Once again, everything went smoothly and the feeling of walking out of that office knowing that I don't have to go back in two weeks for my next round was indescribable. I am not sure tho that it has really sunk in that my chemo is done. I know it is, but I am not sure if I believe it 100%. That is going to take time.
Dr Bhalla, will be setting me up with Dr Woo, a Radiologist, soon. So, I should know in the next couple of weeks what I should expect as far as radiation goes. To my surprise, I don't have redo any of my scans right now. I think the results from my half way point were satisfying enough. Dr. Bhalla said I will just be doing them periodically from now I on as a check up. That is so cool, but it is also a little scary. Everytime I go to get a scan done from now on I know I am going to be nervous about the result. I am, however determined to change my lifestyle around in an attempt to avoid getting cancer ever again. I have read quite a few articles and have browsed thru several books for ideas on what to do to get myself in better shape and keep cancer away and if you have any tips I would love for you to send them my way. This is something I really want to do. The goal is to live the rest of my life Cancer free, but if it does come back I at least want to be in a fighting position. As I have said before, I am one stubborn girl and I absolutely refuse to go down without a fight and giving it everything I have!!! I intend on having somewhat of a new atttitude and outlook on life as well. You only get one shot so it is important to have the courage to really live your life. I had a coworker, a really sweet girl, Reba, who was kind enough to buy me a little gift for finishing my chemo. She got me a ring to remind me of where I have been and what I can do. The package has a quote on it from Vincent Van Gough that reads "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything," and the package goes on to say "Whenever you wear this ring remember to be courageous, follow your dreams, and love life." That is exactly what I plan to do and I am so excited to have this adorable ring to serve as my constant reminder to do just that.
Before I let you go, I should also mention we are throwing a party to celebrate my victory this round. It will be held May 30th ( a saturday night) at a close friend's house. Anyone who wants to come and join in the the celebration is welcome. Please just email me at mckenna.hansen@gmail.com and I will send you all of the info you need. We would love to have you.
Ttyl :)

Kenna!

!!!!!!!!!!!! Uno Mas !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha ha, my roommate always jokes that every time I put more and more exclamation points in my titles, but it is only because I am more excited. Its now down ONE chemo. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. Sometimes it felt as though this day would never come and yesterday, just for one second, it really seemed as if it wouldn't. I met with my oncologist, Dr. Bhalla, and as he was looking over my paper work and talking to me he was acting as if I still had several chemo treatments left to do. I was completely panicking in my mind thinking that there was no way I could possibly do this any longer, six months was more then enough, and then finally, after what felt like an eternity, he said "Oh yeah I see that we had you down for six cycles and this is the first round of the sixth cycle so your next chemo should be your last one," .... whew, I was so relieved. Then, my dad jokingly replied "its a good thing you said that or she might have jumped you." The sad part is, that is probably true. I mean I know my doc is only looking out for me and wants me to get all of the treatments that I need to get better, but if I had my way I would never set foot in a cancer center ever again for the rest of my life, although I know that really isn't possible. I admire the people who are able to go back in to those places and talk to the new patients about hope and survival. Maybe one day I will be strong enough to do that myself, there have been so many people who have helped me and being able to that for someone else would be amazing.
Anyway, as usual things went off with out a hitch yesterday and I have nothing but the my normal side effects of tiredness, soreness, nausea, and that funky taste in my mouth. EWW. I just keep telling myself I only have to hang in there for one more round. On May 12th I am DONE. Two weeks and counting.

Name Change

So you may be wondering why, after all this time, I decided to change my blog's name (or you could careless, but either way I feel the need to explain myself). Well, one reason, if you haven't noticed already with the frequent background changes, is that I can get bored of things pretty fast. I like things to be new and different... well at least certain things and so it was time for a change, but perhaps more importantly then that is I just think this one fits better. Kenna vs. The Blob was something my mom had jokingly suggested when I first began thinking about starting this up, as the weeks go by and I get closer to the end of this process however I am finding that that name is pretty representative of what is I am doing. All of this started with a small bouncy ball sized lump on my neck that ignored for way too long and once I finally did get smart and decided to consult a doctor about my blob it had already turned into a fight. My blob wanted to destroy me. Now, as cheesy as it sounds, day after day, week after week, I have to battle it to save my life and the further I am into this war the harder it gets. I find myself having to dig a little deeper to find what I need to keeping moving forward, because it isn't just the physical pain that wears on you, it is the emotional roller coaster it sends you on as well. In a way though I feel sorry for it. That poor little blob, it didn't know who it was picking on! I am one stubborn girl and I refuse to let it win, AND if that wasn't enough I know I have a whole army of family and friends who are there to back me up, so BRING IT!
Ha ha. Sometimes I really love corny stuff! Which reminds me.......

What do you call a two wheel vehicle that your father rides?
A popcycle!
Why does a chicken coupe only have two doors?
Because if it had four doors it would be a chicken sudan
If there are 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour, how many seconds are there in a year?
Twelve. January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd, April 2nd. . .
What do you call a dog that has no legs?
You don't call it anything, 'cause he couldn't come even if you did call him
What did the right shoe say to the left shoe?
I think we must be sole mates.
Why is the math book always crying?
Because it has so many problems
How do you get a tissue to dance?
You put a little boogie in it
What does a house wear?
A dress

...... OK, I think I am done now.

2 To G0!!!!!!!!!

AMAZING! I can't believe it!!!!! I am so excited!! 2 Chemos left!!! My chemo nurse, Dianne, handed me a calender today with my last chemo scheduled and circled on it and my face instantly lit up. It is just one month and I am DONE!!!!!! Then, its off to radiation. Hopefully that will go well. I am told that it is fairly easy compared to chemo.
I know I have only been dealing with this since November, that is only 6 months, yet it seems so much longer then that. I can't really remember what it was like not to have to worry about all of this. While I truly have been blessed with my health and strength in getting through this, I can't wait for things to get back to normal. In fact, I find myself getting excited to go to my chemo and doctors appointments not because I want to be there, honestly I don't, but because with every appointment I am that much closer to the end.
Today things went really well. My older sister, Jerah, went with me and we had a pretty good time . They got us in and out in really fast. It only took about an hour and twenty minutes and everything went really smoothly. I didn't have any problems at all. The last few times I have been getting a little sick to my stomach, but I think we have found a solution. Who knew sniffing alcohol wipes could actually be a good thing? After my appointment, as I have been doing after every chemo lately, we went over to Ariba Mexican Grill and got their 99 cent tacos. Mmm.... they are good. It has gotten to the point however that they recognize me when I walk in the door. I don't know why, but I hate that. There is just something uncomfortable to me about being known as a regular. Maybe next time we will mix things up a bit.
Anyways, as it turns out Emma beat me! :( She got her neckbrace off today. I am totally jealous, but like I said I'll be done soon!!!!!! She looks fabulous and I hope she doesn't mind me saying, but I had forgotten what her neck looked like. Its a nice looking neck (if that is at all possible). I was kind of afraid that it was going to look kind of funky like arms and legs do after a cast has been taken off, but I suppose a neck brace lets in a bit more air then a cast does.
We decided to tattoo my head again and this time we went all out. They are still all stick ons and completely hokey again, but I thought the design turned out AWESOME!Check out the pictures below. That is all I have for now. I'll ttyl.

Kenna

3 TO GO!!!

Doesn't that seem like such a small number? I am so excited! It seems like since I have made it over the hump of my half-way point things have been flying by pretty fast. Overall, things went well today. We had a bit of a scare yesterday. As I have mentioned before my arm has been turning a bit purple and swelling a little, but it never sticks around too long so we hadn't got it checked out, but as I was getting ready for bed Sunday night I noticed that not only was it looking strange again, but this time it was hurting me as well. Whenever I moved my arm it felt like I had a pulled muscle. It wasn't too painful, nothing more then you would have after a good workout, but we wanted to play it safe so I called up my chemo nurses. They set me up with a Doppler exam on my right arm and shoulder stat just to be sure that it wasn't a blood clot. If that is what it would have turned out to be we would have had to treat it immediately and I would have missed my chemo session today. Surprisingly I was upset about that. With a month off it would be really hard to go back! Luckily, it wasn't a blood clot. I still have no idea why my arm is being weird however, but at least we know it is nothing really serious.
I got to see Dr. Bhalla today and he went over the tests I had done since I last saw him. Nothing came as too much of a shock. I was already feeling fairly confidnet that I was doing well, yet it was still nice to hear him confirm it. He told us that while I still had lymph nodes visible on the PET scan they are not absorbing gluclose anymore so more then likely the reason why they are still larger is because of scar tissue meaning that I am being quite responsive to my chemo. :) He also informed me the my PFTs showed that I have some lung restriction so he will be removing one of the medications from my chemo to prevent it from getting worse. So, I was doing ABDV and now I am getting rid of the B and doing ADV (that cuts like 5 minutes of my treatment time!) I will also have to get a MUGA scan in the next few weeks to insure that my heart is still function normal as well.
I would also like to make a small note on Karma. A little over a year ago I had a friend ( I won't say her name to save her some embarassment) who accidently shaved off a rather large portion of her eyebrow, so she decided to draw it in. Well, we decided to go to a party that night and with being in the large crowds it got pretty warm. She went to whipe the dew (afterall she is a lady and does not sweat... hehe) off her forehead and then, suddenly with a look of terror on her face she turned to me and said "Did I just smear my eyebrow?" I lost it. I thought it was so funny from the look of fear on her face alone, nevermind the fact that she had dark eyeliner smeared on her hand. The poor girl. Not only had she lost her eyebrow, but now she had to worry about accidently whipping the one she had drawn in off. I have never really let her live that one down. Anyways, as the weeks go by my eyebrows keep getting thiner and thiner. At the moment they are pratically nonexistant! What goes around comes around!!! Now I feel awful for having made fun of her so much, but maybe she will be forgiving enough to give me lessons on how to draw in some new brows if I decide I need that! I don't know if that is something I can handle.

On another note........
I think I should mention the gratitude I have been feeling for my chemo treatments lately. Although being positive and happy despite your circumstances has been lesson I have been taught since I was young I have never really had to apply it quite as much as I have needed to lately.As a result I have been reaching for little snidbits of wisdom I have picked up over the years. When I was in the Young Woman's program for my chuch I was given a lesson by a leader on trails. She read us the book Cinder Edna. If you have never read it I highly recommend it. Like Cinderella, Cinder Edna is forced to live with her wicked stepmother and sisters, do all of the chores, and is poor, but instead of complaining, wishing for better days to come, and sitting by the fire wallowing, Cinder Edna makes the best of her situation. She turns the chore of having to cook all the meals for her family into a learning tool and comes to know a ton of recipes for Tuna Caserole. She spends her free time reading funny jokes and cleaning bird cages for extra money. When the ball comes around Cinder Edna goes to the store and puts a simple but elegent dress in layaway with the extra money she had earned and on the night of the dance, instead of relying on her fairy godmother to come rescue her, Cinder Edna goes to the store picks up her dress, slips on her comfortable loafers for dancing, and takes the bus to the ball. There she also meets her prince charming, the younger brother of Cinderella's man, Prince Rupert, and she actually gets to know him as they dance the night away. By the end of the evening, she had to bolt at midnight because that is when the buses stop running, they know each others names and interests, so when it comes time to find the girls Prince Rupert, unlike his brother, doesn't have to try a glass slipper on every girl in the kingdom, he is able to look up his love in the phone book. I love this story. Ater reading it I never looked at Cinderella the same way again. Often I look to Cinder Edna for inspiration as I strive to become more like her. With her example I took the lesson I have been recieving since I was young about being positive and happy despite your circumstances and built on it slowly developing a sort of personal philosophy. I believe it to be important to find joy within yourself instead of letting your circumstances control how you feel. I believe it to be imprtant to be grateful for you have. When you start counting your blessings you get to see how truely fortunate you are. I believe it is important to work hard for what you want instead of just wishing for things to come our way and I believe it is important to take the hardships you are given and really grow from them, allowing yourself to become better because of them. Going in for my chemo treatments and fighting for my life has forced me to examine myself and my life more closely and it has made me realize that there are a few things that I am just not happy with and other things that I want that I wasn't going after. Coming to understand that has made me want to change those things. I am excited for that. I have already started to work on it and the experience has been wonderful. I feel awesome! I love it and that gives me the motivation to keep pushing forward and to keep working at my new goals. So, thank you to my chemo, Cinder Edna and the leader who read me the book.

Sorry that was another long one!!! :)
Ttyl,

Kenna

PET scan

So, as I predicted I am pretty much incapable of reading my PET scan results report. I don't speak medical, but I was able to pick up that I am doing well. Phrases like "significant improvement," and "Overall, positive response to chemotherapy," gave it a way. :) That is great news, but I am looking forward to having my doctor explain everything in an easier to understand way so I can get a clearer picture in my mind of how far I have come and how far I still have to go. Hopefully, we are still on target. Ttyl

4 to G0!!!

Ok, sorry I know it has been forever since I have been on here and since I've posted :(, so once again if I am leaving any information out please let me know cuz at it turns out I am not a very good blogger.
Yesterday's chemo session went really well. I got through the whole thing without feeling queasy at all!!! :) It also seems, and I know this sounds a little weird, that I have become more absorbent. Each time I am able to get through my medications faster. Now, I am usually able to get out of there now within 2 hours. When I first started it was taking 3 and 4 hours. It helps time pass however when you have someone there to entertain you. This time my younger sister Emma went with me. We always look odd when we hang out together these days. She still has her neck brace on and I am still walking around bald. My Dad jokes around that our family looks like it could be the new poster family for medical care. I think that may be even more true now! My mom, my sisters, and I went out to dinner and a movie on Friday night. We had just learned that Jerah is pregnant again this past week and unfortunately that caused her to feel a little sick after dinner on Friday. So, as we go walking up to the theater Emma is in her full on neck brace, I obviously am caner patient with my hat on and my port visible, and Jerah has this look on her face serving as a warning that at any moment she was capable of blowing chunks everywhere (sorry, I know that is a little graphic). My mom had to have a chuckle that she was the most normal one there.
Anyway, it was really fun to have Emma with me. Like all of my brothers and sisters Emma has a wonderful sense of humor and is so much fun to be around. She makes me laugh. We decided to pass time by playing speed ( a card game). I'll admit it, she beat me 3 out of the 4 times we played, :( (what happened I use to be much better then that), but I have my suspicions that she may have cheated once or twice. My chemo nurse, Dianne, also gave me my calender for my next few chemo sessions. It had 3 of the 4 sessions I have left on it!!!! That brought the biggest smile to my face! I am also there! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! My last session should be May 12th ( I thought it was going to be cinco de mayo, whoops). Its looking like that week is going to be awesome for me because it is my last week of school as well. By the way, I should mention that school is going great so far. I am doing excellent in all of my classes and have only missed had to miss class once or twice. Work has been a bit tougher then that just because I am there more and when I am there its more demanding on me physically and mentally, but still I have been lucky and for the most part have been able to do my job without too many problems.
I got the tests I need done last week. The mamagram went really well and it wasn't as bad I thought it would be and while the nurses aren't really aloud to tell me anything one of them did mention that she hadn't seen anything which put me at ease along with the fact that they didn't take too many pictures, that is always a good sign too. The PFTs (pulimanary function tests) also went well. In fact, they were so much better this time! While I still didn't really like sitting there, sorry its just boring, it was way easier to do the test. It didn't hurt nearly as much. The tech told me that last time I had only scored a 65% and the average person scores around 80%. I knew my scores had been bad last time. I had told my dad after the last test that I must have failed, I could just tell by the look on the guys face when we left, but my dad just laughted and said that it was impossible to fail that kind of test because it wasn't a pass or fail thing, but I would just like to say that at least a far as medical test go, if you are not normal or average, in my mind, you have failed! So, I am happy to report that I got an 82% this time! YES!!!!!
I did my PET scan on monday and have not herd the results yet. I am unwilling to wait to see my doctor in two weeks to hear the outcome however so I decided to cheat. I called MDI and asked for a copy of the report and a CD of the images they took which I will be picking up later on today. I don't know what I will be able to make of them considering my medical knowledge is limited, but I will report on what on I am able to figure out.
One last thing, I have recieved a ton of compliments on how sparkly my diamond earrings are and it always brings a huge smile to my face. Mission accomplished. The jewler did an excellent job in picking those diamonds out. He really did use the two most sparkly. Thank you guys again for them.
That is all I have for now. I have posted a couple of pics of the family below. This was the night before Tanner left on his mission. We have herd much from him, but he seems to be doing well. Peace! Kenna

Tanner and JerahTanner and Carl

Tanner and Abby
Tanner and MeTanner, Ethan, Emma, Mom and DadI have no idea why Tanner has to be a goof in every picture. It is impossible to get him being serious. Sorry about the really long post!