It's all Greek to Me

I have decided to go Greek my sophomore year and I am so happy about it! I signed up to do formal rush my freshman year of high school because my friend talked me into it, but I couldn’t really see myself being in Greek Life. A lot of things happened and I decided not to go through with it. A little bit after I found out I was sick, one of my friends I made who was in a sorority really helped me out the two weeks I went back to school. Her whole sorority was nice and kind to me. They decorated my door with this big sign that read “Don’t let Ovarian Cancer Dull Your Sparkle”. They also teamed up with a fraternity and they through me a surprise party. They made signs and letters that read Hope. The fraternity also sang the song Just the Way You Are to me. It was very nice and made me feel amazing. I just remember thinking after that day how those girls treated me so well and I wasn’t even one of their sisters. Just imagine if I was. I knew at that moment I had to Go Greek. I wanted to be a part of this amazing organization that does things like this all of the time. I wanted to be a part of the sisterhood and gain the everlasting friendships. I also was only at school for a month my freshman year so I don’t really know anyone and this is an excellent way to get involved.

            Formal Recruitment is the first two weekends of school it has 5 rounds. The first round is split up into 2 days and it is where you meet the Greeks. I believe there are 13 sororities so over the first two days you go and meet with each chapter and talk to them and get to know what they are all about. The second round, which is the third day, is called sisterhood round. I do not know exactly what this round is all about, but I am assuming you get to learn what the chapters do together for fun and out in the community. Also how they bound. The third round, fourth day, is called Philanthropy Round. Every sorority has a national, and sometimes local, Philanthropy that they raise money and donate too. Some of the examples on campus are: Service for Sight, Autism Awareness, Make a Wish Foundation…just to name a few. So for this round you get to see what each chapters Philanthropy is and how they raise money and get involved to help support it. The fourth round, fifth day, is called Preference round which is also known as Pref Parties. This day is a lot more serious and formal. You need to dress nice and look presentable. This is where you meet with the chapters and have a more in depth conversation with the girls and their chapter. I am not too sure about the specifics, this is just stuff I have read online. The Fifth round and final day is called Bid Day. This is where you get a bid from a chapter and you get to meet your new sisters. All of these rounds lead up to this day and it is very exciting. I am going to blog about my experience so I will make sure to write about every single day!

Normally, you would go through each round inside the chapter’s house on campus, however all of our Greek Houses got torn down last year. We are in the process of getting brand new houses built and they will be ready by next fall. Fall recruitment next year will be held inside the sorority houses. This year, they’re inside our Student Union on campus.

New Greek Houses

            The girls who are going through recruitment are called PNMs (Potential New Members). Every PNM has a group of ladies called Rho Gammas. Rho Gammas could be called something different depending on your school. At BGSU, you have 3-4 Rho Gammas. A Rho Gamma is someone who disaffiliates with their sorority to help others find their new home (sorority). It takes a lot to be a Rho Gamma because you can’t talk or do anything with your sorority until Recruitment is over. I LOVE my RGs and already can tell they are going to help me out a lot. They have already given us a guide on what to wear for each night of recruitment and have helped answer some of my questions I have had about the whole process. Rho Gammas are also not allowed to be biased so when you go through recruitment, you will be able to talk to them if you are having trouble picking out what sorority you want to join.

I am so excited for this process to start and I can’t wait to find my new home in a few month

MRI Appointment

I am always nervous whenever I go in for an MRI, so today wasn’t any different. I have to get an MRI every 3 months for the rest of this year to make sure my cancer hasn’t come back. This MRI is also going to look at my tumor my doctor found earlier in the year. My cancer doesn’t have a high reoccurrence rate when chemo is used, so I am not really nervous about the results just the test itself.

Whenever I get an MRI, I always go to the main campus of UH and the MRIs are all the way in the basement. It is so eerie down there and just sets a very bad tone. This time I got to get an MRI inside of Seidman Cancer Center and I LOVE this building! It is brand new so everything is nice and it makes you feel like you are at home.

 

 

They also have this cancer store where you can buy merchandise and apparel for every single type of cancer. I really wanted to get a shirt that said survivor but then something else caught my eye. The day before I was telling my mom how I loved all of the UH fertility specialist’s company jackets and I really wanted one, except I wanted it to say Seidman Cancer Center. I spent a good chunk of the last year of my life there from my surgery, chemo, and appointments. And what do you think I found….that exact jacket! It was pricey, and even though I thought all cancer patients should get one for free haha, I bought it! And it put me in such a good mood.

 

To make things even better, the nurse who put my IV in was trained in doing it so she got it in on the first try! When I went into my MRI, it was really relaxing and nice. They have a nice scenario that plays on the walls and soothing music. Way different then the MRIs in the main campus. It made me feel safe and calm and they only had to redo one of my pictures. Normally they have to redo a lot of pictures because I move around a lot.

The only downside was that I had to get this shot that slows down movement in my intestines so they can get better pictures. This shot always makes me so nauseous and sick. But other than that everything else went well!

After my appointment I met up with a girl I met on facebook who has brain cancer. She was signed up to do the Disney College Program for the fall term and posted in the Facebook group how she couldn’t attend anymore due to cancer. I reached out to her because I was put in a similar situation. I found out I had cancer a week after I got accepted into the program. We talked for awhile until one day we found out we went to the same hospital and lived pretty close to each other! She gets her chemo treatments done at Rainbows in UH and radiation at the Seidman Cancer Center. She was getting radiation that day and I stopped down to chat with her before she went in. It was so nice to talk to someone who knew exactly how I felt and what I have gone through. We were both freshman when we found out and we both couldn’t go back to school. I plan on going to Rainbows to visit her during one of her chemo treatments really soon. Every please say a prayer for my friend Mackenna, she has a long battle but she is definitely a fighter!

 

I get my results back from my MRI tomorrow and I will post how everything goes.

 

Fertility Treatments

So last Thursday I went a fertility doctor to figure out my options for the future. I needed to see a fertility specialist because I have a tumor on my last ovary. This tumor is not supposed to be cancerous and I am going to get a surgery to get the tumor removed. My doctor told me he wanted me to see a specialist before he did the surgery in case he had to take out my ovary. I had my left ovary removed when I had my first surgery back in October. If I lose my last ovary I will go into “forced menopause”, I think it’s called that, and I won’t be able to have kids.

The appointment was just supposed to be a consultation and my mom and I were going to get information on my options. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through with the treatments. I was nervous and scared and I didn’t mind the idea of adopting my kids.

However, when I got there my fertility specialist just started talking to me like I was going through with the procedure. My mom really wanted me to do it and they both made a really good point. I can always just go through it so I have that option later down the road. I started preparing myself for everything I would need to do and I became more comfortable with the idea.

My doctor went over the basics of what the procedure would be like and everything I will need to do. The whole process is 2 weeks and I will need to take medicine during those weeks that will increase my hormone and estrogen level. On the 36^th hour of the last day, I will go into the hospital and prepare for surgery. The surgery will be very minor and my anesthesia will be light. It will feel like I am in a twilight. I have never had any teeth pulled, but I think it is the same feeling when they put you to sleep. While I’m asleep, they will go and get as many eggs as they can and then freeze them. The whole process takes up to 45mins. So it will be a very quick, easy procedure.

After I talked with the doctor, I spoke with two nurses that will be helping me with the medicine and surgery for the whole two weeks. First they explained to me how to use my medicine. I have two shots I have to do BY MYSELF and one pill I have to take orally. The shots have to be given at night in the belly and I can take the pill anytime that I want. I have to also come into the doctor’s office three days a week early in the morning to get an ultrasound and blood work done.

I had to get a lot of blood work done at my appointment when I went as well. They had to check to make sure I didn’t have a lot of diseases and wasn’t pregnant and things like that. I always warn nurses before they poke me that I am a hard stick. They normally need to get a specialist to put an IV in or get blood. The nurses never listen, and I don’t if it’s a pride reason or what but they always think they can do it. They tell me how they have been doing this for a while and they should be able to handle it. Well five pokes later they finally listen to me and get someone who specializes in this area. The same thing happened that day and I had to get poked 5 times before they found a good veinL.

This day was so stressful because my doctor wanted me to start this procedure the very next day. When he did an exam on me he looked to see how many eggs my ovary had released and there were 16. You need 8 eggs for one baby. Each month your ovaries release a certain amount of eggs. 16 was very low, but I only had one ovary and my doctor thinks chemo messed up some of my eggs. He was very happy with this number because he was expecting it to be much lower.

I was way too nervous and felt like I was being pressured into starting the next day and I did not like it all. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to freeze my eggs yet. The appointment had gone from a consultation to you are freezing your eggs to you are starting tomorrow all in the matter of seconds and I was beyond scared. After much talking, I was able to get everyone on the page of me starting next week! I am not sure how many eggs I will have but I need at least 8.

I am very fortunate because most of this stuff is being paid for by two different companies. Both Livestrong and Walmart have programs where they donate the medicine that is needed to people who have been effected by cancer. These companies will also pay for my surgery and when I am ready to have kids, there is a good chance they will pay for the surgery to put the fertilized eggs back inside of me. My family is very lucky because this process is very expensive. I am not sure how much my medicines or the initial surgeries cost, but to keep your eggs frozen it is $570 every year. I will have to start paying for this in 2018 until I am finished with them. The surgery to put your eggs back in is around 15k. So it is a lot and very stressful.

I will post more when I start my treatments and keep everyone updated on my experience!