I have officially graduated from chemotherapy! I am so incredibly grateful for my family, friends, nurses and doctors for helping me get here.
What's crazy is that Monday, February 10 marks 6 months since the journey began. Only six months! When you consider what has happened in the last 187 days...it's enough stuff to feel like it has occurred over years rather than months.
I am very fortunate and very grateful that chemotherapy was relatively easy. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't fun and I'd like to never do it again, but it wasn't the scary, terrifying scenario they make it out to be in shows like Breaking Bad. I was never sitting in a desolate line of chemotherapy chairs surrounded by sad looking bald people (myself included). The treatment pod was often a lively place with people watching TV, chatting with their care person who accompanied them and surprisingly, laughter.
My nurse, Stacy, was a God-send. I had 16 total treatments and she only didn't work with me for three of them. We got to know each other and she wrote me the sweetest note on my certificate of completion. Fortunately for me, I have to take a Zoladex shot for the next however long to keep my body in menopause and that means when I get my monthly shots, I still get to see her, even if it's only for a 15 minute appointment. Weird how the folks who are caring for you during your treatment become so important to your life! Truly, I don't know that I would have made it through treatments without her. She is truly remarkable. On February 4, the second to last treatment, my daughter Emily who usually takes me, told Stacy she wouldn't see her again because Jeff was coming to the last appointment. Stacy made sure to give Emily a hug before we left. I mean, how sweet is that?
We saw my actual oncologist this week as well (I've been seeing one of her nurse practitioners). She is very pleased with how well I did on chemo and has high hopes for future treatment. They always tell me how young I am. 46 doesn't sound that young, but as I've learned being in that treatment pod where almost everyone else is like 20-30 years older than me...I am young. [Even the genetics counselor told me despite rises in cancer cases, getting cancer under the age of 50 is still pretty rare when you look at overall cases. A quick Google search told me less than 10% of new cases are in women under 45.] I will do whatever they want me to do in order to prevent cancer from coming back into my life. This is why I opted for a double mastectomy instead of a single and why I did AFC (flat closure) with no plans for reconstruction. I wanted zero possibility that cancer would prevail in my skin and come back with a vengeance.
I get the next few weeks off to recover in peace. No treatments. I have a couple of doctor appointments next week but those are to prepare for surgery and radiation, no active treatments happening.
Can I also just take a moment and give a huge shout out to my amazing husband? Our Boston is sometimes restless at night and keeps me up. My sleep cycle is so jacked. Well, on Tuesday night (treatment day), I went to bed super early, like 8 pm, and asked him to keep Penny with him until he came to bed hoping it would help her sleep through the night better. He decided to just sleep on the couch with both dogs instead so I could have uninterrupted sleep. Why is this a big deal? Because I have slept on that couch and it is NOT comfortable to spend an entire night on it. I have said throughout this journey that he deserves a high five and a million dollars and I mean it. We've been through so much together but one thing has always been true - despite everything he has never given up on me or us and I am beyond grateful for that.
Up next, as I mentioned, is meeting with my surgeon again. That happens on Monday, February 17. We will (hopefully) finalize the date of surgery and I'm going to talk to her about my return to work. I really, really want to be back after spring break (March 31 as a return date). She might fuss and insist on 4 weeks of recovery which would put me at April 7 as a return. I'm hopeful I can convince her to do March 31 because a) this surgery will not be nearly as debilitating and b) I want at least a week of a regular schedule before I likely have to make adjustments due to state testing. My other team members, including my nurse navigator think the three week window should be okay but of course, I will defer to what my surgeon prefers I do.
Then Jeff and I are seeing my radiology oncologist on Thursday, February 20. We haven't seen him since our appointment on August 22 because radiation is the last step before the endocrine therapy begins. That appointment will be about two hours to go through all of the steps and whatnot that will happen with radiation. The good news is, I am likely able to complete the radiation appointments after school. The actual appointments themselves are only 15 minutes so as long as I can get them at like 4:30 in the afternoon, I should be fine.
I'm super curious to hear what his treatment plan will be since they are going back in and removing a bunch of lymph nodes with the March surgery. One of the nurse practitioner's said she's seen other patients with similar cases to mine only need a week of radiation when they had a second surgery for lymph nodes. That would be fantastic but I won't get my hopes up until I talk to that doctor.
After all of that though, it's probably 10 years of tamoxifen and 3 years of another drug to help with the side effects of forced menopause. So far they aren't terrible, just some crazy hot flashes at night. Doctor said chocolate might make it worse...and well, I'm not given up chocolate. Ever. So. 😉
But all things considered, we're getting through this journey and making the best of the situation we were handed. We can't really do more than that, right? I will update again next week once we've met with the surgeon and radiology oncologist to get the next steps in the plan.
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