I'm doing well. My last chemo was April 21st and, and while it's been a long uphill climb since then, I'm finally back to feeling good. I've been on the treadmill a couple times this week, and I've lost a couple pounds. My stress eating has stopped, and I have more energy.
I had testing for the BRCA I and BRCA II genes, the ones identified to cause breast and ovarian cancer, and I was negative! So, no one knows why I got cancer at age 40. Shocker, to quote my wonderful husband. I've heard everything in your body starts to fall apart at 40. LOL! I certainly didn't expect this.
I'm off to see the plastic surgeon tomorrow ("I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of boobs..."), and I hope to come away with a date for my mastectomy. I'm tired of waiting. Now that I'm not so fuzzy-brained, I'm back to my 'want it done yesterday' self. I also think that also comes from moving beyond being scared.
I'm really proud of my body, and how it has taken the chemo and kicked the h-e-!-! out of the tumor. While I'm not out of the woods yet, I can see the field in the distance. I feel powerful and happy.
Wow... I was just overcome by a vivid memory when I wrote the above. I used to go hunting for deer, pheasant, and quail with my dad (I never killed anything and would never let him either. After a while, he started bringing his camera too since I wouldn't let him shoot anything). We would tramp through the woods or the cornfield to find the perfect spot to sit and wait for deer, etc. I just had a vision of walking out of the woods that ringed the cornfield on one of the farms where we hunted. It's making me teary-eyed, but in a very good way. Those time with my dad were some of my favorites. Anyway...
So, my plan is to have surgery soon, recover for 4-6 weeks, and then have seven weeks of radiation. Hopefully, my plan is the docs' plan, and my body cooperates. I'll have radiation treatments every work day, for about 40 minutes, at an office close to home and work. The primary side effects of radiation are sun burned/blistered skin and tiredness. I'm hoping to avoid the latter. I'm done with being tired. I'm so ready, mentally, to move on.
So then what? Well, to keep The Evil from coming back, I'll most likely take Tamoxifen everyday and implement a variety of changes - exercise most days of the week, up the intake of veggies and lessen the intake of sugar (yes, you heard me right, Molly has to stop the chocolate), take my vitamins, take a low-dose aspirin, do the hokey pokey and turn myself around... :-) While it may seems like a lot to do (does to me at times), it will be so worth it. I'm not doing this again.
So that's it for me. Erik and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary tonight. I view every birthday and anniversary with more excitement than I did BC (before cancer). I got it good!
Charlotte is growing and changing like crazy. She has a huge vocabulary and now refers to our home as "my house." And she's not wrong. ;-)
