Tag Archives: hair loss

One year CANCER FREE!!!

One year ago today I was in a hospital room recovering from a single mastectomy.  Apparently, I wrote a blog post that evening, but I have absolutely no recollection of doing that!    It was one year ago that the surgeon roomed my right breast ridding me of the cancer trying to take over my body.  It was one year ago that I became CANCER FREE.

In the past year I have overcome so much.  hundreds of blood draws, surgery, 16 rounds of chemotherapy, loss of my hair, neuropathy, 28 rounds of radiation, and all the side effects that go along with all of these treatments, but I did it!

I celebrate my one year anniversary with all of you as you are who helped me through this past year.  Thank you.  Thank You.  THANK YOU.  Those words will never be adequate enough to truly express the gratitude I feel.  I am horrible at thank you notes….I do plan to sit down and write them….but please know that absolutely nothing went unnoticed.  From the smallest of things to the absolutely incredible things.  I do believe I cried more tears of joy than fear this past year because of my support system!

To celebrate this year, I told Chris that I wanted a charm bracelet that I could add charms to each year symbolizing another year.  For my birthday he took me to Pandora where I was able to get the bracelet I had my eye on. I had no real plans of getting a charm as I figured my first charm would come today…Chris and Isaac convinced me I needed a birthday charm. I told the clerk my favorite color was pink and she showed me several great ones and then she said, I have a daisy. My mom’s favorite flower is a daisy and mu favorite color of pink, it seemed like the perfect first charm!

I had been searching a while for a “1” to add for my cancerversary. Of course Amazon had it! Below is a picture of my charm bracelet with the two charms. I look forward to adding many more milestone and cancerversary charms! (Yes, I totally made that word up)

Late Night Video Update!

Hi! So it’s 4:30 am…steroids got me awake! I thought why not do a video update….I mean you all can see my hot mess, no sleep in the last 21 hours self! And in the spirit of keeping it real, this video is unedited and done in one take! Enjoy

Side note….The dogs are in here with me and when I watched this back I heard that Fabio, our grey American Staffie, was serenading you with snores! I guess I tune it out, but he was rocking it!

Here is the video followed by a pic of my staffie!

Taxol Treatment 9 of 12

It has been a minute since I’ve updated. I feel I just repeat the same things over and over, but I know a lot of you want to know how things are going. I am working on a few different posts and would love ideas on what you want to know. If you have a question, leave a comment. I plan to do a Q and A post soon!

This past Thursday I had my 9th Taxol. It went much the same. The doctor has been giving me an extra bag of fluids each treatment which seems to help my energy levels the day of treatment and the day after. I came home and slept for several hours, but then slept zero Thursday night. The lack of sleep does a number on me emotionally. In addition, the medications mess with your hormones which too makes me emotional. There are times I feel like crying for no reason at all. I feel like if I start crying I may never stop. This has been a struggle the last two days.

The expected pain has started to set in and I fully expect tomorrow to be the worst day of it. That seems to be the routine. By Tuesday I am usually feeling much better and ready to tackle it all over again by Thursday. Okay, that’s a lie. I am never ready for treatment day….Just when I start feeling better I have to get knocked down again.

I keep telling myself I have been doing this since October and there are only three weeks left, four counting recovery, but it feels so far away. I am tired. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally. I want so bad to be done….but then a whole new scary journey begins. I know what to expect now with chemo, but what will radiation bring?

I feel I don’t talk about the emotional struggle enough on here. My family and close friends see it, but I don’t share enough about it. The is almost as much about the mental fight as the physical, if not more. I want to quit. I want to feel normal. I want life the way it was in July of 2020 when there was nothing wrong with me. The reality is, my life will never be the same. I will forever be post-diagnosis Carrie. My families lives will never be the same. They will all have gone through this with me. It’s hard on them. They put on a brave face for me, but I know they hate it and are tired too.

So how do we make it? God! We pray. We lean on our friends and family when we can’t support ourselves. We keep a positive attitude and find the good in whatever we are dealt. When I can’t see positive, someone else helps me find it. We keep a sense of humor about it all. Sometimes people may be put off by us laughing or joking about my cancer, but laughter helps. Sometimes laughing is all we can do to get through.

My medical team at Texas Oncology is great. They are always positive, but real. They tell me what to expect and support me as those things begin to happen. But mostly, they are awesome because they get me. I feel comfortable being honest and telling how I’m doing. I know they won’t get upset if I didn’t drink enough water that week or lost some weight. If I say I was so mean this week to my family, and they assure me it’s the chemo making me that way. They are awesome because they laugh with me when I crack stupid jokes….or wear silly shirts! They cheer me on and are just as excited as I am that my chemo is almost over. It will be weird not seeing them every week! But they swear after this they never want to see me again (at least in the office).

I have said so many times that sometimes it’s okay to not be okay. This week, and over the past five months, there have been moments of not being okay. I want to thank those who have listened to me, cried with me, and picked me back up. For reminding me what I have already overcome and told me I only have THREE MORE TREATMENTS! 5 months of chemo done, ONE to go!

I saw this on Amazon and had to have it. The staff loved it!

God > Cancer!