Tag Archives: Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

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)

Today Has Been Hard

Today has been a hard day, both physically and emotionally.

When radiation ended, I knew I would be starting hormone therapy that would last ten years. It would be in two segments, each lasting five years. Two and a half months ago I began the first phase.

I would be given a monthly shot, Zoladex and take a daily pill, Letrazole. As with most medications, they both come with a long list of side effects. By far, the worst has been bone, joint, and muscle pain.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed that it’s a bit harder to get up off the floor or roll out of bed in the mornings to start my day, but moving around usually helps. Today has been different. There has been pain and discomfort in both my hands and nothing I have done has brought relief. This is a combination of the Letrazole and the lingering neuropathy from chemo. I do have some medication left over from my chemo days that the doctor said I could take if needed. I took that at dinner and I’m hopeful it will help soon!

That’s the physical side, which led to the emotional side. Today has been one of my lowest days since chemo ended back in March. Knowing this treatment will last five years is hard. I know that if things get bad enough, we can look at other treatment options, but the reality is that these types of symptoms will more than likely come and go throughout the course of treatment. That’s a hard pill to swallow, literally.

I have to remind myself that it’s temporary. There will be good and bad days. I am still in the fight. I have conquered chemo and radiation and I will conquer this as well. God is so much bigger than this!

In the Final Month!

When I was diagnosed in August the end of treatment seemed so far away. It felt like it would never arrive. Surprisingly, the past seven months have gone quick. I believe the countless appointments kept our schedule busy and I slept a majority of the time on chemo. It probably felt faster for me than those around me caring for me.

May is the month my active treatment finally comes to an end! On Friday I completed radiation 12 of 28. We are almost halfway done. As of now there are no side effects and for that I am grateful!

The effects are chemo are starting to subside. I am still battling neuropathy which has actually worsened over the last two weeks. I pray we are in that, it will get worse before it gets better, stage. Praying it starts to subside as it has become more uncomfortable. My taste has pretty much returned. Yay! My hair is growing (on most spots). My energy level is good and I feel great. God is so good!

I know it’s been a while since I updated so I wanted to share my life over the last few weeks. My days are busy working two part-time jobs, daily radiation appointments, karate and baseball with Isaac, and Eli just being Eli. There are not enough hours in the day, but life is wonderful and I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything.

Below are a few pictures of how it’s all been going.

Eli doing his silly thing
Isaac doing his baseball thing!
Still no hair on the right side of my head! So weird!
Coming in good on the sides and back!