October 14, 2008 - Treatments are Over!

Thanks for sticking with me through these treatments. Knowing that people care was a big part of helping me to get through treatments and remain positive during these last several months. You're the breast!

Yesterday was my final radiation treatment. Clayton and I had breakfast together and did a little shopping, and then I had to get back home and work. Yuk. (Metrics again). We'll take a 3-day vacation towards the end of the month to celebrate treatment completion.

All that is left now is getting my strength back and doing follow-up visits with my oncologist, my radiation oncologist, and my surgeon.

To sum up the good and the bad about my cancer experience...

Good:

• God's Grace
• Loving support from family and friends, especially the unending support from my soul mate, Clayton
• Ability to remain positive and take things one day at a time
• Early detection!!! Don't forget that I found the highly aggressive tumor 4 months after a mammogram!
• Great doctors and nurses and receptionists
• A wake up call to take action toward accomplishing what I love to do
• Beautiful, heartfelt emails, cards, calls, and other gifts
• The survivors I've had conversations with and the ones I've read about
• All of the women who went before me who did trial treatments so that I could get a treatment plan that was appropriate for my specific type of breast cancer
• Carried on with my normal activities for the most part
• Fortunate enough to be able to work from home
• Never vomited from chemotherapy
• Ability to work nearly full-time through treatments
• Meals prepared for me (although that's not much different from before my diagnosis!)
• No shaving of armpits and legs for months on end. Nice!
• Seeing my scalp (never thought I would)
• No blowdryers or curling irons for months
• New skin on my feet (weird, I know, but no more calluses!)
• Reading time
• Ability to understand what women faced who've been through a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation
• Ability to share my experiences in the future (via this blog or otherwise) with women who are faced with a similar diagnosis
• Growing back hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows
• Being finished with treatments
• I'm still here!!!

Bad:

• Getting my diagnosis
• Difficulty of watching friends and family react to my diagnosis
• Needle biopsies (both of them)
• Lumpectomy
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation
• Needles
• Hair loss
• Wigs
• Shingles during chemo
• Having the same cold from the day before chemo until it ended (4 months)
• Numbness in fingers and feet (still)
• Fatigue (still)
• Lack of food taste during adriamycin (chemo) treatments
• Losing my eyelashes and eyebrows after chemo was over
• Reduction of strength

Take care of yourselves. Thank you for everything. I'll update after follow-up appointments. Please have your loved ones do their self-exams. Don't ignore changes in breast tissue. Your life could depend upon it.

- Sandy