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The (Hopefully) Home Stretch

 It's the first full week of April, and I'm starting to feel normal again. I should say "new normal". Even though I'm finishing my 2nd of three weeks of daily radiation treatments, I'm feeling pretty well, just a little burned from the radiation. My cat now thinks that walking on my burns while I'm napping is a great new passtime. Mostly, I'm just a bit sore from the burns, and my surgical areas are either numb or just a bit sore, and I have some residual swelling, which will go down as time passes. But radiation, although daily, goes very quickly once they have you all set up. They x-ray me every monday to make sure my bones are doing ok, and I see the radiology oncologist every Wednesday, so that's comforting. I have to admit, March of this year wasn't much fun. It took about 14 days before my drains could be removed (which is normal), but it makes it hard to sleep as they are sewn to the skin, and if you accidentally lay on one, or move the
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Bzzt Bzzt

Just a brief update today.  I met with my radiologist today, and we reviewed the plan, which is to have about 15 zaps of radiation, so not too bad! You go in daily, Monday through Friday, and it takes about 30 minutes total. Today I had a quick CAT scan of my chest and my armpit, and then they put small tattoos to guide the technologist with the radiation.  The side effects are scary, like heart and lung damage, ribs that fracture easily, and other pleasant things. Most likely though, I will just have minor skin damage, and feel tired. But my treatment plan is short, so I'm hopeful for minor side effects. The other thing is figuring out how I want to look. Right now, I look like a pear. Or a pregnant teenager. You'll have to use your imagination here. Believe me, they sell all sorts of prosthetics, all sizes, materials, it's crazy. The good thing is insurance covers part of the cost, so thank goodness for insurance!  I think I'm going with Knitted Knockers (go ahead and
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Ok, well here we are

Since I last posted, I had a double mastectomy and a chemo port placed near my left collar bone. I'm doing fine, mostly! There is pain, but it's manageable with Tylenol or Ibuprofen. I wore chest drains for about 2 weeks, and had them removed yesterday, which is great, since they are stitched to your sides and make it hard to sleep. My arms are very sore, especially on the side where my lymph nodes were removed. But I have exercises to do, which help. The VERY BEST NEWS is that the pathology report showed no cancer in my other lymph nodes, and none remaining in the right breast. The left breast has a non-cancerous "marker" for future breast cancer, but it's not attached to me any longer, so yay! Technically, we are calling me Stage 2b cancer in remission, but we are treating for stage 2b cancer, to cover all the bases. I chose radiation and estrogen blockers as my next step. Chemo is recommended, but would only add about 10% to my survival chances. And chemo is mu
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Well sh*t...

 Life is full of surprises, and some of them aren't great. In November 2023, I was minding my own business, planning on dragging my feet about getting  my mammogram, which is currently scheduled for every 2 years, and was slightly overdue. After my mammo, I get a notification from the clinic that they found something. So I went back in, looked at the image, and wow, did they ever find something. I could not feel this new thing, nor could the surgeon tasked with taking it out. It was cancer if you haven't guessed. Fast forward a few weeks, and I'm recovering from my basic lumpectomy (and one sentinel lymph node-ectomy), and I get the pathology report. Switch gears! More cancer. My oncologist recommends getting a mastectomy, and I'm thinking heck yeah, I don't want this to come back. Also, I had a "we don''t know what it is" biopsy on the other side, about 10 years ago, so I have made the decision to have a double mastectomy. It may seem radical, but
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