What a Year!

It has been quite the year in the world this year, and it has been quite the year in my life, as well. My sister sent me a note this morning reminding me that I started treatment for metastatic breast cancer a year ago. And I was reminded it of it as I was working on the school year calendar. I remember getting this calendar last year and thinking I would hate flipping every page because I didn’t think I’d see it through till end of the year as statistics for triple negative breast cancer give you about a year to a year and a half. But as I was tearing off another sheet in August and realizing there were only a few more months in the year left, I felt hope because I am nowhere near where I thought I would be now. I am sitting here at Chemo in remission. And that is the best possible place to be right now.

I talked to my doctor this morning by phone, and we decided that since I am starting to have some neuropathy that will only get worse, we will cut my chemo back to every other week. So, now I will have chemo and immunotherapy every other week, and I will get every other week off! It is exciting, but I am a little leery that my cancer will come back. I want to be as aggressive as I can, but I also don’t want to burn through the drugs, which are working, too fast either. My doctor thinks it will be fine to cut back to every other week, and I trust him, so I’m going for it. If the drugs continue to work, it will give me a better quality of life with easier side effects. Right now, I am trying to keep up with everything and am not taking too many breaks to rest even though I wear down every afternoon and feel like I can only get one big thing accomplished each day, so my neck and shoulders have been really tense by the end of the day. Think I am going to get one of those massaging pads to lay on to see if that helps since my foot spa has been wonderful for my neuropathy in my toes.

I started a diet this week, so with some exercise and the diet, which is full of veggies, I am hoping to keep this cancer at bay, and it will help me feel better about myself once some weight comes off since I sometimes struggle with having short, funky hair and no eyebrows or eyelashes. I have struggled with all this weight because I have been a string bean my whole life, and when I look in the mirror now, I don’t recognize myself anymore with the weight and lack of hair. So, I am back in action! And I am getting a haircut on Tuesday!! I can’t wait to get some style into this hair! It is definitely curly now, and the length is just long enough so that it sticks straight up on my head. UGH. I don’t like having my picture taken lately, but I will post a pic of my new haircut next week if it turns out good! In any case, I am excited to see my hair stylist again; it has been a long time! I found a shortish hairstyle I like and will try to grow my hair into, and I think I am going to keep it short because my hair, like this disease, will have its ups and downs, and I may lose it (my hair!) several more times before this journey is over.

So, all exciting things this week — living in remission, treatment every two weeks now, and a new haircut on Tuesday! Hope you all have a good week, too! There isn’t much to tell now that I am in remission, so I will probably write every two weeks from Chemo now unless something happens in between. I’ll probably update this week about how my hair cut turns out but transition to posting every other week after that. Oh, and next scan will be in three to four months, which will bring me to the holidays already! When I first got this diagnosis a year ago, I didn’t think I’d make it to much past Christmas, but now I have hope for more time — hope, my word for this 2nd journey through cancer.