6 MONTHS cancer FREE!!!!
Hey kings and queens,
Long time no chat! Thankfully, I have been able to see so many friends and family in the meantime it’s left me feeling so happy and supported. :) I felt it a great time to write to you all again because…
Today marks 6 months officially CANCER FREE!!!
6 months ago I had a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery! I woke up from surgery to the news that I had a complete response to chemotherapy, no lymph node involvement, had clear margins, and was officially cancer free! Slay, lol! Thankfully, my care team was able to not only remove the cancer, as planned, but was also able to complete reconstruction with implants in the same surgery!
Since then I have been working my way through ELEVEN (jail) rounds of targeted immunotherapy infusions. These occur every three weeks and help to ensure I don’t have a recurrence of disease within the first year. This was something I anticipated, but I was not aware of how long this phase of treatment would take. Sadly it takes place in the exact same spot as chemo infusions, so I get a lovely reminder every three weeks that I am not quite finished ~ yet ~. However, the nurses at the center make it worth it and have actually become wonderful friends who are definitely closer to me in age than my other “colleagues” receiving treatment. haha!
Last Friday I finished round #8 and am set to finish all 11 at the end of February. Unlike chemo, these treatments thankfully only take me out for 24-48 hours. Nothing that lots of sleep, a few nausea meds, and the Great British Bake Off can’t fix.
I am also participating in hormone therapy as well. This involves a shot once a month and a pill once a day, and together limit my estrogen levels. The pill works as a Trojan horse per se - it impersonates estrogen in order to draw out any hypothetical, microscopic cancer cells floating around. Then, once the HYPOTHETICAL cancer cell absorbs the fake estrogen, BOOM it dies. (love the drama, right?) Since my cancer was estrogen (+) the overall goal of hormone therapy is to limit my estrogen levels and therefore decrease the possibility of the cancer returning.
🌈 * the more you know * 🌈
Long term - my treatment plan is thankfully pretty set for now, which is a first for sure! The next few steps are officially:
Finish 11 rounds of immunotherapy in February
Get my port removed on March 1!!
Continue Hormone Therapy for the next 15-? years
Eventually replace/update my implants, their lifetime is much shorter than mine.
(that was a joke but also true, lol)
Ultimately, the closest I have to a finish line with this journey will be my port removal. I will continue to have follow-up appointments, regular scans, and monthly shots, but all things considered this seems like an okay price to pay to maintain good health.
Speaking of scans, my first post-surgery scans are tomorrow! The results will hopefully confirm what my doctors already assert: I am still cancer free! This will allow me to get my port removed without any worries of having to turn around and get it put back in.
Moving forward, I will continue to build back my strength and get that fabulous 23-year-old life back, or as fabulous as being a young adult in this world right now can get. It’s slow going, but I am making progress! I was told to anticipate:
2 months of recovery for every 1 month of chemo received (2 m x 6 m of chemo = 1 year)
more time to accommodate physical strength returning from surgery
and time for my fatigue to adjust from being caused by treatment to the terrible sleep schedule I normally had, ha!
All of this has caused me to be smart about how to be independent right now. I have explained to friends that I am not dissimilar to someone with a hurt foot… can’t walk too far, can’t carry very much, and don’t have great balance. Basically - I can also be described as a 99-year-old!
Thankfully, I have family to lean on who are more than happy to take the elevator with me and friends who steal barstools from unsuspecting men so I can sit while we are out and about.
Looking back on some of this, I can definitely say that I continue to find the “happy accidents” and the word of the day is most of the time “thankful”. This whole journey isn’t over yet, and I am not honestly sure when to anticipate that feeling of a conclusion will come, but I am on a path forward and am excited for what’s to come.
Tata for now,
Mags ;)
