Let Freedom Ring. No Mo Chemo!

Today may only be July 2nd, but this is my Independence Day! We just conquered chemo and I’m almost free from the chair!

Just showing the cancer center who is on top!

Now, I’m sitting hooked to bag 3 of 4 and hoping and wishing and praying that this will truly be the last day I have to sit down and pump these poisonous drugs into my system.

You may be asking yourself?  Did we skip from treatment 4 to 6? Did I miss a post somewhere?

C and G spinning in the cups

Snuck in some 4th Festivities on Saturday

B mean muggin’ on the Ferris Wheel she INSISTED on going on.

The answer is yes to the former and no to the latter.  Chemo round 5 was bad.  Really bad.  Symptoms that typically drop by on Saturday night/ Sunday morning made a sharp appearance on the Thursday night.  Then, they persisted for the next two weeks.  I just got my feet back underneath me to wake up from the chemo coma and discover it was that time again.  I’m sure this time will be no better but…. This is the last time I have to do it and that makes it all the more easy to sit here and press on.

So… today we conquered chemo, what is next?  Since I wrote you last, I’ve seen lots of doctors and have lots of information to share with you.  Next week we start the poking and prodding again.  Test after test will be ran to find out where we now stand pre-surgery.  Somewhere in the vicinity of the last week of July, I’ll be undergoing a double bilateral full mastectomy with a full lymph node removal on the left side and the first step of the reconstruction process.

I know that these two snugglers are ready to take care of me, which ever outcome.

Here is where the cancer get’s to play “choose your own adventure” after all the tests come back.  IF I am in chemo induced remission, we are done.  I’ll undergo the final two reconstruction surgeries and pray with each remission check up that this was just a blip in my 20s.  If there does happen to be cancer still hiding out in there, radiation will be on the agenda for an unknown amount of time and we may have to do another 8 week round of chemotherapy.  Both these paths will make reconstruction surgery further away and much more complex.  They’ll have to take muscles from my back to be placed into my chest.  Yes. Seriously.  The thing I wish the most right now is that the doctor could have waited a few more days to tell me about the chemo possibility because my Independence Day now has a dark cloud looming.

Honest to goodness, I FEEL it though.  I’m as sure as I can be that we are in remission. Even though the odds were not high, my oncologist continues to be shocked time and time again that every bump, lump and hardness has vanished.  If the cancer is still there, it is deep.  But even deeper, in my heart, I just feel like I won this battle, whatever the next step happens to be.  I am so excited, so grateful, so proud that we conquered chemo.  Happy Independence Day, y’all!

No Mo Chemo! Adios Chair!