Last week, I had the weirdest illness. I started feeling bad Sunday night. Monday and Tuesday I spent the whole days in the bed with hot flashes, cold sweats...and goosebumps. I am not exaggerating in any way when I say that I had at least 45 cases of the goosebumps over the course of three days. Weird, right?!?! Monday I had a tiny fever. Tuesday I was so emotional, I was convinced I would feel this way forever. Wednesday was incrementally better, but I was still a weepy mess and still having some of the symptoms so when we came in to the doctor's office for the long awaited LAST CHEMO TREATMENT...I was devastated when the doctor said it would be best to delay the treatment by a week. By lunchtime, I was trying to think more positively and had reminded myself that everything happens for a reason and this was just the way this was supposed to go. One week later I am so grateful for a week of feeling pretty well! I've seen healing in my nail beds and the achiness subsided to the point that I didn't even need Advil. I was still tired and my legs muscles are a little weak, but we made the most of the absolutely beautiful weekend that we were blessed with. Mimi had come up on Wednesday before so she decided to stay on a few days just to visit. :) David and I were able to have a DATE NIGHT on Friday night! We went to see a movie, then David was finally hungry so we went to McDonald's and he had dinner and I had ice cream. Saturday evening we were able to attend the Alabama vs. Tennessee baseball game. This was Ashlyn's very first baseball game. She was really getting the hang of it by the time we left. She was yelling "Roll Tide!" and clapping her little hands off. She's definitely a Crimson Tide fan !
Sunday we were able to go to church in the morning. Doing something that is part of normal life is so nice! Sunday evening we went to GrandMary's house to celebrate GrandMary turning one year younger! Poor GrandMary was born on St. Patrick's Day and we're Irish (I'm Scottish, but I totally own the Irish by marriage) so the only decorations she ever gets are four leaf clovers!
Mimi found this shirt while she was on vacation and after my post on "Big Girl Panties", I had to share. The shirt pretty much sums up my sentiments lately. Chemo has lasted a long time and I'm so glad that it is coming to an end! The first treatment, I told myself (and everyone else told me) this too shall pass. I knew it would come to an end, but going through it seems like an eternity. EVERYTHING is harder while you're going through chemo. I can't begin the describe the level of exhaustion, both physically and emotionally! I also can't begin to thank each and every person who's stepped in to make my life easier during this. Whether they said a prayer or wrote an encouraging note, or brought us a meal or cleaned our house and did our laundry, or one of the many of other special things I will always hold close to my heart...THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!
Lastly, as I sit here getting pumped full of the last dose of chemo, I am so thankful for the advancements in medicine and for the knowledge and skills that my doctor and nurses have graciously used for my benefit. I'm not done yet. I have a long way to go! I will have surgery in 3-4 weeks once my blood cell levels are back to normal. I don't have to get a pet scan before surgery because the chemo worked so well locally ( and since it's the type of breast cancer I had you can tell how the chemo is working) the doctor is assured that the cancer had no chance to spread. I will have 7 weeks of radiation starting 2-4 weeks after the surgery. 6 months after surgery I'll be able to have reconstruction surgery which I've heard is about a million times harder than the mastectomy. I know those things will pass eventually, just like the chemo has. Please pray for me as I go through the side effects of the very last treatment. May they be short lasted!!!
