Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Happy Cancer-versary to me!

Well, its officially been one year since my diagnosis, so I figured a fitting day for an update. I have been getting some grief from some people about not updating this. I apologize. Honestly, I wasn't sure anyone even read this thing anymore! So for those die-hards, haha, I'll try to post something once in awhile. Send me a comment, let me know you're still interested, and I'll keep typing away.

I hope Santa was good to everyone yesterday, and you had the Merriest of Christmases. Ours was wonderful. The first time in many years we have been together on Christmas day. We meaning, the three of us, my mom and sisters. It's been common practice for us to do Christmas in January, so this was a great change!

Logan thoroughly enjoyed himself! What 3-year old didn't? I think he got the whole Santa thing this year, which made it even more fun. We sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn, and left out milk and cookies. And of course, he was spoiled rotten:)

In breast cancer treatment news, nothing really too exciting. I've started my Herceptin treatments. It's an injection, similar to chemo, every 3 weeks. However, I'm experiencing absolutetly no side effects, not that I expected to. The only real concern is it's effect on the heart, so I go for a Muga scan every few months. It's usually a concern in older women. I'm receiving this treatment because my cancer was HER2+, and the Herceptin acts as a blocker for those cells. I'll have these treatments for a year. Just another weapon in my arsenal, even though sometimes a year seems like a long time. But at the same time I can't believe how fast this past year went.

I've also started taking my Tamoxifen. I take two pills every day, for, ugh brace yourself, 5 years!!! But I'm just taking it a bit at a time. Maybe in two years they'll have some fantastic new discovery and I won' t have to take it. It too comes with minimal side effects. Hot flashes, night sweats, typical menopause symptoms, but nothing that I wasn't already experiencing because of chemopause. It's just going to be tricky to remember to take it everday.

My scars have healed wonderfully. My skin is a bit tight in the areas where I had radiation, but that was to be expected. And when we do reconstruction that area of skin will be replaced anyways. And hopefully after the first of the year, I'll start looking into reconstruction again. We've switched insurance at work, so I'm sure all have to go through all the approvals again, and I think they schedule quite a few months out, so I want to get a head start on it. Might even have new boobs for swimsuit season, haha!

I hope this finds you all well! We are heading to the U.P. tonight or tomorrow morning and will spend a few days there with the family. Best wishes for a very happy new year!