Well, I haven't written about cancer in awhile.  I had my 4 month check up this past Thursday (4/2).  Everything is okay, but I wasn't so sure when I went in for my checkup.  About 3 weeks ago, I felt something different on the side of my breast.  I knew I was going in to see my oncologist, so I just waited to see what she thought it was.  It didn't feel like a lump, but it was a change that I wasn't use to.  I do my breast exams like almost every other day, so I know when there is a change immediately!  So, anyway, I went in for my check up and

Well, I'm glad it's finally 2009!  I've been looking back at what has happened in 2008 and let's just say I'm glad the year is over.  I wasn't looking forward to 2008 because I knew I had almost a whole year of Herceptin treatments in front of me and radiation.  While the Herceptin wasn't so bad, I glad everything is done and over with!  No more treatments!  No more radiation!  No more surgeries!

I'm starting to feel more like myself again!  I want to start walking again and to try to start eating healthy and try to lose this stupid weight that I gained this year from all of the stress of the

Today was my outpatient surgery to have my port taken out.  This means I don't need it anymore.  Yea!  I'm alittle sore but I've been taken my painkillers.  I can't really lift my right arm right now.  We got to the hospital around 6:45 this morning.  I was supposed to go to surgery around 8:30.  It wasn't too far off -- the nurse said I was wheeled in around 9am.  This was my 7th surgery in a little over 2 years.  Two surgeries on my ankle, two surgeries on my breast, two surgeries for the port and one surgery for my hysterectomy.  I will say that I still hate coming out of the 'sleep' mode f

This past Thursday, I had my last Herceptin injection!  Yea!!  That means I've had a year's worth of injections.  Wow!  Time really flies.  So, I have made an appointment with my surgeon to have my port removed.  I couldn't get an initial office visit until Oct.

So, yesterday, Monday, I went with a friend and her mother to a lecture by the author of the book, AntiCancer.  I'm not looking up the doctor's  name, but I'm sure you can find it if you do a search for the book.

First, don't waste your time on the book unless you have been living in a hole the past few years.  He doesn't say anything that I didn't already know and I'm sure that the rest of you don't already know.  If you eat healthy and exercise, then you shouldn't get cancer.  Basically, that is the jest of his book.  Besides those two things as the high level of his lecture, that is what h

Okay, for those of you who don't yet know, my CT scan results from last Friday came back negative for any more cancer.  That's good.  Yes, I was a little nervous (okay, a lot) about it.  They did find that I have fatty liver deposits.  I'm going to get those results next week and then take them to my PCP when I go in a few weeks.  I don't think there is really a lot that can be done at this time about it.  I just probably need to lose weight, which I already know.  Of course, this is just one more thing I have to worry about.  O'well.  Part of life, I guess....

I had a CT scan this past Friday.  I'm a little nervous about the outcome.  My doctor ordered it because my liver enzymes have been going up again.  They went up a lot earlier this year and then started to go down.  I thought it was because of the tylenol that I was taking for my headaches.  So, I stopped taking it and the levels went down.  The ran some more blood tests a few weeks ago to check my hormone levels so that I could start the cancer drug, Arimedex.  Well, they found that my liver enzyme levels are starting to go back up.  I am taking Tylenol again but not like I use to -- usually

I just found out that Randy Pausch died today -- he's the author of The Last Leture and a professor at CMU.  He had pancreatic cancer which he had found out about almost 2 years ago.  They gave him months to live but he made it almost 2 years.  It makes me very sad and I wanted to write it down.  It makes you realize how real things are and that it can end very suddenly.  I went and checked out his page which I hadn't done in a while.  It does appear that he was getting worse over the past few months.  Yesterday appears to have been bad and then we hear that he died today.  Just very sad. 

I've been thinking about my hair a lot lately. You know, when you go without your hair for awhile, it really makes you think about it a lot. :) So, now that it's actually growing in quite nice and thick and curly, I really kind of like it and missed it. When I got it cut the other day, I thought it was going to be too short. I've always like long hair. I think I look better with long hair. But now that I have short hair and it's hot outside, it's actually kind of nice. I guess that's why I say I'm having a love, hate relationship with my hair right now.

So, that I don't forget, I finally got around to writing down everything that has happened this past year and when it happened. I'm documenting it here so that I don't forget, because I know I will. I'm already forgetting. I had to look back at my calendar for basically all of these dates.

Plus, I thought this might be helpful for anyone who might end up going through this process so you can see how long the process really takes. (Please be aware that some of the surgeries were postponed because of vacations that were already planned.