that I decided to go ahead with the chemo treatment along with the hormone therapy. I'm not looking forward to it, but I knew it was coming.
For weeks now, I have tried not to think about the chemo phase of my treatment. After my surgery, about 9 weeks ago, I basically was relieved, glad it was over and was at peace about the decision I had made to have the mastectomy over breast conservation (a partial removal of my breast).
I think I have healed well. I have a very good range of movement with my arm. There is a 4-6 inch patch on the side of my body under my arm, and around to where my breast isn't (joke!), that is numb. I thought the feeling might come back, but my doctor said it would always be numb there. I suppose that is a good thing since included in that area is where the doctor still sticks me with a big ol needle and syringe to pull out fluid that collects from my surgery site. Last week when I had it drained, the doc said to come back in two weeks instead of one, so I think less fluid is accumulating and further shows I am healing.
The area on the backside of my upper arm that felt raw and was sensitive to touch for the first several weeks after surgery is pretty much back to normal now.
Overall, I feel good, except that I do feel tired, but I think I've felt tired for a while. Since my cancer diagnosis, I wonder if that is the cause or it's just part of getting older. I probably will never know for sure.
Even though I was expecting the callback, when the oncologist's assistant started going over all the things on the phone, it was a
bit overwhelming especially when she got to the part about the prescriptions she would be calling in. I asked her what the name
of it was and she started rattling off all these names of 4 different medicines. At that point I didn't bother to write them down.
We finished that conversation and she called me back later to verify some dates.
This is my schedule for my 4 rounds of chemo and info meeting:
May 24 - Information meeting about chemo
June 07 - Chemo
June 28 - Chemo
Aug.19 - Chemo
July 09 - Chemo
In addition, there will be blood work done the day before each session, and maybe other things that I don't know about now.
At the beginning of this cancer saga, even the possibility of chemo was something that was going to happen sometime in the future. Now that I have the actual dates of my treatment written down, it's in my face!I know I can do this. I know I can with God's help. I know many people now who have/had cancer and are/were a lot worse off than me. With chemo just around the corner, I remember my grandma's words of wisdom, "God will pull you through if you can stand the pull!" Thanks grandma! Good Advice!
