Thursday, July 19, 2012

Chemo side effects

Before I started chemo, I was afraid of the side effects you hear about all the time: nausea, vomiting and the hair loss. No one told me about chemo effecting my temper, patience and general inability to deal with stressful situations. I am doing the best I can, but just feel like a wreck sometimes. Hopefully I'll be back to 'normal' by next year when I'm done with the chemo treatments.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Where's the tumor?

Treatment 7 is complete and I feel great.

The Oncologist can barely feel the tumor anymore and the lymph nodes are so flat she can barely feel that either. Woo-hoo!!! Go chemo, go!

I have 5 more treatments of this cycle, then it's onto the second cycle of FEC; twice a week then a 3 week break. It's supposed to be a harder cycle to deal with because of the "E" in FEC which stands for Epirubicin, but I've taught chemo who's boss and I intend to keep doing the same with the second cycle! :)


Monday, July 9, 2012

Birthday, birthday...

July 1st was my 33rd birthday. We had our families over for a barbecue, had three cakes (we also celebrated my niece's 6th birthday) and all ate way too much food. Life can change so quickly in one year. I have so much more clarity on what is important in my life than I did a year ago. When you're faced with your own mortality you quickly realize your priorities.

I feel like I have two birthdays now. My real birthday and a second birthday: May 3rd when I was diagnosed with cancer. Every year on May 3rd I will remind myself how fragile and important life is, and be thankful that I was given a chance to survive cancer and live my life to the absolute fullest potential. 


I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I am blessed to have an amazing support network behind me. Life is defined by the people you surround yourself with and I feel like the luckiest girl to have the family and friends I have. 


Happy Birthday to me and CHEERS to all the people in my life who I love very much...here's to the year ahead full of challenges, accomplishments and the fun we'll have together.