Hello everyone!
Some good news to share. I've finished my 8th and final chemotherapy treatment yesterday. It was an important milestone which I'm very proud to have made through fairly well. I did decide not to ring the bell though. I really felt like I am not finished my treatments so I've decided I'll ring the bell in November when I finish my last Herceptin treatment. I'll be really done then hopefully, with my surgery and radiation behind me at that point as well.
I also had my follow up appointment with my radiation oncologist after my treatment. If you have read my previous post about my first encounter with him you will understand that I wasn't looking forward to seeing him again. To my surprise though he was quite encouraging this time and pleasant. Maybe my first appointment I had caught him on a bad day. He was very encouraged that my body has responded so well to the chemotherapy drugs. He suggested that if my body responded that well to the chemo drugs that he would expect my body to respond well to the radiation treatment as well.
Overall he was much more positive about my prognosis than when he first met that was for sure. I think the only thing he was concerned about was that I was going to elect not to proceed with the radiation. I assured him I was on board and wanted to reduce my risks for re occurrence and believed that radiation would do that.
So it looks like I'll start radiation roughly 6 weeks after my surgery. It really depends on how fast I heal. He also said that he thought I would think the surgery would be much less on me physically than my chemo. I hope he is right. The emotional part will be the toughest I think. We didn't talk about reconstruction. I didn't want to get into that whole conversation again. I'll talk to a cosmetic surgeon after who has experience in reconstruction after radiation.
I'm feeling pretty good still. I went to work today and felt fine. I think it really helps me going to work and keeping my mind and body active.
Just have to get through the next few days and then the countdown to Jamaica starts!
Some good news to share. I've finished my 8th and final chemotherapy treatment yesterday. It was an important milestone which I'm very proud to have made through fairly well. I did decide not to ring the bell though. I really felt like I am not finished my treatments so I've decided I'll ring the bell in November when I finish my last Herceptin treatment. I'll be really done then hopefully, with my surgery and radiation behind me at that point as well.
I also had my follow up appointment with my radiation oncologist after my treatment. If you have read my previous post about my first encounter with him you will understand that I wasn't looking forward to seeing him again. To my surprise though he was quite encouraging this time and pleasant. Maybe my first appointment I had caught him on a bad day. He was very encouraged that my body has responded so well to the chemotherapy drugs. He suggested that if my body responded that well to the chemo drugs that he would expect my body to respond well to the radiation treatment as well.
Overall he was much more positive about my prognosis than when he first met that was for sure. I think the only thing he was concerned about was that I was going to elect not to proceed with the radiation. I assured him I was on board and wanted to reduce my risks for re occurrence and believed that radiation would do that.
So it looks like I'll start radiation roughly 6 weeks after my surgery. It really depends on how fast I heal. He also said that he thought I would think the surgery would be much less on me physically than my chemo. I hope he is right. The emotional part will be the toughest I think. We didn't talk about reconstruction. I didn't want to get into that whole conversation again. I'll talk to a cosmetic surgeon after who has experience in reconstruction after radiation.
I'm feeling pretty good still. I went to work today and felt fine. I think it really helps me going to work and keeping my mind and body active.
Just have to get through the next few days and then the countdown to Jamaica starts!
