I’M DONE!!!!!

I am DONE with chemo.

Done.

Writing that out doesn’t seem real to me. It doesn’t feel like I am already done with this phase but…I am. It went by much faster than I anticipated and I am D O N E!!! Six rounds in the books!

I’ve been asked quite a bit how I am feeling, and I can tell you I am “over the hump” of the hardest part and feeling pretty good. I realized most people don’t really understand what chemo is like, so I am also working on a post where I’ll share more detail on the recovery process for those who are interested. So keep your eye out!

So for round six I was so lucky to have my friend Haley, who happens to be a pediatric oncology nurse, take me. Haley and I met in the beginning of our oldest girls’ kindergarten year and I am so lucky to have her as a friend. She threw a girls night for me several weeks ago that I desperately needed and was there to take me for my last round when my mom unfortunately got snowed in and wasn’t able to take me as planned.

Also- check out the AMAZING shirts she had made for us to wear. I LOVE THEM. (Can you figure it out?)

As usual, the actual chemo part went smoothly, although it took a while to get started. Usually, I see my oncologist a couple days prior to chemo and he orders my meds then…however this time I saw him RIGHT before my chemo AND, because it was me and Haley, we were late because a semi truck carrying dirt flipped over on the road blocking 3/4 lanes which made us late in the first place. So by the time I was seen and my doctor got to get the orders in, we started a bit late.

(That was my LAST chemo going in!!)

Other than that, chemo went smoothly and overall this round hasn’t been too bad at all. I have gotten over the harder parts already and am looking forward to not every doing this again….however it seems surreal to be done, to be honest. It occurred to me yesterday that my hair is going to grow back in now! I WILL HAVE HAIR AGAIN!!!

CRAZY.

So what’s next?

Next week I will meet my radiologist oncologist- who will be in charge of my radiation. I see him (I think it’s a him?) on Tuesday.

In just under 3 weeks I will be having a breast MRI, which will show us what kind of response I’ve had to chemo. Though we haven’t been able to FEEL anything since rounds two and three, we don’t know what’s going on in there so this will help us.

In just under 6 weeks I am scheduled for my surgery. Sometime after that (4-6 weeks maybe?) is when the radiation will begin. Again I have no idea how much radiation I will need until I see the RO and maybe not even until after my surgery when we get the pathology back. There are still many things in the air until we have more clear answers from tests.

Then also during this time I will continue to get infusions. I have mentioned previously that I will continue to get the H or the H&P from my TCHP treatment. This is the best case scenario if I have what is called a “full response” to the chemo. If I do NOT have a full response, then my infusions will be a drug that is a combo of Herceptin (the H in my current course) and another drug which is basically a light chemo. I’ve heard it is quite tolerable and side effects are minimal either way, so that is good. Either way I will have these infusions though December-ish.

Well I think that is the update for now. I will work on that post later today about recovery and get it up soon. 🙂