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Posts Tagged ‘breast cancer’

Time to exhale

Posted in Cancer, Discovery, family, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2012| 7 Comments »

I feel like I’m jumping into the middle of the story, without sharing the beginning (the whole last week or so since surgery), but this is the first time I feel up to being on the computer and I feel I need to jump to the punchline: Dr. G just called and told me I’m cancer free! Ever since I woke up from surgery and was told that they had to take all of the lymph nodes in my right arm because they detected some cancer in one of them, I (and all around me) have been holding my breath, waiting to hear if it has spread and if … well, you know. But it turns out that it was only in two of the lymph nodes and so they caught it before it spread and there are clear margins around where the two lumps in my right breast were. Hence, the giant exhale!

So now everyone (including me) is asking: what does this mean for treatment? Dr. G said he is not sure, as he leaves that to my oncologists, who I will see on May 15. They may want to be extra cautious, since I’m ‘so young’ and still do wither chemo or radiation and/or tamoxofin. Oh well – better any of those than more cancer.

I am going to sign off for now – just this bit has made me tired and I need to stay awake for the fabulous celebration meal Nick and Alivia are making me. But I have to say everyone has been beyond incredible to me. Mike has been by my side practically every second, taking care of me (and thus, my mother, too) and constantly reassuring me that no matter what everything will be fine. And he’s been right so far! And mom and Mark and Nick and Alivia have joined him in alternating between keeping me sane and calm, and laughing and crazy. And Tara and Tina helped keep everyone informed, as well as kept us company in the hospital. And I can’t believe all the gorgeous flowers, cards, texts, e-mails etc. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers, love and support. I know it was all of the positive thinking and prayers that scared the damn cancer away! So I couldn’t have done it without you! xoxoxoxo (And I am sorry I haven’t really been up for talking or texting or anything – I’m so achy and the meds make me a bit loopy and tired, but I hope to be back to myself soon and also promise to fill in more of the backstory on here soon…)

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Jitters, AKA scared to death

Posted in Cancer, Denial, Home, tagged , , , , on April 29, 2012| 6 Comments »

I am so thankful I went out with a bunch of friends and family last night because I drank a little too much and slept like a baby. Of course that’s not the ONLY reason I’m glad I went out with them, but it was definitely a bonus. Had I not, I would have not been able to sleep and just laid there making lists in my head, worrying and probably crying. So instead, I’ve woken up refreshed – and jittery!

I am scared to death. I have never been in the hospital for anything other than my son being born, when I was so excited to finally meet and hold him, and an emergency D and C when I was having a really bad miscarriage, and then I was losing so much blood I was practically passed out, so I wasn’t worrying about anything except mourning the loss of the baby I wanted. So I am not used to this anticipation of impending doom. I was starting a depressed/bitchy spiral yesterday afternoon before going out and texted Tara that I felt like Anne Boleyn waiting for her head to get chopped off. She made me laugh with her response (“In three days you’ll be back on your way towards crazy sex and love with a king, though. And she’ll still be dead. :)” How do I argue with that? And my mood began to lift.

I have a ton of errands to do today. Things I need/want to bring to the hospital (long bathrobe, laptop cover before I destroy the new mac) and things I need/want at home (new comforter tops the list), pack for the hospital, make sure everything is in some semblance of order here and hopefully lunch with Tina and the girls. I know I am going to run around to try to keep my nerves at bay. My hands are already literally shaking and my mind (and probably my heart) is racing with a zillion things – what if I forget this, what if I don’t have time for that?!?! As I tell everyone else: Deep breath! It will all be fine. And I know whatever I miss someone else will take care of. I’m so used to doing everything for myself, it’s just hard to think that way… And in a way it’s good to be focused on that stuff because then I’m not thinking about what’s actually happening tomorrow and the longer I don’t think about that, the better, in my opinion. Yup – back to denial and I want to stay there every second I can!

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You’re never too young or too old

Posted in Cancer, family, work, tagged , , , on April 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I had a wonderfully relaxing three days in Florida. I got some rest, some sun and a whole lot of love.

I also realized it will be incredibly difficult to detach from work. This may be a surprise to some, but I really thought it was going to be easy to turn the laptop and blackberry off. Yet I worked some of every day I was in Florida and felt bad not being at work for all the events happening, both planned and unplanned. Then when Vanessa said she’s cutting off the work talk from here on out, I felt like she was putting me out in the cold (for my own good, of course). I take comfort in the fact that I will be able to coax stuff out of her along the way (maybe bribe) – and that I do have other sources! David was right, though: this ain’t gonna to be easy.

But it was so nice to have a few days with this part of my family and somewhat away from all the cancer stuff. I spent as much time as I could with my crazy fun nephews, who I hate living so far away from but who are always so excited to see me, even when I’m not with their cool cousin Nick. And it’s amazing how their minds work. You wouldn’t think they would really get what is going on with me, but when they played the lottery Friday (with the fortune cookie numbers that eight-year-old Hudson instantly memorized), Holden said was that if they win he is going to donate all the money to cancer research.  Not what I’d expect from a six-year-old. I didn’t even know he knew cancer needed research!  I guess you can’t underestimate what young ones absorb and take to heart…

I also found that you’re never too old for your dad to teach you something new. We spent a leisurely morning at the beach treasure hunting. I have always been great at finding beach treasures – at least they are treasures to me: shells, rocks, sand dollars, starfish, hermit crabs. But I’ve never found a shark tooth, although I’ve tried. This time, dad taught me how – what to look for (the shape, the gum line), how to tell how old they are (black are the oldest – billions of years, brown – millions of years and white – most recent) and that they are lighter than rocks and shells so you have to grab them before the water sweeps them away. He started finding a bunch (including a big brown one that’s about an inch wide.) Then I started to catch on and finally found my first shark tooth! I soon found a few more and went home with my pink Red Sox baseball cap full of beach treasures. Dad made me take all the shark teeth – except I gave the first one I found to him.

 

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